ESL Elementary Teachers’ Use of Children’s Picture Books to Initiate Explicit Instruction of Reading Comprehension Strategies

Reading comprehension instruction has been recognized as a key factor in developing any reading and literacy program. Therefore, many attempts were devoted to improve explicit comprehension strategy instruction at different school levels and fields including EFL and ESL. Despite these efforts, explicit comprehension instruction is still drought and far from satisfactory. Additionally, a great deal of teachers and educators are still struggling to find the appropriate ways to explicitly and effectively teach comprehension strategies. Consequently, the purpose of the present study was to explore the general perceptions and experiences of elementary English language teachers in using children’s picture books to initiate explicit comprehension strategy instruction. In order to obtain naturalistic and in-depth understanding of participating teachers’ perceptions, structured classroom observations were carried out for four weeks. Findings indicated that in about 718 minutes of instruction of both classrooms, 603 minutes were allotted for explicit comprehension strategy instruction. Despite some flaws in time management, the use of only one resource to collect data, and the focus on only comprehension strategy instruction, this study could contribute to the body of research of comprehension strategy instruction in language learning classrooms.