SHS Web of Conferences 123, 01025 (2021) https://doi.org/10.

1051/shsconf/202112301025
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The Integration of Internet and Picture Book:

Using Online Picture Book Reading Project to
Promote Primary School Students’ Reading
Literacy
Yanfei Zhou1, Tingfang Fei1, and Jing Chen2*
1
Jing Hengyi Honors College, 311121 Hangzhou Normal University, China
2
School of International Studies, 311121 Hangzhou Normal University, China

Abstract. This study aims to explore the effect of the combination of

English picture books and the Internet on pupils’ English reading literacy.
12 primary school students participated in the online picture book reading
project. The results are as follows: first, through pre-test and post-test,
students’ reading comprehension ability has been improved; Second, the
questionnaire shows the online project can help them increase reading
interests, develop good reading habits and reading strategies; Last but not
least, children give positive feedback to the project, especially about
reading-guide videos and teachers’ comments in pronunciation. In general,
the online project can promote pupils’ reading literacy.

1 Introduction
The picture book is a kind of books with a lot of pictures and a small amount of words to
convey information or tell a complete story, especially for children. Picture books can cover
many topics and social contexts, which are close to children’s daily life, and the plots and
language are vivid and simple, so that kids are interested in reading them. In English as a
foreign language (EFL) contexts, English picture books are of positive help to young
students in forming a sense of English language, perceiving English pronunciation,
acquiring common vocabulary, and using English to express their personal views [1]. In
addition to the improvement in language ability, English picture books are also useful for
intercultural education to cultivate children’s cross-cultural awareness [2]. In view of
English picture books’ advantages, many teachers in China integrate English picture book
reading into classroom teaching or use picture books as supplementary materials for
textbooks, while parents also encourage their kids to read more English picture books at
home.
In order to help children read English picture books in a better and more convenient
way, some companies have launched applications for English picture book reading. Quting
English Picture-book App provides kids with various digital English picture books and

*
Corresponding author: jeanchan78@163.com

© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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matching recording, such as Oxford Reading Tree series, Heinemann Leveled Literacy
Intervention, etc. Ququ English App features a special function of scoring kids’
pronunciation by computer system when they are reading aloud. Banyu Picture-book App
sets up some question games according to the content and vocabulary of picture books,
through which children can both have fun and do some exercises to consolidate knowledge.
These Apps present different multimodal learning modes for young children to read English
picture books. However, most Apps only have rich resources of picture books but don’t
teach children how to read them, how to improve their pronunciation and intonation, or
how to discover values and cross-cultural phenomena behind the book.
Knowing the advantages and disadvantages of Apps mentioned above, researchers of
this study designed an online picture book reading project, which contains digital picture
books, audio recordings, reading-guide videos on one hand, and teachers to comment and
offer suggestion on children’s pronunciation. The study is aimed to examine whether the
online reading project can promote primary school students’ reading literacy as well as to
investigate on children’s attitudes and personal views towards the project. The research
questions are posed as follows:
1. To what extent can the online picture book reading project improve primary school
students’ reading literacy?
2. What are the effects of the project on students’ reading interests, reading habits,
reading strategies and reading emotion?
3. What are the children’s attitudes towards the project?

2 Literature review

2.1 The influence of picture book reading on students’ reading literacy

With the development of the times, the use of picture books in English education has
attracted more and more researchers’ attention, and scholars generally believe that picture
books are of great benefit to the development of learners’ learning literacy, especially for
young children [3]. According to Wang and Ao, reading literacy includes reading ability
and reading character [1]. Among them, reading ability includes decoding ability, language
knowledge, reading comprehension and cultural awareness. Reading character includes
reading habit and reading experience.
In terms of reading ability, picture book reading can help learners develop reading skills
and understand specific languages. Through the experiment in teaching English by reading
picture books, Niblack concluded that students’ use of English picture books can stimulate
their interest in learning, improve their vocabulary learning ability, grammar knowledge
and language production ability [4]. In terms of reading character, Edinger stated that
picture books can provide entertainment and indirect experience, develop learners’
imagination, and present universal life experience [5]. Other researchers also believe that
using picture books in English teaching can not only provide a real and meaningful context
for language learning, but also improve students’ reading literacy and thinking ability [6].
Although the combination of English teaching and picture book reading can improve
students’ reading literacy, there are still some problems in the implementation. Some
researchers and educators have also put forward their own views and suggestions.
To sum up, Reading English picture books can effectively improve students’ English
reading literacy and help them develop good reading character.

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2.2 The combination of technology and picture books

Nowadays, artificial intelligence and the Internet are widely used in our daily life, which
also has a subversive impact on the education industry and picture book reading.
The picture book materials for children have undergone rapid and profound changes
with the developments in the digital realm in recent years. By comparing traditional picture
books and digital picture books, some scholars find that E-books have many advantages,
such as easy storage and simple operation [7], attracting students’ attention and achieve
better teaching effects because of audio and animation [8], etc. Unsworth also recognized
that digital picture books can provide learners with opportunities to participate in
multimodal interaction and learners’ oral expression ability can be effectively improved [9].
Other research investigated on the application and effects of new technology and digital
reading devices in picture book reading. Ozcelik and Acarturk investigated on the use of
camera-equipped mobile phone and 2D barcode technology for complementing printed
course material, which had been found the potential to enhance learning [10]. Choi, Kang
and Sheo’s study pointed out children’s interest in learning English was higher when they
used digital pens in picture book reading [11]. Focusing on Augmented reality (AR)
technology, studies noted that AR picture books can not only increase children’s reading
interests and their story comprehension performance, but also help to deepen memory and
improve learning efficiency [12].
Generally speaking, Internet and digital revolution have an impact on the way of picture
book reading and help learners read English picture books more conveniently and learn
English more efficiently.

3 Method

3.1 Research design and procedure

The research is a quasi-experimental design, using pre-test and post-test to assess children’s
reading comprehension ability before and after the project, followed by a questionnaire to
collect information about children’s reading interests, habits, strategies, emotions and their
attitudes towards the project.
At the beginning, all participants took a pre-test. Then, they started the online picture
book reading project, which was conducted on the platform of WeChat mini program
“Xiaodaka”. During the project, every day except Sunday, researchers released daily tasks
and picture-book reading materials, including digital picture books, audio recordings,
reading-guide videos made by researches. After watching the video, children read the
picture book by themselves, practiced to read aloud and uploaded their reading-aloud
recording. Two researchers (both post-graduates majored in English teaching) would
comment on their pronunciation, intonation, rhythm and give some suggestions. Children
read and practiced an English picture book for two days, so that they could have a better
understanding of the content and improve their pronunciation. After a period of time, there
were review tasks to help children consolidate what they had learned and then new books
were started. The whole project lasted for 18 weeks and totally 46 English picture books
were read by participants. After the project, a post-test and a questionnaire were carried out
for each participant.

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3.2 Participants
12 children (6 boys, 6 girls) aged 7-11 participated in the current study. Most of them were
at Grade 4 of a public primary school in Hangzhou, China. Their first language is Chinese
and they all are beginners in English learning.

3.3 Materials
The English picture books used for the reading project were chosen form Oxford Reading
Tree (ORT) series published by Oxford University Press. The ORT scheme has widespread
usage across primary schools in the UK and international schools worldwide. The ORT
books are appropriate for the participants because there are simple language and colorful
illustration patterns that are easier for young children to read. Considering the participants
are English beginners, the reading project started form Level-1 books of ORT and then
moved to Level-2 books. Totally, children read 46 ORT picture books, 31 Level-1 books
and 15 Level-2 books.
In addition to providing electronic picture books and audio recordings, researchers made
reading-guide videos for each book. In the video, we guided children to read the book page
by page, such as translating difficult sentences into Chinese, encouraging them to predict
the storyline according to the cover and guess the meaning of a new word by observing the
picture, introducing grammatical points like past tense, plural forms, etc., and explaining
cultural differences between the east and the west. At the end of the video, a question was
be asked to check children’s understanding of the story.

3.4 Instruments

3.4.1 Pre-test and Post-test

The two tests were designed according to the reading section of Cambridge Young Learners’
English Tests produced by Cambridge Assessment English. Considering that our
participants are English beginners, Pre A1 Starters Level test is appropriate for them, which
is composed of colorful pictures and simple texts. The pre-test and post-test are to firgure
out whether participants have made progress in reading comprehension after the picture
book reading project.

3.4.2 Questionnaire
The questionnaire of this study was adapted from Hu’s survey and mainly used to
investigate children’s reading situation during the project and their attitudes towards the
project [13]. It consists of 15 statements in five dimensions: reading interests (3 statements);
reading habits (3); reading strategies (3); reading emotions (3) and personal attitudes (3). A
5-point Likert-scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree was employed for
children to rate how strongly they agree with each statement.

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4 Results and discussion

4.1 Analysis of test results

The pre-test and post-test scores and their changes are shown in Table 4.1 below. A total of
7 children have improved after participating in the program. Through the data, we can see
that most children make progress in reading literacy. Besides, among the top five children
with the biggest improvement in grades, three of them score around 80 in the pre-test, and
their usual English scores were above average. It can be concluded that the project is more
helpful to the improvement of English reading literacy of students with above-average
scores.
Through analyzing the average scores, the average score on the pre-test is 84.3, the
average score on the post-test is 88.6, and the average score change is 4.25, indicating that
participants make moderate progress in reading comprehension after the picture book
reading project, which is the answer to RQ1.
From Table 4.2, by analyzing the standard deviation of the pre-test and post-test scores,
the standard deviation of the post-test scores is larger, and the dispersion of the post-test
scores increases, which shows that the children who participated in the reading program
and completed the test seriously improve their scores moderately. And some children’s
reading literacy has not been improved, or even decreased, which may be caused by
careless and unstable test performances.

4.2 Analysis of questionnaire results

The questionnaire is distributed to get information about participants’ reading interests,
habits, strategies, emotions during the online picture book reading project and their
personal attitudes towards this project. To each statement, item 5 to 1 ranges from strongly
agree to strongly disagree.
Table 4.1 Results of reading literacy pre-test and post-test scores
No. Pre-test Post-test Score No. Pre-test Post-test Score
changes changes
1 59 75 16 7 81 92 11
2 80 98 18 8 88 95 7
3 95 93 -2 9 95 100 5
4 77 74 -3 10 75 61 -14
5 92 100 8 11 95 90 -5
6 90 85 -5 12 85 100 15
average score average score average score
84.3 88.6 4.25
of pre-test of pre-test change

Table 4.2 Descriptive statistics

N Mean Std. Deviation Variance
Pre-test scores 12 84.33 10.697 114.424
Post-test scores 12 88.58 12.522 156.811
Table 4.3 shows participants’ reading interests in picture books. Compared with other
books filled with words, over 90% of participants like reading picture books very much and
nearly 83% think pictures can help them to understand the story. This result reflects the
advantages of picture book: attracting children’s attention and stimulate their reading
interests. Besides, all children are in favor of the online picture book reading projection to a

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certain degree. It is obvious that these participants are interested in reading English picture
books and like the way of online reading.
Table 4.3 Results of reading interests
5 4 3 2 1
1: You prefer reading English picture books to plain text 11 1 0 0 0
books. 91.7% 8.3% 0% 0% 0%
2: You think the pictures in picture books are very 10 2 0 0 0
interesting and can make you better understand the story. 83.3% 16.7% 0% 0% 0%
3: Compared with traditional English picture book 7 5 0 0 0
reading, you prefer online picture book reading project. 58.3% 41.7% 0% 0% 0%

Table 4.4 Results of reading habits

5 4 3 2 1
4: After learning a story, you are impressed by the story 7 1 4 0 0
and like to share it with your friends or family. 58.3% 8.3% 33.3% 0% 0%
5: You like to read aloud or perform some interesting 6 3 3 0 0
and impressive stories. 50% 25% 25% 0% 0%
6: When you get an English picture book, you will read 7 3 1 0 1
the pictures first. 58.3% 25% 8.3% 0% 8.3%
From Table 4.4, we can see that 58.3% of the participants strongly agree with that they
like to share impressed stories with others, while one third maintain a neutral stance. Most
of participants like to read aloud or to perform some picture book stories. As for the habit
of reading order, children’s responses are various. Over 80% prefer to read pictures first.
One kid, however, dislikes to put pictures at the top of the reading order list. In all, most of
them develop good reading habits.
Table 4.5 Results of reading strategies
5 4 3 2 1
7: You think it is easier to understand the story and 9 3 0 0 0
remember the content of the story by looking at the pictures. 75% 25% 0% 0% 0%
8: You can roughly guess the general plot of the story 8 3 1 0 0
through pictures and context. 66.7% 25% 8.3% 0% 0%
9: You can guess the meaning of the unknown words 8 4 0 0 0
according to the picture or the general content. 66.7% 33.3% 0% 0% 0%
Table 4.5 presents the strategies adopted by the children when reading English picture
books. It turns out that almost all agree with these three statements. The participants think
they can not only understand and remember the story easily with the help of pictures, but
also guess the storyline and the meaning of new words through pictures and context. The
results are consistent with previous studies that found reading picture books can help
English learners to figure out the meanings of the new words and facilitate reading
comprehension [14].
Table 4.6 Results of reading emotions
5 4 3 2 1
10: You can understand the mood of the characters in the 8 4 0 0 0
book by reading the picture book with emotion. 66.7% 33.3% 0% 0% 0%
11: You are often moved by the stories in English picture 7 4 0 1 0
books and like them very much. 58.3% 33.3% 0% 8.3% 0%
12: After the project, you prefer to read English picture 7 5 0 0 0
books and are willing to continue. 58.3% 41.7% 0% 0% 0%

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The above three statements are about children’s emotion when reading picture books.
As we can see from Table 4.6, over half can well comprehend characters’ feelings, like the
stories very much, and have strong willingness to continue English picture book reading.
Others, except one child showing disagreement on statement 11, also agree with that they
have empathy for the stories and hold positive attitudes towards picture book reading.
In answer to RQ2, as the results of questionnaire shows, during the project, participants
are interested in reading English picture books and most of them develop good reading
habits, reading strategies, and reading emotions.
Table 4.7 presents the participants’ opinions about the online picture book reading
project, showing most of them are approval of the online project because it is very
convenient to use mobile phones to read English picture books. Moreover, all participants
agree with that interesting reading-guide videos can help them to learn stories and know
some knowledge about English language as well as the western culture. And 83.3% think
teachers’ comments are of great help to improve their pronunciation and intonation. In
answer to RQ3, as the results of questionnaire show, the participants have a positive
attitude towards the project and they are willing to continue.
Table 4.7 Results of personal opinions
5 4 3 2 1
13: Online reading project can be conducted anytime,
9 2 1 0 0
anywhere with a mobile phone, and it is very easy and
75% 16.7% 8.3% 0% 0%
convenient to adhere to.
14: The reading-guide video is and interesting and can lead 12 0 0 0 0
you to acquire new knowledge and learn new stories. 100% 0% 0% 0% 0%
15: Teacher’s comments can help you correct the
10 1 1 0 0
pronunciation of many words and improve your oral English
83.3% 8.3% 8.3% 0% 0%
ability.

5 Conclusions
The online picture book reading project provides students with digital picture books, audio
recordings, reading-guide videos and lead students to read them, so that students can read
picture books anytime and anywhere, which is convenient and helpful in English learning.
The current study investigates the effects of the online project on promoting primary school
students’ reading literacy. The findings shows that the online reading project can promote
pupils’ reading comprehension ability, stimulate reading interests and emotions, cultivate
reading habits and strategies. Meanwhile, the value of the project is highly recognized by
participants. In the future, teachers and parents can also combine English picture book
reading with new technology and Internet resources to build a multimodal learning
environment for children’s reading literacy development.

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