A MULTIMODAL EXAMINATION OF CHINESE ECOLOGOY-THEMED PICTURE BOOKS: A READING OF THERE ARE 24 SOLAR TERMS, THE SUMMER, AND THE DRAGONFLY’S DIARY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51200/manu.v37i2.6908Keywords:
EDA, China, Ecology Discourse Analysis, Children’s picture books, MultimodalAbstract
Abstract To examine the interplay between language and nature, Arran Stibbe describes the discourse as “beneficial, ambivalent or destructive” to the ecology. As a distinctive multimodal genre in children’s literature, picture books are an ideal carrier of knowledge for children’s education on the environment. With an increasing emphasis on the protection of the surrounding ecology, the role of Chinese picture books on children's education is becoming more prominent. This study uses a multimodal analysis of three representative texts from the perspective of Ecological Discourse Analysis (EDA), which is an important branch of ecolinguistics that focuses specifically on ecological properties in discourses. By combining both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, the study reveals the following: (i) the ecological orientation in picture books is constructed through text and image, either separately or jointly; and the image modality is more beneficial than text modality to transit ecological knowledge and foster an awareness; (ii) the combination of traditional ecological and cultural knowledge, such as demonstrated in the selected texts, Chinese picture books are able to forward specific characteristics in ecology protection.
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