ABSTRACT
As the title suggests, in this chapter, we provide an overview of studies in the area of visual/multimodal texts that take into account the response of the child reader.1 Our aim is to look at how this fi eld has developed over the last few decades and learn from the fi ndings that have been presented. “Multimodality,” according to Kress and Van Leeuwen (2001), is “the use of several semiotic modes in the design of a semiotic product or event, together with the particular way in which these modes are combined” (p. 20). Most of the texts to which we refer in this chapter combine a limited variety of “modes” which make a signifi cant contribution to meaning, such as print and visual elements (illustration, layout, typography, etc.), and we have chosen to concentrate on picture books as one of the primary literatures of early childhood. With the proliferation of “multimedia” texts, there is also, of course, a growing critical literature on children’s responses to a wide range of interactive texts. While we mention a few examples, most are beyond the scope of this review. However, a) recent clarifi cation of multimodal is a useful reminder here:
Th e increasing number of texts which include words and images mean that there are diffi culties about how to describe them. Many of these texts are produced using digital technologies, emphasizing the medium of communication, for example:
Evelyn Arizpe UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
Morag Styles UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Th e computer Paper-based texts-picture books, magazines, novels, information books Sound and visual media-radio, television, videos, and DVDs
Whatever the medium, texts are made up of diff erent combinations of modes:
Writing or print, including typographical elements of font type, size and shape Images-moving and still, diagrammatic, or representational Sound: spoken words and music Gesture and movement
(Bearne, E., Ellis, S., Graham, L., Hulme, P., Meiner, J., and Wolstencroft, H. [2005, p. 6].)
We have also limited our review to those studies which report on the verbal, written, or visual responses of children to multimodal texts, whether at home or in a formal educational setting. Many critical studies look at literary, artistic, emotional, and other aspects of multimodal texts, and in particular picture books. Although they may be well informed about how children “read” texts, if they do not actually engage with children, we have not included them. At the other end of the spectrum, there are also many studies on how to use picture books and other multimodal texts in the classroom, but most of them are not based on systematic research. We have mentioned a few of the latter only when we considered that they provided new insights into how children respond to visual texts. We end this review by gathering together some of the main fi ndings of scholars,
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1 Parts of this chapter are based on the literature review that appeared in the fi rst two chapters of our book, Children Reading Pictures: Interpreting Visual Texts (Arizpe & Styles, 2003).
