Zhihao Huang

◆摘? 要：This qualitative case study explores students’ interaction and reflection through teacher’s instructions in order to elicit students’ different perspectives in a critical literacy class in a private primary school in mainland China. There is a paucity of research which orientates to study critical literacy in primary school setting. The practitioner collected and analyzed the qualitative data from the same critical literacy course in two separated third-grade classrooms. The total number of 74 participants have been learning English for around three years and have never experienced critical literacy courses before. It found that students were able to present different perspectives and connect what they comprehended from the text to themselves， to the world through engaging in discussing questions in groups or in pairs with L1 support. Students have come up with a variety of? unique and alternative perspectives. In addition， the practitioner teacher also became aware that critical literacy should be presented in the standard English curriculums in primary classrooms with administrative support. However， when I was taking critical literacy courses with a picture book， I also encountered a difficulty in assessing students’ language learning from the critical literacy English class after a period.

◆關(guān)鍵詞：Critical literacy;L1 support;critical thinking

Introduction

“Teacher， um may I speak in Chinese？” … “I think why the boy said tomorrow could be a very different day is because people are destroying our world by throwing a great number of plastic litter into our ocean. The fishes are dying， and the oceans are turning dark.”

-Sharon

Sharon was one of the backward students in the class. She has failed English exams many times and seldom talked in the class. It could tell that she was eager to share her own opinion in the classes when she asked for answers in L1 in their first critical literacy lesson. After Sharon talked in the class， several students who like Sharon also started to talk in the class. After answering， their smile represents the satisfaction from the students’ deep heart.

This happened in my third-grade classroom during English class.? It was not a typical lesson.? A typical lesson would involve a compulsory textbook. Meanwhile， students would be fed with the target words and sentences from the textbook within the setting 40 minutes. Very limited time was there for the students to discuss in group workshops， and no instruction given to them of how to think deeper for the contents. This was an introductory critical literacy class to my third-grade students. It could not be more meaningful to see my students’ reflection on their first critical literacy lesson.

The idea of using critical literacy came from one of my graduate classes. I was shocked and amazed by the attraction of the critical literacy class. The professor used a book called The Giving Tree to show us a critical literacy demo class， during which she asked several questions I was never asked before， such as “Did we hear the voice of the tree？”， “What if you were the tree， what would you tell the boy？”. Here are my answers to those two questions. “Yes， the tree had its voice. And if I were the tree， I would tell the boy that I was beyond regretted for unconditionally giving to achieve what he wanted” I said. However， my classmates held different perspectives from mine. At that time， we were told that there were no right or wrong answers to the questions. Every individual's answer was acceptable and appreciable. Although we shared different perspectives， ultimately， all of us represented our pity on the giving tree and indignation to the selfish boy. From my instructional critical literacy class， as a student I was not only just reading a picture book and comprehending the story literally， but also I gave a lot of thought in different perspectives as different characters from the book. As a reader， I can gradually identify the author’s purpose of writing this book.

My task of that class was to pick up a picture book and do a micro-teach， but I decided to try it on my third-grade students to see their reflections. Therefore， I chose the picture book World in Danger that fitted my students’ English proficiency. At the beginning， I read aloud for the students with several pauses for problem posing. At that moment， students didn’t need to answer the questions but think. Then I showed several questions on a ppt slide， students were separated into groups and discussed the questions below， “What do you think the meaning by “tomorrow could be a very different day？”， “Imagine. If you were this man， what might you say？”. Ultimately， students picked one of the endangered animals from chelonians， red pandas， lions， and elephants， then they were required to imagine if they were the animal and write down a sentence starting with “I want you to…” to evoke humans’ awareness of the risk of our world. The students were so engaged in their first critical literacy lesson. In addition， they brought a lot of valuable and interesting perspectives to the class. Consequently， it was a meaningful attempt to both me and my students.

Literature review

What is critical literacy？

The definition of critical literacy is that students are not only taught literacy with the text but also making connections outside of the text with learning different linguistic contents. The educators including Vasquez & Janks & Comber （2019） have framed that it was a way of being through to participate in the world and outside of the school. It suggested that teachers can use any possible text for critical literacy to look at an issue or topic， as long as they could cater learners’ interests， from different perspectives， analyze it， and suggest possibilities for making change and improvement.

What’s more， the more specific definition of critical literacy was from Comber （2001）， who also pointed out that critical literacies involved learners using language to exercise power， to enhance everyday life in school and communities， and to question practices of privilege and injustice. It suggested that it’s important for critical literacy to incorporate ongoing analysis of textual practices with the help of correlated questions in the process. According to Vasquez & Janks & Comber （2019）， it demonstrated that the goal of critical literacy was to catalyze learners’ capability to see the world with a lens of critique. No matter what kind of everyday texts they encountered in their daily life， such as the messages people read from the public places， billboards， advertisements or magazines， people were able to read the words with a critical eye.

Consequently， critical literacy was defined in four dimensions by Lewison， Flint， & Van Sluys， （2002）： （1） disrupting the commonplace， （2） interrogating multiple viewpoints， （3） focusing on sociopolitical issues， and （4） taking action and promoting social justice. All of the four dimensions required learners to interpret the messages associating with their own stances and help them recognize their social identities.

Critical literacy in elementary teaching， ESL context

Critical literacy has been broadly used in English as Second Language （ESL） environments. It is well embraced by educators to implement the course relating to social issues. The research from Lewison， Flint， & Van Sluys， （2002） showed when the teachers who knew how to conduct critical literacy in the classroom helped encourage children to move beyond personal connections and challenged them to better understand the ways in which larger structures position people in the world. Compared with the newcomer teacher， the novice teacher made the critical literacy classroom more visible in questioning texts from multiple perspectives， moving beyond the traditional forms of comprehension and focusing on the social issues and how power was enacted in their lives. Comber， （1993） illustrated that the teachers created a space for learners to interrogate the worlds of books and children were supposed to be allowed multiple reading and negotiating critical feedback in her practices， in which students could make a personal response to stories and to construct their own texts. Students in ESL context were provided with the opportunities of discussion and integrating their concerned questions to write the critique to the authors. It allowed students to scaffold their critical perspectives into different kinds of texts and literacy.

Would the students be constrained by their English proficiency in critical literacy at an early age？ The research （Lau， 2012） has pointed out that it is not about when EL students are capable enough to engage with CL， but rather how teachers mobilize their existing linguistic， cultural， and cognitive resources to support them in gradually becoming a critical language user.? Lau’s main goal was to find out whether the students’ limitation in English proficiency will impede the progress in critical literacy in ESL setting. These researches suggested that critical literacy curriculum has been empirically conducted in ESL context. However， Comber （2011） has discussed that critical literacy was not yet as a part of the authorized curriculum and teachers were still in the ongoing process of the development of critical literacy.

Critical literacy in EFL context

From above research， critical literacy was considered as a curriculum in ESL context. Nevertheless， it was adopted as an approach and a tool to respond to a literacy work （Bobkina & Stefanova， 2016）. From their research， on the one hand， it suggested that critical literacy could help achieve students’ language acquisition. On the other hand， students connected writers’ purposes of the texts and related them to their general values and perspectives which determine social relations and shape their personal identities.

What’s more， EFL learners considered critical literacy as conscious reading that helped interpret the hidden message from the texts and welcomed their various perspectives， as well as enhance reading comprehension and motivated as writers （Huang， 2011）. A novel idea come up by Huang （2011） was one of the benefits in critical literacy from the dual focus. Her finding suggested that teachers should intentionally construct the critical literacy course both in learning the conventional and critical literacy. Therefore， the students were able to learn the language competences which would be applied for the language evaluation purpose in EFL context. The more exploration in critical literacy benefited students developing critical thinking competence （Ko， 2013）. According to Ko’ s research， teachers challenged the students by posing critical questions to cultivate their critical perspectives. And students did benefit from this.

Above two researchers practiced critical literacy for university students and got a positive result in Taiwan. However， there were few studies of critical literacy for primary students in mainland China. I believe one of the reasons was that teachers might be skeptical about students’ ability to use language critically （Lau， 2012）. Although the study of critical literacy has been initiated early， the enlightening study for primary school students was still in a small amount （Chen & Wang， 2016）. My study will explore the gap of conducting critical literacy for primary students in mainland China.

Methodology

Context and Participants

This study was conducted in an English picture book reading class at a private primary school in Wenzhou， Zhejiang Province in a same critical literacy course for two different classes. The two classes were both typical 40-minute classes. The 74 participants were from third grade in class 301 and class 307 separately， who had been studying English for around three years at the time of the study. Their English learning experience might involve some private tutoring experience， but it was not for all the participants. All of the students were speaking Chinese as their L1. Furthermore， they were studying in a private school which was oriented towards the exam-oriented education and highly care about the ranking according to the grades among other local schools.

The students’ English proficiency was at the novice-low level. Therefore， they were allowed to ask L1 for help. What’s more， none of the knowledge of critical literacy had been acquired before. They’ve learned several basic reading skills for comprehending the basic information from the texts. Therefore， it was a new challenge for me to scaffold them with the instruction of how to interpret and relate the text to themselves， to the other texts， and to the world.

Data sources

Data sources included classroom observation， audio-taped classroom discussion， several classroom opinions sharing and after-class individual face-to-face interviews with four students. All the data sources came from the picture book World in Danger， written by Frankie Morland. This case study was the introductory critical literacy class for my students. The total 25 minutes of class discussion data that came up meaningful and significant were transcribed for data analysis. During the whole class， my duty was observing the students of how they participated in the discussion and whether they were engaged in thinking about the critical questions and challenging themselves in interrogation. Then I took down some distinguishing appearances. The interviews with students were conducted after class. Considering the interviewees’ language proficiency was at the novice-low level， thus they were allowed to answer in Chinese. All the interviews lasted around 8 minutes and were transcribed on the spot.

Findings

Three main instructional steps in a picture book called World in Danger written by Frankie Morland， illustrated by Zoe Barnish， were read-aloud and think-aloud， group discussion， and presentation. First， read-aloud and think-aloud had the purpose of arousing students' attention and leading them to think as the teacher was thinking aloud. When I did think-aloud， I would make the gestures of thinking， stretching out my forefinger and tapping to my head gently. For primary school students， they might have difficulty in reading and comprehending the whole story， therefore， read-aloud mixing with some explanation could help students to comprehend the story：

Excerpt 1：? Read-aloud and think-aloud

1? ?T： I want you to enjoy your beauty before you are gone. Hmm， why does the boy say

it will be gone？ Imagine. Where will it? be gone？

2? ?T： Because tomorrow could be a very different day. Huh， why is tomorrow so

different？

3? ?T： Look. This book is …

4? ?Ss： Red.

5? ?T： And this one is …

6? ?Ss： Blue.

7? ?T： So they have different colours. That is what we say “different”. 不同的. So， how

different it will be？ Will it be better or worse？ If so， what will it be？ Think about it.

（A section of how the teacher did read-aloud and think-aloud in the class.）

The above is an example of how I did read-aloud and think-aloud in the class that attracted students to come into deep thinking about the open-ended questions. I not only had them read the story with me together， but I also led them to develop the habit to critically think about what the author wanted to tell. Besides， students could interpret the story better through teacher reading， pausing and asking， rather than staying at comprehending the basic contents of the text. In addition， this strategy also helped me catch students’ attention.

Critical literacy produced alternative perspectives within the group discussions and the surprises that might remind the teacher of the existing misunderstandings. The second excerpt appeared below is an example of how students disccused in groups provided with agency. They were discussing the question “Why is the man sitting on the moon with a tear in his eye？” with the action of crying. Before the group work， I slided? the PPT to the picture of the man， and scaffolded the surrounding environment for the students （turn 1）. Students would have a quick skim of the man’s section. During the discussion activity， I circulated in the classroom， listened to the students’ sharing and kept sure giving no objectively right or wrong comments. Facilitating the students with the English presentation and encouraging the lagged students to participate in the discussion were also part of my responsibility in this section. What’s more， to check how the students related the text to themselves， I posed one more critical question “What would you say if you were the man sitting on the moon？” By asking “what if” questions to place them in a subjective stance students could give more authentic perspectives. In addition， teacher allowed students to talk in L1， then retell their perspectives in English and highlight the grammatical errors

Excerpt 2： penetrating into the text and relating to the outside of the text

1? ?T： The man is sitting on the moon looking down at the world that we created. Look. A

tear is in his eye as the grey clouds cover his view. Guess， what does the man think of

the world that we created？

2? ?S1： Grey and ugly.

3? ?T： So sad， grey and ugly. Then why is the man sitting on the moon with a tear in his

eye？

4? ?S2： 因?yàn)樗爰伊? 然后他一個(gè)人很孤獨(dú)在月球上.

5? ?T： Wow [thumbs up]. so you think the man is crying about missing 想念 his family.

He was alone 孤單 on the? moon. （pointing at the man and making sure students

become aware that the man is the only human being on the moon.）

6? ?S3： He have to live on the moon. Because the world in danger. he cannot live in the

world. He is very very sad.

7? ?T： Oh good thought. He has [emphasizing “has”] to live on the moon. Because the

world is [highlighting “is”] in danger. He cannot live in our world. He is very sad.

Now， imagine. What would you say if you were the man sitting on the moon？

8? ?S4： 每個(gè)人如果能愛護(hù)地球家園，那么我也就不用住在月球上了.

9? ?T： That’s amazing. Nobody has to live on the moon， if everybody protects [保護(hù)] the world.

The third excerpt demonstrated below displayed how students extended the text to the world when they were in a stance for wild animals after the group discussion about the task. Students were required to select a sticky picture of wild animals from red panda， elephant， sea turtle， and lion mentioned in the book and complete the sentence “I am … I want to say …”. To further students’ critical thinking competence and provide them with agency in developing presentational proficiency. In this excerpt， one of the students asked for help because she could not write in English（turn 2）. Then considering the time limitation and to better depict her unique thinking， the students were allowed to present in L1 （turn 3）. The students became more engaged in the activities after being permitted to present in L1.

Excerpt 3： If you were the elephant， what would you say to the world？

1 T： Now， please pick an animal picture from red panda， elephant， sea turtle

and lion and stick it on your card. Now， if you were the chosen animal， what would you say to the world？ Please write it down on your card.

2? ?Ss： Teacher， I can’t write English sentences. [blushing on his face.]

3? ?T： How about writing your sentences in Chinese！

4? ?Ss： Yeah！

5? ?S1： I am an elephant. I want to say 人類啊，我的牙齒對我的生命很寶

貴，請不要為了奪取我的牙齒而傷害我們。

6? ?T： What a wonderful presentation. Do not hurt us for getting our teeth.

What a shame！ 多么可恥的行為?。nybody else？

7? ?S2： I am a sea turtle. I want to say 海洋是我的家，我的家正在遭到環(huán)

境破壞，這傷害到了我的家人們。希望人類保護(hù)我的家園，保護(hù)海

洋！

8? ?T： Wow， so impressive. You want us to protect （保護(hù)） the ocean， or you

will lose （失去） your home [thumbs up]. Wow， you guys shocked me！ All

of your perspectives are so amazing.

The interaction in the groups was incredibly enthusiastic. I could assess that the students have interpreted the authors’ purpose of writing the story by these valuable perspectives from the students. In terms of the student 2’ voice （see in turn 2）， I heard the desperate emotion and the sincere begging voice from a little kid who was appealing for mercy for our nature. Beyond my surprise， he even took action to show his determination to protect the world. After the class， he rushed toward the light switch and turned off the light in the classroom. Although they could not deliver their presentation in English， they did present a variety of alternative perspectives.

Discussion

This case study depicted that I just conducted an introductory critical literacy class as a newcomer in this pedagogy. It was also a significant challenge for me moving from a conventional reading classroom where I instructed in didactic forms to a critical literacy classroom in which I brought up several questions that required students to critically think about associating the text with their own knowledge base and experiences synthetically. Then， students need to sort through and critique the messages that they encounter in any given situation to avoid being manipulated， and to become savvy consumers （Chen， 2015; Mulhern & Gunding， 2011）. In such a finding and seeing students’ reactions in the class， I realized that there was a transformation of my teaching philosophy that made me think why we still leave the critical literacy course outside of the classroom. This innovation could be well performed in primary school in mainland China as Lau’ study demonstrated that it is not about when English learner students are capable enough to engage with critical literacy， but how the teachers mobilize their existing linguistic， cultural， and cognitive resources to support them in gradually becoming a critical language user （Lau， 2012）.

Given the third-grade students’ english proficiency， students could better think in critical awareness with L1 support in critical literacy courses. Huh （2016） mentioned that the new words and sentence-level analysis through translation and vocabulary discussion helped students’ meaning-making at the word and sentence levels. In this case， to elicit students’ alternative perspectives， it is inevitable to permit the students to use L1 in class. Students could raise their critical awareness once they interpret the text's meaning. It’s not about leaving the language learning behind as the teacher， but for encouraging students to emerge critical consciousness without being lagged off by their language proficiency. Thus， teachers are supposed to translate work for students if they have trouble comprehending. However， as time goes by， I am not sure how to assess students’ language learning from critical literacy courses. It is worth studying for future research.

Critical literacy is an irresistible trend in China， as critical thinking competence has been highly valued for the students. Students are required to present their opinions about current global issues such as environmental protection， population， global peace and development. Thus， it’s one of the main educational missions in China （The Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China， 2018）. However， it still has not been part of the authority curriculums? and even neglected by the majority of teachers， especially in primary schools. Therefore， in order to advocate the critical literacy course， administrative support is crucial in the process. Local Educational Administration should also join in the advocate program.

Finally， the teachers play an important role in the classroom. As the director in the class， teachers should provide the effective instructions for the students， select appropriate texts， create a low affective filter in the classroom， encourage learners to think in different perspectives and to come up with interrogations. It asks teachers to raise their own critical thinking competence and be a role model for students in critical literacy. It was an introductory critical literacy class for me and my students. I hope that with the continuing critical literacy courses conducted in the class in the future， my students will read the literacy with critical consciousness to strengthen their thinking more independently.

Reference

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