Exploring Shaun Tan's The Red Tree. A Didactic Proposal

The use of literature in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) class is a controversial topic since it is thought to be a complex genre to introduce in the language classroom. However, it can offer different and varied possibilities to be carried out with language students. This paper aims to design a didactic proposal for 16-year-old students based on Shaun Tan's picturebook The Red Tree. The proposal is composed of four sessions in which students' communicative competence is highly developed. Moreover, this book is characterised by its multiple interpretations, thus, students are encouraged to participate and develop their critical thinking. Finally, the topic of emotions and feelings is included in the book. Therefore, some of the activities are based on them in order to work not only on visual literacy, but on emotional literacy as well