Study On Young Children ’s Interpretation Of Wordless Picture Books

Since 1970s, wordless picture books, as a distinct genre of children’s literature, have been widely known and used in western country. Foreign educational researchers and practitioners have advocated the use of wordless picture books as a means of establishing preschooler’s reading confidence, developing cognitive thinking, supporting children’s creative attempt at storytelling and teaching visual literacy^ Yet, wordless picture books are not popularized by Chinese parents and kindergarten teachers because they don’t know how use this special genre. In my view, only we have a clear understanding of young children’s reaction to wordless picture books, will we find a best way to use it. Unfortunately, researchers in Mainland China has seldom focused on how they read and understand visual elements.This thesis aims to fill the gap by investigating how young children observe and interpret wordless picture books.Three wordless picture books-Wolf (Guilloppe,2011),Tuesday(Wiesner,2009) and The Grey and the Strawberry Snatcher (Bang,2008)-were carefully selected as the research tools. Nine 5-6 years old children and five kindergarten teachers participated in reading the wordless books within the investigator. They were asked to read the pictures and tell the stories in their own words, followed by a semi-structured interview about their interpretation of certain pictorial elements and story elements in the books.There are three major findings. First, the kindergarteners prefer design without word to teachers. Second, the kindergarteners are able to read the books independently because they can observe most of pictorial elements and interpret the narrative elements following the plots. Third, the kindergarteners had diverse and creative interpretations towards some of the elements in the books.In light of the results, this thesis provides some suggestions on the use of wordless picture books for Chinese parents and teachers. First of all, parents and teachers should buy more wordless picture books, giving children more chances of reading this books. Secondly, parents and teacher should listen to children’s expression and interpretations towards wordless books and advocate more diverse interpretations. Thirdly, parents and teachers should create comfortable reading environment and give children more time to enjoy in details in books.