I Robbed a Library – How Silent Picture Books Made Our Day

• 02. Feb 2022 • English Studio, Pädagogische Hochschule Steiermark, Sprachen, Sprechen

In this podcast Ms Haidacher-Horn, Mag.phil. Prof. , talks about the course „Pronunciation“ where silent picture books were used. Students of the teacher training in English acquire knowledge of the peculiarities of English pronunciation both in the field of articulation of speech sounds as well as in the suprasegmental area (word and sentence emphasis, rhythm and intonation). For the purpose of preparing for the final oral exam, Agnes Haidacher-Horn developed a concept that is suitable for deepening the practice process and making it more meaningful: repeated recordings of a 2-minute presentation/elevator pitch were done with a tool in Moodle, then feedback was given by the teacher, then again recording took place for further feedback. After this process of enhancement, the final, qualitatively best recordings of all students were collected and presented as part of a Radio Igel podcast. The subject of the recordings was an individually chosen picture book without text („silent book“) from the collection of the city library. The students speak about their own thoughts on the content and the illustrations and, combined with subject-didactic considerations, about creative and communicative teaching ideas and possible uses in English lessons. As a result, this pronunciation exercise offered a strong improvement of the students’ pronunciation performance, a collection of personal thoughts and an extraordinary didactic occupation with picture books while getting to know some of the vast variety of “silent books” on offer. Thank you to the team at Stadtbibiliothek Graz Nord in Theodor-Körner-Straße 59.

 

List of silent books:

Pass auf- by Silvia Borando
Kaninchentango by Daan Remmerts de Vries and Ingrid & Dieter Schubert
The Return
The Big Catch
2 Meter Bis zum Meer by Bruna Barros
The Journey by Aron Becker
The Snowman
Flowers Everywhere by Jon Arno Lawson, Sydney Smith
The Chicken Thief
My Lion
Monster Book
Wie die Vögel., Germano Zullo
Was war hier bloß los?, Gerda Muller
Maulwurfstadt, Torben Kuhlmann
Labyrinthe, Thèo Guignard
Wave, Suzy Lee
Kleine nette Bildergeschichten, Miriam Zedelius
Die Suche, Aaron Becker                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  The Long Way Home, Laura Bednarski
The Flying Hat, Rotraud Susanne Berner