PROMOTING LANGUAGE LEARNERS’ CROSS-CULTURAL AWARENESS THROUGH COMPARATIVE ANALYSES OF ASIAN FOLKTALES

With the global spread, the English language has become a lingua franca and a component of basic education in many Asian countries, making Asia one of the regions in the world with the largest number of English speakers. However, due to the rich cultural diversities of Asian societies, using English as a lingua franca in Asia implies that speakers need to develop not only communicative competence but intercultural communicative competence, so as to ensure successful communication among people from different Asian societies. Given that successful intercultural communication requires the speakers’ appreciation of their cultural diversities, while celebrating certain similarities, promoting learners’ cross-cultural awareness has become one of the important objectives of English language teaching in Asia. In this paper, I will draw on some sample analyses of Asian folktales which have been translated into English to (i) identify and explore the features of narrative structures and contents which can be seen as transcultural and others which can be highlighted as culture-specific, and (ii) discuss how such comparative analyses of narrative structures and contents in Asian folktales can be used to promote the cross-cultural awareness of English language learners in Asia. Implications for the socio-cultural-based English language teaching are offered.Â

Narrativity in an Institutionalized Storytelling Performance: A Contextualized Model

In this article, I explore the specification of narrativity in an institutionalized storytelling performance (ISP)—storytelling in an institution such as a museum, library, or school, during which a professional or trained storyteller tells oral tales with themes that reflect the institutional purposes of the storytelling event. Drawing on concepts from narratology and discourse analysis, I propose a contextualized model of ISP and expand the textual economy of an oral tale to include its situational and functional aspects. The model elucidates how dynamics between the storyteller and audience, and the compatibility between the form, function, and situation of an ISP contribute to its narrativity

Crossing Borders: A Multimodal Perspective on Storytelling

In this study, we perform a multimodal spoken discourse analysis to qualitatively examine the discursive strategies used by three professional oral storytellers during their storytelling sessions for children . Specifically, we examine how these storytellers move progressively and seamlessly from one structural component of a narrative to the next to arouse, sustain, and heighten audience interest . Our analysis reveals a variety of verbal, vocal, and visual features strategically used by the storytellers . We then discuss the extent to which these strategies and resources can be applied or adapted by writing instructors to help students develop a multimodal perspective on storytelling . The study offers implications for educators to leverage the richness of oral storytelling to help students develop a multimodal understanding of the composing process

Language in education : Social implications/ Editor: Rita Elaine Silver

ix, 201 hal.: ill.; 23 c

Language in education : Social implications/ Editor: Rita Elaine Silver

ix, 201 hal.: ill.; 23 c