Culture -mediated literature: Adult Chinese EFL student response to folktales

The purpose of this study was to determine how adult Chinese English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) students in free-talk classes in private language schools in Beijing and Shanghai responded to illustrated Chinese folktales written in English that were read/told to them. A broader purpose was to develop a grounded theory regarding second-language acquisition features inherent in the use of folk literature.;A 1997 pilot study in Beijing using illustrated Chinese folktales with adult English-language learners informed the design of the current research. Furthermore, literature reviews of folklore, second-language acquisition, and literature response studies established that (1) folktales from their own culture would be familiar to EFL students, likely allowing them to use oral English in interactive response; (2) negotiated interaction possibly facilitated language development; and (3) response to literature could take several forms, with students assuming either efferent or aesthetic stances.;The current study was conducted over a period of two months with 102 adult Chinese students in English language schools in Beijing and Shanghai. Twenty-one folktales were used in free-talk classes, utilizing a wide range of response strategies. Data were collected in the form of field notes, observer comments, videotapes, audiotapes, questionnaires, student writing, emails, art work, and oral description of art work.;Analysis of data patterns showed strong interest in stories and illustrations, evinced by steady attendance, shining eyes, deixis (this, that, pointing, binding gaze), spoken and written words, and craftmaking. Oral efferent response was highest in story retellings. Aesthetic response took two major forms: explaining students' drawings and entering into the story as characters. Three types of aesthetic response surfaced: acceptance of historical, cultural, and personal associations with the text; parallel tracking of associations and text; and rejection of associations as sensory overload. Aesthetic questions could evoke efferent response and vice versa.;Interactive negotiation with sustained student discourse was most evident from pictures based on text and illustrations. Small-group situations showed even larger volume of sustained discourse and deixis, once rapport with the researcher had been established. Thus, illustrated folktales proved to be invaluable in facilitating interactions of the type that can lead to language development.