Learning English through Children’s Picture Books

Like the name implies, children’s picture book are specifically designed to teach well, children, the fundamentals of the English language. Children’s picture books provide images to help support the text as well as help children use context clues to figure out the meanings of unfamiliar words.

While ideally used to train early learners, children picture books can also help adults wanting to learn the English language too. That’s because these books provide information in the simplest form possible so that beginning English-learners can grasp the words and concepts quite easily.

That said, the books we’ve hand-selected can help expand your English vocabulary as well as help you learn at your own pace. Some of the books we’ve listed below are even equipped with audio narration so that you can learn how specific words are meant to be pronounced. The best part? All of the children’s pictures books are available online for free.


Arthur Writes a Story

Arthur may be a popular PBS children’s television show now, but it first originated as a book series. AOL was gracious enough to put several picture books online for Arthur fans for free. While all of the selections can help improve someone’s English, Arthur Writes a Story is really great at introducing some new vocabulary words to describe the creative process of creating a story/essay.

Read “Arther Writes a Story” in English


The Lady With the Alligator Purse

This classic nursery rhyme narrated story, also provided by AOL Kids, is a fun and quirky way to introduce early English learners to rhyming and simple medical terms such as doctor, nurse and penicillin. It’s fairly short, so if someone needs to watch/read the words several times before they really understand, that’s ok.

Read “The Lady With the Alligator Purse” in English


The Sleeping Beauty

This short adaptation of the Brother’s Grimm fairytale can be read in just a few minutes, but it’s a great way to learn a new language since it somewhat familiar for most people -The Sleeping Beauty is retold in many different cultures and languages, so it’s easier to figure what is being said. For those that want audio support, there is a “play” button located at the top of the story. You also have the option of downloading the story as a PDF so you can print it out and read it whenever you want offline.

Read “The Sleeping Beauty” in English


The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Last but not least is the Tale of Peter Rabbit -the classic story of a mischievous bunny rabbit that disobeys his mother and finds himself in a very unfortunate predicament trying to steal food from the neighbour’s garden. The illustrations are beautiful and can definitely help you understand what the story is about.

Read “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” in English

Of course these are only a few selections, but they can definitely help give you a jump-start. Whenever you’re at the bookstore, make sure to take a quick look-through the children’s picture book isle to study new material.

This is a guest post written by Aniya Wells. Aniya is a freelance blogger and writer for over ten years. She now regularly contributes to the Onlinedegreeprograms.com blog. She is passionate about giving potential students advice as they embark on an online or traditional degree program. Aniya is very excited about the latest advances in technology that have made a comprehensive education more accessible to all! Please direct questions or comments to aniyawells@gmail.com

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