Towards Establishing Standards for Children's Stories
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1506.17Keywords:
children's literature, children's stories, standards for children's storiesAbstract
This study aimed to determine key criteria for developing narrative compositions for children aged 6 to 9 years. This study examined narratives created from 2000 to 2014 to assess their linguistic and cultural value, as well as identify any limitations or complexities that may not be suitable for the target audience. The study also assessed the degree to which authors of children's literature followed these criteria. The study employed a descriptive-analytical approach and a researcher-developed tool to gather and analyze data, leading to multiple findings. Deficiencies and limitations were found in narratives for young children, but there were also positive aspects in terms of vocabulary, terminology, sentence structure, idiomatic expressions, and overall suitability for young audiences. The study found that the current narrative output does not sufficiently consider the developmental needs of children. The researchers recommended establishing standards to improve children's narrative production in line with their developmental stages. The recommendations were stated in the research's conclusion.
References
Abd al-Majid, A. A. (1961). The Arabic Language: Its Psychological Origins and Teaching Methods (3rd ed., Part 1). Dar al-Ma'arif. pp. 121-130.
Abdel-Fattah, I. (2000). Children's Literature in the Contemporary World (A Critical and Analytical View) (1st ed.). Arab House Bookshop. P. 62
Adnan, H. (2015). General Manager of Al-Fursan Publishing and Distribution House, interview.
Al-Rajabi, M. A. F. (2014). How to write a story for children? (2nd ed.) Al-Fursan Foundation.
Chen, Y. M. (2006). Using children’s literature for reading and writing stories. Asian EFL Journal, 8(4), 210-232.
Dredge, D., Jenkins, J., & Whitford, M. (2016). Stories of practice. In D. Dredge, J. Jenkins, & M. Whitford (Eds.), Stories of Practice: Tourism Policy and Planning (pp. 37-55). Routledge.
Joyson, R., & Michael, C. C. (2021). Isolation to Solitude: Ruskin Bond's Lone Fox dancing. Literary Endeavour, 12(1), 46-50.
Kucirkova, N. (2019). How could children’s storybooks promote empathy? A conceptual framework based on developmental psychology and literary theory. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 121.
Lloyd, P. A., & Salah, A. A. (2022). Analyzing storytelling in design talk using LIWC: (Linguistic inquiry and word count). In Proceedings of the 13th Design Thinking Research Symposium: Expanding the frontiers of design: A blessing or a curse? (pp. 72-86).
Mafela, M. J. (1997). Flashback and the development of action in TN Makuya's short story: Vho-Dambala. South African Journal of African Languages, 17(4), 126-129.
Mahfouz, S. A. (1983). Public Library Service for Children (2nd ed.). Publications Agency, Kuwait.
Paris, S. G., & Hamilton, E. E. (2014). The development of children’s reading comprehension. In Handbook of research on reading comprehension (pp. 56-77). Routledge.
Savsar, L. (2018). Mother Tells Me to Forget: Nostalgic Representations, Remembering, and Retelling the Child Migrant's Identity and Agency in Children's Literature. Children's Literature Association Quarterly, 43(4), 395-411.
Shavit, Z. (2009). Poetics of children's literature. University of Georgia Press. p. 100.
Shehata, H. (1994). The Literature of the Arab Child: Studies and Research (2nd ed.). The Egyptian Lebanese House.
Woodard, K., & Pollak, S. D. (2020). Is there evidence for sensitive periods in emotional development? Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 36, 1-6.
Zalat, A. (1997). Childhood Literature: Its Origins and Concepts (Heritage Visions) (4th ed.). The Arab Company for Publishing and Distribution.
