An Analysis of Meaning Construction between Texts and Pictures in Children`s Picture Diareies
Soo Hyun Seo , Hyoun Jin Ok
Abstract
Digital technology has advanced rapidly and it is anticipated that multimodal ways of meaning-making will become increasingly important. Consequently, teaching multimodal literacies is becoming a major issue in education. This study focuses on the use of picture diaries as a means of teaching multimodal literacies. Picture diaries are one of the basic and unique multimodal texts used in lower elementary level classes in Korea. A further advantage is that it is a promising text model which can be taught in unplugged ways. In order to explore the educational implications of using such picture diaries, this study sought to analyze the ways in which twenty four 1st graders in an elementary school constructed meaning with written language and pictures in composing picture diaries. 251 picture diaries composed during several months of their 1st grade period were analyzed based on the constant comparative method. The results indicated that the students utilized both written language and pictures in diverse and creative ways to provide their audience with more comprehensive meaning. These results indicate that teachers need to consider their students as active multimodal meaning-makers and provide their students with more opportunities to practice multimodal meaning-making and share their experiences.
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