Research on Chinese children's responses in picture books reading = 中國兒童閱讀圖畫書的反應研究

Abstract

Picture books have been considered as a new type of reading material for children in China in the recent few years along with the societal development and the renewal of the concept of reading. However, child reader’s responses to picture books were barely known and valued both in the fields of practice and research. Meanwhile, the previous reader-response theories just referred to general readers, not particularly for child readers. This research attempted to focus on child readers’voices and propose supplements to relative research fields. This research aimed to study Chinese children’s responses in Picture Books reading. Using qualitative research methods, 12 children from different grades in a boarding school in Beijing were chosen as the study subjects. They read a picture book named The Gorilla in pairs and made responses through group discussion, which were recorded and transcribed by the researcher. The data were analyzed based on hermeneutics, and the key findings of the study were as follows: (1) The phenomenon of viewpoint transformation was common in the child readers’ discussion, and this was based on reader-text, reader-self, and reader-reader interaction. (2) Child readers could interpret the text beyond the children’s viewpoint, and the text offered a mirror for reflecting their views; ambiguities in the text were realized due to differences in the child readers’ personalities. (3) Differences were apparent in the reading actions of the child readers, and readers became reading partners via reader-reader interaction, in which different interaction peculiarity could be identified, including both positive and negative interaction. The research provided important insights into the responses of Chinese children in reading picture books. The main contributions of this study include (1) putting forward the concept of viewpoint transformation in child readers’ responses; (2) dividing the study field of the reading process into in-reading and after-reading elements; (3) proposing and constructing a preliminary child reader response theory; (4) reflecting on and proposing supplements to the gap theory; (5) proposing a preliminary conceptualization of the reading community theory; and (6) putting forward and interpreting important concepts such as individualized meaning, non-judgmental response, original text, and interaction-circle text.

在中國，隨著社會的發展和閱讀觀念的更新，近年來圖畫書作為新型的 兒童閱讀材料進入了人們的視野。然而，在對圖畫書的運用和研究中，兒童 讀者的反應卻極少為人所真正瞭解和重視。已有的讀者反應理論針對的也是 一般讀者，並未切實關注到兒童讀者這一群體。本研究將視角聚焦于兒童讀 者，嘗試傾聽他們的聲音，並填補相關研究領域的空白。 本論文致力於研究中國兒童讀者閱讀圖畫書的反應，採用質性研究方法， 從中國北京的一所寄宿小學中選取一、三、五年級共12名兒童，兩人一組閱 讀圖畫書《大猩猩》，通過對小組討論錄音來收集數據，並運用闡釋學對錄 音轉錄稿進行分析，得出如下主要研究發現： 1、兒童讀者在討論中普遍存在觀點轉變，這一轉變建立在讀者與文本、 與自身以及與其他讀者的互動中；2、兒童讀者可以從超越兒童的視角來解讀 文本，文本則為其觀點轉變提供條件；而文本的多義性由於讀者自身特質的 差異得以產生；3、兒童讀者在閱讀中體現出個體差異性，並在讀者與讀者的 互動中逐漸生成閱讀同伴關係，形成互動特質，存在良性互動和不良互動兩 種基本形態。 本研究的主要貢獻如下： 1、提出兒童讀者的閱讀反應存在觀點轉變；2、將閱讀的完整過程劃分 為閱讀中和閱讀後兩大研究領域；3、反思並補充已有的空缺（GAP）理論；4、提出針對兒童特點的讀者反應理論並進行初步建構；5、提出閱讀共同體 理論並進行初步建構；6、提出並闡釋了意義個體化、非判斷性回應、初始文 本、互動圈文本等一系列重要概念。