Australian aboriginal folktales: An analysis of English language versions published or reprinted between 1970-80 and recommended for children and English language versions available to the public prior to 1910 [microform]
- Bib ID:
- 3287482
- Format:
- Book and Microform
- Author:
- Poston-Anderson, Barbara
- Description:
- 278 p.
- Summary:
-
Even though traditional tales have gained recognition through winning children's book awards, through mention in professional sources, and through utilization within educational systems, concern is expressed in Australia for the lack of consistently high standards overall in Aboriginal tale retellings intended for children. In fact, contemporary retellings have been described as 'diluted' when compared with earlier versions. To investigate this contention one hundred Australian Aboriginal tales were chosen. Fifty were randomly selected from 740 available English language versions published or reprinted between 1970-80 and recommended for children, and fifty were randomly selected from 357 English language versions available to the public before 1910.
Analysis was conducted by means of the selected factors: oral tradition, as indicated by oral language in the form of direct address, songs and chants; textual simplicity, as indicated by readability level in the form of a Fry readability score; and authenticity, as indicated by documentation of origins in the form of a tale source citation. Further, an indicator-based approach to readability was tested to determine whether tale length and presence of illustrations and/or footnotes could be used to estimate tale readability level. Results revealed significant differences between tale sets in all selected factor areas: a median test indicated significant differences in oral language frequency; the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test determined that the pre-1910 tales had a significantly higher readability level than the 1970-80 tales; while the chi-square test verified that in the pre-1910 tales origins were documented significantly more often than in the 1970-80 tales.
A multiple regression analysis determined that the indicator-based test of readability was significant when applied to the one hundred tales. However, multiple regression analyses carried out on each separate tale set revealed that the indicator-based measure was not useful in estimating readability within sets. Thus, overall, the indicator-based measure of readability was weak. Since findings suggested that 1970-80 tales differed significantly from pre-1910 tales in selected areas, teachers and librarians must select Aboriginal tales to share aloud with children or to recommend for their independent reading with care. Further research to determine the exact range and extent of differences is needed.
- Notes:
-
- (UnM)AAI8325174
- Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-07, Section: A, page: 2038.
- Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Iowa, 1983.
- Reproduction:
- Microfiche. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International.
- Subject:
- Education, Elementary
- Other authors/contributors:
- The University of Iowa
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
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Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Unpublished
- Creation date:
- 1983
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