How Pinocchio avoids lying

How Pinocchio avoids lying

Animated films such as Shrek the Third (Miller, 2007) and the Lost Thing (Ruhemann and Tan, 2010) entertain audiences using playful language choices. These films involve characters in events that highlight the tenor of a social context (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014). Tenor is concerned with the social roles and relationships involved in an interaction, such as the balance of power, the frequency of contact and solidarity between the characters (Humphrey et al., 2012; Martin and Rose, 2008). Animated films assume audiences have prior knowledge of these social roles and relationships and that audiences can draw on this knowledge to infer humorous events. The knowledge of social roles and relationships required to comprehend these humorous events can be challenging for primary learners and specifically English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) learners (Derewianka, 2011). Therefore, teachers can use animated films for teaching about social roles and relationships and associated grammar meaning-making resources such as modality (Derewianka, 2011; Humphrey et al., 2012). Teachers can unpack the dialogue used during scenes to nurture knowledge about language and how it can be used to convey meaning in social contexts. This article will first examine the diverse learning needs of English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) learners. Secondly, the grammar meaning-making resource of modality will be explored and relevant content descriptions for Years 3 and 4 from the Australian Curriculum: English - Language strand will be identified. Thirdly, a humorous extract from the animated film Shrek the Third (Miller, 2007) will be analysed for its use of modality. The extract humourises social roles and relationships by the higher-status character Prince Charming interrogating the lower-status character Pinocchio. The extract involves Pinocchio using modality to avoid lying to Prince Charming. Teachers can use this analysis as an example of how animated films can be used for the explicit teaching of modality and social roles and relationships.

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