PEPELT stands for ‘Picturebooks in European Primary English Language Teaching’ and below we discuss each of the key words contained in our project name.

P

PICTUREBOOK

A picturebook has both a verbal and a visual text and the words and pictures combine to tell a story and the reader has to decode both to construct the whole meaning … read more.

E

EUROPE

The four PEPELT team members are based in Europe:  France, Poland, Portugal and The Netherlands. However, our ideas and suggestions reach beyond the borders of Europe and are relevant to PELT classrooms in many other countries.

PELT

PRIMARY ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

The primary life-stage varies from one education system to another with children beginning between ages four and seven and finishing between ages ten and 14.  The average seems to be between age six and 11 / 12 i.e. six years of primary education. We target our Picturebook suggestions for teachers of children between 6 and 12 years old. 

The introduction of English into the mainstream curriculum of education systems around the world to ever more and ever younger children has been described by Johnstone ‘as possibly the world’s biggest policy development in education’.  This global repositioning of English as a basic skill means that more and more teachers are required to teach English.  Age-appropriate pedagogy and materials are key to the achievements and motivation of primary aged children. Teachers of English need the knowledge, skills and strategies to be effective classroom practitioners with children which contributes to their holistic development and intercultural understanding.

Finally, just in case you have spotted the number 21 as part of our name and are wondering … take a guess, and let us know.

Johnstone, R. 2009.  An early start:  What are the key conditions for generalized success? In Young Learner English Language Policy and Implementation:  International Perspectives.  Eds. Janet Enever, Jayne Moon, Uma Raman. Reading:  Garnet Education

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