<글 없는 그림책>을 활용한 시각적 문해력 신장 방안 연구

Study to Improve Visual Literacy by Using Wordless Picture Books

This study aims to find the ways to improve visual literacy. In the earlier days when most communication was done mainly through texts and language, literacy was understood as the ability to read and write texts. While the traditional means of communication was verbal and written language in the past, the text language alone cannot be sole communication means these days as communication means are becoming complicated and diverse. To grow the ability of social communication and cultural participation and to cope with the changed language environment where communication platforms are expanded thanks to development of various image media and visual images, it is necessary to teach visual literacy. In the "2007 revised curriculum" of the Korean language, the "media"-related contents became larger-sized and the focus is placed on understanding and production of the media language. Also in terms of Korean language education, it is necessary to teach visual literacy. We therefore wanted to find the ways to improve visual literacy by using "wordless picture books" as textbooks. In Chapter II, we first looked at the theoretical background and values of wordless picture books that can be used as textbooks for visual literacy, summarized concepts related to visual literacy, and showed the necessity of teaching visual literacy by looking at how visual literacy, as described in "the 2007 revised curriculum," is accepted. Wordless picture books include literal elements such as characters, the plot and the theme of stories, as well as visual elements, and therefore, are appropriate tools for teaching visual literacy. Visual images, similar to the text language, are a meaning system in daily lives. We found that, by integrating the text language with the visual language, the general linguistic ability can be improved. We also found that media education in the Korean language class is accepted increasingly in order to improve the ability of receivers of critical media. In Chapter III, we believed that the visual language, like the ordinary language, belonged to the signal system and studied a teaching method, based on the Saussure's point of view and the semiotics of R. Barthes. Barthes started from the general concept of signals which are based on the signifiant and the signifi, found denotation and connotation of signals and attempted to interpret texts by analyzing the myth that is a meaning system that has various meanings. In Barthes' mythology and text analysis method, we can find some suggestions on how to read pictures. The semiotic approach of Barthes does not see pictures in the picture books simply from the visual and perceptive viewpoint but explores the deep meaning of pictures. However, Barthes' semiotics and theories on texts failed to show in detail what should be defined as signals, as well as how signals can be extracted, structured and made into texts. Therefore, we looked at the analysis method using the Toussaint's semantic network in order to find the ways to interpret visual images based on the semiotics and to overcome the limitation of Barthes' semiotic text analysis method. Toussaint regarded the major elements of the superstructure of a conversation as the meaningful units and tried to interpret them by making the semantic network based on the inter-relatedness of meaningful unit. The major elements of the superstructure, that Toussaint mentioned, refer to all devices (picturesque molding elements) of the original picturesque signifiant. He regarded the signifiant as meaningful units, made the semantic network based on the direction of eyes and the direction of characters' move and interpreted the signifiant. The process of semiotic interpretation using Toussaint's semantic network enabled to find the clue to understand how picturesque molding elements work as vocabularies and grammars of pictures in the picture books, and eventually interpret paintings. In this study, ways to interpret pictures in the