DRAFT 1 Young learners ’ second language visual literacy practices

Reading is an activity which is both perceptual (auditory and visual) and cognitive (thinking and problem solving). Visual exploration, visual scanning, and visual pick-up of information in print are important first-year learning tasks for school children, but they are often neglected by educators and researchers because they are not easy to observe or record (Clay, 1993). The world now is experiencing an explosion of knowledge and with the advancing media technology, most of this knowledge comes in the form of visual input. Visual images are becoming the predominant form of communication across a range of learning and teaching resources, delivered across a range of media and formats. Thus, it is crucial that we understand how children read images, how they extract meaning from images and how they use these strategies in their quest of becoming literate. A study was conducted to better understand visual literacy practices of young second language learners. The qualitative inquiry probed young learners ’ responses as they engaged in visual literacy activities. Findings revealed details of how the young learners made sense of the tasks given. Discussion will also focus on the young learners ’ interpretations of visual images which were very much influenced by their social and cultural contexts. Finally implications will be drawn for theory, policy and practice. Key Words visual literacy, second language visual literacy, early literacy