The purpose of this qualitative critical discourse analysis study was to determine if there was a benefit to using a young adult adaptation of a canonical piece to increase student comprehension in the 9th grade English-Language Arts classroom. The use of young adult literature in the secondary classroom is a prevalent topic that continues to circulate amongst educators and researchers. This research study addresses how canonical literature is far removed from the current set of twenty-first century students and its disconnect in the classroom. This study sought to discover student thoughts and perceptions on a specific set of text pairings to answer the research question: How, if at all, does young adult literature better inform canonical literature in the 9th grade English-Language Arts classroom. This qualitative study uses critical discourse analysis methods to examine four students' written and verbal transactions through the use of a pre-survey, Google Forms "Quiz", a Zoom interview, and a post survey as a means for critical interpretation. Using critical discourse analysis the researcher identified themes that reflected the following results: students identified with the young adult text because they can relate to the character's struggles and current events, colloquial and neologisms were used to convey understanding, and participant's silences expressed confidence, even when their words did not. Student's through their own narratives have indicated that there is a benefit and need to use, a more culturally relevant young adult literature adaptation alongside a canonical piece to increase student understanding in the high school setting.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd2020-1176 |
| Date | 01 January 2020 |
| Creators | Bernozzi, Amber |
| Publisher | STARS |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020- |
Page generated in 0.4863 seconds