Multimodal Cues in the Wordless English Picturebook and Their Mechanisms for EFL Learners’ Narrative Comprehension: A Case Study of The Snowman

Abstract

As multimodal texts in the aspects of art and pedagogy, wordless English picture books build a comprehensive context of stories by means of images, colors and layouts, without the help of textual language. They act as an excellent teaching resource in EFL classes, which are able to make up for the deficiency of vocabulary and discourse understanding skills of foreign language learners and help them build up English narrative logic. Most studies are concentrated on the analysis of textual meaning or text-image relationship in illustrated books, and there are very few studies which systematically analyze the narrative cooperation of multimodal elements in wordless picture books and their effects in assisting EFL learners to understand narratives. This study, based on Visual Grammar, conducts the qualitative discourse analysis on the classic wordless picture book The Snowman, analyzing how images, colors and layouts cooperatively help EFL learners sort out plot development, identify emotional tones and form English narrative thought. As a result, it is found that image sequences make it possible for learners to understand complete discourse without any vocabulary, and color and layout modalities help to establish the atmosphere of the story and narrative cognitive schemas.