Drawings are talking: Exploring language learners’ beliefs through visual narratives
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Jülide İnözü
Dr. Jülide İnözü is an associate professor in the Department of English Language Teaching at Cukurova University and is interested in the psychological perspectives of ELT including individual learner differences in language learning, motivation, learner autonomy and belief. She is teaching methodology courses at undergraduate and graduate levels. She has published articles on various aspects of affect in foreign language learning.
Abstract
This paper reports on a study, which suggests an alternative use of drawings in language classrooms. The study uses young children’s drawings about learning English as an innovative way of investigating their perceptions of what it means to learn a foreign language. The images of language learning constructed by the children in their drawings may provide us with insights into their own personal experience of language learning. In order to understand what sense they have made of the language learning process, the participants were told to draw a picture of themselves as learners of English. A qualitative image-based interpretative research approach was used in the analysis of the drawings. In order to verify the interpretations of the drawings, informal interviews were conducted with each student individually following the drawing session. The findings provide us with a window into the students’ minds and help us to develop a framework for understanding young learners’ language learning beliefs. The paper ends with a discussion of the findings, the implications for language classrooms and suggestions for future research.
About the author
Dr. Jülide İnözü is an associate professor in the Department of English Language Teaching at Cukurova University and is interested in the psychological perspectives of ELT including individual learner differences in language learning, motivation, learner autonomy and belief. She is teaching methodology courses at undergraduate and graduate levels. She has published articles on various aspects of affect in foreign language learning.
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© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- ALR special issue: Visual methods in Applied Language Studies
- Drawings are talking: Exploring language learners’ beliefs through visual narratives
- Children’s drawings as part of School Language Profiles: Heteroglossic realities in families and schools
- Young learners’ portrayals of ‘good English teacher’ identities in South Korea
- Visualizing EFL teacher identity (re)construction in materials design and implementation
- What does it mean to be an English teacher in Brazil? Student teachers’ beliefs through narratives in a distance education programme
- Beliefs and practices of foreign language learning: A visual analysis
- Visual accounts of Finnish and Greek teenagers’ perceptions of their multilingual language and literacy practices
- Children’s images of HIV/AIDS in Uganda: What visual methodologies can tell us about their knowledge and life circumstances
- ‘If I didn’t know you what would you want me to see?’: Poetic mappings in neo-materialist research with young asylum seekers and refugees
- Words and images of multilingualism: A case study of two North Korean refugees
- Timeline analysis of complex language learning trajectories: Data visualisation as conceptual tool and method
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- ALR special issue: Visual methods in Applied Language Studies
- Drawings are talking: Exploring language learners’ beliefs through visual narratives
- Children’s drawings as part of School Language Profiles: Heteroglossic realities in families and schools
- Young learners’ portrayals of ‘good English teacher’ identities in South Korea
- Visualizing EFL teacher identity (re)construction in materials design and implementation
- What does it mean to be an English teacher in Brazil? Student teachers’ beliefs through narratives in a distance education programme
- Beliefs and practices of foreign language learning: A visual analysis
- Visual accounts of Finnish and Greek teenagers’ perceptions of their multilingual language and literacy practices
- Children’s images of HIV/AIDS in Uganda: What visual methodologies can tell us about their knowledge and life circumstances
- ‘If I didn’t know you what would you want me to see?’: Poetic mappings in neo-materialist research with young asylum seekers and refugees
- Words and images of multilingualism: A case study of two North Korean refugees
- Timeline analysis of complex language learning trajectories: Data visualisation as conceptual tool and method
