This paper explores metafiction’s role in fictional science picturebooks and its resolution of the contradictions between fictional stories and scientific knowledge in existing research by analysing two children’s p...This paper explores metafiction’s role in fictional science picturebooks and its resolution of the contradictions between fictional stories and scientific knowledge in existing research by analysing two children’s picturebooks,Wolves(Gravett,2015)and The Magic School Bus(Cole,1995).The paper first identifies both books as metafictive science picturebooks by analysing their content.Secondly,the author analyses the structure of the two picturebooks and exposes that they both have two narrative lines as the composite structure:science knowledge and fictional stories.Thirdly,the article discusses the metafictive elements in Wolves and The Magic School Bus from the content perspectives,which are relevant to“reality”,in order to evaluate how metafiction enhances fictional science picturebooks in supporting children’s learning of science,conveying knowledge to children,and avoiding children’s misunderstanding of fiction and scientific information.展开更多
This review synthesizes the current research on the potentials of using picturebooks to explore themes for English as a second and foreign language learning in Kindergarten to eighth graders(K-8)contexts.The synthesis...This review synthesizes the current research on the potentials of using picturebooks to explore themes for English as a second and foreign language learning in Kindergarten to eighth graders(K-8)contexts.The synthesis of studies includes empirical findings,theories,and methods in the field.Analysis of the studies suggests three impacts that theme-based picturebooks have on language learning and three categories of theories that are informed from the reviewed studies.Based on the emphasis on the development of cultural awareness in China,the review is concluded by addressing the necessity of conducting research on exploring cultural themes in using picturebooks in EFL classes in China by conducting case studies.展开更多
This article investigates the picturebook as the aesthetic object that integrates the verbal narrative and the visual narrative, and hinges on interactions between the two levels of narratives. Often drawing on the th...This article investigates the picturebook as the aesthetic object that integrates the verbal narrative and the visual narrative, and hinges on interactions between the two levels of narratives. Often drawing on the theory of semiotics, picturebook scholars have revealed the complex interactions between the verbal and the visual, the demands that a picturebook may put on the reader, and the hermeneutic nature of picturebook reading. Two signifi cant issues, however, still need to be further explored: why the reader can possibly relate and integrate the verbal and the visual, and why some readers may turn to pictures more than to words, or vice versa. I propose to explore the two issues primarily through the model of double-scope stories within the theoretical framework of cognitive criticism. I argue that the universality of the intellectual and imaginative activity of conceptual blending makes it possible for the reader to relate pictures to words, or vice versa, and to integrate them. Though to make meaning from the picturebook as a double-scope story requires the reader to integrate the two levels of narratives, the verbal and the visual can sometimes constitute two relatively independent input stories. Readers may be more oriented towards either one of them, partially due to the difference in their innate cognitive structures. The arguments will be illustrated with a close analysis of Lane Smith's picturebook Grandpa Green.展开更多
Crossover picturebooks attract readers of different ages.The trend of refocusing on the body in children’s literature criticism,especially under the influence of literary cognitive studies as Maria Nikolajeva points ...Crossover picturebooks attract readers of different ages.The trend of refocusing on the body in children’s literature criticism,especially under the influence of literary cognitive studies as Maria Nikolajeva points out(2016),provides a context to reconfigure our understanding of crossover picturebooks.Informed by literary cognitive studies,particularly the theory of brain laterality,the project selects the picturebook that may have crossover potential to start with,then investigates the actual readers’engagement with the potentially crossover picturebook,and finally feeds the insights gleaned from the empirical study back into the understanding of the selected text,and possibly crossover picturebooks generally.The project aims to learn about the crossover picturebook through exploring how it impacts readers.It was a small-scale case study,conducted in the east of England,UK.Colin Thompson’s How to Live Forever was used with two adults and two children.Observation and interviewing were used to collect data.Text-related creative activities served to support or clarify the oral response.The project reveals:the multileveled nature of crossover picturebooks that many scholars emphasize may correspond to the multileveled engagement that texts can elicit from readers,which is partially the outcome of cognitive-affective skills and mechanisms engaged differently across children and adults.This study also shows the crossover potential particular to picturebooks:picturebooks may use the visual to flesh out the embodied experience,which can springboard further thinking about abstract,complicated notions.This mode of representation corresponds to the way the human mind works,thus engaging children and adults alike.展开更多
文摘This paper explores metafiction’s role in fictional science picturebooks and its resolution of the contradictions between fictional stories and scientific knowledge in existing research by analysing two children’s picturebooks,Wolves(Gravett,2015)and The Magic School Bus(Cole,1995).The paper first identifies both books as metafictive science picturebooks by analysing their content.Secondly,the author analyses the structure of the two picturebooks and exposes that they both have two narrative lines as the composite structure:science knowledge and fictional stories.Thirdly,the article discusses the metafictive elements in Wolves and The Magic School Bus from the content perspectives,which are relevant to“reality”,in order to evaluate how metafiction enhances fictional science picturebooks in supporting children’s learning of science,conveying knowledge to children,and avoiding children’s misunderstanding of fiction and scientific information.
文摘This review synthesizes the current research on the potentials of using picturebooks to explore themes for English as a second and foreign language learning in Kindergarten to eighth graders(K-8)contexts.The synthesis of studies includes empirical findings,theories,and methods in the field.Analysis of the studies suggests three impacts that theme-based picturebooks have on language learning and three categories of theories that are informed from the reviewed studies.Based on the emphasis on the development of cultural awareness in China,the review is concluded by addressing the necessity of conducting research on exploring cultural themes in using picturebooks in EFL classes in China by conducting case studies.
文摘This article investigates the picturebook as the aesthetic object that integrates the verbal narrative and the visual narrative, and hinges on interactions between the two levels of narratives. Often drawing on the theory of semiotics, picturebook scholars have revealed the complex interactions between the verbal and the visual, the demands that a picturebook may put on the reader, and the hermeneutic nature of picturebook reading. Two signifi cant issues, however, still need to be further explored: why the reader can possibly relate and integrate the verbal and the visual, and why some readers may turn to pictures more than to words, or vice versa. I propose to explore the two issues primarily through the model of double-scope stories within the theoretical framework of cognitive criticism. I argue that the universality of the intellectual and imaginative activity of conceptual blending makes it possible for the reader to relate pictures to words, or vice versa, and to integrate them. Though to make meaning from the picturebook as a double-scope story requires the reader to integrate the two levels of narratives, the verbal and the visual can sometimes constitute two relatively independent input stories. Readers may be more oriented towards either one of them, partially due to the difference in their innate cognitive structures. The arguments will be illustrated with a close analysis of Lane Smith's picturebook Grandpa Green.
基金The writing up of this study is supported by the research project“Contemporary Western Picturebook Theory”(18WWC005)funded by Jiangsu Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science and the project“Chinese Picturebooks and Their English Translations”(2017SJB1318)funded by Jiangsu Education Department。
文摘Crossover picturebooks attract readers of different ages.The trend of refocusing on the body in children’s literature criticism,especially under the influence of literary cognitive studies as Maria Nikolajeva points out(2016),provides a context to reconfigure our understanding of crossover picturebooks.Informed by literary cognitive studies,particularly the theory of brain laterality,the project selects the picturebook that may have crossover potential to start with,then investigates the actual readers’engagement with the potentially crossover picturebook,and finally feeds the insights gleaned from the empirical study back into the understanding of the selected text,and possibly crossover picturebooks generally.The project aims to learn about the crossover picturebook through exploring how it impacts readers.It was a small-scale case study,conducted in the east of England,UK.Colin Thompson’s How to Live Forever was used with two adults and two children.Observation and interviewing were used to collect data.Text-related creative activities served to support or clarify the oral response.The project reveals:the multileveled nature of crossover picturebooks that many scholars emphasize may correspond to the multileveled engagement that texts can elicit from readers,which is partially the outcome of cognitive-affective skills and mechanisms engaged differently across children and adults.This study also shows the crossover potential particular to picturebooks:picturebooks may use the visual to flesh out the embodied experience,which can springboard further thinking about abstract,complicated notions.This mode of representation corresponds to the way the human mind works,thus engaging children and adults alike.
