Critical literacy and a picture-book-based dialogue activity in Taiwan

Abstract

In order to fill in the research gap related to the theory and practice of critical literacy in Taiwan, this article describes an English Conversation activity offered during the 2005 spring semester at a university in southern Taiwan. The article uses a critical instructional model to analyze students' team dialogues as responses to a picturebook-based exercise. The informants in the study included the instructor and his 26 students. This research is a qualitative case study in that it employs various descriptive data (e.g. students' team dialogues and reflection papers) in an attempt to (1) investigate the extent to which the goals of critical literacy were achieved in the classroom and (2) arrive at some implications for the implementation of critical literacy in Taiwan. This study suggests that instruction based on social-issue picture books is effective not only in promoting literacy learning but also in eliciting meaningful themes for students. Second, it shows that language learning is best understood as socially constructed. Critical instruction should promote not only textcentred responses but also reader responses to social issues; this can lead to more critical stances for students. Third, the study suggests that a critical literacy curriculum should progress from personal/cultural resources to critical social practices and critical stances. Finally, enthusiasts of critical literacy should not insist on including all dimensions of the analytical model used in the study. Instead, teachers should consider their students, teaching purposes and teaching contexts when they use elements from the critical literacy instructional model.

Reading “Further and Beyond the Text”: Student Perspectives of Critical Literacy inEFLReading and Writing

“…In a tertiary English conversation course in Taiwan, Kuo () explored critical literacy using a dialogue activity. After the class read two picture books—one about Holocaust victim Anne Frank and the second about Ruby Bridges, the first black child to attend a formerly all‐white public school in New Orleans—students created group dialogues that incorporated elements of the two stories and aspects of their own experiences.…”

“…Research that explores critical literacy in English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms, however, remains scarce. The few studies that do exist focus on development of critical literacy without explicit attention to development of language skills (see, e.g., Burns & Hood, ; Kuo, ; Wallace, ). These studies also do not systematically examine students’ understanding of critical literacy in relation to their language development.…”

Development of a Criticality-oriented English Teaching Perceptions Inventory (CETPI) and Exploring its Internal Consistency and Underlying Factor Structure

“…Also, they questioned the stereotypes of East Asian students as passive and nonautonomous inside the classes. In another study, Kuo (2009) investigated the effect of critical instruction inside an English conversation class. Using Lewison et al's (2008) critical instructional model, the researcher realized how social-issue picture books can enhance EFL learners' language proficiency and engage them in critical practices.…”

A Critical Discourse Analysis of EFL Learners’ Post-reading Reflections in a Critical Literacy-based Class

“…In Taiwan, only several researchers/educators responded to the need for critical literacy in EFL education, including the empirical studies by Ko andWang (2012a, 2012b), Kuo (2009), and Huang (2011a, 2011b. These studies all explored critical literacy implementation in a college EFL classroom, investigating students' critical written products and their views to critical literacy instruction.…”