The Canon of Picture Books Utilisation for Adult Foreign Language Learning: Methods and Principles Review

Recent research suggested authentic picture books as an alternative to the conventional bottom-up adult foreign language teaching and learning approach. This paper distinguishes between: (1) trend of methods and its methodological contexts; (2) principles for picture book utilisation; and (3) theoretical interrelationships between methods and principles. This paper offers a review of empirical studies, indexed by the Scopus, Web of Science, JSTOR Archive, Education Research Complete@EBSCOhost, EBSCO Discovery Service, and ProQuest databases between 2014-2024. After filtered through PRISMA 2020, this paper yielded 7 empirical studies on effective methods and principles for picture books utilisation in adult foreign language classrooms. The review demonstrated the trend of methods based on the advancement of existing contexts and their predictive efficacy. Common principles that scattered within and between those methods were identified and analysed, with consideration of ways in which the implied theories may be advanced by future research; indicating that a “consensus” approach of theoretical interrelationships between methods and principles could be beneficial. Eventually, this study mapped the theoretical interrelationships of picture books’ methods and principles for future utilisation and development. The theoretical interrelationships could serve as a reference for innovative foreign language learning planning for instructors or instructional designers, with the initiative of using picture books in the aforementioned context. The findings of this study could also be benefitted by other researchers to build upon their research studies, particularly when applying it to the studies that encompass a wider range of approaches.