I'd like to ask for your help on this... have you come across any
story book series which are linguistically not difficult, but interesting
and challenging content-wise? (or any publishers engaged in developing
these series?)
The reason I'm looking for these is: when I was doing my field work in
schools in Hong Kong, teachers often came to me with requests for
suggestions. Their students can be at Form 2 or 3 (= Grade 8 or 9 in N.
Amerrica), but their English vocab. level can be grade 4 or 5 (native
English children group norms), and the story books they can find are
either too difficult, or if not linguistically difficult, look like what
these adolescent students (age 13 or so) would call "childish" or
"kindergarten stuff". It's not easy to find something that will
captivate their interest and yet which they feel linguistically
comfortable with.
Children in Hong Kong read a lot of comic strips, especially those
beautifully drawn and action- (somtimes sex-) packed ones, mostly imported
from Japan and translated into colloquial Chinese (Close to Cantonese
style)... These have aroused a lot of criticism from mainstream
educationists in Hong Kong, who see these comics as the main cause of our
children's "literacy problems".
What I'm working on now in the final chapter of my dissertation, and what
I'd like to explore about, is: how can we build on what these children
are interested in now, and from there lead them to alternative forms of
narratives and stories... I'm at the end of my wits in this job... I've
earlier asked for refs. on bridging literarcy programs and they have been
very helpful... now, I'd like to ask for some leads to those publishers
or storybook series which you think would resemble what I have in mind...
I guess in the end we would have to develop our own story books or comic
strips for our students, but I'd like to draw on experiences in other
countries, where children whose mother tongue is not English have to
learn English... how to arouse their interest in English and to give
them "ownership" of English, i.e., it can also be a language and culture
in which they can enjoy themselves...
Could you give me any help?
Thanks very much in advance!
Angel
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Angel M.Y. Lin
Doctoral Candidate
Modern Language Centre
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
252 Bloor St. W., Toronto, ON M5S 1V6, Canada
E-Mail: MYLIN who-is-at OISE.ON.CA
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