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Part of
Scientific Approaches to Literature in Learning Environments
Edited by Michael Burke, Olivia Fialho and Sonia Zyngier
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature 24] 2016
► pp. 125–150

Chapter 7. Literary themes across cultures

| Tsinghua University
| Tsinghua University
| China University of Geosciences
This chapter explores the effect of the thematic analogies (from a classic Chinese novel Journey to the West) that Chinese EFL students draw when reading a modern English novel, namely, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Participants were second-year English majors divided into two groups: experimental and control. In the latter, the teacher taught Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland only through the work itself, but in the former Journey to the West was used to facilitate the students’ understanding. Qualitative data composed of questionnaires, journals and interviews were utilized and the findings show that Journey to the West had a positive impact on the students’ understanding of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Keywords: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Journey to the West, pedagogical practice, thematic analogies
Published online: 22 July 2016
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.24.07liu
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