The purpose of this study was to analyze the text level of creative tales for young children in 「Teacher’s guidebook for 3-5 Nuri system」 in accordance with children’s age, theme and genre of creative tale.
The subject of this study were 216 creative tale texts in the 「Teacher’s guidebook for 3-5 Nuri system」. To examine the text level of creative tales, qualitative factors of text were analyzed. The ‘qualitative measures rubric for literature text complexity’(The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts: CCSS, 2010) was used for analyzing the text level of creative tales.
The results were as follows: first, regarding the text level of creative tales in the teacher’s guidebook for 3-5 Nuri System, the text levels of the majority of creative tales for three-, four-, and five-year-old children were not appropriate for their age. Second, regarding the text level of creative tales according to the theme, in seven out of 11 themes, a high proportion of text were not appropriate for the target age. Third, regarding the text level of creative tales according to the genre, seven out of nine genres showed a higher proportion of creative tales that are not appropriate for the target age.
This study used the text complexity model proposed by the CCSS(2010) for understanding the text level of creative tales according to the qualitative factors and the text levels appropriate for children of different ages. Especially, in terms of components of text, the study reviewed previous research on linguistic ability and text during infancy to identify characteristics that are appropriate for different ages. Also, based on the theoretical review, the study analyzed the text level of creative tales in the teacher’s guidebook for 3-5 Nuri System and provided comprehensive and multifaceted understanding of creative tale text appropriate for children.
