Children's Literacies

An editor of children's books

[childrenliteracies]

Talking ‘Terrorist Attack in Paris’ with Children

Written by: Can, Ran (Chinese) Translated by: Ma, Lan

Can Ran is a famous author on children’s early reading in China. Her writings are mostly based on her experiences but not from academic angles. Her publications include ‘A Trip Riding on A Whale’ series, which are popular among thousands of Chinese young parents. She is also one of the founders of a small private experimental nursery. This is her simple summary of the class ‘Talking Terrorist Attack in Paris with Children’ in that nursery. It isn’t an academic article but only a journal online. However, I found it’s interesting to realize how the class about sensitive problems be run in this Chinese experimental nursery, and how these Chinese young children understand and discuss about terrorist attack – their thinking, expressions and emotions. Therefore I translated it and hope it will be useful for more people. (I have asked the author’s authorization)

I always encourage teachers to discuss with young children (boys and girls) together, particularly in the ‘News and Affairs’ class. During these courses, children can surprisingly find that even for the same thing, different people will have different feelings, although the start point of their thinking is same. I believe that it is an important course for 5-6 y/o children to realize that ‘sometimes, the way of my good friend to look at the world is different from mine’.

In fact, comparing with some other affairs, the open discussing space about Terrorist Attack in Paris isn’t very large for these young children. Even for the adults, generally, at the moment of hearing about such ‘injustice affair’, the intense feeling also will repress the desire of discussing with the others. When I was preparing for this class, the biggest challenges for me are: 1, How to explain the affair briefly and clearly to the 5-year-old children; 2, How to guide them to understand ‘justice’ instead of infusing adults’ considerations, while leave the enough space for them to express their own thinking?

The structure of this class is a bit more complex than before. We should discuss: 1, Which kind of place is Paris like? 2, What happened? 3, Who are the terrotists? 4, How would the Parisian children feel about this affair? 5, Conclusion - the factors of ‘justice’. At the beginning, I also added the terrorists’ policies and activities about children in their control area. But then I found this part is unnecessary in this class.

As the other classes before, this class also has many barriers, but the children and teachers broke through them one by one.

Firstly, we show the attractions of Parts: fashion, perfume, Eiffel Tower…My friend also made Macarons for our class. These things let the children have specific realization about Paris. Thus, that city has become closer to us.

When we were talking about the terrorist attack, the teachers chose the language and pictures very carefully. However, the most sensitive girl in our class still turned her head around, though she said ‘my father had told me about this thing’ before the class started. At the same time, the boy in the class was very impassioned when he heard of some specific words such as ‘police’ ‘bomb’ and ‘gun’ (and also saw the pictures). He showed the burning desire of talking and kept raising hand and interrupting the others. He almost fell into boasting that ‘I will fight with the terrorists!’

The other girls are calmer. When we were discussing the question that ‘what were those terrorists thinking when they aimed at the people?’ All the girls expressed as ‘whatever their reasons are, they shouldn’t do that.’ ‘It isn’t acceptable that they hurt the common people, particularly hurt children.’ Meanwhile, the boy seemed to think much deeper about ‘terrorist’s heart’ – he argued that ‘Terrorists want to show they are more powerful than the other people. They want to own the others’ love and attention. They are afraid the others ignore them.’

When the teachers asked that if we should organize a mini march and write what we want to talk with the Parisian children or the terrorists on posters, all the children responded eagerly. It is interesting that the girls only agreed to write for Parisian children, but refused to write anything conversing with the terrorists. At the same time, the boy argued that ‘The march is useless. The real terrorists will snatch the posters and destroy them, then use their guns to kill you.’ After I explained ‘the meaning of a March is showing the people’s determination that they are absolutely not afraid of violence and won’t tolerate the terrorists’ activities’, the boy accepted the idea and decided to join the march.

During the whole class, the boy insisted to repeat his argument again and again: ‘the people should snatch the terrorists’ guns and aim at them!’ Meanwhile, the girls’ expressions are more about their sadness and worries.

At the last, when I showed the picture that Eiffel Tower lighted the colors of French national flag, and explained that’s the way through which the people say ‘NO’ to the terrorists, all the children cheered.

I found that in such kind of discussions about social problems, these young boys and girls have shown their different ways to look after this world.

The girls mostly use ‘maternal manner’ to understand the world. They empathized much easily with the Parisian children, and showed more intense emotion on the damage sustained by the beautiful and good things. Meanwhile, the boys understood the world by ‘fatherhood manner’. They had much deeper understanding about the motivation of terrorists’ activties. Although they said ‘it’s wrong’, they still had self-awareness about the motivation of violence.

Through these discussions, the boys will realize the girls’ worries and rejection to destructive power, as well as their love and defending on kindness and beauty. Meanwhile, the girls will realize the boys’ understanding on destructive power, and the way they check and balance themselves and destructive power. I think it is one aspect of the important significance of this class.

[The words: The Parisian children, I wish peace will be with you.]

In their long journey in the future, they might witness the real ‘injustice’ in one day, or might be not. For most people, the daily life is covered by tangled and emotional ‘right and wrong’, just as a lonely road full of mist.

[‘The magic of justice’ ‘Justice is an old magic existing in everyone’s heart’]

But these children have experienced about ‘injustice’ and ‘truth’ in this class. They have seen that when facing this kind of affairs, different people would show different attitudes: someone will become hawks; someone will be hesitant and worried; someone will tend to evade the problems… ‘That’s why we need to communicate and understand the others.’

‘Justice’ doesn’t exist in any absolute truth. It exists in your understanding and love. You are marvelous children.

[The boy’s poster: ‘The French children, don’t be worried! Peace will be with you.’ ‘The terrorists, why do you hurt the others?’ ‘The terrorists, it’s a wrong way to show your claim! You should do right things.’]

[childrenliteracies]

The new Pedagogy of multiliteracies in the new age

I chose to read A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures and Worlds have collided and modes have merged: classroom evidence of changed literacy practices, which made me think a lot about the changes of literacies in the new period. The core conception of these two papers is that the rapid changing cultural and linguistic diversity today require a broader view of literacy than the traditional approaches; both of them point out the new pedagogy of multiliteracies should ‘focus on modes of representation much broader than language alone’ (The New London Group, 1996: P64), which means visual and audio elements also should be considered together, because they always incorporate and impact at the same time in children’s new literacy process.

The two researches of multimodal literacy in classroom showed in Walsh’s paper led me think about what I have experienced and observed in past 15 years, and also the topic of my first degree dissertation: Adolescents’ socialization influenced by the Internet and web 2 techinology. I always consider literacy as one aspect of socialization. Though these resources I read more focus on the composition and implementing process of multiliteracies, the exploration on socialization within which is still an interesting topic.

However, considering the whole state of development of Chinese cities and rural areas, generally, the multimedia pedagogy and multiliteracies are still not common and universal in primary and secondary schools because of limited resources. On the other hand, many chinese city children and teenagers have taken the advanced practices on multiliteracies by themselves. For example, using the online platforms to create their own novels and share with the others (through which they even can achieve normal publishing), or using cyber singing voice synthesizer to create songs and music videos and issue them online (involving the collaboration of images / drawing, lyrics / reading and writing, tone / listening and speaking). These activities are very similar with the practices referred in Worlds have collided and modes have merged: the skills are merged and interrelated; '…students need to be able to combine traditional literacy practices with the understanding, design and manipulation of different modes of image, graphics, sound and movement with text.' (Walsh, 2008: P106) I believe these activities are worth to explore more and will have reference value for the future pedagogy, which I would like to discuss more in my essay.

The New London Group, (1996) A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures, Harvard Educational Review, 66 (1) pp. 60- 92.

Walsh, M. (2008) Worlds have collided and modes have merged: classroom evidence of changed literacy practices, Literacy, 42 (3) pp. 101- 108

[childrenliteracies]

Arrival and Callow's categories

After learning Callow's categories, I would like to chose a book and try to use the theory to analyse. This book is Shaun Tan’s ‘Arrival’ (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007), which is a story of a man who left his homeland to build a better life for his family. The book mainly shows the struggles and joy of the immigrant experience. The author illustrated the whole plot only by beautiful and imaginative pictures without words. There are a huge number of elements in the book could be attended and discussed. I would like to use this book for the children of 10-12 age group, which is available for grades 5 and 6 tasks in Callow’s framework, though actually the book suits for various age groups and the focuses of different groups will be different.

Before reading, I would ask the children to guess what the book is about from the cover. (Table 1, 620) What is the man doing? What do they think about the animal? If the children’s answers involve ‘travel’, I will lead them to think about the travelling experiences in their lives: what did they feel before departed & after arrived a strange place?

When opening the books, I would let the children notice the exquisite ‘photos’ on flyleaf: What do they feel about the people’s rich expression and clothes? How many religious and ethnic icons could be identified? (Table 2, 621)

Then, turning to the head page and title page, I would lead their attention to the color and elements on these three pages: the unknown-language symbols, the old book’s color, letter, passport, visa photo, postmark and so forth. What is the main element on the page and what does it illustrate or implicate? (Table 2, 622)

I also would like to focus on page 10: the viewing angle of the characters and the meaning of the shadow. What could they image from the shadow, and that can be developed to ‘expression of trepidation and pressure’. What will happen after that? (Table 2, 621)

After reading, I would let the children point out the favorite pages and give the reasons. The children might explore in small groups about how the strange animals and other new key elements on the ‘new land’ affect the interpretation and development of the story, and the comparison between the pictures of 'old world' and 'new world'. (Table 3, 623)

And in a multicultural class, a discussion about children’s or their parents / grandparents’ emigration stories also could be put up. At last, I would give an additional and compendious explanation about China’s history 100 years ago and some Chinese elements (for example, the Chinese dragon), then ask the children if they could have more discoveries when they retrace the book. (Table 1, 620)

Callow’s categories have showed some new academic viewpoints and methods on children’s literacy to me, as well as the others’ theories. However, we should judge how to use them, depending on specific conditions. Callow’s categories are very useful to help young readers to develop the understanding of visuals, nevertheless, they are mainly focus on the pictures themselves and the ‘text’ (language) is less considered in his framework. When analyzing more complex visual texts, for instance, the books beside ‘mirroring words and pictures’ type, especially ‘diverging’ type (b.2.3 in Hassall’s Model), other theories maybe need to be refered.

Finally, I believe that Callow’s categories also could be used to analyse moving visuals. For example, the indicators and metalanguage about descriptions of actions, events and setting; shot distance used, angle, and character gaze; colors and shapes, etc.. However, the moving visuals also should be considered more in their complex and continue changing process. Therefore, the learners might develop some specific terms when using Callow’s categories for moving visuals, such as ‘how do we react to the change of character gaze’ or ‘what is the implication of the change of background color’.

[childrenliteracies]

The thinking

The courses are very useful for me and supply new academic viewpoints about children’s literature and literacy for me. I could analyse the books from new angles differing from before. For instance, using Callerson’s model to analyse the influence factors of language development, or using Callow’s model to understand how the visual materials work.

Those are what I could not image when I was working as a publisher. However, it will be interesting to integrate these theories and methods into publishing work, for example, to guide the authors to polish their works, or take an enlightening discussion with them. Those theories not only can be used in education, but also suit for parents and children’s literature publishers, which will be beneficial for the children’s literacy at last.

However, the time is different from before. The influence power of new media is huge, such as IPAD. Many stuff should be considered in the new situation. And there is also the space to develop the children’s literacy theories.

Again, I find one thing has not been discussed till now in the courses, which also has powerful effect on children’s development: games. The games also include visual and textual elements, and some of them came from fictions or films. It might be an interesting realm to explore.

[childrenliteracies]

About 'Learning and Teaching Children´s Literature in Europe'

This report confirmed some general supposes I thought before, such as the relationship between the financial condition of the families and books number and children’s favor on reading, or the impact of parents and teachers on children’s reading.

There are also many interesting detailed findings attracted me in the report. The first point is the different attitudes on reading between genders, for example, girls usually love reading more than boys. (P36), and the different factors of books attract girls and boys to read them (P38). I am curious about the reason(s) led girls to love reading more, and its impact after 1-2 generations in this modern world. And I also have thought more about the differences between girls’ and boys’ reading before, about the books they read. I know there were some books published specific for one certain gender, which was the fad in some countries in 1980s as I remembered. However, the evaluations about these books were not very high. But some similar books still continue to be published today. I interest in the actual influence of these books for children. It may relate to the topic of feminism.

Another aspect of the report results I considered mainly is the children’s reading in Turkey. According to the report, I found some similar conditions between Turkey and China. For instance, the parents buy the books for children with an unsparing hand, though they do not interest in buying books for themselves very much (many families own not so many books but the percentage of books owned by children is obviously higher, P30). And the shortage of children’s books lead children to read more adults’ books. (P46) And ‘Turkish children seem more motivated as readers than children from other countries and report enjoying and reading more, even though their teachers appear to place less emphasis on children’s literature’. (P110) Considering the similar economic development styles and process between two countries, the results of children’s reading in Turkey are especially reference to the study of Chinese children’s reading, in my opinion. Besides that, I also consider that one of the reasons for the positivity of Turkish children’s reading is the economic situation and social environment of this country, which may relate to the people’s attitude about national development (children’s viewpoints always come from the education of parents and teachers, and social propagandas), and also the less styles of other amusements.

It is glad to see the attention put on the translation literature and the books about other cultures. I always believe the books about different cultures will be beneficial for children to understand the world, and more understanding will help decrease of conflicts. However, many developing countries usually do better than some developed countries in this term. And I also think for understand other cultures or countries better, reading the translation editions of other countries’ literature generally is more effective and truer than reading the introducing books or the books including other cultural factors written by non-native authors. According to my understanding, some developed countries usually adopt the second manner more. And the figure 47 and 48 confirmed this point.

Overall, I am not surprised by the great effect of reading on children argued in the conclusion part, as which I had experienced in my childhood and always believe: ‘Literature can reflect the children’s own society as well the world around them. In spite of our differences, multicultural children's literature can help children understand that all people have feelings and longings.’ (P111)

[childrenliteracies]

The Killer’s Tears and CfE theory

Anne-Laure Bondoux’s ‘The Killer's Tears’ is a winner of the Prix Sorcieres. The story is about a boy and a killer. In the house sat at the end of the world, ’close to the southernmost tip of Chile’, one day, little Paolo's parents were killed by Angel Allegria, who was evading his pursuers. But the killer left the boy to live with him, just as a result of a decision made on the spur of the moment. The 5 years old boy accepted his fate silently. One year later, an intelligent traveller called Luis Secunda joined into them. The three formed a strange ‘family’. Then Paolo began his literacy under Luis’s teaching, and began to realize the world. However, Luis betrayed Angel at last and left from Paolo’s life…

I would like to use this book for children aged 11+ years old. According to Reading and Writing Continuums theory, this age group is ready to read complex children's literature. And I believe this glaucous book mixed by living and death, love, betrayal and forgiveness will be a wonderful choice for them to read and discuss as one of challenging reading material.

Beside that, as Harwayne (1992) argued, literature plays an important role in children’s writing program. And this book is a great text for 11-14 age group on learning literary devices and developing writing skill, because of its elegant and fascinating language, such as “Behind the window, night was coming like an ocean wave about to engulf the house and drown the world” and ‘only his hands resting on the moss kept him in touch with the planet. He had never studied geography, geology, or astronomy, but he could clearly see his role in the universe, as if a veil had been lifted, and the truth revealed’.

CfE explains that throughout education, effective learning and teaching in literacy and English will involve a skilful mix of appropriate approaches. Therefore, the children can be organized in small groups to discuss and learn the text in two main aspects:

> The first one is discussing the book’s dramatic plot, setting, theme and author's purpose. For example, thinking about reality that the text reflects, and the complex human nature with relate to the children’s own experiences and emotions. And it even can be led to a deeper discussion related to the social environment and national setting. Children can search more related information online with interest and report their response by group presentation, which also can develop their effective using skill of ICT, collaborative working and independent thinking and learning.

> The second one is about its literary elements and author's craft. Children may make a note of their favorite sentences, and also analyse how language is used in text for different and specific purposes. The analyzation can be focused on similes, metaphors and foreshadowing.

This learning process can help children to develop on all four aspects of Freebody and Luke’s model. Children will analyse the text, think and discuss critically, use the certain language to express their finding and learning.

[childrenliteracies]

How does the first language influence the second language

This is a survey I did with my friends during the EFL study. May it can be seen as another evidence of the form of ones' literacy.

Introduction:

The impact of the first language (mother tongue) on the second language perplexes most of international students when they study English. Due to the first language habits, these students might make many kinds of mistakes on English pronunciation, grammar, orthography or vocabulary usage, taken an instance, “Chinglish” (which refers to spoken or written English language that is influenced by the Chinese language).

According to existing researches, it is undeniable that there is a deep connection between a learner’s native language and his (or her) particular difficulties or specific mistakes in different aspects of learning and using English.

This survey was carried out to investigate these connections, in order to help EFL students understand the related problems and find solutions suitable for themselves.

Method

To gather the data, a questionnaire was constructed by researchers. It consisted of 10 questions concerning English study of EFL students. The questionnaire contains closed questions, opened questions, half & half and multiple-choice questions. Meanwhile, some special questions also require the participants to rank answers in order, therefore the data can be collected more exactly and detailed. 50 students were interviewed face to face in class for collecting data, including Arab, Chinese and Japanese.

Results:

After collecting the data, the trends and results were analyzed by different nationality groups. The results showed a number of significant points.

Which one is the biggest problem in English Study?

Arabic students: 2/3 Writing 1/3 Listening

Japanese students: Reading

Chinese students: the biggest problem: 50% Speaking and 50% Writing, the second one: 80% Listening, 20% others

In addition, (detailed difficulties)

Arab: to have the difficulties in structure of sentence and grammar.

Japanese: hard to catch the main meaning of long sentences in reading.

Chinese: Speaking and Listening: to react the vocabularies at once (to connect the vocabularies with their pronunciation) Writing: English writing logic and academic writing style

Which language is used mostly to think firstly?

Arab: 80% using the mother tongue in daily life, while 50% translating in brain before writing down.

Japanese: 100% using the mother tongue in daily life, while 50% translating in brain before writing down.

Chinese: 80% using the mother tongue in daily life, while 60% translating in brain before writing down.

What is the difference of logic between mother tongue and English (in academic writing)?

Arab: In sentences, Write the results / key point firstly, and then the reasons / time / situation. In organizing a paragraph or the whole article, showing the facts / detailed information firstly and then give the conclusion / summary (opinions)

Japanese & Chinese: In sentences, writing the reasons / time / situation firstly, and then the results / key point. In organizing a paragraph or the whole article, showing the facts / detailed information firstly and then give the conclusion / summary (opinions)

Asian logic:

1) Tom’s mother died when he was only two years old, so he did not remember her.

2) When I stayed in Guangzhou last month, you helped me. I am grateful for that.

English logic:

1) Tom did not remember his mother who died when he was only two years old.

2) I am very grateful for your help to me during my stay in Guangzhou last month.

Discussion:

For most EFL students, listening comprehension and speaking are more difficult than reading and writing in English learning. However, they are also very important for mastering a language.

The reason leading to this difficulty mainly is that the learners are unfamiliar with the vocabularies and even some idioms. When they are reading or writing a text, they usually have more time for thinking and pauses, and they also can look up the unknown vocabularies in dictionaries and use reference books, which is impossible when they are listening and speaking in English. Many students cannot comprehend the native speakers when they have a rapid speaking, as well as some sound links are difficult to distinguish.

Besides that, the reasons causing the mistakes in using English generally (including Speaking and Writing) involve several aspects. (1) The first and important one is differences of thinking logic between different languages, which is especially significant between Asian languages and English. (2) The other reasons also include different academic experiences, different teaching system in schools and so forth. Even though Chinese students have already learned English for many years, most of them still cannot get accustomed to use either English style for writing or for thinking, which reveals the deep impact of mother tongue.

Conclusion

The phenomenon revealed in this survey is an inevitable stage of learning a foreign language for most people. Due to that, it is not needed to overly concern. Through trial and error and hypothesis testing, most of learners can be closed to the native language users steadily.

Generally, the EFL students could use English thinking as more as possible while have more communication with the other nationalities, which not only could polish their English language but also could help them to understand the other cultures and adapt to live in the UK.

However, although the language environment now is impelling the EFL students to practise their English language skills more and more, some students still overly dependent on their first language, which has led to more problems. These students should get a more clear perspective of their English study and learn to drawn on other's experiences.

[childrenliteracies]

Exploration

I found the process of exploring Tumblr’s functions is similar as what we did for exploring the functions of toys and books as babies at last Saturday: try everything you can try. The processes may have not so many differences when we try to understand or explore anything from our childhood till adulthood. To put something onto the suitable place or look what it can take for us: when we hold a new toy, a new electric equipment, or a new language.

[childrenliteracies]

Reading Autobiography and Related Thinking about Literacy

This is the task of another course, my Reading Autobiography. For writing it, I went back my childhood and remembered many things detailed. After cleared up the memory, I found that literacy is really the thing influenced by families, cultures, the environment of times and even the politics.

I still kept my first book though I have not held the related memory. It is a cute book with a hard cover, for my first birthday. There are different kinds of animals on every page. I grew up with my grandparents before 6 year old. At that time, my grandfather was a famous poet and dramatist in China, and my grandmother was working in a library. That means there were a lot of books in both of their home and workplace, though a few for children in that period. My earliest memory of reading book was at about 3-4 year old, just as I said in the last post. Every day after kindergarten, my grandmother took me to the library, gave me some books or magazines which had pictures and left me alone. I played with the books. I ‘read’ the pictures and guessed the stories and meanings of the words around them. By degrees, I began to understand the meanings of more and more words, earlier than most of other children, though I still did not know their pronunciation.

I also remembered the feeling when I stood between the bookshelves in the library: curious and awestruck. I was just as tall as the bottom level of those bookshelves. The books were as the universe. I think maybe the children today difficult to imagine that feeling because most libraries have special bookshelves for them. But it was amazing. I believe that the environment really has significant influence on children’s hobbies.

Another ‘tool’ used by most Chinese parents (including my grandparents) for children’s literacy is Chinese traditional poems. Most of them have stories and rich cadence, easy to remember. That is also a key for Chinese people to continue Chinese traditional culture generation by generation.

In the early 1980s, Disney Cartoon was introduced into China and became very popular. So there were many little ‘Disney’ picture books published (without copyright at that time). I was crazy about them and still keep some of them now. They were also the way of my early literacy. The size of these little picture books was about 1/4 of A4. Each page had 1-2 pictures. The pictures structured the stories and words mainly appeared in the dialogs of roles. In the later 1980s there were little picture books of ‘Adventure of TinTin’ (Les Aventure De TinTin) and ‘Popeye’ appeared.

When I was 6 year old, one day I saw the daughter of my mother’s colleague reading a series of children’s books, which named ‘The World Fairy Tales’. They seemed so attractive and I badgered my mother to buy for me. At last I got my wish and these books became my favorite books. The series included most famous stories in the world such as some of Green Brother’s and Andersen’s stories, Wilhelm Hauff’s stories, Pippi Longstocking, James and the Giant Peach, The Voyages of Sindbad the Sailor, the Fox Reynard (Reineke Fuchs), Puss in Boots, Mr. Wind and Mrs. Rain, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, Wind in the Willows, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, The Water-Babies…It also included some tales from Italy, Arabia, Japan and Soviet (Russia) and other countries. I read these books time by time. It can be said they were the most important books in my primary school, mixing the contrast of different cultures. In fact, they were also a landmark on Chinese children’s books publishing industry.

My father was a physics lecturer. When I was 10, he said to me, ‘Now you can start to read science fantasy novels.’ and then he gave me 2 Si-fi books. They opened a new world to me. Since that, I keep my reading habit and favor of this kind of books till now. There is a famous SF magazine in China named ‘Science Fiction World’, which has introduced a huge number of famous SF and fantasy novels in the worldwide (most were from USA and UK) in past 23 years and effected many Chinese young people. I have kept most of them. Its peak circulation has reached 100,000 one month.

On the other hand, after 1989, most Children’s books and cartoons from Western even including Disney’s were disappeared in about 5 years (I couldn’t remember exactly). Due to that, the only western children’s novel during that time I can remember was ‘The Famous Five’. Meanwhile many Japanese cartoons and YA novels began to land onto China. These Japanese cartoon books, animations and novels have deep influence on 1980s and 1990s Chinese children (including me). Some children even learned Japanese by themselves through them. They are the window through which children could realize Japanese and other developed countries’ cultures. I think most of them are positive more than negative on widen children’s knowledge, outlooks and imagination.

From late 1980s Taiwan romantic novels came into China mainland, as well as Kong-fu novels written by Hong Kong authors. And they were liked by many Chinese teenagers. The study in the schools was heavy for most Chinese children born in 1980s and 1990s because of the competition press taken by population (it has been better nowadays). So the teachers in schools nearly did not commend any additional book to students. Many parents even believed all books beside textbooks (especially Taiwan romantic novels, kong-fu novels and Japanese cartoon) were negative for their children’s study and took a variety of ways to insulate the children from those books. Nevertheless, children always had their ways to get the books they wanted to read. In 1990s, there was a special phenomenon in China: the popularity of ‘lending book shops’. Children and teenagers could borrowed the books by a very low price (≈0.01 pound/per book one day, and it would be much cheaper if you borrowed more). Most books in these shops were ‘rubbish’ in parents’ and teachers’ thinking but loved by the young people: the three kinds of the books above, and also including some foreign YA and fantasy novels. I have to say I also enjoyed by these books at that time.

I began to read adults’ classic literature and other variety books from 12 year old. I still remember I spent 5 days to read ‘Gone with the Wind’ and used a half of diary to write down my feeling about ‘Sophie's World’. Most of my reading habits since secondary school have continued till now, though I mostly focused on fantasy novels in recent years. However, my new favor of western children’s colorful picture books and YA novels just since about 8 years ago, when they began to be introduced into China in force.

Reading is always a pleasure thing for me. As Martin Auer said, ‘A good book leads to the unknown, the unknown of one’s soul, for example.’ I keep reading for thinking, for exploring the world, for understanding the people and history, for relaxation, and now also for my work. As a matter of fact, the impact of those readings since my childhood has been reflected on many aspects such as my values, thinking way, living style and choice of job. It absolutely played a major role in making me who and what I am today.

[childrenliteracies]

The ways into literacy

During the discussion about Kate's diary, I was lost in thought of my childhood. And I realized that different people really have different ways into literacy. Most children start to realize the words by the sounds, but I started from reading...When I was a little girl, my parents were too busy to look after me. At that time, after kindergarten, my grandmother usually took me to the library she worked in and gave me some magazines to help pass the time. I looked the pictures and tried to understand (guess) what the words around them were saying. By degrees, I understood the meaning of more and more words; at the same time this way took another problem to me: my pronunciation. I mistook some characters' pronunciation and my parents had to correct me when they found I spoke a word by wrong way, again and again.

However, Chinese is different from English. Chinese is a kind of hieroglyph, which means children (as me) may be able to understand the meaning of a word more easily by one or two parts of the word. But in Chinese, the relationship between the structure and the pronunciation is weak. That is also the reason I mistook so many characters' pronunciation. The children using Latin languages (Romanic languages) may speak the words in right way more easily. On the other hand, the number of dyslexia (reading disabled) children in western countries is higher than in China. I consider one reason may be the differences between Chinese and Romanic languages.

The Chinese students always have difficulties on English study, especially on listening and speaking. Their reading results are always higher. I think beside the differences between the teaching style in western and eastern, another reason also may refer to their Chinese learning habits since their childhood.

Overall, different ways lead to different results. That may be an interesting topic.

[childrenliteracies]

Beginning...

I have heard about Tumbir but never used it before, because you-know-what wall on China's Internet. All the things I knew about it were someone always uses it to build a blog about their favourite authers or works.

It took me some time to find how to set the title and background. However, my website building experience helped me. And a BBS about tumbir is also very useful...The following function is very useful and I easily found some interesting blogs about books, (children's) literature and paintings. I notice that this function make the relationship between users is more closed than those on the old and traditional blogging platforms I used before. At that time, I needed to make the links by myself and only through chicking those links I can visit and view others' articles.

I like the picture put on heading. It belongs to a series pictures, which are imaginative and to fancy children's literature.