The present study investigated whether the teaching of L2 vocabulary with still cartoon pictures and animated cartoon pictures would result in a significant difference in second language learners' receptive and productive knowledge of the target words. Also, the effect of test type (receptive vs. productive) on participants' retention of the target words was examined. Finally, the study tried to find out whether the semantic category of vocabulary words influences the rate of successful vocabulary retention across picture types. For the purpose, a group of 17 ESL students from a Midwestern University participated in both treatments with still and animated pictures, followed by vocabulary tests. The results showed that over 80% of the target words were successfully retrieved on the receptive knowledge tests vs. only about 40% successful retrieval on the productive knowledge tests. Yet, the results did not reveal significant differences in vocabulary gain due to picture type as both treatments showed similar success rate of retention of the target words, especially in view of receptive knowledge. Also, neither of the two types of pictures was effective in facilitating productive knowledge of the target words. In addition, the study found that some semantic categories of vocabulary words may be easier to recall than others.

Parce qu’ils sont les premiers à avoir réalisé un long métrage en images de synthèse, Toy Story, dont le succès artistique et populaire – qui ne se dément pas - a été le déclencheur d’un nouveau cycle de films d’animation, les studios d’animation Pixar occupent une place importante dans le paysage culturel actuel, et représentent une bonne opportunité d’étudier la manière dont les objets des industries culturelles sont créés et consommés. Au travers d’une étude du dessin animé américain, abordé du point de vue historique et esthétique, il s’agit tout d’abord de déterminer l’évolution du système de production et des techniques, qui sont en lien avec les évolutions stylistiques, pour comprendre dans quel système émergent puis s’établissent les films d’animation Pixar. Alors que la manière dont les films sont faits et dont ils sont vus a changé à la fin du XXe siècle, la trilogie Toy Story sera l’objet privilégié d’une étude des mutations du cinéma, et des usages qui en sont faits. Par le statut culturel élevé spécifique à Pixar, par l’ambiguïté textuelle qui les caractérisent et qui sont l’occasion d’interprétation très variées, ou grâce aux nouveaux modèles de féminité et de masculinité qu’ils proposent, les films d’animation tendent à devenir des films "comme les autres", laissant aux spectateurs la possibilité de les appréhender comme ils le veulent. / As the first studio to have created a CGI animated feature film, Toy Story, whose success initiated a new era in animation production, Pixar Animation Studios occupy a significant position in the actual cultural landscape, and present a great opportunity to study the ways in which objects from cultural industries are produced and consumed. By examining the animated cartoon, from historic and aesthetic perspectives, I intend to determine the evolution of the production system and of the technics, which are related to stylistic changes as well. This study will help us understand the studio system in which Pixar’s movies have taken place. While the ways films are made and seen changed at the end of the last century, Toy Story’s films are the privileged object for an analysis of the transformations of cinema and its uses. By Pixar’s high cultural status, by the textual ambiguity that characterized them or the new representations of masculinity and femininity that they share, animated feature films tend to become "ordinary films", letting viewers grasp them as they want.

This thesis deals with the depiction of racial and ethnic stereotypes in American animated cartoons particularly from the first half of the twentieth century. It studies the relationship between animation and American culture and examines how animation reflects and shapes American identity in terms of race and how it critiques and promotes American values and attitudes regarding race and ethnicity in particular. Considering the historical, political, legal and cultural background of the contemporary eras of American animation, the thesis analyses the portrayal of racial and ethnic features in animated cartoons from the 1920s to the 1960s. Such stereotypes represent, in my opinion, significant aspects of societal and cultural changes in American society of the examined eras of animation. The beginnings of the entertainment industry affected the booming era of animation by implementing commonly recognised literary stereotypes of the African-Americans into animated cartoons. This thesis strives to study the development of animated features of the racial stereotypes throughout the contemporary eras. It provides a brief systematic overview of the main eras that have significantly highlighted the start of animation as markers of race and ethnicity. Simultaneously, it discusses the problematic...