Constructing Visual Literacy Through Postmodern Picturebooks: Responses of Korean Elementary School Students

Living in the digital era with the rapid growth of mass media, visual literacy has become an essential competence to acquire in order to understand the implicit information in the visual medium. The present study explored how 24 Korean elementary school students participated in meaning-making for visual information and constructed visual literacy in response to a postmodern picturebook, Anthony Browne’s (1999) Voices in the Park. Using a qualitative research method, the study collected and analyzed data from students’ oral discussion transcripts, written response journals, and teacher field notes. The results showed that Korean elementary school students were able to construct visual literacy through reading the postmodern picturebook. Further, using postmodern picturebooks in an EFL classroom had the potential to promote students’ language learning.