EPISTEMIC STANCES IN THE DISCOURSE OF CHILDREN TV SHOWS.

An important aspect of the acquisition of knowledge deals with our beliefs about the nature of knowledge or epistemic stances. Language plays a key role in the acquisition of such beliefs. This study explored the epistemic stances in the discourse of children TV shows. Twenty hours of children TV programming from 10 TV channels recorded in Santiago, Chile, were analyzed for discourse strategies that marked epistemic stances. The analysis found five discourse strategies with the following epistemic stances: (1) knowledge is best learned when focused around a single theme, and (2) through sequences or steps; (3) everyone has equal access to knowledge; (4) knowledge is naturally built with scaffolding through dialogues; and, (5) knowledge does not originate only from the rational mind, but also from the emotional heart [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]