Linguistic Strategies for Presenting the Ideas about “Good Children” in the Seven Book Awards-Winning Children's Literature Book

Abstract

The objective of this research was to examine the linguistic strategies used to present the concept of good children in the 2022 Seven Book Award-winning youth literature book, Dek Chai Tum by Surasak Kritsanamis. This study applied the concept of critical discourse analysis approach. The results revealed that the language strategies consisted of 5 strategies including1) lexical strategies, 2) the strategy of using the presuppositions, 3) the strategy of using the speech acts, 4) the strategy of using the reasoning sentence, and 5) the strategy of using the Intertextuality. These linguistic strategies created two sets of ideas about “good children”. Firstly, good children are good members of society and good citizens of the nation. Secondly, good children are valuable individuals of society. The study reflects that children's literature is an important tool for instilling ideas, values, and ideologies about good children that society desires.