CAN PICTURE BOOKS IN ENGLISH CLASSROOM LEAD TO INCREASE VOCABULARY LEARNING?

Abstract

Although English Language is taught in the Malaysian national and national-type primary schools for six years, the competence of the language among primary school students is still low. One of the areas where students are observed to be weak in is vocabulary where the teaching of vocabulary has always been neglected as language teachers often felt that the acquisition could be acquired through the teaching of the 4 language skills. There are many ways to teach vocabulary, but picture books in teaching vocabulary is not widely used in Malaysian context. This qualitative research attempted to explore the use of picture books in English language classes in Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan (C). The respondents of this research were nine Chinese primary school pupils aged from seven to eleven in Kubang Pasu District, Kedah. Focus group discussion and semi – structured interviews were the instruments used to collect the data and they were analysed thematically. The use of picture books in SJK (C) classrooms was believed to be helpful to the pupils. Pictures, short sentences and careful choice of words in the picture books help pupils to understand new and difficult vocabulary better. Furthermore, the use of picture books also enables the visual learners to understand the story plot well too. Different displays of the picture books are one of the merits to attract pupils and maintain the interest of reading.