JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE, IDENTITY & EDUCATION

2016, VOL. 15, NO. 6, 389–403

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2016.1239537

Letting the Story Out: Drawing on Children’s Life Stories and

Identities to Help Them Read Beyond and Enhance Their
Comprehension
Young Ju Lee
Korea University

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
This study aims to explore the nature of the identities constructed by EFL Identity; identity
learners through picture-book read-alouds and the possible relationship construction; identification;
between these identities and their literacy learning. Eight Korean students literacy; read-aloud;
were encouraged to connect with stories through picture-book workshops. ethnography
Before and after the picture-book read-alouds, tests were administered to
examine whether there had been any change in the participants’ compre-
hension. The main findings were the following: (a) McCarthey’s frames of
“appropriation,” “transformation,” and “resistance,” which characterize the
identities of students as literacy learners, were able to explain the nature of
the identities the students in this study constructed through the read-alouds
and (b) the nature of these identities seemed to influence the students'
comprehension. The results of this study suggest that teachers need to create
literacy curricula that students can connect with in meaningful ways and that
students should be encouraged to continually reconstruct their identities.

When engaged in a fictional story, young readers often identify with the narrative and the characters
within. By bringing their personal experiences to their own interpretation of the story, they learn more
about themselves, a process critical to the development of young readers’ identities (Kunnen & Bosman,
2008). McCarthey and Moje (2002) explain that the identities people construct and the relationships
they form from reading and writing affect the way they learn a language. Identity has also been
recognized as a critical construct for second language (L2) learning (Hansen & Liu, 1997; Kramsch,
2000; McNamara, 1997; Morgan & Clarke, 2011; Norton, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001; Norton & Toohey,
2002; Pavlenko & Lantolf, 2000).
Students in South Korea officially start their English education at public school in the third grade,
but approximately 78% of the student population begins learning English between the ages of four to
six through various avenues, including language institutes, English libraries, and private tutors
(ECNARK, 2014). Given Gee’s (2003) assertion that language learners negotiate their identities
while constructing new meaning from target-language (TL) contexts, it is likely that Korean EFL
learners reconstruct their identities in the process of learning to read in English. It is therefore
important to learn more about identity formation and its relationship with TL learning in childhood
TL literacy-learning contexts. However, despite the potential impact of English literacy learning on
learners’ identity formation, English education in South Korea focuses only on the practices that
promote English competency (MOE, 2010).
The purpose of this study is to explore the nature of the identities that young Korean EFL readers
form in their interaction with English picture-books and the possible relationship between their
identities and English literacy learning. Previous research into these elements of literacy and reader

CONTACT Young Ju Lee, Ph.D. yjchrislee@korea.ac.kr Center for English Language Education, Korea University, Seoul,
Korea.
© 2016 Taylor & Francis
390 LEE

identity in EFL contexts has been rare, despite the fact that such an investigation may provide insight
into EFL learners’ English literacy learning. In this study, I address the following questions: (a) What
is the nature of the identities constructed by young Korean EFL learners as English literacy learners
during English picture-book read-alouds? and (b) How do these constructed identities affect the
English literacy learning of young Korean EFL learners with respect to their reading comprehension
and recall?

Relevant literature
Young learners’ identity and literacy learning
Literacy and language are viewed as practices that make up, and are made up by, “the ways
language learners view themselves, their social contexts, histories, and possibilities for the future”
(Norton & Toohey, 2003, p. 1). Thus, personal history, experiences of success or difficulty as
literacy learners, and the criteria used to judge literacy competency may all contribute to the ways
in which children explain themselves as literacy learners (Compton-Lilly, 2006). The story of our
lives, rich in interpretation and relationships, provides a sense of self in different ways and
contexts through narratives we construct (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 2001). By reading
and listening to the stories of others and by trying to understand different experiences and
perspectives, children can gain broader knowledge of social relations in which various ideas are
embedded to form part of the children's own identity. As projections of their social and cultural
resources and their ways of being, the identities children form can be considered situated,
constantly evolving, intersecting, and convergent with literacy learning (Compton-Lilly, 2006;
Rogers & Elias, 2012).
Of the several empirical studies that have revealed the complexity of subjectivities as a child’s
literacy develops (Compton-Lilly, 2006; Kendrick, 2005; Kendrick & McKay, 2002; Martínez-Roldán,
2000, 2003), the majority has focused on evidence related to L1 (first language) literacy learning
(Compton-Lilly, 2006; Kendrick, 2005; Kendrick & McKay, 2002); these studies emphasize the
interconnection between identities and various forms of literacy practice. For example, Kendrick
and McKay (2002) showed that a young boy’s drawings, which exhibited multilayered narratives
about reading and writing, and his approach to classroom writing tasks revealed how he defined
himself and his relationships with his parents, teachers, and peers in relation to school literacy.
Kendrick (2005) examined young girls’ play narratives as literary and social texts, disclosing the
interconnection between literacy and identity in children’s positioning of themselves in the world. In
Compton-Lilly’s (2006) observations of a reluctant African American first-grader, childhood envir-
onment and cultural resources were found to closely influence the identities and social relationships
he built, and these were influential tools for improving his writing skills.
These studies all focused on evidence from L1 contexts; Martínez-Roldán (2003), on the other
hand, studied a seven-year-old bilingual girl, claiming that the way she used narratives of personal
experiences in bilingual literature discussions demonstrated that the interactional role of narratives
as literacy practices supported her identity construction as a bilingual literacy learner. However,
studies that focus on foreign-language-literacy-learner identities, especially young learner identities,
are surprisingly rare. In particular, the examination of the nature of the identities young children
build within foreign-language-literacy contexts and the identities' potential impact on specific
literacy skills such as reading comprehension have been underrepresented in the literature. Given
that there are a large number of young EFL learners around the world who may constantly negotiate
their identities under the influence of various factors related to their foreign-language learning,
explaining the relationship between identity and literacy in EFL contexts merits more attention. This
is particularly true for reading comprehension, which may be regarded as having a complex
complementary relationship with young learner identity, which is a critical achievement goal for
any language learner (Luke, Woods, & Dooley, 2011).
 JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE, IDENTITY & EDUCATION 391

Young learners’ literacy learning in relation to comprehension and recall

Comprehension has long been viewed as an essential goal of literacy instruction (Luke et al., 2011).
Paris (2005) claims that comprehension is central for continued reading development, describing it
as one of the skills least restricted by the acquisition of other skills, with development continuing
over the course of a lifetime (p. 39).
In many institutional settings, comprehension signifies skills, strategies, and strategic processes;
thus, the methods and approaches to teach comprehension as an agentive meaning-making cognitive
process have multiplied (Luke et al., 2011). In an early study, Barlett (1932) used readers’ retelling, or
recall, of texts to examine reading comprehension and found that the recall of a text differed between
individuals. He attributed this to the readers’ use of schemata, a cognitive framework that allows
readers to construct various meanings from the same text. Comprehension has long been viewed as a
cognitive process, with recall seen as an effective way to examine reader comprehension of both
narrative and expository texts (Irwin & Mitchell, 1983; Moss, 1993).
Recent theories, however, have posited that comprehension does not necessarily encompass the
confimation of literal and inferred meaning, but subsumes critical analyses of the predictable origins
and the consequences of pragmatic and interactional conventions (Luke et al., 2011). From this
perspective, readers reconstruct, retain, and recall meaning by bringing to their reading their life
experiences and other social and cultural resources, resulting in diverse interpretations. As such,
comprehension is seen as a social, cultural, and intellectual practice (Luke et al., 2011). Therefore, it can
be assumed that the identity of young readers, which is understood to have a complex complementary
relationship with literacy development and to which various social and cultural aspects are believed to
contribute, may influence their literacy development in relation to comprehension and recall.

Research methodology
Participants and setting
The setting of this study was a seminar room in a public English library located in southwest Seoul, South
Korea. The study was carried out during a series of English picture-book workshops run by the library. I
used convenience sampling, selecting 10 second and third graders (aged eight to nine) from 25 students
registered for various English-book-club programs based on the library director’s recommendation,
though two potential participants subsequently dropped out of the program before it began. The criteria
for the selection of the participants were as follows: (a) The students represented a variety of personal and
social backgrounds; (b) they ranged from low to high academic achievers as reported by their parents;
and (c) their parents held strong views about the importance of literacy. I divided the eight participants
into two groups according to their grade level. Group A comprised four second-grade boys and Group B,
one third-grade boy and three girls (see Table 1 for further information about the participants).
All participants had been attending local private English institutes for two to three years at the
time of the study and had been exposed to ELT course book–based integrated programs that taught
vocabulary and grammar, as well as listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. While the

Table 1. Information about the participants.

Student Grade Background Academic achievement English learning (yrs)
Chanyoung 2nd Lived in Singapore (1 yr) High achiever 2.10
Jeongmin 2nd Living with grandparents Low-to-intermediate achiever 1.8
Hyunsoo 2nd High achiever 2.8
Jinsoo 2nd Intermediate achiever 2.2
Jihyun 3rd Living with mother and a sister High achiever 3.0
Sooyeon 3rd High achiever 3.6
Duckhoon 3rd Lived in Japan (3 yrs) Low achiever 3.2
Mijin 3rd Intermediate-to-high achiever 3.3
Note. All names are pseudonyms.
392 LEE

participants’ English classes focused on improving overall English proficiency, the students had
rarely been given the opportunity to share personal accounts or experiences related to in-class texts.
I was the main teacher-researcher, handling the interviews, read-alouds, discussions, and pre- and
posttests. A secondary researcher, who taught regular English classes in the library, read the stories
to the groups and encouraged comments from the students during the first week of each picture-
book workshop. I had previously developed several literature-based English programs run by the
same library. The present study was my first time meeting all of the participants, but as a teacher-
researcher, I came to develop a strong understanding of the students and their contexts by
participating in class discussions, spending informal time with them, and building a strong rapport.
While all eight students freely approached me without issue, Mijin, who liked to write stories, often
brought her personal journals to share with me. Chanyoung also talked freely with me about his
interpretations of the characters from other stories he had read.

Procedures
I met with all participants and their parents individually before the first workshop began to collect
demographic information and their literacy-learning history (See Appendix B for interview items for
students and Appendix C for interview items for parents). The participants spoke English in the
interview, probably regarding it as part of the English class. Nevertheless, they often used Korean
words to clarify their answers.
The workshops involved three parts: (a) story reading and a precomprehension test, (b) story read-aloud
and group discussion, and (c) journal writing and a postcomprehension test. After each text was read, I
administered the precomprehension test to individual students by taking them out of the group while the
other participants were sharing their ideas on the text with the secondary researcher. The purpose of the
pretest was to examine each participant’s level of comprehension after the first reading of the story.
Starting in the second week, the students participated in picture-book–read-alouds and discus-
sions with the group members. The read-alouds and discussions provided opportunities for the
children to build their own connections to the stories and hear the connections made by others. The
students then wrote individual journal entries about the day’s reading and related reflection. The last
step was the follow-up test, which contained the same comprehension questions as the pretest. The
purpose of the posttest was to examine changes in the students’ comprehension and recall.
I met with each group weekly for six weeks, with each workshop lasting for 45 minutes. I used two
picture books involving relationship issues between family members: Gorilla (Brown, 1983) and The
Tunnel (Brown, 1989). I ascertained that the participants had never read them, either in Korean or in
English.

Methods and data analysis

This research primarily took the form of a qualitative, ethnographic case study, but a comparison of test
scores was included to support the qualitative findings. A qualitative, ethnographic case study, as previously
explained by Merriam (1998), is used to examine individual students within literacy contexts and to offer
in-depth explanations of their literacy practices. This was a study grounded in fieldwork, combining several
sources of data and diverse methods of data collection, including ethnographic observation, interviews,
journals, and written responses to questions. I recorded and transcribed the interviews and workshops,
analyzing the data from these and from the test questionnaires and journal entries. Field notes were also
taken, focusing on the observable behaviors of the participants. In addition, I performed an analysis of the
pre- and postcomprehension tests (see Appendix A for the test items).
The language for the read-alouds and discussions was English, with students’ interlanguage peppered
with errors and Korean expressions used to clarify meaning. I transcribed and included the participants’
original English utterances and translated into English the Korean words and sentences. In the transcrip-
tion excerpts, these translations are shown in square brackets. The words giyeok [memory] and munjang
 JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE, IDENTITY & EDUCATION 393

[sentences] were simple and had one corresponding English word. The sentences produced in Korean (e.g.
eommaga “no” ragohamyeon [if Mom says “no”]) were also clear and unambiguous in the context of the
study. The study’s secondary researcher, a Korean instructor of English, reviewed my translations.
I analyzed the data inductively by coding words, phrases, and sentences and searching for key words
and recurring themes in the transcripts (Kurasaki, 2000). The first level of analysis was an interpretive
one, emerging from the group discussion (Barton & Hamilton, 1998; Heath, 1983). The initial codes
were (a) attitude toward texts, (b) forms of reaction, and (c) behavior in group activities. I then
developed subcategorical codes: (1–1) mere acceptance, (1–2) active involvement, (1–3) affective
resistance, (2–1) swift understanding, (2–2) creative interpretation, (2–3) unconditional disapproval,
(3–1) following, (3–2) creation, and (3–3) withdrawal (see Table 2 for examples of each category).
Upon further analysis, however, I concluded that these categories elucidating the nature of the identities
that the Korean EFL students constructed during the picture-book read-alouds could be aligned with
McCarthey’s (2002) three frames: “appropriation,” “transformation,” and “resistance”
(p. 30). Therefore, I employed McCarthey’s three categories as an analytical tool to analyze the nature of
the identities the participants constructed and to explain their interactions with the texts, instead of the
codes described in Table 2.
In her study, McCarthey (2002) described appropriation as appropriating the content of the study
and classroom norms by conforming to the rules and fulfilling the assignments. Transformation
referred to a learner transforming the class expectations to create an alternative space for their
learning, seeing an assignment as a creative process done for an audience, and being able to
transform classroom norms to maintain their identity as literacy user. Resistance was described as
resisting class expectations by avoiding or challenging norms.
Based on McCarthey’s descriptions, I categorized the reactions of the students who were adept at
understanding the message of the stories and conforming to the rules of the study hours under the
appropriation frame. My previous categories mere acceptance, swift understanding, and following were
placed within this frame. Students who tended to remain quiet; did not contribute to group work; criticized
the author, characters, and the message of the stories; and did not complete any of the assigned tasks were
categorized within resistance. Affective resistance, unconditional disapproval, and withdrawal thus belonged
to this frame. Other learners went beyond understanding the messages of the stories and adjusted to the
study rules. They creatively interpreted the situations and characters and attempted to diversify characters’
voices from different perspectives. They also modified the implicit norms of the study hours to fit their own
interests. Their profiles thus fit the transformation frame, within which I placed the previous categories of
active involvement, creative interpretation, and creation.

Results
Of the eight students involved in the workshops, I selected three—Jihyun, Sooyeon, and Duckhoon
—who exhibited distinctive characteristics of identity matching those from McCarthey’s (2002) study

Table 2. Coding categories and examples.

Codes Example
a. Attitude toward texts
1–1 Mere acceptance Well, I got to read this story because teacher told me to.
1–2 Active involvement This is fun. I felt like I am the Rose.
1–3 Affective resistance I hate this story. It’s nonsense.
b. Forms of reaction
2–1 Swift understanding I know the gorilla is her father.
2–2 Creative interpretation It’s OK to be not at all alike with your brother.
2–3 Unconditional disapproval I hate her, hate her, hate her.
c. Behavior in group activities
3–1 Following Remains attentive to group activities
3–2 Creation Plays a leading role in group activities and tries the activities in other contexts
3–3 Withdrawal Withdrawn during group activities
394 LEE

and described the nature of the identities and interactional patterns they displayed when encounter-
ing the stories, along with their connection with the theme (relationships among family members)
and characters, and the influence of these on their English literacy learning with respect to
comprehension.
Of the three students—Jihyun, Hyunsoo, and Jinsoo—who were placed within the appropriation
frame due to their tendency to merely accept the message of the text without much elaboration or
interpretation, Jihyun was quite docile in conforming to the implicit study rules during the group
discussions while incorporating the elaboration of others into her own interpretations. Duckhoon
and Jeongmin remained withdrawn throughout many of the discussions, though they occasionally
criticized the author and the events in the story Duckhoon, however, more closely fit the profile of
resistance. Of the three placed in the transformation group (Sooyeon, Chanyoung, and Mijin),
Sooyeon was chosen because of her tendency to expand on her interpretations of characters and
events and to transform the study norms to satisfy her personal interests.

Nature of identities
Through a close analysis of collected data, I concluded that the characteristics of McCarthey’s (2002)
three frames, appropriation, transformation, and resistance, were an appropriate base from which to
explain the nature of the identities the young Korean EFL students constructed through the picture-
book read-alouds.

Jihyun: Appropriating the message of the text and study norms

Background and English literacy practices. Jihyun, a quiet and well-mannered nine-year-old–third-
grader, lived with her mother and younger sister. She had been learning English since the age of
seven. While Jihyun’s English proficiency was relatively high compared to that of the other
participants, she was not particularly conversant and she often used Korean words to clarify mean-
ing. Jihyun viewed English reading as a means to correctly understand texts. She seemed to place
pressure on herself to perform well at academic tasks and saw being a good reader and writer as
going hand-in-hand with being a good student at school. Organized neatly, Jihyun’s journal reflected
her orientation to do well, but it did not necessarily show deep insight nor challenge any of the
themes related to the texts.

Connection to themes, characters, and episodes. Jihyun started discussing Gorilla by pointing to the
picture of Hannah’s breakfast table. She mentioned that in her own life, she and her sister had
breakfast on their own because their mother left the house early in the morning. Jihyun said she
could understand how lonely Hannah felt eating alone. She also felt that Hannah must have been
very happy at the end because she got what she wanted. Jihyun said she was certain she would never
get what she wanted for her birthday.
Jihyun: I’m not like Hannah. My mom is busy, but she don’t work at home. She’s check me
everytime. I know she did cares me. My mom wouldn’t buy me a gorilla. She will buy
me a dress, books, not a gorilla.
Researcher: Then, what do you want for your birthday?
Jihyun: A dog!
Researcher: Wow! Have you ever asked it to your mother?
Jihyun: She said, “No!”
Researcher: Why do you think she said, “No!”?
Jihyun: Ueryeunili. [It’s too much trouble!]
Researcher: Do you agree with her?
Jihyun: Well, eommaga “no” ragohamyeon, [if Mom says “no”] I can’t have a dog. I asked my
father. But he can’t help.
 JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE, IDENTITY & EDUCATION 395

Researcher: Do you think you can ever have a chance to have a dog like Hannah had seen gorillas
at the zoo?
Jihyun: I know gorilla is her father. I know it’s her dream. (Jihyun, communication from
workshop, January 11, 2013)
In her journal, Jihyun wrote in English, “I want to draw my baby sister next to Hannah on TV
picture. Me and my sister watch TV together.” In the book’s illustration, Hannah watches TV alone
in the corner of a dark room. Jihyun seemed to indicate her identification with Hannah by adding
her sister to the scene.
Jihyun commented that connecting the story to her personal experiences and reflecting on her
own issues helped her remember and understand the story better. She added that they reminded her
of the experience she had shared with her father: “When the gorilla asked Hannah go to the zoo, I
thought me and my father.” She elaborated: “We went to the zoo. It was a very cold winter day. All
animals looked cold. We had hot cocoa in our way home,” and “giyeok [memory] helped me
remember the gurim [pictures], words, and munjang [sentences] of the scene.”

Appropriation of the message of the text and study norms. Jihyun’s attitude toward the text and its
characters was rather accepting, and she was adept at understanding the messages in the narrative and
conforming to implicit study norms. She elaborated very little on her interpretations, but she successfully
interpreted the meaning of the pictures, atmosphere, and text. She commented, “Hannah is lonely. I am
sorry for her. But Mijin said Hannah’s joy with the gorilla was enriched “Hannahwa abbayie wyeiroum
ttamunae” [because of Hannah’s loneliness with her father]. I felt the same.” In this way, she appro-
priated the implied messages and the comments of others to construct her own interpretation.

Sooyeon: Transforming study norms through a fictional voice

Background and English literacy practices. Sooyeon, a nine-year-old–third-grader, lived with her
parents, grandmother, and older brother. She had been attending a private English institute since she
was 6 years old and had become very fluent in English. She enjoyed writing personal narratives both
in Korean and English. Writing seemed to serve dual purposes for Sooyeon: as a tool to embellish
her thoughts and as a fun activity.

Connection to themes, characters, and episodes. Sooyeon quickly connected to Rose in The Tunnel,
saying that Rose and Jack were very much like her and her brother. She said that her brother was too
selfish and ignorant and that she had to avoid him to remain at peace. This is reflected in the
following journal entry:
Look! They’re black and white bottle on the table. Just like black and white colors, they’re so opposite. That’s
way they cannot get alone. Me and my brother also like them. We’re like oil and water and black and white. He
is useless. Or he’s annoying. But I don’t fights often because my mother will be so mad at us. I just not talk with
him. (Sooyeon, journal)

The subject also came up again during a personal conversation.

Researcher: Do you hate everyone who is different from you?
Sooyeon: Nope, I sometimes like the one who is different. neomu biseouhamyeon [If someone’s a
lot like you] they’re boring.
Researcher: Then, why don’t you accept your brother’s difference?
Sooyeon: I don’t know. I thought I hate him because he is different. Now I don’t know.
Researcher: You said Rose is quite like you. Then, will you save your brother like Rose did in the
story?
Sooyeon: Probably. He is my brother. I don’t like him guraedo salreyajoe [but I have to save
him]. That’s a family. Maybe some other day, we can understand and be friends like
Rose and Jack. (Sooyeon, communication from workshop, February 1, 2013)
396 LEE

Transforming study norms through a fictional voice. Sooyeon interpreted the messages in her own
way: “I learned it’s okay to be not at all alike with your brother” and, “Anyway, they’d tied up finally. Rose
got over fear and Jack thanked her.” While this active reader shared her personal experiences and
thoughts with others, she appropriated the messages of the stories as well as the implicit norms of the
study period. In addition, she seemed to apply them to other contexts to satisfy her interests by rewriting
personal narratives from someone else’s perspective; that is, she pretended to be Rose and created a diary
entry to complain about her own brother’s naughty behavior and stupidity. It appeared that Sooyeon had
compromised her own interests as a writer to fulfill the tasks from the workshop, but she did so in a way
that brought her enjoyment and motivation. The transformative nature of identity she formed through
the interaction seemed to play a role in her reconstruction of the stories and subsequent writing.
From Rose’s Diary:
I feel Jack is my baby brother not older. He is always trys to get me but I can read his naughty mind. I’m sorry
for this!!!! Sometimes he is so stupid because he always trying to brag his strength. It’s obvious! He should be
strength! He is older than me. Three years! Hs is a boy. He should be strong. Anyway, that’s why I think he is
like baby. (Sooyeon, journal)

Sooyeon answered every question directed at her with fairly quick and emphatic responses. She
pointed out the parts that were easier to remember and interpret because of the group discussions;
for example, “I hadn’t noticed the picture on Rose’s room, but other students pointed out that Jackie
geupjureogo [Jack was trying to scare her], and there was a picture of Little Red Riding Hood on the
wall, so I could think that geurimie amsihanumgeojyoie [the picture may have implied] what was
going to happen to her, like the dark and scary forest, and being lost.” This may be interpreted as
demonstrating the appropriating and transformative nature of the identity she had come to form
through the workshops, one which empowered her and provided understanding, enriching her
interpretation.

Duckhoon: Resisting the text and study norms

Background and English literacy practices. Duckhoon, a nine-year-old, third-grade boy, lived with
his parents and younger sister. He had started studying English at a private English institute at the
age of seven, but was not attending any institutes at the time of this study. Although he spoke with
natural English pronunciation, he did not seem to want to talk in English. I gave him frequent
reminders to speak in English during the workshops, as he often switched from English to Korean.
Duckhoon remained quiet, rarely contributing to any of the group discussions. However, during his
personal communications with me, he talked a great deal about characters from various works of fiction.
He demonstrated conflicting feelings about sharing his stories and journals with peers but said that he
valued his written diary. Duckhoon did not successfully complete any of the literacy tasks during
workshop hours but demonstrated high literacy skills; he used language in a variety of forms (e.g.,
writing personal diaries, composing lyrics for songs) and succeeded in writing his diary partly in English.
His identity as a literacy learner appeared unstable in terms of institutional modes of practice such as
comprehension tests or formalized essay writing. Nevertheless, his identity as a reader and writer were
partially functioning in personal practices such as diary writing and lyric composition.

Connection to themes, characters, and episodes. In response to The Tunnel, he commented that the
pictures were old-fashioned and the story of the girl saving a boy’s life was stupid. In other words, he
displayed his resistance to the story rather than making any connections to it. For example:
Researcher: Why do you think this story is stupid?
Duckhoon: The girl is stupid.
Researcher: Why do you think she is stupid?
Duckhoon: She’s afraid of everything. Coward! She like my sister. I hate her. I hate her. I hate
her. I wish she wasn’t my sister.
 JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE, IDENTITY & EDUCATION 397

Researcher: But the sister in the story saved her brother’s life.
Duckhoon: No!!! It’s stupid. yejaneon namja guhalsu eopueoyo [Girls cannot save boys].
(Duckhoon, communication from workshop, February 1, 2013)
Duckhoon said he did not believe an imaginative world. He seemed rather informed and mature
when he commented on issues like the values of classic literature, stating that they delivered
unchangeable truth and beauty. However, when I asked him whether he thought The Tunnel
could be a children’s classic someday, he criticized it as being old-fashioned and boring and said
that the book did not have anything to offer. He did not seem to connect with Gorilla, either. He said
it was a childish story and that he could not imagine a gorilla as a father.

Resisting the message of the text and study norms. Duckhoon did not respond to any of my
suggestions regarding sharing his thoughts and experiences with the group. Instead, he talked
about characters and situations from other texts. This may imply the disaccords between the texts
themselves, implied community norms, and Duckhoon’s identity-driven or behavioral issues, which
may have played a role in his resistance to the story.

Possible relationships between identities and literacy with respect to comprehension

The present study investigates the complex nature of the identities readers come to form within
literacy contexts and, as such, is in line with other studies that have demonstrated the close
interconnectedness between identities and literacy (e.g., Compton-Lilly, 2006; Kendrick, 2005;
Kendrick & McKay, 2002; Martínez-Roldán, 2003, 2000). Moreover, the findings of this study
indicate a possible relationship between identity and literacy in relation to comprehension.
The pre- and postcomprehension and recall tests for both stories found an approximate 18%
increase in comprehension and recall scores on average, regardless of the age group (Table 3).
However, despite all participants demonstrating an increase in their scores on the posttest for both
stories, there was a difference in the degree of change depending on the story and the reader.

Nature of identities and level of comprehension

Jihyun, who adeptly appropriated the message of the text to satisfy the norms of the study hours,
seemed to closely connect with Hannah and her experiences with her father and the gorilla from
Gorilla and was able to correctly respond to 14 of the 35 main ideas of the text on the pretest
(Table 3). She recalled 25 of the 35 items on the posttest, a 31% increase. Moreover, she remembered
the sequence of Hannah’s adventures in more detail on the posttest. With The Tunnel, for which she
expressed only a surface-level interpretation, without any particular involvement in the characters or
events, her posttest performance increased by only 13% from the pretest.

Table 3. Descriptive statistics for the pre- and posttest.

The Tunnel Gorilla
Group A Pretest Posttest Rate of increase Pretest Posttest Rate of increase
Chanyeong 11 15 13% 12 22 28%
Jeongmin 9 13 13% 8 13 14%
Hyunsoo 10 17 22% 11 15 11%
Jinsoo 8 17 29% 10 14 11%
The Tunnel Gorilla
Group B Pretest Posttest Rate of increase Pretest Posttest Rate of increase
Jihyun 8 12 13% 14 25 31%
Sooyeon 16 23 23% 15 20 14%
Duckhoon 6 10 13% 5 8 9%
Mijin 13 20 23% 10 17 20%
398 LEE

Sooyeon, who was able to transform the message of the books and the study norms in a way that
allowed them to be applied to other contexts, recalled 16 of 31 ideas on the pretest of The Tunnel
after appearing to form a deep connection with the girl in the book; this number increased to 23 on
the posttest (Table 3). However, she recalled only five more main ideas on the posttest for Gorilla; in
reaction to this book, she simply mentioned, without any creative interpretation, that she would
rather be an only child than have a naughty brother. In summary, Sooyeon demonstrated an increase
in rate of recall of 23% on The Tunnel, but on Gorilla, the rate of increase was only 14% (Table 3).
In addition to the two girls, Jihyun and Sooyeon, four other participants—Chanyeong, Hyunsoo,
Jinsoo, and Mijin—displayed their sense of self through an empathic identification with one or both of
the stories by sharing their experiences or feelings related to the themes or events. These participants
seemed to construct identities that aligned favorably with the stories; that is, the particular nature of the
identities such as appropriation or transformation that they demonstrated while interacting with the
texts and the norms of the study hours seemed to play a role in forming favorable attitudes toward the
texts. Consequently, this encouraged a higher level of engagement in the details of the text, as shown in
the results of the comprehension and recall tests (Table 3). For instance, Chanyeong, who was quick to
understand text meanings and transform them in order to express his adoration of animals, recalled
many more ideas on the posttest for Gorilla, through which he was able to share his personal experiences
and thoughts about zoo animals, than he did for the same test for The Tunnel. Jinsoo, who was quite
skillful at grasping the meaning of the text without necessarily elaborating on it, recalled more details
from The Tunnel than from Gorilla while sharing his experiences playing mischievous tricks on his sister.
Unlike those who displayed favorable acceptance or creative elaboration after forming a connection
with one or both of the stories, Duckhoon did not seem to identify with any of the characters or events
from either story; instead, he seemed to unconditionally resist both stories, making very little progress
in comprehension or recall for either. On the pretest for The Tunnel, he recalled only 6 of the 31 main
ideas, and he correctly answered just 10 on the posttest. He gave five correct answers on the pretest for
Gorilla and only eight on the posttest. Jeongmin (Group A) did not seem to connect with either story.
The resistance toward stories these two students appeared to develop in the workshop sessions
prevented them from favorably aligning with the texts. Their resistance may have inhibited their
concentration on story details, thus leading to only a slight improvement in comprehension.

Discussion and conclusion

This case study aimed to explore the nature of the identities constructed by young EFL learners
during English picture-book read-alouds and the possible relationship between these identities and
their literacy learning. Although the identities and interactional forms displayed toward the texts
differed between individual students, I found that McCarthey’s (2002) three frames of appropriation,
transformation, and resistance, used to characterize students’ identities as readers and writers, were
applicable to the identities constructed by the Korean EFL learners described in the present study.
Jihyun appropriated the message conveyed in the books to fulfill the study objectives or to conform to the
rules of the workshops. She demonstrated significant progress in the comprehension of the story, to which
she seemed emotionally connected. Sooyeon went beyond understanding the message and stance of the
texts and completing the tasks during class time. Moreover, she was able to transform and apply them to
other settings. Sooyeon projected her experiences as a sister on Rose from The Tunnel, creating unique
interpretations while engaging in the story. However, she was not deeply involved in the story of Gorilla, and
her comprehension increased more for the story that dealt with the relationship between a brother and
sister.
On the other hand, Duckhoon, who actively or passively resisted the texts, did not seem to
identify with either story, showing only a very slight increase in his comprehension. The resistance
he developed toward the texts may have prevented his full concentration on story details, leading to
only a minor improvement in his literacy achievement. Although his parents and teachers suspected
that this resistance arose from developmental issues or dispositional qualities, his disapproval may in
 JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE, IDENTITY & EDUCATION 399

fact have originated from the disaccord between the features of the stories and his identity position
or world ideology (Sipe & McGuire, 2006), given that he readily displayed various literacy skills such
as diary writing and lyric composition outside the classroom.
Empathy is considered one of the most influential cognitive and affective variables in the second-
language acquisition field (Broidy, 2005; Grewal & Salovey, 2005; Guiora, Brannon, & Cecelia, 1972;
Washburn, 2008). Literary fiction has the potential to promote empathic identification, advancing the
literary understanding of readers as well as lowering their anxiety about foreign language (De Sousa, 2005;
Ghosn, 2001; Miall, 2005; Rouhani, 2008), while the identifications established by readers of children’s
literature are one of key elements in strengthening engagement (Barker, 2010; Klein, 1986). There have been
a number of different approaches to the quantitative measurement of empathy, with varying degrees of
success; gauging the degree of empathy and labeling its kinds carries a number of difficulties (Guiora et al.,
1972). Rather than implementing a specific test tool to quantitatively measure the empathic identification of
each reader with the stories, the present study made a qualitative judgment based on field notes, discussion
transcriptions, journals, and the results of comprehension and recall tests. Based on these, a possible
relationship between the constructed nature of the students’ identities and their empathic identification
with the texts appeared, and this relationship may have affected the students’ comprehension and recall.
The participants who demonstrated a sense of self through an empathic connection with the texts
seemed to construct identities favorably associated with the stories. When these participants con-
formed with or transformed the messages and social norms found within the stories, they seemed to
concentrate more on the content, which may have led to better comprehension and recall. However,
the participants who either resisted the texts as a whole, or certain components of them, did not
seem to identify with either story. The resistance they developed may have played a role in holding
back their literacy achievement in terms of comprehension.
While the participants exhibited disparities in their characteristics that matched the appropriation,
transformation, and resistance frames, and those differences may have affected their progress in compre-
hension, they also shared some commonalities. First, all participants, whether they appropriated, resisted, or
transformed the messages within the text, valued reading various literary works highly, especially picture-
books, and tried to write narratives or essays whether they were for school or for personal purposes. They
also highlighted English literacy as an important component of their academic success by making an effort
to enhance their English proficiency through extra English classes. Their views on English literacy and their
related identities as English literacy learners will probably encourage them to continue studying English.
It is hard to clearly determine whether the students’ improvement in comprehension and recall
was the result of the read-alouds, the effects of the pre- and posttests, or identity-driven empathic
involvement. Nevertheless, the test data and observations suggest that empathic identification with
the stories may have positively influenced progress in comprehension; that is, identifying with the
characters and events seemed to help them negotiate their identities in a way that could align
favorably with the messages and implicit social norms present in the stories, and the nature of this
identity may have encouraged greater engagement in the story details. As a result, the learners’
comprehension and recall may have been enhanced.
McCarthey’s (2002) study, which was based on a wide range of data collected from three school sites,
described the constructed nature of reader and writer identity and the influence of school and home
contexts on students’ views of literacy. She categorized the constructed nature of identities as literacy
learners into the three frames (appropriation, transformation, and resistance), though each of these frames
allowed for variation depending on cultural and social contexts. Although the present study focused on only
eight Korean English literacy learners, McCarthey’s three frames were able to explain the nature of these
learners’ identities, which were constructed through the interaction with English picture-books.
McCarthey’s study identified a diverse range of contextual influences on students’ views of reading and
writing, suggesting they are motivated to read and write in contexts wherein they are involved in culturally
relevant curricula and practices that are sensitive to and allow room for their complex subjectivities. The
current study, however, indicated a potential complementary relationship between the nature of the
identities that the students constructed and their literacy in terms of comprehension, while also recognizing
400 LEE

that McCarthey’s three frames were applicable to the identities constructed by young Korean EFL learners.
In other words, young Korean EFL students within English-learning contexts exhibited three types of
identity characteristics—appropriation, transformation, and resistance—and these features may influence
their comprehension either by encouraging them to accept and/or transform the messages within the text or
by inhibiting their connection with the text, thereby limiting their achievement in terms of comprehension.
Literacy can be a powerful tool to which readers and writers can connect their lives. As Cummins (1996)
claims, teachers need to create literacy experiences that connect with their students’ lives in meaningful
ways. The process of creating a curriculum that connects with students requires an understanding of the
diverse backgrounds of the learners and subsequently providing relevant texts and contexts. Learners should
be encouraged to renegotiate or reconstruct their own identities on a continual basis (Nieto, 2002). The
demonstrated range of identities that students adopt suggests that teachers need to develop a range of
literacy sources with which the students can connect (Holdaway, 1986). As shown in the present study,
Jihyun and Sooyeon benefited greatly from such an interaction. Another significant implication is that
greater effort should be made to find effective ways to involve resistant readers like Duckhoon in literacy
activities.
As is the case with all research, this study has several limitations. By focusing on three partici-
pants, I have necessarily excluded a detailed description of the other readers. The test results of the
students who were not discussed in detail were included to merely illustrate the broad changes in
comprehension depending on the stories the students identified with. In addition, this study did not
implement a specific quantitative measurement for the assessment of the empathic identification of
each reader toward the two stories but instead depended on qualitative data. Therefore, further
research should be conducted on a more diverse set of participants in order to more accurately
explain the nature of the identities readers construct in the interaction with various texts and to
quantitatively verify the relationships between those identities and literacy learning.

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Appendix A

Comprehension items from The Tunnel

Name:
Main ideas (31) Pretest Posttest

A sister and a brother were not alike.

The sister stayed inside by herself.
The brother played outside.
The brother slept soundly at night.
The sister lay awake.
The brother crept into her room to frighten her.
The sister was afraid of the dark.
They fought and argued all the time.
The mother told them to go out.
The brother didn’t want to be with his sister.
They went to a waste ground.
The boy found a tunnel.
He wanted to see what’s at the other end.
The sister warned there might be witches.
The brother didn’t come out.
The sister had to follow him.
The tunnel was dark, damp, slimy, and scary.
The sister found quiet woods.
The woods turned into a dark forest.
The sister wanted to turn back.
The sister could not return because of her brother.
The sister was frightened and ran faster.
When the sister came to a clearing, she found a stone figure.
It was her brother.
She cried.
She hugged the hard form and wept.
The figure changed color.
The brother said, “Rose! I knew you’d come.”
They ran back together.
They were quiet when the mother asked them if everything was all right.
They quietly smiled.

Comprehension items from Gorilla

Name:
Main ideas (35) Pretest Posttest

Hannah loved gorillas.

She read books about gorillas.
She watched gorillas on TV.
She drew pictures of gorillas.
She had never seen a real gorilla.
Her father didn’t have time to take her to the zoo.
He didn’t have time for anything.
 JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE, IDENTITY & EDUCATION 403

He went to work before Hannah went to school.

He worked at home in the evenings.
He always said, “Not now, I’m busy,” when Hannah asked him a question.
But he was always busy.
He was always too tired on weekends.
They never did anything together.
Hannah asked her father for a gorilla for her birthday.
Hannah woke up and saw a toy gorilla the night before her birthday.
Hannah threw it to the corner.
She went back to sleep.
Something amazing happened at night.
Hannah was frightened.
The gorilla asked her to go to the zoo.
The gorilla had such a nice smile.
The gorilla put on her father’s hat and coat.
The gorilla lifted her up and flew through the trees toward the zoo.
Hannah was thrilled to see many gorillas.
Hannah saw orangutans and chimpanzees.
She thought they were beautiful but sad.
They went to the cinema afterwards.
They ate, too.
Hannah was a bit sleepy.
They danced on the lawn.
Hannah was so happy.
The gorilla said, “See you tomorrow,” when he was leaving.
The next morning, Hannah woke up and saw the toy gorilla then she smiled.
Her father asked her to go to the zoo.
She was very happy.

Appendix B
Interview Questionnaire (Student)
Name: __________________________________________
Address: ________________________________________________________________
Phone and e-mail: ________________________________________________________
Where did you spend your childhood?
What other language(s) do you speak and/or write?
When did you first begin to learn English? How old were you?
Give 2 reasons why you have chosen to study English.
Are you currently learning English? If yes, state where you study it and how long you study it a week.
Do you like English picture-books? If yes, state reasons you like them.

Appendix C
Interview Questionnaire (Parent/Caregiver)
학생 이름 Child’s name:
전화번호/이메일 Cell phone number and E-mail:
자녀의 성장 과정에 대해 간단히 말씀해 주세요.
Briefly tell me about your child’s childhood.
자녀의 영어 학습 과정에 대해 간단히 말씀해 주세요.
Briefly tell me about your child’s English learning history.
자녀에게 영어를 가르치는 이유에 대해 간단히 말씀해 주세요.
Describe the reason(s) you teach your child English.
자녀를 학생으로 어떻게 평가하십니까? (예; 성실한 학생, 머리는 좋으나 노력이
부족한 학생 등)
Describe your child as a student.
자녀에 대한 부모님의 희망사항은 무엇입니까?
Describe your hope for your child.
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