Kind and unkind communicative behaviour of cartoon characters as a source of language competence for young children

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyze kind and unkind communicative behaviour of characters in cartoons for children. The characters create a sort of community and they play certain social roles. For the purpose of this article I have chosen the animated films which present an equal or unequal system of roles. The analysis is limited to one communicative environment: school I assume that the language of cartoon characters will matter greatly in the process of socialization and acquisition of communicative competence. The film characters often become the role-model for viewers, especially the young ones. Children willingly copy the behaviour seen in the cartoons, they play the roles of favourite characters and speak their language. The analysis shows that popular cartoons might create desirable or undesirable linguistic patterns. Therefore, analysing communicative behaviours of film characters should become a field of interest not only for psychologists but also for linguists. This knowledge may also help teachers of 1st and 2nd educational stage with planning their curriculum.