Words & Pictures Library

17 december 2024 redactieengels Leave a comment

The Project

Welcome to the Words & Pictures Library (WPL) for Picturebook-based English Language Teaching (ELT).

Our project combines picturebooks, knowledge, and resources to create an open-access educational tool that supports student teachers, teachers and teacher educators in using picturebooks for English Language Teaching.The Words & Pictures Library thus fills a gap by offering a one-stop, online resource that covers the who, what, and how of picturebook-based ELT, making it an invaluable tool to create engaging, literature-rich learning experiences. Our primary goals are to

Explore what a picturebook is and the different types of picturebooks, reasons for using them in ELT, and find out about the history of picturebook-based ELT.
Understand picturebook selection, representation in picturebooks, picturebook pedagogy, mediation and read-alouds.
Consider the use of banned, multilingual, award-winning and picturebooks and picturebooks translated into English.
Discover picturebooks by theme and category and their links to children’s rights.

Our mission is for student teachers, teachers and teacher educators to appreciate the picturebook as an art form, an aesthetic object and a multimodal text and to recognise its potential for English language teaching and learning. Our resources include picturebook titles, book trailers, links to academic and trade publications (blogs and reviews), video clips by picturebook innovators, and ready-made e-lessons suitable for primary to lower-secondary aged learners. Our resources also integrate outcomes of innovative and award-winning picturebook-based ELT projects such as Picturebooks in European Primary English Language Teaching (PEPELT) and Intercultural Citizenship Education in Primary English Language Learning (ICEPELL).

Finally, we are thrilled to announce that we have compiled the first dictionary for picturebook-based ELT (as far as we are aware) to assist and enrich teachers and educators with some of the specific terms related to picturebooks and English language teaching so they can talk about picturebooks confidently with colleagues and learners. The dictionary is an open access publication which can be viewed on our website.

Last but not least, we would like to thank our colleagues for their support with this pioneering project over the last two years and a special thanks to David Valente for his invaluable suggestions and edits. We hope you find Words & Pictures Library useful and if you wish to get in touch, please visit our LinkedIn page.

Best wishes,