The Influence of Wordless Picture Books on Junior High School Students' Fairy Tale Writing Skills
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64780/jole.v2i2.237Keywords:
Creative Writing, Fairy Tale, Indonesian Language Learning, Writing Ability, Wordless Picture BooksAbstract
Background: Writing fairy tales requires students to integrate imagination, narrative organization, language proficiency, and creativity; however, many junior high school students still encounter difficulties in generating ideas, developing plots, and constructing coherent narratives. The limited use of stimulating instructional media in writing instruction contributes to students’ low creativity and difficulties in transforming ideas into written stories. Wordless picture books provide visual stimuli that encourage learners to interpret images, construct meanings, and independently develop narratives.
Aims: This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of wordless picture books as instructional media in improving junior high school students’ fairy tale writing abilities and to determine whether students taught using this media achieved better writing performance than those receiving conventional instruction.
Methods: A quantitative approach with a pretest–posttest control group design was employed. The participants were 84 seventh-grade students at SMP Negeri 1 Jogonalan, Klaten, Indonesia, selected through cluster random sampling. The experimental group received fairy tale writing instruction using wordless picture books, while the control group received conventional instruction. Data were collected through essay writing tests and analyzed using descriptive statistics, normality and homogeneity tests, independent sample t-test, and paired sample t-test.
Results: The findings showed that both groups improved after instruction; however, the experimental group demonstrated greater improvement. The mean score increased from 67.90 to 82.10 in the experimental group, compared with 67.29 to 73.74 in the control group. The independent sample t-test revealed a significant difference between groups (t = 5.777, p < 0.05).
Conclusion: Wordless picture books effectively enhance students’ fairy tale writing abilities by supporting idea generation, narrative organization, and creative expression. The findings suggest that visual-based instructional media can serve as an effective alternative for strengthening creative writing instruction in Indonesian language learning
References
Archer, A. (2021). Multimodal approaches to literacy and learning: Developing students’ meaning-making practices. Language and Education, 35(5), 401–416. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2021.1898341
Ary, D., Jacobs, L. C., Irvine, C. K. S., & Walker, D. (2020). Introduction to research in education (10th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2018). Research methods in education (8th ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315456539
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2023). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (6th ed.). SAGE Publications. https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/research-design/book255675
Field, A. (2024). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics (6th ed.). SAGE Publications. https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/discovering-statistics-using-ibm-spss-statistics/book283597
Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E., & Hyun, H. H. (2019). How to design and evaluate research in education (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
Giorgis, C., & Johnson, N. J. (2022). “It’s a radical decision not to use words”: Partnering with wordless picture books to enhance reading and writing. Middle School Journal, 53(4), 13–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2022.2095603
Graham, S. (2022). A walk through the landscape of writing: Insights from a program of writing research. Educational Psychologist, 57(2), 55–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2021.1951734
Honaker, J. D., & Miller, R. T. (2024). Wordless but not silent: Unlocking the power of wordless picture books. TESOL Journal, 15, e721. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.721
Janks, H. (2021). Critical literacy and the importance of multimodal meaning making. English Teaching: Practice & Critique.
Kırkan, B., & Aydın, E. (2026). Is there a thought in silence? Wordless picturebooks and critical thinking in young children. Reading & Writing Quarterly.
Kress, G. (2021). Multimodality and literacy: New directions in meaning-making practices. Visual Communication, 20(3), 401–418.
Lim, F. V., & Tan, J. (2023). Developing students’ multimodal literacy through visual and digital texts in classroom learning. Journal of Literacy Research.
Mills, K. A., & Unsworth, L. (2021). Multimodal literacy and learning in contemporary classrooms. The Reading Teacher, 74(6), 701–710.
Nitko, A. J., & Brookhart, S. M. (2023). Educational assessment of students (9th ed.). Pearson.
Pallant, J. (2020). SPSS survival manual: A step by step guide to data analysis using IBM SPSS (7th ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003117452
Pohan, I. R. (2023). The effect of digital wordless picture books to improve students’ ability in writing narrative text at SMP Islam As-Shofa Pekanbaru. Madah: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra, 14(2), 145–157.
Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2021). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice (11th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
Rochania, N., Astutik, Y., & Mandarani, V. (2021). Wordless picture books: A media to facilitate students in writing descriptive text. Proceedings of the International Conference on Vocational Education and Technology.
Serafini, F. (2022). Beyond words: Visual literacy, picturebooks, and multimodal interpretation in literacy classrooms. The Reading Teacher.
UNESCO. (2023). Global education monitoring report 2023: Technology in education: A tool on whose terms? United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. https://www.unesco.org/gem-report/en/technology
Wang, Y., & Chen, Y. (2022). Visual literacy and students’ narrative construction: The role of images in writing development. Computers & Education, 182, 104463.
Young, T. A., Kganetso, L. W., & Ricks, P. H. (2024). Sounds of silence: Sharing wordless picturebooks in the classroom. The Reading Teacher, 78(1), 90–94.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Putri Aristiany
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.