What today’s children read from “happily ever after” Cinderella stories

ABSTRACT By illustrating how eight Korean English language learners came to understand embedded assumptions from traditional fairy tales and retell the tales through a critical literacy framed English literacy workshop, this qualitative study argues that fairy tales as English reading texts can effectively cultivate English learners’ critical stance and expand their understanding of texts. This article focuses on discussions about and the reconstructions of fairy tales produced by students throughout an English literacy workshop. The findings reveal that the students started to display a critical stance and expand their understanding of varied social assumptions related to power, class, gender, and social norms grounded in their reality.