Practical Relatability of Illustrations in Primary English Textbooks in Bangladesh

Abstract

This non-experimental quantitative study was designed to find the current state of practical relatability of illustrations in primary English textbooks by collecting data from 200 primary schoolers, 50 primary English teachers, and three illustrators who had worked on the said textbooks. Findings indicated that the children more or less were able to relate to the illustrations. The teachers reported that they used real-life examples to relate the students with the illustrations and doing so facilitated the teaching-learning process significantly. The illustrators expressed that they studied children's surroundings to collect material for the textbook illustrations but they did not seek any preliminary comments from the children before finalizing the illustrations.This study recommends that there is room for improvement for the textbook illustrations to be more practically relatable which ultimately is very beneficial to both the students and the teachers. More research in Bangladeshi context is needed to develop better textbooks with pertinent illustrations, especially for primary school-going children.

Keywords: Illustration, Visual Literacy, Textbook Design, EFL, Curriculum Design, Primary Education