Chinese preschool children’s comprehension of a picture storybook

Linhui Li | Shanghai Normal University

Jing Zhou | East China Normal University

Baogen Liu | Hangzhou Kindergarten Teacher College, Zhejiang Normal University

Xiaomei Gao | Zizhu Kindergarten attached to East China Normal University

This chapter explores 3 to 6 year old Chinese children’s comprehension of a picture storybook The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The results show: (1) Chinese children’s understanding of images, actions and characters’ states improves with age; (2) Children develop their understanding of images first, followed by actions and then characters’ states; (3) It is easier for children to understand images prominent in pictures than those not prominent in pictures or containing culture-specific information with which children are not familiar, actions represented directly through the relationship of different images than those actions which require making a connection with preceding and following pictures, and characters’ states represented by visible information such as size and colour than those less visible or age-appropriate.

Published online: 16 May 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.60.06li

Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Li, Linhui, Cortazzi Martin, Liu Baogen & Gao Xiaomei

2020. Moving eyes on pictures following visual grammar benefits meaning making:  Evidence from the independent reading of Chinese preschool children. Journal of Chinese Writing Systems 4:1 ► pp. 57 ff.

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