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.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 october 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.