Transitions and Tensions: Interrelationships between the Drawing, Talking, and Dictating of Young Children
Transitions and Tensions: Interrelationships between the Drawing, Talking, and Dictating of Young Children
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过渡和紧张:幼儿绘画、说话和听写之间的相互关系
DOI:
10.58680/rte198615598
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发表时间:
1986
影响因子:
2.2
通讯作者:
A. Dyson
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
A. Dyson
Within the context of a common school activity, this study examined the meanings young children express in talk, pictures, and written text, focusing on how children draw upon all three in one composing event. Data collection took place an average of twice per week over a five-month period in a public school kindergarten. Collected data included the children's drawn and dictated products, audiotaped recordings of the children's talk while drawing and of their dictations, and observational notes. The study's findings illustrate children's exploration of imagined worlds through drawing and talk, and, at the same time, the potential problems children face in transferring those worlds to text. Five-year-old Rachel is engrossed in the drama unfolding before her, as she draws and tells a story about a distraught mother on Christmas day: And she [the mom] couldn't find the door ... the way to find that Christmas tree. She was trying to get to the other side to get her little baby. . . And she was trying to get her 'cuz she might get hurt. She's just a little bitty girl. And they saw a No. I don't know how to write [draw] that. Given a sheet of paper and a box of crayons, many young children, like Rachel, begin to shape not only line and color but language too as they create imagined worlds, worlds of time and space, and of actors, objects, and actions. This drawing is now viewed as a major writing strategy for young children (Graves, 1983; Newkirk & Atwell, 1982), a kind of "language art" (Baghban, 1984). Yet, there is little understanding of the connections among drawing, its accompanying talk, and written text. How exactly do children create worlds through talk and drawing, and how easily can those worlds be contained in text? Support for this work was provided in part by a seed grant from the Spencer Foundation, distributed by the School of Education, University of California-Berkeley. The interpretations expressed herein are my own. I thank Sarah Freedman, Celia Genishi, and RTE editors and reviewers for their helpful comments. I also thank Victoria Purcell-Gates for her considerable help in the initial stages of this project. Research in the Teaching of English, Vol. 20, No. 4, December 1986