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A study of ca. 500 English-speaking
schoolchildren, ages 4 to11 years, many of them of multi-ethnic background,
showed that picturebooks provide new and effective stimuli and are apt
to bring to light surprising capacities in children (Arizpe & Styles
2003). The potential of picturebooks lies in the interplay between pictures
and text, which are interrelated in a counterpoint way in various respects.
Counterpoint technique draws attention to different aspects of the narrative
such as theme, characterization, metaphor, painting technique, point
of view and shift of viewpoint. In addition, postmodern literature and
the arts, as well as comic books, have influenced picturebook creation;
so reading picturebooks introduces readers to new forms of narrative
on the one hand and sharpens their awareness of comic book technique
on the other hand. It is the pictures that spark classroom discourse.
Changing camera position (e.g. close-up, low camera angle) highlights
scenes of the story and focuses attention on the question from whose
viewpoint the story is presented. It prepares students for the difficult
task to identify narrator and (shifting) viewpoint in literary texts
later-on. The relatively small amount of text makes the complex task
easier and rewarding for young language learners (age 12 years or younger).
Picturebooks which address both children and adults (dual audience books)
make sophisticated reading for older students and allow for multiple
interpretations. The diversity of themes covered by picturebooks offer
useful incentives for classroom discussion. Students practise and enlarge
their vocabulary and acquire both the basic vocabulary of text analysis
and literary competence. Besides, a close look at pictures seems appropriate
in a time where progress in visualisation trains to be quick on the
uptake.
In this presentation several picturebooks are analysed in detail with a view to their didactic potential, whose validity is verified by empirical data collected in the classroom. |
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Dr
Marie Luise Rau does research on picturebooks as a free scholar with
support from Johann Gutenberg-University in Mainz (Prof. Dr. J. Meibauer,
Department of Descriptive Linguistics). She taught languages at a German
Gymnasium. After retirement she intensified her studies of first-language
acquisition and published a book on literacy: Literacy. Vom ersten Bilderbuch
zum Erzählen, Lesen und Schreiben. Haupt Verlag: Bern, Stuttgart,
Wien, 2007/2. aktualisierte Auflage 2009 (= Literacy. From the first
picturebook to storytelling, reading and writing, 2nd ed.). At the international
conference in Troisdorf in April 2009: Children's books from 0 to 3:
Where Literacy begins she gave a presentation on "Metaphors in
picturebooks from 0 to 3" on the background of new findings in
cognitive psychology. At present, her research focuses on structural
and linguistic characteristics of picturebook stories for young readers. |