Les textes littéraires dans l’enseignement du français, langue étrangère nous montrent l’emploi du lexique et de la morphosyntaxe dans un contexte linguistique, socioculturel et communicatif authentique. Ils motivent en outre les apprenants par un « plaisir de lecture ». Les textes illustrés ou les bandes dessinées renforceront ces objectifs et ils faciliteront encore mieux pour nos étudiants l’accès à la lecture grâce à la complémentarité du texte et de l’image. Astérix en sera le corpus principal, combinant le texte et l’image, la langue, la culture et des connaissances diverses. En comparant les interprétations variées des lecteurs chinois et des lecteurs français sur Astérix chez les Bretons, nous mettons en évidence l’interculturalité franco-chinoise, ce qui facilitera la compréhension de la langue et de la culture françaises. Le public visé est celui des étudiants de 3e année de licence des universités chinoises. Nous exploiterons ainsi la valeur pédagogique d’Astérix, tout en contribuant à la recherche sur l’emploi des textes illustrés et des bandes dessinées dans l’enseignement du FLE en Chine. / Literary texts in teaching French as a foreign language show us the use of an authentic lexicon and morphosyntax, in a linguistic, socio-cultural and communicative context. In addition, they motivate students through « reading pleasure ». Illustrated texts or comics reinforce these objectives, and they facilitate further access of reading by combining text and image. Astérix will be the main corpus, as it combines text and image, language, culture and diverse knowledge. By comparing the various interpretations of Chinese and French readers of Astérix in Great Britain, we bring to the fore Franco-Chinese interculturality, which will facilitate understanding of French language and culture. Chinese students in the third year of university curriculum are our targeted public. We will thus take advantage of the educational value of Astérix, while contributing to research on the use of illustrated texts and comics in teaching French as a foreign language in China.

The value of this research hinges on the idea that exchanging illustrations for descriptive text can provide appropriate schemas for students with reading difficulties and thereby improve their comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. The research in this dissertation is based on theories and earlier research in the fields of psychology, education, reading, and narratology. A review of these fields offers a variety of perspectives on the processes involved in reading and comprehension. These processes range from the physical systems involved in reading (e.g., early childhood development, eye movement) to the psychological systems, which include cognitive load theory as well as image and text processing models. This study compares two reading methods by analyzing students' vocabulary and comprehension gains. Both groups read the same text and completed the same pre- and post-tests. The control group read the text from the book which was text only. The experimental group read from a modified text on the computer screen. The text was modified by replacing some sentences with images designed to transmit the same information (e.g., descriptions of the setting, vocabulary items) in a graphic format. The images were in-line with the text, and designed to be read as part of the story, not as additional illustrations. Final analysis shows that the experimental format performed as well as the control format for most students. However, students who have learning disabilities, particularly language learners who have learning disabilities, did not make gains in the text only control format. These same students did show statistically significant gains with the experimental format, particularly the section of reading where the vocabulary words were explicitly presented in the images. Disparate, non-homogenous groupings of students reflect the actual teaching and learning circumstances in the school, as required by the school system. This situation thus represents the actual status quo situation faced by teachers in our school. We leave it to future researchers to work with more homogenous groups of students in order to attain clearer, stronger and more plaintively useful results.