ERIC Number: ED453533
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1998
Pages: 13
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Real and Irreal Places in Children's Compositions: Result of a Survey.
Blazic, Milena
A study analyzed children's compositions from grades 1-4 in Slovenian schools. Children described real places within the framework of an experientially provable world, which is empirically available to them within the limits of their abilities and possibilities. Irreal places were described inventively without the support of experience, although some elements of imitation can be observed. When describing irreal places, children autonomously discover the world through their imagination. The concept can be realistically understood as creative writing on the children's part. In choosing their topics and way of verbal and artistic expression, they strongly leaned on reality experienced through their senses and on authentic presentation. In these compositions: the central literary character is a contemporary urban child; time and place of action are defined; the scene is set either in the family or school environment during spare time; the story presents only sections of the child's everyday life--his contacts with the familiar and non-familiar places and their inhabitants, his adventures in discovering new places. Compositions are about the child's mostly positive, seldom negative experiences. They are short, chronologically following a linear form and narrated in the first-person, from the child's point of view, with an individualized central character, and frequently depict events on holiday, on a trip, and in school. Children show a greater measure of inventiveness and imagination when describing irreal places than when discussing real ones. For the latter they seem to lack the experience, while the former are of greater interest to them because of their innate curiosity and love of discovering new and unknown objects. (Contains 11 references.) (Author/NKA)
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Slovenia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A