Professor Hiroko Sasaki, Ph.D. (International Pacific University, Okayama, Japan & Professor Emeritus, Naruto University of Education, Tokushima, Japan)
Paper Presentation 8: Saturday, 21 March 2009 11:45-12:30
Outline of the video presentation
Using video data I would like to present one case study of a baby boy (Sotaro) and how he responded to such picture books from 5 months old to two years of age.
Things we must foster before language development
1 Without fully understanding language babies are still able to comprehend language.
Babies are urged to do vocal exercises and express their emotions as their parents interact using storytelling and read aloud picture books.
Babies begin to learn Japanese phonetic patterns through the rhythms and melodies of storytelling and read aloud picture books. .
| Video 1:
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5months / Story Telling “Momo Taro” (A well-known Japanese folk tale.)
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| Video 2:
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10months / Story Telling “Momo Taro”
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| Video 3:
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5months / Picture book “Moko MokoMoko”1
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| Video 4:
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10months / Picture book “Moko Moko Moko”
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☆Sotaro couldn’t understand the meaning of such stories, but through repeated exposure to rich oral language experiences he became communicatively more skilled as his communication abilities with his story teller and reader change in quantity and quality.
| Video 5:
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Two years and 7months / Picture book “Moko Moko Moko”
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☆Sotaro became able to read “Moko Moko Moko” for himself.
| Video 6:
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10 months / Picture book “Tan Tan’s March”2
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☆Sotaro showed a very different way of looking at this picture book compared to “Moko Moko Moko.” I think he wanted to recognize the contents of the story in this cognitive type of book. This is one of the traditional and typical first story books.
2 Without being able to read words babies can still understand how to read.
If babies have the custom to be read aloud, they begin to understand how to read through the use of baby jargon.
| Video 7:
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One year and three months / Picture book / Baby jargon
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| Video 8:
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One year and 5months / Magazine / Baby Jargon
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☆Sotaro began to read picture books using jargon. He changed vocal tones and intonations of jargons according to picture books and magazines.
3 Discovery of the meaning and acquisition of sounds through articulation.
Although babies can’t imitate the sounds of words immediately after hearing reading books, they eagerly ask adults to repeat names and words. When babies can pretend to eat some kinds of foods depicted in the picture books, it shows the birth of symbolic function.
| Video 9:
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One year and 5months / Naming (concept) picture book
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☆Sotaro began to show interestest in reading traditional baby picture books.
E.g. Easy story picture books, first picture books, concept picture books etc.
4 Babies comprehension of surrealistic nonsense picture books．
Surrealistic nonsense picture books have appeared which incorporate surrealist images in combination with onomatopoeic words mimicing human sounds, human emotion, human behaviors and animal cries. Created by Shinta Cho, Sadamasa Motonaga et al. they stress the importance of physiological rhythm if parents want to read aloud to babies more effectively. This rich source of humor-filled phonemes, rhythms, and melodies of Japanese onomatopoeia allows communication between the adult and baby through the use of gestures, body language and variety in tone.
We have so many onomatopoeias in the Japanese languages. In 2007 the first dictionary of Japanese onomatopoeias was released containing about 4,500 onomatopoeias.
| Video 10:
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One year and three months/Surrealistic nonsense picture book / “Where we see the horizon”
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| Video 11:
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One year and 7 months/ Surrealistic nonsense picture book / “Many Funny Lions”
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| Video 12:
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Two years and 7 months/ Surrealistic nonsense picture book / “Where we see the horizon”
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☆Sotaro enjoyed fine - tune the balance between talking and listening trough reading Shinta Cho’s nonsense picture books with adult readers. He refused to read story picture books at one time. He was taken with enjoying to rhythmic and interactive communications by such picture books. He have loved such nonsense books now.
I think there are some important developmental phenomena in the video of Sotaro. Videos 1~4, 7, 8, 10, and 11 all show us there are so many developmental phenomena which appear temporally to sustain the subsequent developmental stages, and disappeared shortly afterwards. Many parents never recognize such developmental phenomena, but I think such kinds of potential phenomena are the roots of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Such hidden phenomena are not only strongly related to language literacy, but also the development of human relations. Parents will have opportunities to fully enjoy the time with their babies, if they know such temporary phenomena appear during reading picture books.
Literature
Motonaga, S. & Nakatsuji, E. (2006). “Chinrorokoshishi.” Fukuinkan-Shoten Publishing.
After reading this picture book, Tnanikawa, S. says “The paintings and the words in this book, all reverberate against other along with shapes, hues, songs and sounds in nature.”
Picture books used in this video
1. Motonaga, S. & Tanikawa, S. (1977). “Moko Moko Moko.” Bunken Publishing.
This is one of the numerous communicative picture books.
Motonaga, S. has produced depicting abstract paintings in combination with onomatopoeias. These kinds of picture books encourage communicating between babies and adults.
2. Kanzawa, T. & Genichiro Y. (1995). “Tan Tan’s March.” Fukuinkan-Shoten Publishing.
This is one of the cognitive picture books.
3. Cho,S. (1998). “Where we see the horizon.” Biriken Publishing.
This is one of the surrealistic nonsense picture books.
4.Cho, S. (2002). “Many Funny Lions.” Shougakkan Publishing.
This is one of the surrealistic nonsense picture books.
Tanikawa, S. says “Nonsense exists before sense emerges. Chaos was there before order took place.”
This work was supported by KAKENHI (20500660)
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