Literature Resource Books for Teachers

Contents Th e autho r and series series editor

1

Foreword

3

Introduction

5

11

How to use this book

1

Activity Acti vity Starting-points

Level Le vel

Time

Focus 15 17

1.1

Opening Ope ning lines lines

Elementary to intermediate

7-10 minutes

What is or might be poetry?

1.2

Sources

Intermediate

10-15 minutes

Guessing context from language fragments

18

1.3

Poetry or prose?

Lower intermediate to advanced

10-15 minutes

Turning prose into into poetry

20

1.4

Split exchanges

All levels

10-15 minutes

Matching halves of dialogue exchanges

23

1.5

Split poem

Intermediate to advanced

20 minutes

Matching Matchin g half-lines of a poem

27

1.6

Word portraits


15 minutes

Character sketches for discussion

29

1.7

Speculation 1

All levels

15-20 minutes

Suggesting possible contexts for dialogue extracts

32

1.8

Personal choice choice


20 minutes

Selecting Selecting poems for specific reasons reason s

36

1.9

Odd man out

I n te r m e d i a t e

15-20 minutes

Deciding which text does not belong in a set of three

39

1.10

Authors’ comments

Intermediate

15-20 minutes

Speculating on how dialogue is is spoken spok en

41

2

Gen eral approaches

2.1

Q u o te u n q u o te

I n te r m e d i a te

15-20 minutes

Quotations as a stimulus for improvisation

46

2.2

S p e cu la tio n 2


15 minutes

Deducing situations situations from contextual con textual clues

48

2 .3

S torylines 1

I n te r m e d i a te to advanced

20-25 minutes

Working w ith longer longer texts: reconstructing from fragments

52

2.4

Storylines 2: suspense


45-60 minutes

Working w ith longer longer texts: suggesting missing words

55

2.5

Matching texts


2 0- 25 minutes

Contrasting poems

63

2.6

Character sketches


4 0 -6 0 minutes

Using prompt questions 65 for guided speculation on character

2 .7

S u g g estin g th e words


15-20 minutes

Predicting what characters will say

72

2 .8

C o m p letin g th th e picture

Advanced

30-45 minutes

Working w ith longer longer texts: texts: bu ilding up the story by exchange of information

77

3

Developing Developing ideas: ideas: them es, topics, and projects

3.1

Picture stories stories

Lower intermediate to advanced advan ced

40 minutes (2 x 20)

Improvisation: using pictures to suggest stories

86

3.2

Creating situations from dialogue

Intermediate

30 minutes

Improvisation: developing sketches from short dialogue passages

91

3 .3

S creen ad a p ta tio n


30-45 minutes

Working w ith longer longer 93 texts: texts: preparin p reparing g selected selected passages for filming

3.4

Discussion topics 1: difficult jobs

Advanced

30-45 minutes min utes

45

85

Using literary and non- 98 fictional texts to generate discussion

3.5

Discussion topics 2: observation

Lower intermediate

20-30 minutes

Discussion, with a focus on personal perception

106

3.6

Discussion topics 3: memories

All levels levels

45-60 45- 60 minutes

Discussion , concentrating on childhood memories (literary and personal)

110 110

3.7

Discussion topics 4: sound and silence


30-45 minutes

Discussion, with an emphasis on reactions to sound

119

3.8

Discussion topics 5: the Underground


Discussion, based on the theme of public public transport

122

4

Over to you: further further ide as, with a foc us on language Lower 15-20 Focus on language: language: minutes intermediate vocabulary to advanced

4.1

25 minutes

Selecting Selecting the mo st appropriate word in a given context

131 132 132

4.2

Focus on language: language: tenses


10-15 minutes

Using literary texts for practising tenses

135 135

4.3

Focus on language: conditional forms and an d if -clauses -clauses


Flexible

Practising conditional 137 137 forms through throu gh dialogue dialogue

4.4

Translation 1: dialogue

I n te r m e d i a te

2 5 -30 minutes

139 Exploring possibilities possibilities 139 in translating literary dialogue

4.5

Translation 2: everyday words

Intermediate upwards

20-30 minutes

Exploring the the range of 142 meaning of everyday everyday words (put, go, get ) in LI

4.6

Listening: stress and pause

Lower intermediate upwards

15-20 minutes

Using drama to illustrate speech patterns, rhythm, and intonation

4.7

Listening: selective recall

Lower intermediate upwards

15-20 minutes

Recalling selected parts part s 147 147 of a text which is heard, not read

146 146

4.8

Listening: What happens next?

Advanced

15-20 minutes

Working with longer 149 149 texts: predicting how a story will develop

4.9

Listening: word recognition


15 minutes

Practice in phonetic distinction: which word did you hear?

4.10

Writing: summaries


20-25 minutes

Writing different different 151 summaries o f the same passage, for speculation

4.11

Writing: dialogues for speculation

Intermediate

20-30 minutes

Creating dialogues, for 153 153 interpretation and discussion

150 150

Appendix

157

Bibliography

166 166

The Th e authors authors and series editor Alan Duff is a freelance writer and translator. He has also worked as a university lecturer in Yugoslavia, and as assistant English Language Officer for The British Council in Paris. As a visiting lecturer, he has worked in a number of countries including India, China, Hungary, Austria, Yugoslavia, and France.

In addition to the books he has co-authored with Alan Maley (see below), he has also written Thafs Life!, The Third Language (on translation into English), and Translation, which appears in this series. His other writings include numerous short stories, as well as translations of plays, novels, and films. films. He has recently completed a series series of programmes for the BBC BBC World Service, Service, English Eng lish by R ad io , entitled ‘Tiger’s Eye’. The autho r has degrees degrees in philosophy and literature. literature. Alan Maley worked for The British Council from 1962-1988, serving as English Language Officer in Yugoslavia, Ghana, Italy, France, and China, and as Regional Representative for The British Council in South India (Madras). He is currently Director-General of the Bell Bell Educational Tru st, Cambridge. Cambridge.

He wrote Quartet (with Frangoise Grellet and Wim Welsing, OUP 1982). He has also written Beyond Bey ond Words, Words, Sounds Interesting, Interesting, Sounds an d Drama Techniqu Intriguing, Words, Words, Variations Variations on a Theme, and Techniques es in Language Learning Lear ning (all with Alan Duff), The Mind’s Eye (with Frangoise Grellet and Alan Duff), and Learning Lear ning to Listen Liste n and Poem also Series Series Editor for this into Poem (with Sandra M oulding). He is also series, the New Perspectives Series, Series, and for the Oxford S upplemen uppleme n tary Skills series.

3

Foreword Th e role of literature in language teaching has been variously variously interpre inter preted ted over the pa st 100 100 years. In an earlier earlier period, when the gram mar-translation model was was paramo para mo unt, literary texts were the very staple of foreign language language teaching, representing b oth models of good good writing and illustrations of the grammatical rules o f the language. Durin g the period of structural dominance, literature found itself side-lined. T he formal prop erties of the language took took preceden ce, and litera ture s tudy was seen as part pa rt of the bad old ‘traditio ‘traditio nal’ methods. meth ods. It was, moreov er, difficult to justify justify the use of literary literary texts in a world where the grading of vocabula vocabulary ry and structures was was given so so much emphasis. Fo r a time the new functional-notional functional-notional communicativ communicativee mo vement also also ignored literature . T he emphasis was was on pragmatic, efficient comm unication with no frills. frills. Litera L iterature ture seemed like an irrelevance. Yet in the last five five years years or so there has been a remarkable revival revival of interest interes t in lite rature ratur e as one of the resources available available for language learning. This book is an attemp t to explore further the use of literary literary texts as as a language teaching resource rath er than t han as an object of literary study as such. Fo r, if indeed literature is back, it is back wearing different clothing. Th e twin aims of the activities activities proposed in this book are to encourage the student to give close and repeated attention to the text and, at the same time, to interact with others about it. Literature should prove o f value to teacher trainers , practising teachers, and teachers in training who are interested in regaining access access to the ric h resourc e which literary texts offer. Alan Maley

5

Introduction Who is this book for? Like the th e oth er titles in the Resource Books for Teachers series series practising teachers teachers of EF L/E SL and Literature is intended both for practising for teachers teachers in training. Those prep aring for the RSA Certifica Certificate te or the RSA Diploma should find useful ideas in it. Literature aims to provide a source of ready-to-use classroom materials for teachers working with young ad ult learners at a num ber o f levels, levels, including the Cambridge FCE an d CPE examinations. H owever, it is not inte nded nde d as a preparato prep aratory ry course in literatu re bu t rath er as a set of interactive language materials based on literary texts.

What Wh at is the approach? We mu st begin by removing one major potential misunderstanding. It is not our teach students how to study not our intention in this book to teach literature - either from the literary literary critical critical or the stylist stylistics ics viewpoint. The primary aim o f our approach is quite simply simply to use literary texts as a resource (and it will not be the only resource) for stimulating stimula ting language activitie activities. s. This Th is enables us to cut away the dead weight of critical critical commentary, comme ntary, metalanguage, m etalanguage, and ex planation which has historically been associated with w ork on literary texts. What Wh at we are interes ted in is engaging the stud ents interactively with the text, with fell fellow ow students, and w ith the teacher in the performance performan ce of tasks involving involving literary texts. In so doing, stu dents den ts are obliged to pay careful attention to the text itself and to generate language in the process of completing the task. A ny enhanced unders tanding or literary literary insight which students may acquire as as spin-off from th is approach appro ach we regard as a bonus. Th e following guidelines have emerged in the course of our work: a. O f central importance importance is the the text itself, itself, not commentary or background information about the about the text. T his may (or may not) be supplied later if the stud ents express express interest. b. Th e stu den t is is an active active agent not a passive recipient. It is vital for us that th e activities activities provoke a genuine interaction between the reader and the text (preferably sending him or her continually back to it to check and re-check), a nd between th e readers themselves including the teacher!

INTRODUCTION

c. Th e activities activities should offer offer ample oppo rtunities for the studen ts to contribute and share their own experi experiences ences,, perceptions, and opinions. By their very na ture literary texts give give access access to the worlds of personal experience which every every stud ent carries within. d. The Th e text should be allowed allowed to suggest the type of activity. activity. T his means breakin g away away from the stereotypical format forma t of text and questions. In many m any of these activitie activitiess there are no que stions at all, yet the task cannot be com pleted unless the text has been understood. e. Texts can be presented in a variety of ways. ways. This T his may sometimes mean withholding the text until the end of an activit activity, y, c utting it up, using fragmen ts of it only, and so on. Texts T exts may also be presented prese nted in fresh contexts by juxtaposition with other texts or media, or made to serve purposes for which they were not originally intend ed. activity. W e regard it f. Th e text is not the only element in the activity. simply as one key element in a linked set of activities, which may include preliminary discu ssion, interactive work involving the text, and some some sort of o f follow-up, often in w riting. g. Literary Litera ry quality is is not the only criterion criterion for the selection selection of texts. Q uite often ‘bad’ writing proves more useful or s timulating than ‘good’. These texts ap ape not necessarily necessarily presen ted as models of good writing. writing. Students are not required to approve of them them , b ut simply simply to work w ith them.

Why Wh y liter l iteratur ature? e? Essentially Essentially there are three types of justification justification for using literary texts: linguistic, methodological, and motivational. a. In terms term s of the language, literary texts offer genuine genu ine samples of a very wide range of o f styles, registers, and text-types at m any levels of difficulty. F or this reason alone they are worthy worth y of consideration. b. Th e fact fact that tha t literary literary texts are, by their very essence, essence, open to multiple interpretation means that only rarely will two readers’ understan und erstan ding of o f or reaction to to a given text be identical. This ready-made opinion gap between one individual’s interpretation and anoth an other’ er’ss can be bridged by genuine interaction . c. Literary texts are non-trivial in the sense tha t they deal with matters which concerned the the writer enough to make him or her write about them. In this they are are unlike many other forms of language teaching teaching inpu ts, w hich frequently trivialize experience in the service service of pedagogy. pedagogy. This ‘genuine feel’ of literary texts is a powerful motivato r, especially especially when allied allied to the fact th at literary texts so often touch on them es to which learners can br ing a personal response from th eir own experience.

INTRODUCTION

What about ‘difficulty’ and ‘level’? W hat do we mean by ‘difficulty’? Clearly Clearly the notion n otion com prises a num ber of different aspects aspects in regard to literary literary texts:

Linguistic difficulty This may refer to syntactic complexity, lexical lexical density, or discoursal organizaton.

Difficulty arising from text length Fo r some, longer texts wil willl appear more difficult difficult.. Fo r others, shorter shorte r texts pres ent more difficulties simply because because they do not offer offer the extended contextual suppo rt and re petition which longer texts do.

Cultural difficulty This is notoriously difficult difficult to define, define, thou gh m uch has been made of it in rece nt years. T o the ex tent that th at it is clearl clearly y impossible for the ‘outside ou tside r’ to share sh are fully the range o f references of an ‘insider’, insid er’, cultural factors do offer difficulties. difficulties. B ut to claim that noth ing can therefore be got from a text by an outsider is patent nonsen se. Lecturers (not students!) in India used often to observe that W ords wo rth’s rth’s ‘Daffodils’ ‘Daffodils’ could not be appreciated by Ind ian stud ents because they had no d irect experience of this exotic bloom. bloom. Tak en to its logical logical conclusion this view could effectivel effectively y preclud e British readers from reading Comm onwealth onwealth writing in English or indeed any work s in translation. While problem s clearly may arise, it seems seems to us that a better ap proach is to to use these opportun opp ortunities ities for exploration, rather than refusing to undertake the journey.

Difficulties of o f range of o f reference These Thes e are related to cultural difficulties. difficulties. Th ey are best exemplified exemplified by works such as ‘Th ‘Th e Waste L an d’ which canno t be fully fully appreciated without the notes. B ut all all literary literary works make reference to things outsid e themselves and are thu s liable to to misinterpretation, or to variable variable interpretation. This is one of the things which makes them interesting!

Conceptual difficulty This refers to the difficulty of the ideas the text tex t conveys, even when couched in simple, lim pid language. William Blake’s Blake’s poetry provides good examples o f deceptively deceptively ‘simple’ writing.

7

INTRODUCTION

Acceptance difficulties difficulties Th is has to do with the almost instinctive negative reaction we we experience towards certain types o f text or certain autho rs (T can’ ca n’tt stand detective sto ries.’ ‘I ‘I hate all those those preten tious pseuds p seuds that t hat Iris M urdoch urd och w rites abou ab ou t.’). t.’). So ‘difficulty’ is not at all a unidimensional problem. Given that some or all all of the above factors may rende r the tex t more or less acceptable for use in language learning activities, activities, w hat can we do abou t it? it? In the first firs t place we need to accept th at ‘difficulty’ is a subjective subjective and relative matter. Different Diffe rent readers will find the same text more or less less difficult. We can tur n this th is to account in our activities by by providing oppo rtunities for information exchange exchange among students. If a text is ‘too ‘too difficult’ it should sh ould no t be chosen. It would w ould be foolish to choose texts which we know ou r students stu dents will not be able to cope with. Th ere is suc h a wide variety of literary literary texts available available that th at we can relatively relatively easil easily y operate a kind of intuitive gr ading, without with out actually actually tampering with the texts in any way. way. A lthough our selection selection of texts does does not includ e much muc h classica classicall literatu re, this by no means suggests suggests tha t we are turning our backs on ‘traditional’ literature. O ur reasons for not including the classics classics are that they are more readily available available than tha n some o f the texts tex ts we have chosen, and , in man y cases, the literatur e of our times is more accessibl accessiblee to foreign learners. Th e activities activities described in this book can, of course, be adapted for use with set texts texts and othe r literary material. If we do wish to use challenging texts, we can ease ease our stude stu dents nts’’ approach to them by grading the activit activities ies or tasks. tasks. The range of activities activities in th is book b ook offers teachers a fair variety of different levels levels of demand. One way of graduall gradually y building up the degree of demand on students could be: Level Lev el 1 ‘Easy Ea sy’’ text te xt + low level task tas k Level 2 ‘Easy’ Easy ’ text + higher hig her level level task Level 3 ‘D ifficult’ iffic ult’ text tex t + low level task Level 4 ‘Difficult’ Dif ficult’ text + higher highe r leve levell task Fo r many teachers the issue of vocabular vocabulary y load is the main cons tituen t of ‘difficulty’ in literary texts. If, n otw ithstanding ithstan ding the points made above, there rem ain problems w ith individual individual words which continue to block understand ing or the performance of the the task, the teacher has available available the same range of inferential techniqu es as for non-literary texts. In brief, we feel feel tha t the issue o f ‘difficulty’ ‘difficulty’ in regard rega rd to literary texts can be exaggerated. It is likely likely tha t those who raise it as a warning spectre have in m ind their ow n earlier earlier struggles struggles with literary texts in a foreign language (or even even in the mo ther tongu e).

INTRODUCTION

9

But such texts were (and still are) are) chosen by virtue of their respectability as part o f a literary canon in the context o f the ‘Study of Literatu Liter atu re’, not for language language teaching purposes. This is precisely precisely advocating. In o ur approach you, th e teacher, are not what we are advocating. free to choose the texts.

But what about ‘real’ literature? It is possible that some readers may feel that that the approach app roach we are advocating is reprehensible, even sacrilegious, because we do not seem to be taking literature ‘seriously’. seriously’. In addition, ad dition, we might mig ht be seen as as failing failing in o ur responsibility res ponsibility to teach ‘real’ literature, literat ure, by which is generally meant a body o f texts texts recognized as great literature, together with the procedures approved for studying it. Let us simply make a num ber of o f points w hich hopefully go some some way to meeting these objections: a. We have made it very clear what our ou r approach is. It is not the study of o f literature. To object that we have faile failed d to do something we did not set out to do would be perverse. were b. Th ere is nothin g sacred about a literary text. All such texts were at some some time written down, rearranged, scratched scratched out, torn u p, revised, misprinted, and so on. Anyone doubting this should simply look at any well-known writer’s notebook or manuscript. Th e recently revised edition of Joyce’s Joyce’s Ulysses is a good example o f our literary conditioning receiving a rude shock! shock! More importantly perhap s, if students are encouraged encouraged to adopt a ‘hands hand s o n’ approach to texts, they are likely to lose lose some of the awesome respect which the p rinte d wo rd, an d especially especially the literary printed word, inspires, and which gets in the way way of the individual individual reader/interpreter’s personal response to the text. c. Ou r major interest is in the use of literary texts for language language learning. Anything we choose choose to do with them which helps to achieve achieve this purp ose, is for us valid. valid. I t also helps to explain why we have no t gone into techniques for the s tudy o f complete works of fiction or in-dep th analysis analysis of texts, bo th of which belong to the traditional study of literature. literature. d. We believe believe that tha t our approach can be helpful even to those students stude nts who will eventually wish to study lite rature, rature , since most of the activities deal with choice in one form or another: Why this word and not that? Why this order and not that? Why this format or length and n ot that? Why this piece piece of information information and not that? Why this style and not that? These are precisely precisely the k inds o f choices choices which writers themselves continually face. face. By taking stude nts behind b ehind th e scenes scenes and giving

INTRODUCTION

them the experience of making choices of the same kin d, we w e believe believe their s ubsequ ent unde rstanding of literary literary process processes es can be increased. We feel feel tha t by directing s tud ents’ ent s’ activities activities towards concrete rathe r than abstract speculation, they will find it easier easier to approach texts from a ‘stu ‘study dy ’ angle. One o f the problem s abou t more traditional approaches to teaching literature was the way students were encouraged to use a kin d o f Lego-metalanguage (‘poetic (‘poetic sensibility’, ‘touching’, ‘trite’, ‘expressive’, ‘evocative’, and so on). One does not need to ‘speak literatu re’ in orde r to talk about it. This is why, in the activities, students are encouraged to say what they think in their own words, and to back up their opinions by direct references to the text. We hope that Literature that Literature will will provide ideas and proced ures th at will enable and encourage teachers to generate their own materials. Th e Appendix has been special specially ly written with this in mind. We would also welcome comm ents on the ideas presen ted here, and information from any teachers who have developed developed furth er ideas ideas and techniques. Correspondence may may be addressed to us c/o c/o Oxford University Press.

11

How to use use this book How the book is organized Literature is divided into four sections of roughly equal length. These are: are: 1 2 3 4

Starting-points General approaches Developing ideas: theme s, top ics, and project projectss Over to you: further further idea s, with a focus foc us on language

Section 1, Starting-points, introduce s a selection selection of activities activities which can be used w ith students stu dents at most levels levels (including even native native speakers!), and w hich do not require any formal knowledge of literature. literatu re. The Th e activities activities are designed to: to: a. awaken interest: guessing, speculation, and discussion discussion are encouraged b. accustom students to working on short shor t texts c. introduce intro duce approaches tha t will will later be used again again with longer texts d. provide you, th e teacher, with material tha t is is easy easy to prepar e, adap t, and renew. renew. But above all all our aim is to to suggest starting-points - often nontraditional ones - which will lead to to furthe fur therr discoveries. discoveries. approaches, the emphasis In Section Section 2, General approaches, emph asis is on activities activities which can be used with materials from very different sources. T his means that tha t the activities activities are not text-bo und: you could use the same approaches w ith materials of your own choice. choice. In I n addition addi tion to offering general strategies strategies for approa ching literary tex ts, we also also suggest ways ways of dealing with longer texts such as sh ort stories or chapters chap ters from novels. ideas, concentrates primarily on discussion Section 3, Developing ideas, topics. topics. Various themes , such as difficult jobs jobs and childhood memories, are explored throug h the use of literar literary y (and nonfictional) fictional) texts. One o f the main aims of these activities activities is to give give the students an oppo rtunity to speak from personal experie experience. nce.

Finally, in Section 4, Over toyou, consider further ideas, ideas, w ith a you , we consider partic ular focus on language. language. H ere, you will will find find suggestions for activities activities based on literary texts, which can be directed towards the improvem impro vem ent of a specifi specificc skill such as listening, o r towards practice in a particu lar area of language. O ur aim in this section is is to suggest approaches which you could easil easily y develop - and, an d, of course, improve upon!

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

The book concludes concludes with an Ap an Appen pendix dix which offers ten generative procedures proced ures for developing language activit activities. ies. The T he pro cedures cedur es are described in detail, bu t the choice choice of conte nt, th at is, the literary material itself, is left to the individual teacher.

How Ho w each activity is organized Each num bered activit activity y is presented unde r five five main headings: Level, Leve l, Time, Preparation, I n clas class, s, and an d Notes. Level This Thi s indicates the m inimu m level level at which the activity can be carried ou t. Sometimes a range of o f levels levels is given given to show th at, with suitably adapted m aterials, the activity can be used with different levels. Time This is a rough guide to the am ount oun t of time the activity will will take in class. Preparation This tells tells you what kind of preparation and/or materials you will will need. In class Un der this h eading you will will find a step-by-step guide to carrying class are out the activity in the classroom. classroom. Also included include d und er In er In class warm-up warm -up and an d follow-up tasks, as well as variations variations on the a pproach or the texts u sed in th e activity. activity. Notes T h e Notes are there to help you you and your students to und erstan d the purpose o f the activity, activity, to provide you with useful tips, and to point out some of the problems that m ight arise. arise.

Ways of o f using the materi materials als 1 Using the materials materia ls as as they are If you decide decide to use the materials as they are, w ithou t adaptatio n, you will will need to exercise exercise considerable judgem ent as to the suitability of any given activity activity for any given class. class. The Th e book b ook is emphatically not plan ned as a course, so it should not be worked not planned throug h sequentially sequentially from beginning to end.

2 Incorpo Inc orporating rating the materials into your own course If you have a free free hand to build your own course, using materials from a variety of sources sources in a modu lar fashion, these activities activities can

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

IB

be incorporated in whatever propo rtion seems appropriate. appro priate. Clearly, Clearly, for most types of learner, they would only be one among many other types of language language resource.

3 Integrating Integratin g the materials materials into set coursework coursework If you are tied to a course book, we should suggest a modest, modes t, occasional use of carefully chosen activities, possibly starting with those likely likely to be familiar to stud ents (for example, gap-filling gap-filling). ). If this works well, it would then be w orth analysing the course book in order to identify points at which particular activities activities from this book could be slotted in - either for linguistic or thematic reasons. Th e activities activities we we propose here could then be integrated into the course book in a mo re or less systematic systematic way. way. Indeed some of our techniques could be applied to the texts in the course book.

4 Using Us ing the th e book as a resource for ideas If you decide to use the book as a resource for ideas, rath er than th an as a source of immediately immediately usable materials, you m ight still care to try a representative sample of the actual materials here before designing your you r own. This Th is will give give you a feel for the k inds of activity which succeed succeed best with pa rticular group s of learners. learners. You will will then need to research texts at an appropriate appro priate level level of difficulty difficulty on which to apply the p rocedures you have decided decided to use. We strongly recommend th at you read the the Appen dix with care. care. In In it we have tried to set out some basic basic underly ing types of procedure from which wh ich you will be able to generate your own activitie activities. s.

1 Star Starti ting ng-p -poi oint ntss Introduction The purpose o f this this section section is is to prepare the gro und for using literature literatur e in the language class. class. Ou r main aims are: are: 1 To provide pr ovide you, the teach er, with sh ort, easy-to-follo easy-to-follow w activit activities ies which can be u sed even with classes classes which have no previous experience experience o f working w ith literature. 2 To offer alternatives to the standa rd question-and-answ er approach to texts. An d, thro ugh these alternat alternative ive approaches, to touch on ques tions such as: Wha t do we think litera ture is? Is it only ‘goo ‘good’ d’ writing? writing ? Is it i t only fiction? 3 To encourage students to fee feell free free with the the texts, to comment, speculate, criticize criticize and, an d, above all, to offer suggestions. suggestions. 4 To illustrate approaches which which can be used with a variety variety of texts, and which can be adapted or expanded for use in longer longer activities. It mu st be stressed from the sta rt tha t these activities activities are designed specifical specifically ly for language practice, not no t for literature literatu re stu dy, although althoug h this does not mean that they would be of no value value in the literature clas class. s. W e emphasize emphasize this point because because many students and , indeed, many teache rs may feel feel that it is somehow wrong to app roach literature literatu re in such an ‘irrev ‘irrev eren t’ way. This is und erstan dable, dab le, because from o ur early schooldays schooldays we are encouraged to show reverence towards ‘Liter atu re’, whatever our tr ue feelings feelings may be. In fact, as we hope you will will discover, there is nothing irre veren t about the approaches in this book. T heir aim is, simply, to use literary literary material to generate generate language language.. The students may or may not like a text, tex t, b ut at a t least they are free to say say so. so. A nd they are no t expected to admire the w riting, any more tha n they are expected to to admire a text on hydraulic pum ps or on air pollution pollution in a ‘regular’ ‘regular’ language languag e class. class.

About the activities Th e first th ree activities all all have have a similar func tion, which is to raise the question: ques tion: ‘W hat is literature ?’ or ‘Wh ‘Wh at do we think it is?’ Th e question, of course, course, is not asked directly, and no answer is is expected. But the th e material is designed to bring to th e surface certain certain assumptions ab out what is, or is not, literature. So, for instance, instan ce, in 1.1 1.1 Opening lines, lines, the students are given the opening lines of ten different works - five five poems and five piece piecess of

STARTING POINTS

non-fiction non-fiction - and are asked to choose choose those those they think m ight be drawn from poems. C ould a poem begin: begin: ‘Water Wate r is is H2 H 20 , hydrogen two parts, oxygen one’? one’? Unlikely perha ps, bu t possible. possible. Similar Similar questions are followed followed up in 1.2 1.2 Sources, in which the material is drawn entirely from prose works, fiction and non fiction. Both activities are suggesting the same concept, which is: literature is not a world apart. In many ways, it resembles Poe try or prose? prose? in ‘ordinary’ language. This concept recurs in 1.3 Poetry which two o f the four ‘prose’ passa passages ges are in fact poems written out in the form of prose. We then move on to an activity activity based on dialogue, dialogue, 1.4 Split He re, we focus more closel closely y on the text and on w hat is exchanges. Here, suggested by the words. Th e material is is minimal, consisting of a rem ark, followed followed by a response to the remark . The Th e two halves halves of the exchanges are are presented separately, and the stu dents are asked to suggest possible possible combinations. In this activity, they are learning to look close closely ly at the te xt and to pick u p whatever clues clues are there. For Fo r instance, a remark s uch as: as: - ‘You thin k she’s she’s a man-hater?’ man -hater?’ could be followed by any of these responses: - ‘I do n o t-1 will not believe believe that .’ - ‘If you like.’ - ‘She thinks she is.’ Th e clue is contained in the repetition of she she (in the third response). But the oth er suggestions would not be wrong. And this understan ding, that in w orking with literature literature there may be severa severall right respons es, is vital vital to all all furthe fur the r work. Sp lit poem, poem, 1.6 Word portraits, Th e three activities that follow, follow, 1.5 1.5 Split and 1.7 Speculation 1 , all all build on encouraging the suggestion of several several possible responses. In two of the activitie activitiess {Split poem and Speculation ) the responses can be matched against the actual answer. In Word portraits, however, th ere are no conclusive answers. Th e students stude nts are free free to defend their own interpreta inter pretation tion of the text. Likewise, in activities activities 1.8 Personal Person al choice choice and 1.9 Odd man out, the students are invited to offer plausible arguments rather than definitive answers. answers.

Th e section concludes with a bridging activity, 1.10 1.10 Authors’ Autho rs’ comments, in which the students contrast their own reaction to dialogue dialogue with the comments provid ed by the author. This exercise exercise in speculation will be explored more thorou ghly in Section Section 2.

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17

1.1 Opening Opening lines LEVEL

Element ary t o i ntermediate ntermediate

TIME

7 -1 0 minute minutes s

PREPARATION

Select Select the o pening lines o f five five works of non-fiction and five five poems. Prepare these to be shown on an overhead overhead projector projector (OH P), o r distributed to the students. (See sample texts.)

IN CLASS

1 Th e class class works as one large large group. group . Ask the stu dents to decide which lines lines they think are the openings openings of poems. poems. Do no t at this stage stage tell them how m any lines are drawn from poems. 2 After five five minute s, ask the stud ents to call call out the lines which they think are not the openings of poems. No te the numb ers on the board. 3 Now reveal that five of the lines are are taken from poems. Ask the students stud ents to decide which these might be. 4 Th en reveal reveal the sources. sources.

NOTES

1 Litera Lit eratur ture, e, partic ularly in a foreign language, is often seen as something rem ote and far removed from ‘ordin ‘ordin ary’ language. O ne of the aims o f this activity activity is to show tha t literatu re is no t necessarily necessarily a language language apart. Even poe try, if we do not know it is poetry, can be mistaken mistake n for plain prose. And plain prose may have its its own poetry. 2 See also 1.3 Poetry Poe try or prose? prose?

SOURCES

1

K enn eth Clark: The Nud e

2

Nian Ni an Cheng: L Cheng: Lif ifee and a nd Death in Shanghai Shangha i Nikolaus Pevsner: A Pevsner: A n Outline of o f European Archite Architecture cture D. H. Lawrence: Collected Poems

3

4 5

Ogden Nash: ‘I ‘I want a drink of water, but not from from the thermos’

6 7

Bertran Be rtrand d Russell: The Problems Problems of o f Philosophy Philosophy Michael Swan: ‘No thing to Ea t’

8

from an article in The Independent

‘Th e Municipal Municipal Waterbaw d’ 9 D. J . E nright: ‘Th 10 Philip Larkin: ‘Sunny Prestaty n’

SAMPLE SAMPL E TEXTS TEXTS

1 2 3

Th e English language, with its elaborate generosity, distinguishes distinguishes between the naked and the nude. Th e past is is forever with me and I remem ber it all. all. A bicycle bicycle shed is a building ; Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture.

is H 20 , hydrogen two parts, oxygen oxygen one; one; bu t there is als also o 4 Wa ter is a third thing that makes it water. water.

18

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5

Have you ever ever spen t two two and a half of your three hours allotted shopping tim e hun ting for a place place to park?

6

Is there any knowledge in the world which is is so certain that no reasonable reasonable man could do ubt it? it? She had nothin g to to eat. They made a film about abou t her because she had nothing to eat. A young boy being led away away from a station by his mo ther was brand ishing a large large knife with a serrated blade. I t was was plastic, bu t realistic. realistic.

7 8

9

Th e use of a hose for non-dom estic purposes purpo ses can can be quite qu ite costly. costly. And even m ore so if an automatic s prink ler is employed.

10 ‘Come to sunny Pr estatyn’, estat yn’, laughed the girl on the poster. KEY_____________

The opening lin lines es of poems poems are are numbers 4, 5 ,7 ,9 ,1 0 .

1.2 Sources LEVEL

Intermediate

TIME

10 -1 5 minute minutess

PREPARATION

1 Select five or six short passages from a variety of sources, sour ces, at least two of which should be literary. (See (See sample texts for examples.) 2 Prepare Prep are enough copies for the whole class. class.

IN CLASS

1 Ask the studen ts to read throu gh the passages passages on their own and to mark those which they think are taken from literary literary sources, such as a play, novel, or short sho rt story. 2 After fiv five e minutes, the stud ents form groups of four and compare their ideas. Ask them to un derline in the texts any words or expressions which helped them to make the ir decisions. decisions. 3 Write up the sources, givin giving g the author’s name, the title, and a very brief description descr iption of the work, wo rk, for instance, Des Carroll: ‘Lifer’ Lif er’ (autobiographical interview). interview). Ask the stud ents to match each text with one of the tides. 4 Round Ro und-up -up discussi discussion on.. Reveal the original matchings, and ask the stude nts to call call out any features of language language which gave gave a clue to the source.

VARIATION

1 Give Give the stud ents five texts and ten possible sources. sources. T his will lead to more discussion over which are the mos t likely likely matchings. 2 W ith more advanced advanced stude nts, one of the texts included included could be a poem writte n ou t in the form of prose. (See also also 1.3 Poetry or pros prose? e?))

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19

NOTES

This Th is activity encourages close attention to what is actually said said in the text. In looking for clues, clues, and in marking features of the language, the students stud ents are learning how to use the text itself in discussion. Focusing Focus ing on the particula r helps to discourage discourage vague vague theorizing.

SOURCES

1 T ho r Heyerdahl: A Heyerdahl: Aku ku -A ku 2 Malcolm Bradbury: Bradb ury: The History History Man Ma n 3 Rijkshogeschool, Maastricht: ‘Tran ‘Translating slating the Ann ual Company Report’. article in The Independent 4 Terry Kirby: an article 5 Haro ld Pinter: Silence 6 Des Carroll: ‘Life r’, an article in S H E

SAMPLE SAMPL E TEX TEXT TS

1 N ot a soul was to be seen on shore, only a deserted, deser ted, petr ified world with motionless stone heads gazing gazing at us from their dis tant ridge, while other equally motionless stone men lay lay prostra te in a row at the foot of a long long terrace right right in the foreground, on the lava lava blocks along the the coast. I t was as as though thoug h we had anchored with a hovering spaceship off the shore sh ore of an extinct world, where once had lived lived beings of a kind other than those on our earth. 2 In 1970 1970 the techn otronic age became offic official ial;; the Comp uting Centre was put into use, and it began work by issuing a card card with a num ber on it to everyone everyone on campus, telling telling them who they were, an increasingly valuable valuable piece of information. information. And An d now the campus is massive, massive, one of those dominant m odern environments of multifunctionality that m odern m an creates. creates. 3 Anyway, to finish off, I’ll I’ll tell tell you what typically typically happen s. I t’s always always at about abo ut five to three on a Thu rsday rsd ay afterno on; th e Financial D irecto r, who h asn’ asn ’t seen his wife wife for four weeks and can’t can’t reme mber mb er what wha t his children look like, wife is threaten ing to leave leave him, he decides th at his work w ork is finally finally done, don e, and a nd as I say, it’s it’s fou r minutes minu tes to th ree now , he’ h e’ss got his his coat on, h e’s walking down the corrid or, and he happens to pass pass an open door and he overhears a conversation. . . 4 Mid-evening in the grimy booking hall hall of Manor Hou se underg roun d station station on the Piccadil Piccadilly ly line line in no rth L ondon: the escalators escalators rumb le in the ba ckground ckgro und as a vagrant shuffles aimlessly aimlessly in and out. Scruffy youngsters han g around aroun d the newspaper kiosk. A middle-aged middle-aged woman ticket inspector adopts a deliberatel deliberately y stern mann er to deal with a smart young man who has tried to walk through thro ugh w ithout a ticket. ticket. After some discussion, he pays up. 5 After my work each each day I walk walk back through people but I don ’t notice notice them. I ’m no t in a dream dream or anything of that that sort. On the contrary. I’m I’m qu ite wide awake awake to the world around me. But not to the people. people. Th ere m ust be something in them to notice, to pay pay attention to, something of interest in them. In fact I know there is. I ’m certain of it. it. But I pass throu gh them noticing noticing nothing.

20

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6 W e’re e’re locked away from eight at night till eight the next morn ing. After breakfast we’re we’re locked locked up, then again after lunch and after tea. I t’s abou t sixteen hours hou rs a day. Too b ad if you ’re claustroph obic. Th ere ’s no choice except madness or suicide. I ’ve had attacks when I c ouldn’ ould n’tt wait for the door to open. But I rarely thin k ab out being locked in a cell cell.. KEY_____________

Th e passages passages from literary sources are num bers 2 and 5.

1.3 Poetry Poetry or prose? LEVEL

Lo w er interm edia te to adv anc ed

TIME_____________

10 -1 5 minute minutess

PREPARATION

Select two or thr ee short passages passages of prose which w hich are in some way 1 Select striking, because of their rhyth m, use of language, language, imagery, and so on. W rite these passa passages ges out in the form o f poems. T hen copy two two or three short poems, without making any changes changes to to the text. (For examples, see sample texts.) 2 Prepare Prep are sufficient copies copies of the passages passages for each each group o f four students stude nts to have one set. set.

IN CLASS_________

four. Give Give each each group a 1 Divide the students into grou ps of four. complete set of the passages you have chosen. Tell the stu den ts tha t certain of the passages were originall originally y written in the fo rm o f prose. Ask them to ma rk those passages which they feel sure are poems, and those which they thin k mu st be prose texts. texts. 2 After discussion, each each group exchanges thoughts thou ghts with another group.

VARIATION

1 Write ou t two or three poems in the form form of prose, and select select a num ber of real real prose texts to complete the set. 2 Ask the students to work in pairs and and to write write out, in the form of poetry, any o f the texts which they thin k are poems.

NOTES

1 O ur reaction to language is partly sh aped by the way in which the words are presented . Co nsider, for instance, passage passage 1 in the sample texts in this form: Rats indeed take some getting used to. There are said said to be as many rats as hum an beings even in England in the large towns, bu t the life life they lead is subterranean.

STA RT ING PO IN T S

21

This, Th is, in fa ct, is prose. B ut it could be read as a poem. I t has some of the qualities of poetry: poetry: balance balance and rh ythm , concisene conciseness, ss, and internal rhyme. 2 One of o f the aims of this activity activity is is to suggest that the re is no clearclearcut dividing line between liter ature and an d everyday language. language. Lite ratu re is not a secret, fenced-off area area to which the or dinary language stud ent has no righ t of acce access. ss. Graham G raham Greene: A Greene: A Sort o f Life Li fe George Orwell: Dow Orwell: Down n and Out Ou t in Paris and London Alan Duff: a poem Stevie Smith: a poem Cyril Connolly: The Unquiet Grave Michael Micha el Swan: Swan: a poem

SOURCES

1 2 3 4 5 6


1 Rats Rats indee d take some getting used to. Th ere are said to be as many rats as human beings, even in in England in the large towns, bu t the life they lead lead is subterranean. Unless you go down into the sewers or haunt the huge rubbish dumps which lie beyond the w aste buildings-lots buildings-lots und er a thin fume of smoke, you are unlikely to meet a rat. It needs need s an effort of imagination in Piccadill P iccadilly y Circus to realize that tha t for every passing person there is a rat in the tunnels underneath. 2 Beggars Beggars do not w ork, it is said said but then , what is is work ? A navvy works by swinging a pick. An accountant works by adding up figures. figures. A beggar works by standing out of doors doors in all weathers. It is a trade like any other; quite useless, useless, of course - bu t then, many reputable trades are quite useless. As a social social type a beggar begg ar compares comp ares well with scores of others. He is honest - compared with the seller sellerss of most pa tent medicines; medicines;

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high-minded high-minded - compared compared with a Sunday newspaper proprietor; amiable amiable - compared with a hire-purchase tout. In sh ort, a parasite parasite bu t a fairly fairly harmless parasite. He seldom extracts more th an a bare living living from the comm unity - and he pays for it over and over in suffering. 3 Wales Dead and no heavier than a bucket o f water the lamb hun g from the far mer’s mer’s hand as he he told us of the wind tha t had killed killed this one and maybe another th ree, which he couldn’t couldn’t find. ‘It happe ha ppens ns every yea r,’ he said, swinging the lamb as he spoke. ‘The cold catches catches them sudd en and they die.’ Beside Beside him the m other nuzzled the w hite belly belly of her lamb. ‘She’d She’d nuzzle nuzz le it alive alive if she could . . .’ His dog do g looked up as if to ask: Now, No w, can we go? go? 4 Mabel Mabel was married last week week So now only Tom left The doctor did n’t n’t like Arth ur’s cough cough I have been in bed b ed since Easter A touch o f the the old trouble I am downstairs downs tairs today As I write this I can hear A rthu r roaming overhead overhead He loves to roam Th ank heavens heavens he has plenty of space space to roam in We have seven bedrooms And An d an annexe annex e . . . Ou r char has left now And a good riddance too Wages Wages are very high in Tonbridg e Write and tell tell me how you are, dear, And the girls, girls, Phoebe and Rose They m ust be a great great comfort to you you Phoebe and Rose.

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5 Everything Ever ything and everybody eternally radiates a dim light - for those who care to seek. seek. The strawberry hidd en un der the last leaf crie cries: s: ‘Pick Pi ck m e5. e5. The forgotten book, in the forgotten bookshop, screams to be discovered. Dead authors au thors cry: ‘Read me’. Dead Dea d friends say: say: ‘Remember ‘Rememb er me’. Dead ancestors whisper: ‘Unearth me’. Dead places: ‘Revisit me’. And s ympathetic spirits, living living and dead, Are continually continually trying to e nter into communion. 6 Th e girls girls in airports airports are more beau tiful than th e girls girls in other places. Poised and elegant remote, cool, cool, unattainable they sit and in the depths of their eyes eyes (if you can face face the hum iliating gaze gaze that retu rns your furtive leer leer)) you can read the knowledge that they are rich an d expensive expensive and in a few hours will be in Cairo or C aracas or Chicago while you are in Croydon trying to change your Belgian francs back into sterling.

1.4 Split Split exchanges LEVEL___________

All levels

TIME_____________

10 - 1 5 minut minutes es

PREP PREPAR ARAT ATIO ION N

1 Select Select twelve to fifteen short sh ort dialogue exchanges from fro m short sho rt stories, novels, o r plays. plays. Split each exchange exchange into two parts: rem ark and response. W rite out the remarks rem arks on one sheet (task sheet A), and the responses on anoth er (task sheet B). B). F or instance: Task sheet A ‘H e’s e’s an astute m an .’ Task sheet B ‘H e’s e’s bloody bloody pom pou s.’ Nu mb er each remark and each response. response. T he num bers should not be in matching order. 2 Prepare Pre pare enough en ough copies of each each task sheet for one third of the class class (each (each group of three studen ts shou ld have one between between them).

23

24

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IN CLASS_________

Give each grou p a 1 Ask the stu dents to work in groups o f three. Give copy copy of task sheet A. A. Tell the students to read through the remarks , and to discuss the responses they would expect. 2 Th en give each group tas k sheet B, and ask them to try to match each rem ark from A with a response from B. I f they think several several combinations are possible, these should be noted. 3 Let each grou p compare its decisions decisions with another. Th en reveal reveal which remarks from A match the responses from B.

NOTES___________

1 This activity has several advantages: a. the material is is easy easy to find, and can be graded to suit the students’ language level b. exchanges can be selected selected in order to illustrate illustrate particu lar aspects aspects of language, such as the use of the present pres ent continuou s: ‘W hat are you doing now?’ (task sheet A), ‘The Th e gu ard is looking at u s’ (task sheet B) c. the activity combines constraint with freedom: freedom: the material itself itself is controlled, b ut several several combinations are possible. possible. 2 You may need to remind the stud ents th at the aim is is no t to find the right answ er, bu t to look for plausible plausible combinations. T hey should also be encouraged to speculate about the co ntext in which the exchanges occur. 3 Much Mu ch of the material can be drawn draw n from passages passages which will be worked on mor e extensively extensively in other activities. activities. This T his,, the n, is a useful warm-up exercise. (Fo r furth er ideas, see Maley and D uff: Drama Techniqu Techniques es in Language Langua ge Learning. Learn ing.))

TASK SHEET A

Th e rem arks below are all all taken from dialogue exchanges exchanges in works of fiction. fiction. M atch each remar k with one of the responses given in task sheet B. I f you feel feel that several responses responses are possible, note your alternative choices. 1 ‘Can’t Can’t you brin g yourself yours elf ever to forgive forgive me?’ 2 ‘Look, Loo k, I ’ll tell you what I know from the beginning, only it will will take some some time, I am afraid . . .’ 3 ‘W hat do you thin k of her? Is she not no t very charming?’ charmin g?’ 4 ‘Never Nev er m arr y! This is a new resolution reso lution !’ 5 And do you you think it takes one long to get used to this country? ’ 6 ‘You thin k she’s she’s a man-hate ma n-hater?’ r?’ 7 ‘H e’s e’s an astute m an .’ 8 ‘I would like to know kn ow .’ 9 ‘Tell me what goes goes on. Wh at are you doing now?’ 10 ‘And you find life life happier hap pier now?’ 11 ‘Do you want me to kiss you in in a way tha t is not tire d?’ d? ’ 12 ‘It is beyond my powers - the powers of far wiser wiser men than m ys elf- to help help you here.’

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25

TASK SHEET B

Below Below are the responses made to the rema rks given in task sheet A. Match Ma tch each response with one or several of the remarks. rem arks. 1 ‘I f y ou li l i k e. e. ’ 2 ‘She thinks she is.’ 3 ‘He’s He’s bl bloody pompo pompous us..’ 4 ‘Never, never never!! I wouldn’t wouldn’t marry you you if you were were the last last man on earth.’ do not not - 1 will not believe believe tha t.’ 5 ‘I do 6 The guard is is loo looki king ng at at us. us. I am putting putting the the fi fishin shinggrod together.’ very pleasing pleasing young woman.’ 7 ‘Oh! yes - very - a very S ‘Infinitely.’ 9 ‘It would be b etter if you you d idn’t idn’t kn ow .’ 10 ‘You mean you you know know why why Mrs Turn er was was murdered?’ 11 ‘Well, I should say it takes about four or five five years years for for your blood properly to thin do wn .’ 12 ‘It is one that I shall shall never never change, change, however.’

KEY TO TASKS

A1/B4 A1/B4 A2/B10 A2/B10 A3/B7 A3/B7 A4/B A4/B12 12 A5/B A5/B11 11 A6/B A6/B2 2 A7/B A7/B3 3 A8/B9 A8/B9 A9/B6 A9/B6 A10/ A10/B8 B8 A ll/B l A12/ A12/B5 B5

VARIATION

Speakin peak ing g the exchanges

PREPARATION

Instead of giving giving the groups the two task sheets sheets to read, cut each sheet into twelve separate slips. I f you have more than th an twenty-fou tw enty-fou r students stud ents in the class, prepa re more exchanges. exchanges.

IN CLASS

Ask the studen ts to walk around th e room and speak to everyo everyone ne in the class. class. T hey s hould say only only what is written writte n on their slip of paper. Each stud ent tries to find at least least one partner w ith a matching slip.

SOURCES

1 2 3 4 5 6

-

George Orwell: Burme Orwell: Burmese se Days Doris Lessing: Lessing: The Grass is Singing Jane Austen: Em Austen: Em ma Jane Austen: Em Austen: Em ma D. H. Lawrence: Lawrence: Kangaroo D. H. Lawrence: Lawrence: Sons and an d Lovers Lovers Brian Friel: Translations H. E. Bates: Bates: Fair Stood S tood the the Wind for France France H . E. Bates: Bates: Fair Stood S tood the the Wind for France France D. H. Lawrence: Lawrence: Sons and an d Lovers H. E. Bat Bates: es: Fair Stood S tood the the Wind for fo r France France John Fowles: Fowles: The French French Lieutenan Lieute nan fs Woman Woman

Willy Russell: Educatin Edu cating g R ita Paul Theroux: The London Embassy D. H. Lawrence: Lawrence: Kangaroo Anton Chekov: Chekov: Short Stories Stories Somerset Maugham: Maug ham: The Moon and an d Sixpence Joseph Conrad: The Secret Sharer

26

STA R TING PO IN T S

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

ing to Sw im Graham Gra ham Swift: Learn Swift: Learning Willy Russell: Edu Russell: Educatin cating g Rita Rit a E. M. Forster: A Forster: A Passage to to India In dia D. H. Lawrence: Short Sho rt Stories Stories Graham Gra ham Greene: The Tenth Ma n D. H. Lawrence: Short Sho rt Stories Stories E. M. Forster: Fors ter: A A Passage to India Ind ia Jane Austen: Non Austen: Nonhan hanger ger Abbey Ab bey Somerset Maugham: Maugham : The Human Element

EXAMPLES __ _____

1

- 1wa want nt to talk talk to y you ou abo about ut this this that that you sent me. - That? Oh ...

2

- Shall we do this again again some time? - Again and again. Would you like that?

3

- You don don’t ’t think much much of Australia, Australia , then? - Why, how am I to judge?

8

9 - Speaking out may may get you into trouble. - It’s often done so in the past. 10 - 1don’t want you to make fun of me me.. - Don’t you? 11

4

5

6

7

- Now, what is the matter? - Oh, it’s nothing, nothing. Go away. Can’t you see I’m not dressed? - Has anything happened? - My wife has left me. - 1say, 1say, no need to call anyone. anyone. - 1was not not going going to. to. - Someone will go for her with a bread knife one day - and he won’t miss her! - I’m not so sure.

- I’m sorry sor ry I was late. It was unavoidable. - What’s wrong with your voice? Why can’t you talk properly?

- Twenty-fiv Twenty -five e minutes past five. - 1ha 1had d imagined imagined it was later. later.

12 - 1wanted to ask you something. - Did you? What was it? 13 - You should take off your shoes before entering the mosque. - 1already already have have.. 14 - Tell me, what kind of man do you prefer? - Oh, I’ve never thought of it. 15 - Why are are you going to marry him? - He’s got pots of money. I’m nearly twenty-six.

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27

1.5 Split Split poem poem LEVEL___________


TIME ___________

20 minutes

PREPARATION

(twelve to sixteen sixteen 1 Fo r this activity you will need a sho rt poem (twelve lines) lines) which has a fairly regular form. Th at is, the lines should be of roughly equal length. 2 Split each each line line into into two parts , and place the half lines under un der separate columns (A and B). Th e first ha lf of each line line goes under un der column A, the second second und er column B. F or instance: instance: The y are going home/to working wives To cooling beds/at breakfast time A B The y are going home to working wives wives To cooling beds at breakfast time Th en arrange the h alf lines lines in in each column so that they are not in matching matc hing ord er. (See (See task sheet. T he full version of the text tex t follo follows ws the task sheet.) 3 Prepare enough copies copies of the split poem for one one th ird o f the class. class.

IN CLASS_________

classs (or play a recording recordin g of the 1 Read th e poem aloud to the whole clas text). Ask the s tuden ts to recall recall any fragments they can rememb er. 2 (Optional) (Optional) Le t the students hear the poem once once again, but do not ask them to recall recall the text. 3 Ask the studen ts to work in groups groups of three. Give Give each each group a copy of the split poem. Ask them to try to reconstruct the poem by matching the h alf lines lines from columns A and B. class, working as a single single group, gro up, builds up 4 Round Rou nd-up up sess sessio ion. n. Th e class, the poem poe m line by line.

VARIATION_______

With advanced studen ts, the activity activity can be made more challengin challenging g by leaving leaving out the reading of the poem (In (I n class, class, steps 1 and 2), and by asking the groups to work immediately from from the split text. They should look for several different possible combinations o f the half ha lf lines, lines, an d then gradually gradually try to construct the poem.

was originally originally devised to be prese nted in the way N O T E S ________ 1 This activity was described described und er Variation. However, How ever, experience at seminars has shown that teachers teachers generally generally find this approach too difficult. T he modified approach, w hich begins begins with listening to the poem , has proved far more p opular an d by no m eans too eas easy. y. 2 This step-by-step approach allo allows ws the students to work their way way gradually from the language towards towards th e meaning. It is particularly suitable for poems poems which contain striking or unusu al images, for example: ‘They The y live in a dislocation of hours/Insid hou rs/Insid e-out like socks pulled pulled on in darkness.’

28

STARTING POINTS

3 After working with the poem in this this way, the students will be familiar familiar with the tex t. The Th e poem can the n appear appe ar again, as an ‘old ‘old Discussion on topi topics cs 1 . frien d’, in other activities, such as 3.4 Discussi

TASK SHEET

With your p artners, try to reconstruct the the poem by matching the half lines lines from colu mn A with those o f column B. Night-Shift Workers B And ears grew grew num b in a dislocation of hours Going out to w ork unlike others They The y live live in the sky together They The y have come from their th eir skin like clothes clothes Soft as fur from a factory Where sun and moon shine to working wo rking wives wives Where fluorescent fluorescent strips at breakfast time To cooling cooling beds flared all night Undressing fatigue in darkness Waking to machinery They The y are going home and taste teeth Later to wake at four in the morning Inside-o ut like socks socks pulled on when the day is over They The y are always always at an ebb in their mouths

SAM SAMPLE PLE TEXT

N ight ig ht-S -Shi hift ft Worker Wor kerss They have come from a factory factory Where Wh ere fluorescent strips flared all all night And ears grew num b to machinery. machinery. They The y are going home to wo rking wives, wives, To cooling cooling beds at breakfast time, Undressing Und ressing fatigue from the ir skin like clothes. clothes. Later Lat er to wake at four and taste teeth Soft Soft as fur in their mo uths. They The y live in a dislocation dislocation of hours Inside-o ut like socks socks pulled on in darkness Waking when th e day is over. They are alwa always ys at an ebb , unlike others Going out to w ork in the morning Where su n and moon shine in the sky together. together.

(George Charlton: ‘New Angles’)

STARTING POINTS

29

1.6 Word portraits LEVEL


TIME

15 minutes

PREPARATION

1 Fro m a novel, short story, or autobiog raphy, select a striking striking character s ketch. (Two examples are are given in the sample texts.) 2 Make Mak e enough copies for the whole class. class. 3 Prep are for each character a short list of prom pts. These The se should be words or expressions which migh t or might not app ly to the character described. described. In making the lists, try not to use words which actually appear in the text. Here Her e are two specimen lists, one for each of the texts. Text 1 shy dirty clumsy pedantic sarcastic talkative modest

soft-spoken smartly dressed proud punctual self-centred impatient strict

Text 2 skinny sharp-tongued generous sociable strong-willed hypocritical IN CLASS

vam elegant eager to please kind possessive highly intelligent

1 Give Give each stude nt a copy of one of the texts you have chosen, and allow allow four to five minutes min utes for f or silent reading. 2 While the students are reading, write up the promp t words (se (seee an O HP transparency. transparency. Preparation) on the board or on an 3 Ask the students to form groups of three, and to decide which of the pro mp t words are most and which are are least least appropriate to the character. F or each promp t word, they should find find words or line liness in the text to sup port th eir decision decision.. 4 Class discussion. Run th rough th e list of prom pt words, and ask the class to give their views. views. (An economical economical way of recording the ir reactions reactions is is to mark each prom pt word on the board with a tick (/ ) , a minus sign (—), or a ques tion mark m ark (?) (?) to indicate wheth er the word is wholly appropriate, not appropriate, or only partly appropriate.)

NOTES

1 A composition question often seen in textbooks is: is: ‘Describe Describ e in your own words the character o f . . .’ This often results in stilted, uninterestin unin terestin g answers: answers: the th e studen ts are frus trated because they feel feel

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they have noth ing to add to what the au thor tho r has already said. said. And A nd any attem pt to ‘describe the character in y our own w ords’ is likely likely to be superficial because because characters are complex and ca nnot alway alwayss be pinne d down do wn by a few few neat adjectives. adjectives. In this activity, we have inverted th e traditional approach. Instead of working o ut from the text towards rou gh generalizations, the students wo rk back to the text from a general general prompt. And instead of reducing the character, they expand it by discovering discovering how how much is implied but not stated in the text. text. 2 An illustratio n may help to clarify clarify what we have have just said. A group of students in Austria, working on sample text A, unanimously unanim ously agreed tha t the guitar gu itar teacher was ‘soft-spo ‘soft-spoken’. ken’. But they could find no evidence in the text. T hen he n one stud ent said: ‘Well, the w riter says “he knock ed softly at my door and en tered on tiptoe . . I can’t can’t imagine a man with a loud voice voice doing th at .’ This was an importan t remark , because it shows shows that the impressions we gain from a literary literary text are often implied rath er than stated. In India, Ind ia, a gro up reacted in a similar way way to a passage passage from Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. full Abb ey. In this case, the text was longer (a full chapter) involving mainly dialogue between between two young wom en, Catherine and Isabella. Twelve prom pt words were given, which might migh t have applied to either character. One of these words was was and Catherine was not ‘elegant’. elegant. All agreed that Isabella was Jane Austen did not say say so, so, b ut she did imply it through the dialogue. 3 Language. ways in which you can monito r the Langua ge. Th ere are two ways language level: level: a. thro ugh yo ur choice choice of text (text A, we suggest, is less less demanding tha n text B) B) choicee of promp t words, for example, example, proud b. throug h your choic instead of conceited. 4 Pictures. A set of photographs photog raphs or portraits portra its of people people can be used to complement the promp t words. Show the students the photographs photo graphs and ask them w hich picture comes closest closest to their impression o f the chara cter. (See p. 71.) SAMPLE TEXT A

But to be in Seville without a guitar is like being on ice without skates. So every morning, while Kati went dancing with the Maestro Realito, Realito, I took lessons lessons on the instrum ent in my room. My instructor, one of Seville’s most respected professors of the guitar, was a small sad man, exquisitely polite and patient, poorly but neatly dressed, and addicted to bow-ties made of wallpaper. Each day, at the stroke of ten, he knocked softly at my door and entered on tiptoe, as though into a sick room, carrying his guitarcase like like a do ctor’ cto r’ss bag. ‘How are we today?’ he would wou ld ask symp athetically, ‘and ‘and how do we proceed?’ proceed ?’

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Silently, he would place two chairs opposite each other, put me in the one facing facing the light, sit himself himself in the other, and then ponder me long and sadly while I played. In finite compassion, as from from one who has seen much suffering, possessed his face while he listened. An expression also of one who, forced to inhabit a solitary peak of perfection, has nowhere to look but downwards at the waste of a fumbling world. After an ho ur’ ur ’s examination, dur ing which he tested all my faulty coordinations, he would hand me a page of exercises and bid me take them twice a day. Then, with a little bow, his chin resting mournfuly upon his paper tie, he would leave me to visit his next patient. Sometimes - bu t only very occa occasiona sionally lly - he would relax at the end of the lesson, empty his pockets of tobacco dust, roll himself a cigarette, smile, and take up his guitar and play to me for an hour. Then his eyes would turn inward and disappear into the echoing chambers of his mind, while his long white fingers moved over the strings with the soft delica delicacy cy of the b lind, lost in a dream of melody and invention. And faced with the beauty of his technique, the complex harmonies, the ease and grace, the supreme mastery of tone and feeling, I would feel like one of the lesser apes who, shuffling on his knuckles through the sombre marshes, suddenly catches catches sight o f homo sapiens, upr ight igh t on a hill, his gold head raised raised to the sky. with Rosie ) (Laurie Lee: Cider with SAMPLE TEXT B

The Lovely Lady Lady At seventy-two, Pauline Attenborough could still sometimes be mistaken, in the half-light, for thirty. She really was a wonderfully preserved woman, of perfect perfect chic. O f course, it helps a great deal to have the right frame. She would be an exquisite skeleton, and her skull would be an exquisite skull, like that of some Etruscan woman, with feminine charm still still in the swerve swerve of the bone and the pretty naive teeth. Mrs Attenbo Atte nbo roug h’s h’s face face was was of the perfect perfe ct oval, and slightly slightly flat type that wears best. There is no flesh to sag. Her nose rode serenely, in its finely finely bridg ed curve. Only her big grey eyes eyes were were a tiny bit prominent on the surface of her face, and they gave her away away most. Th e bluish lids were heavy, as if they ached sometimes with the strain of keeping the eyes beneath them arch and bright; and at the corners of the eyes were fine little wrinkles which would slacken with haggardness, then be pulled up tense again, to that bright, gay look like a Leonardo woman who really could laugh outright. Her niece Cecilia was perhaps the only person in the world who was aware of the invisible little wire which connected Pauline’s eyewrinkles with Pauline’s will-power. Only Cecilia consciously watched the eyes go haggard and old and tired, and remain so, for

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hours; until Robert came home. Then ping!—the mysterious little wire that worked between Pauline’s will and her face went taut, the wary, haggard, prominent eyes suddenly began to gleam, the eyelids arched, the queer curved eyebrows which floated in such frail arches on Pauline’s forehead began to gather a mocking significance significance,, and an d you had the real lovely lady, in all her charm. She really had the secret of everlasting youth; that is to say, she could don her youth again like an eagle. But she was sparing of it. She was wise enough not to try being young for too many people. H er son Rob ert, in the evenings, evenings, and Sir Sir Wilfred Wilfred K nipe sometimes sometimes in the afternoon to tea; then occasional visitors on Sunday, when Robert was home; for these she was her lovely and changeless self, that age could not wither, nor custom stale; so bright and kindly and yet subtly mocking, like Mona Lisa who knew a thing or two. But Pauline knew more, so she needn’t be smug at all, she could laugh that lovely mocking Bacchante laugh of hers, which was at the same time never malicious, always good-naturedly tolerant, both o f virtues and vices vices.. The former, o f course, taking much more tolerating. So she suggested, roguishly. Only with her niece Cecilia she did not trouble to keep up the glamour. Ciss Ciss was was not very observant, observ ant, anyhow; an d more than t hat, ha t, she was plain; more still, she was in love with Robert; and most of all, she was thirty, and dependent on her Aunt Pauline. Oh, Ceci Cecilia lia!! W hy make music for her! (D. H. Lawrence: The Lovely Lad y)

1.7 Speculation Speculation 1 LEVEL___________

All levels

TIME_____________

15 - 20 minutes minutes

PREPARATION

1 Select Select three or four sh ort texts containing mostly dialogue and very little little description . P articularly suitable for this activity are are dialogue exchanges exchanges which are tense and terse, for instance:

‘What Wh at do we do? ’ ‘We drive straight in .’ or: ‘I say, no need to call anyo ne.’ ‘I was not going to .’ 2 Fo r each passage, passage, write out three brief explanati explanations, ons, one of which is the real interpretation. 3 Prepare Prep are copies copies of the text tex t of your choice and the ta sk sheet for one third of the clas class. s.

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IN CLASS

33

1 Divide the class class into groups of three. Give Give each each grou p a copy copy of the passages. passages. Ask A sk the stud ents to th ink o f any possible possible explanations of what is happening: - Who are the speakers? - Where are they? - Why are they together? - What Wh at is happening, or going to happen? happen? 2 After discussion, the groups exchange exchange ideas. ideas. 3 Now give give each each group a copy of the possible explanations. explanations. Tell T ell them that tha t there are three explanations for each passage, bu t they are not given in order. order . Tw o are invented, inven ted, one is real. Ask them to choose the one they p refer in each case. case. 4 Allow Allow time for discussion before you reveal reveal which explanations are the real r eal ones.

NOTES

1 It is impo rtant to remind the students that the purpose of the activity is is not to guess the righ t explanation, bu t to speculate on what the words might mean, th at is, the studen ts create create their own context. context. However, it is natural for students to want to know the answer. Th is is why answers are given given at the end of the activity. activity. 2 In In class is very class steps 1 and 2, you may find th at the discussion is uneven. Some students may have many ideas, others none at all. all. I f any groups become stuck , let them see the explanation sheet at an earlier stage. stage. T his will help to focus their discussion. 3 Language. o f the virtues o f this activity is is that tha t it can be based Langua ge. One of on linguistically linguistically simple material. I t is not ha rd to find dialogue exchange exchangess which even near-beginners near-beginners can understand. And the explanations do not need to be complex. Yet advanced studen ts can also enjoy working on this ‘simple’ material because, u nlike many of the dialogues in textbooks, it is not self-explanatory, and is open to interpretation. 4 Fo r furth er material illustrating illustrating a similar appro ach, see Maley and Duff: Variations on a Theme.

SOURCES AND KEY__________

1 Gustave Flau bert: Madame Mad ame Bovary Bov ary (explanation 8) 2 H . E. Bates: Fair Stood the the Wind for fo r France France (explanation 9) 3 Joseph Conrad: The Secret Sharer (explanation 7)

SAMPLE TEXTS

1 He rose to go; go; and as if the movem ent had been the signal for their fligh t, Em ma said, sudd enly assuming a gay gay air: air: ‘You have the pa ssports ?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘You are forgetting noth ing?’ ‘No.’ ‘Are you sure?’ ‘Certainly.’ ‘It is at the H otel de Pro vence, is it no t, th at you will will wait for me at midday?’ He nodded. ‘Till tom orrow , th en! ’ said Emma in a last caress; caress; and she watched him go. go. H e did not turn round.

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2 ‘W hat is the proce dure in this to wn?’ he said. ‘Shall ‘Shall we be stopped?’ ‘Th ere is no pro ced ure ,’ the girl said. ‘Some days they stop you, and some days they don’t stop you. T h at’s all.’ ‘Wh at do we do?’ ‘We drive straight in .’ ‘It seems very obvio us.’ ‘It is better to do the obvious thing. Better than trying to be clever.’ 3 ‘W hat’ ha t’ss the matter?’ ma tter?’ I asked in my ordinary tone , speaking down to the face up turn ed exactly exactly und er mine. ‘Cr am p,’ it answered , no louder. Th en slightly anxious, ‘I say, say, no need to call any one .’ ‘I was not going go ing to ,’ I said. ‘Are you alone on d eck?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘I suppose y our captain’s turn ed in?’

TASK SHEET

Below Below are some b rief rie f explanations o f the passages passages you have just read. Some are are inven ted, oth ers are true. Fo r each each passage, select select one explanation only. 1 Th e year is 1956. 1956. Two refugees from Eastern Ea stern Europe Eu rope are talking together in a hotel room in Brussels. Brussels. They suspect that someone someone is listening at the doo r. She talks loudly and clearly, clearly, to make sure that whoever is listening hears the wrong information. 2 A wealthy, ageing film pro duc er describes in his his autobiography how he moored his private yacht in a small small Mediterranean port. He is tired of being pursued by journalists journalists in Nice, Monaco, Cannes. One evening, w hile looking out to sea, he notices a swimmer swimm er clinging clinging to his rope ladder. Another An other journalist? Probably. But she is is most attract attractive. ive. He preten ds, for the mom ent, to be a member o f the crew. crew. 3 Th e scene takes takes place place in Spain, at the height of the Inqu isition. Emma (Emilia (Emilia)) is the d aughter of a rich rich ban ker from Valladol Valladolid. id. He r father, knowing tha t he would be imprisoned by the Inquisition , arranged for his daughter to flee flee to France with a trustwo rthy young man. B ut can the young young man be trusted?

4 Th e scene scene takes place place in provincial provincial France at the height of the revolutionary revolutionary terror. An Englishman, the ‘Scarlet Scarlet Pim pernel’, who helps Fren ch noblemen to escape to England, is now now himself in great danger. H e is being pursued. A young peasant peasant girl, girl, however, agrees to help him. Disguised in wo rker’s clothes, he will will drive with her in the farm cart, thr ough the town and to safety.

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5 The Th e scene takes place in a small small bay along along the coast of Florida. An American coastguard, disguised as as an ordinary yachtsman , is waiting to trap a small small boat run by drug smugglers. While he is waiting, a swimmer sudde nly appears alongside. alongside. The coa stguard suspects he may be one of the smugglers. 6 A remote remo te town in South America has been taken over by a fanatical fanatical religious religious sect. One of the mem bers, a girl of seventeen seventeen has secretly written to a journalist asking him to write an expose expose of the sect. T he first and mo st dangerous step is to to introdu ce him unnoticed into the town. 7 Th e time is around arou nd 1880 1880.. The T he captain of an old-fashioned sailing sailing ship is becalmed becalmed in the south China sea, miles miles from land (the nearest land is the b ottom o f the sea!). sea!). I t is night. As he looks over the side of the boat, boa t, he sees a man in the water. T he captain is astonished. W here could the man have come from? But he remains outw ardly calm. calm. 8 An attractive woman in her mid-30s, unhappily marrie d to a man of provincial importance (in 19th 19th century F rance), rance ), is planning to elope the next ne xt day with her young, wealthy lover. lover. He , in fact, will will not come to the rendezvous. 9 It is wartime in occupied France (1943 (1943). ). An injured British pilot, who has been sh eltered by a sympathetic farm er, is being well cared for by the farmer ’s daughter. daug hter. However, to obtain supplies, they must mu st go to the nearest (occupied) town. She does does not dare to go alone, and her father cannot go with her. Th e pilot must go with her.

1.8 Personal choice LEVEL

Low er intermed inter mediate iate to advanced advan ced

TIME_____________

20 minutes

PREPARATION

Select four short s hort poems (ten to twenty lines) lines) which you thin k 1 Select your students will will understand w ithout much difficulty, difficulty, and make copies, one for each each studen t. 2 Th en prepar p reparee a questionna ire on the following following lines: lines:

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Questionnaire Read throu gh th e four poems you are are given. given. Th en decide which poem and a nd which wh ich lines you would choose in response to th e questions. 1 If you had to translate one of the poems, which would it be? Which Wh ich line(s) would you find mo st difficult? 2 If you were asked to illustrate one of the the poems with a photo graph or a sketch, which would you choose choose?? Which line(s) line(s) would provide the focus for for your illustrations? 3 If somebody wanted to set one one o f the the poems to music, which would you suggest? Are ther e any lines which co uld be repea ted, as a refrain? 4 If you you had th e chance of talking to all all four poets, which would you yo u most like to meet ? Whic h line(s) line(s) would you ask him or her to explain? explain?

3 Make enough copies of the questionn aire for one third of the the class. IN CLASS

1 Give Give each each stude stu dent nt a copy of the poems. Allow four to five minutes for silent reading. reading. 2 (Optional) Ask the students to turn over the sheet so so tha t they cannot see the texts, and to note down any words or lines lines they can remember. 3 Ask the students to form groups of three, and give give each each group a copy of the questionnaire. (See (See Preparation.) After ten minutes, each group joins joins another to compare their responses.

NOTES

1 You will notice tha t the one question which is not no t directly asked in the questionn aire is: is: W hich poem do you like best/least? best/least? The reason for not asking this is tha t the question rarely yields yields a satisfactory answer. It is very difficult, p articularly articula rly in a foreign foreign language, to say why you do or do not like a piece of writing. writing . However, in responding to question 1 (Which poem would you choose choose to translate?), the studen ts are free to to discuss the question of personal likes an d dislikes if they wan t to. 2 Another question which is deliberately deliberately not raised raised is is that of quality. quality. T he students are not required to say say whether they think a poem is good or bad. Bu t they are given given an opp ortunity to comment on quality in a direc t, do wn-to-earth wn-to -earth way by selecting certain certa in lines for special attention.

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3 This Th is activity activity illustrates what we we meant mea nt in the main Introduc main Introduction tion by using literatu re for language practice, just as we would use any other material.

SOURCES

__ ___ 1

Roger McGough: ‘Storm’ 2 Verity Bargate: ‘Wasp ‘Wasp Poem ’ 3 Michael Swan: Swan: ‘No ‘No thing to E at’ 4 W. B. Yeats: Y eats: ‘He ‘He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’ Hea ven’

SAMPLE SAMPLE TEX TEX TS __ ___ 1 Storm Th ey’re at it again again the wind and the rain It all started when the wind took the window window by the collar collar and shook it with all its might migh t Then the rain butted in Wha t a din the y’ll y’ll be at it all night nig ht Serves Serves them righ t if they go home in the m orning and th e sky won’t won’t let them in. 2 Wasp Poem Today I drowned a wasp wasp that I Fou nd floating floating in my wine. wine. Its life no longer is its own, bu t neither is it mine. With cool cool precision precision turned by hate I drowned it in the sink it struggled in the water bu t I didn ’t stop to think. I did n’t feel feel a pang at all, all, I did n’t n’t change change my mind , I did n’t n’t even, really, feel feel that this was cruel, cruel, unk ind. If metamorp hosis exists perhaps perha ps a wasp I ’ll be and I won’ w on’tt feel resen tmen t if you do the same to me. I may regret the sunshine, the pollen and the jam, bu t I ’ll understand you’re you’re drowning me because I’m what I am.

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3 Nothing to Eat She had nothin g to eat. They m ade a film film about her because she had nothing to eat. Her husband was killed in th e war. They wrote a book about how he was killed in the war. Her brother and mother were were executed by the revolutionary guards. Th ere was an opera about it. Both her children died (there was no hospital). You can see see the pho tographs at an exhibition in Lon don. Th en somebody wrote a poem. poem. Still she had n othing to eat. 4 He W ishes for the Cloths Cloths of Heaven Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths, Enw rought w ith golden and silver silver light, The blue and the dim and the d ark cloths cloths O f night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths un der your feet: feet: But I , being poo r, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams und er your feet; feet; Tread softly softly because because you tread o n my dreams.

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1.9 Odd man out LEVEL

Intermediate

TIME


PREPARATION

Fo r each studen t, m ake sets sets of three three short texts which are in some way similar. F or example, they deal with the same theme, they are comparable in register (formal or informal), or they are draw n from similar sources. One of the passages should have a particular particu lar feature which m akes it stand out from the other two (one (one text might be a satire satire or parody, or one might be different in meaning from the others).

IN CLASS

Give Give the students the task sheets, and ask them to decide which is the odd man o ut, and why.

NOTES

1 Th e main drawb ack of this activity activity is is tha t it takes some time time to prepare. prepar e. How ever, it also has several several advantages: advantages: a. It is a useful warm-up activity. Stu dents enjoy trying to spot the odd man out. (You may may need to remind them that there is no final final answer: answer: the odd man ou t could be any of the passage passages, s, provided the students stud ents can give reasons reasons to justify their answers.) b. Th e activity requires close attentio n to the use of language. It also trains students to refer back to the text in their reasoning. c. It gives gives you the opportunity to introduce texts which the students may w ork on later in greater depth in other activitie activities. s.

SOURCES

1 a) a) F red re d Hoyle: The Nature Natu re o f the Universe Universe b) Jane Austen: Northanger Austen: Northanger Abbey Ab bey ok Bac B ackk in Anger c) Joh n Osborne: Lo Osborne: Look 2 a) Mostar: a guide R ed Train Train Ride b) Eric Newby: The Big Red c) Edinburgh: Edinbu rgh: A guide to to the city 3 a) Ed mu nd Spenser: a sonnet b) Roger McGough: ‘Valerie’ ‘Valerie’ c) Ed m un d Waller: ‘Go ‘Go Lovely Rose!’

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TASK SHEET

In each of the sets of passage passagess below, one text stands out as being in some way way different from th e oth er two. Decide which is the ‘odd ‘odd man o ut’ and why. 1 a) You might like to ask why the Sun is able to supply its own light, heat, and energy, whereas the the Earth and the other planets only shine feebly with th e aid of borrow ed light. Strange as it it may seem, it is best to start this pro blem by considering the interior of the Earth. b) Th e morrow brough t a very sober-looki sober-looking ng morning , the sun making mak ing only a few efforts to appear; and Ca therine augur ed from it everything mo st favourable to her wishes. A brigh t morning mor ning so early in the year, she allowed, allowed, would generally tur n to rain; bu t a cloudy cloudy one foretol foretold d improvemen t as the day advanced. c) Your mother and I were so happy then. It seemed seemed as though we had everything e verything we could ever want. I thin k the last day the sun shone was when that dirty little little train steamed out of that crowded, suffocati suffocating ng Indian station, and the battalion band playing for all all it was worth. I knew in my heart hea rt it was all all over then. Everything. 2 a) Ju st as Paris would not no t be what it is witho ut the Seine, Seine, or Leningrad w ithout the Neva, or Vienna Vienna without the Dan ube, so Mo star would not be what it is if there were no N eretva. Reaching the town from the nor th, the river divides divides it with its its green waters and u nites it with its bridges. bridges. b) Leningr Len ingrad ad is a city of canals, a northe no rthe rn Venice of such beauty that there is no absurdity in the comparison, and as the taxi taxi raced down the Nevski Prosp ekt, over what looked like like pure ice, it seemed, with th e huge flakes of snow driftin g down into it out of the darkness of the the north ern nig ht, yet another enchanted, frozen waterway. waterway. c) Edinbu Ed inbu rgh is a city unlike any other. It has been called called ‘the ‘the Athens of the N ort h’ and had its site site compared with the sevens hills on which Rome was built. But Athen s (‘ ( ‘the Edinbu rgh o f the South’?) South’?) is is in truth not more dramatic to look at, a nd if i f you search diligently you can find at least a dozen hills hills within within the E dinbu rgh boundaries. 3 a) My love is like to ice, and I to fire: How comes it then the n that th at this he r cold so great Is not dissolved throu gh my so hot desire? b) Discretion is is the better part o f Valeri Valeriee (thoug h all of her is nice) lips as warm as strawberries eyes as cold as ice.

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c) Go, lovely Rose! Tell her, that wastes wastes her time and me, Th at now she knows, When I resemble her to thee, How sweet and fair she seems to be.

KEY TO TASKSThe odd man out in each set set could be: be: 1 a) because it is not no t from a literary literar y source c) because the sun is used metaphorically here: ‘the last day the sun shone’ sh one’ = the last day I was truly happ y. (In passages passages a and b, the sun is simply the sun.)

2 b) because it is not tak en from a tourist broc hure a) because there is no direct com parison between one city and another ano ther,, as there is in b (Lening (Leningrad rad . . . a northern Veni Venice ce), ), and c (Edinb urgh . . . ‘the ‘the Athens of the No rth ’). 3 c) because the poet is praising, not criticizing, criticizing, his his love love ‘m odern od ern ’ (passages (passages a and c are both b) because th e language is ‘m from the 17th 17th century).

1.10 Autho Authors’ rs’ comments LEVEL___________

Intermediate

TIME_____________

15 - 20 minutes

PREPARATION

Fro m novels novels or short stories, select select a num ber of short shor t passa passages ges of 1 From dialogue which also also include comments by the autho r on how the characters speak. For instance: ‘Has anything an ything ha ppened? ppe ned? ’ I asked. ‘My wife has left m e.’ He could hardly get the words out. 2 Remove some of the autho rs’ comments commen ts from the passages passages (in (in this case, He H e could hardly get the words words out), and list these comments on a separate sheet. Th en write out th e passages passages leaving leaving gaps gaps for the missing comments. N um ber be r each each of the gaps. (See sample texts.) 3 Make enough copies of the sample texts texts and auth ors’ comments for one thir d of o f the class. class.

IN CLASS_________

1 Ask the students to work in groups of three. Give each each group a copy of the sample texts. Ex plain that the gaps in the text indicate places places where a comm ent by the auth or has been left out. Ask the students stude nts to suggest how they think the words were spoken in each case (hesitantly? roughly? softly?). 2 Each grou p exchanges exchanges suggestion suggestionss with another.

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3 Now han d out copies copies of the autho aut hors’ rs’ comm ents, not in matching order. Ask the stud ents to choose an appropriate appro priate com ment for each each gap. I f several several comm ents seem suitable, they should note th eir preferences. 4 After a short ro und-u un d-u p discussion, reveal reveal the original original combinations.

1 Th e passages passages used in this activity should be sufficiently sufficiently long to give give the stude nts a clear clear picture o f the speakers and of their relationship to one another. When you first try out the activity, you could make it easier by using only one, or perh aps two, of the sample texts. 2 Th e activity activity is, is, in fact, a form of reading comprehensio n. In In trying to guess guess what kind of comments comments the author m ight have made made stu dents ts are searching for clues in the (In class, class, steps 1 and 2), th e studen text. I n text 3, for instance, we are told told tha t Meg had taken ‘the most ins tant dislike’ d islike’ to the strange man who climbed into h er car. Therefore The refore , when he says his first words (‘How kind ’) there must m ust be something in his voice tha t irritates Meg. This is the k ind o f conclusion conclusion the studen ts should be reaching reaching in their discussion. La ter, when w hen they are asked to select select the most suitable comm ent from th e list, they will be looking looking for a remark rem ark which matches the ir own suggestions, even though thou gh it may be differently worded (He said in a reedy, pedagogic voice). 3 See also the th e Notes to the companion activity (2.7 Suggesting the words). Original wording: 1 c 6 2 h 7 3 m 8 9 4 1 5 i 10

0 1 a g k

11 12 13 14 15

d e f n b

1 ‘Can I come in?’ in ?’ he asked. asked . In th e dimness o f the landing land ing I could no t see him very well, but there was was something something in his voice voice (1) (1) . . . I led led the way way into my sitting-room and asked him to sit down. ‘Th ank an k God I’ve I’ve found y ou ,’ he said. ‘W ha t’s t’s the matte r?’ I asked asked (2) . . . I was able now to see see him well. well. As a rule he was neat in his his person, but now his clothes were in disorder. I was convinced he had been drinking , and I smiled. smiled. ‘I didn’t know where to go,’ he (3) . . . ‘I came here earlier, but you weren’t weren’t in .’

STARTING POINTS

43

I changed my mind: it was was not liquor that had driven driven him to this obvious desperation. His hands trembled. ‘Has anything an ything h appened?’ appe ned?’ I asked. ‘My wife has left le ft me. me . ’ He (4 ). . . Sixpence) (Somerset Maugham: The Moon and Sixpence)

2 I rang him up , without with out stopp ing to think how late late it was: was: he was was in, and I asked him to come come round. In half an hour he came. came. We settled down on the hearthrug, holding hands and drinking Maxwell Maxwell House. Hou se. I do n’t n’t know in what d irection we were heading because just as I was settling down into a warm, companionable and harmless em brace the ’phone ’phone rang. ‘Damn, damn, damn,’ I said. ‘Who the hell can that be at this time of night?’ ‘D on’ on ’t answer it ,’ he said. said. Th is I took to be (5 ). . ., so I didn’ didn ’t answer it. But it went on and on ringing, until on the twentysixth ring I felt I had to reply. I tho ugh t it might be an accident. accident. I lifted up the receiver receiver and said said my numb er (6 ). . . ‘Sarah, is that you?’ It was Louise. ‘Louise,’ I said (7) . . ., and speaking straight to her for the first time in my life. ‘Louise, what in God’s name do you mean by ringing people up at this unspeakable hour o f night. I ’ve never never heard of anything so so absu rd.’ ‘Look, Sarah, I’m terribly sorry to have woken you,’ she said (8 ). . ., on the other end of the line. line. ‘I ‘I couldn’ couldn ’t think wh at to do. The most awful unspeakable thing has happened. I simply can’t believe believe i t . . .’ She sounded (9) . . ., and her voice voice (10 ). . . ‘You mean mea n you’ you ’re going to have a baby?’ bab y?’ I said said (11) (1 1).. . as this was the sort of event that usually calls forth such incredulous clamour. ‘Oh n o ,’ she said said (12). (12 ). . . ‘N ‘N othin g as as corny as that, th at, b ut just as stupid.’ (Margaret Drabble: A Summer Summ er Bird-Cage) 3 (Meg has stopped stoppe d on the motorway at nigh t to pick up a girl who is hitch-hiking hitch- hiking . . . ) ‘Please Please get get in,’ in ,’ Meg said, and leaned over to open the door beside her. Then two things happened at once. The girl simply simply got got into the back of the car - Meg heard her open the door and shut it gently, and a man, wearing a large black overcoat and a soft black hat tilted over his forehead slid into the seat beside her. ‘How kin d,’ he said said (13 (13)) . . . (almost (almost as though he was was practising to be someone else, Meg thought); ‘we were wondering whether anyone at all would come to our aid, and it proves that charming charm ing young women like yourself behave as as they appear. The Good Samaritan is invariably invariably feminine these day s.’

STARTING POINTS

Meg, who had taken the most instant dislike to him of anyone she had ever met in life, said (14) . . . Then, beginning to feel bad about this, she asked: ‘How far are you going?’ ‘Ah, now that will surprise you. My secretary and I broke down this morning on our way up, or down to Town,’ he (15) . . .; ‘and it is imperative that we present ourselves in the right place place at the righ t time this evening.’ (Elizabeth (Elizabeth Jane Howard: M r Wrong) Authors’ comments: a agitated b sniggered c that surprised me d snappily e brigh tly, catching my tone tone of voice voice f in a reedy, reedy , pedagogic pedagogic voice voice g tremulous h in astonishm ent at his vehemence i an indication of affection affection j could cou ld hard h ardly ly get g et the th e words wo rds o ut k faded away away 1 furiousl usly m burst out n nothing at all o crossly

2 General approach approaches es Introduction Have you ever said to yourself: ‘I’ve I’ve got good material, material , b u t I ’m n ot sure how to use it ’? If you have, you will be in good company. Many teachers make this remark. This is why we have devoted one entire section (and an Appendix) to approaches which can can be used with many different kind s of material. We should ad d, however, that these general general approaches are not b lanket approaches. T hey can not be used indiscriminately indiscriminately on just any text. Fo r each approach, certain materials materials will will be more suitable than others. In Section 1, we already already suggested certa in activities which could be extended and ex panded by using different different materials. materials. Thre e examples are 1.6 Word portraits, portraits, 1.7 Speculation 1, and 1.8 Personal Section 2, we show show how these and other approaches choice. He re, in Section can be developed. Before we move on to the activities themselv es, the re are two general points which should be raised: raised: 1 Flexibility. Any text can be appro ached in several several different ways, depend ing on wh at aspect you choose choose to to focus focus on: language, theme, depiction o f character, o r physical physical detail. detail. It is possible, possible, the refore, to use a text first in one way way and th en to come back to it using a different approach. F or example, students can work on fragments fragments of dialogue (as in 1.4 Sp lit exchan exchanges ges)) without needing to know the context. Lat er, they can consider these these same fragments in a fuller fuller context conte xt (as in 2.7 Suggesting the words, words, or in 4.4 Translation 1). th ey will have 2 Similarity. All texts, of course, are different. But they features in common. Descriptions of places places and people tend to follow follow a similar patte rn (see (see 2.6 Character sketches), sketches), and dialogue may be presented with or without the aut ho r’s r’s comment (see (see 1.10 1.10 Authors’ Authors ’ commen comments ts and 2.7 Suggesting the words). The function of a general approac h is to poin t out these similarities in tex ts, and so make it easier for you you to find furth er material to suit the activity. activity.

About the activities As we men tioned in the main Introduction, main Introduction, one of the great advantages of literature is its its suggestive suggestive power. W hat is m eant is usually usually more tha n what is said. said. F or instance, in 2.7 Suggesting the words, text 2:

46

GENERAL APPROACHES

Mama Me Mama Me Mama

Who is this friend o f yours? yours? A girl called Gill Slater. And what does she do? do? O h, she’s she’s a - she’s she’s a sort of research studen t. Oh yes? Well, it sounds like a very nice idea.

W hen ‘M ama’ am a’ says ‘it ‘it soun s ounds ds like a very nice idea’, idea ’, this is clearly clearly not what she means. ‘Mama’ Ma ma’ is worried about th e idea of her daug hter sharing a flat flat with a friend in L ond on, far away away from from home. In the activities, we have tried to show how this suggestive power in literature can be drawn ou t. H ence the emphasis on speculation predicting what might happ en, or what might be said - in activit activities ies such as 2.2 Specula Speculatio tion n 2 , 2.3 Storylin Storylines es 1 , 2.6 Character sketches, 2.7 Suggesting the words. Many oth er activities activities in this book are also suitable for speculation, fro m dialogue, and 4.11 including 3.2 Creating situations from 4.11 Writing. In General approaches, approaches, we have also suggested ways of dealing w ith longer texts, such as novels novels and short stories (see (see 2.3 2.3 Storylines I and 2.8 Completing the picture), without requiring the studen ts to read the full text in advance. A nd, for teachers with a taste for classical literature, we have included a short activity (2.1 Quote unquote) which may he lp to give fresh life to over-familiar set works or examination texts.

2.1 Quote Quote unquote unquote LEVEL___________

Intermediate

TIME_____________


PREPARATION

1 Select Select three or fo ur short sho rt quotations from any works of literature, literatu re, for instance:

A little little learning is a dangerous thin g. (Alexander Pope) No man is an island, entire of its el f. . . (John Donne) Dictionary of o f (A useful source of furth er ideas ideas is the Oxford Dictionary Quotations.) 2 Prepare Prepa re one or more sets of three quotations qu otations and make copies for one thir d o f the class. class. IN CLASS_________

class to call out ou t the names of some well 1 Class discussion. Ask the class known public figures figures and institutions institutions in their city city or country. Write these up in separate columns, for instance: instance:

G ENERAL APPROACHES

A Ringo Starr Barbara Cartland Peter Ustinov Glenda Jackson

47

B The House of Lords Lords Manchester United Th e RSPCA RSPCA The Londo n Stock Exchan Exchange ge

2 Ask the students to work in groups of three. Give them these instructions: ‘Imagine th at one of the people from column A has been invited to give give a speech by one of the institution s in colum n B. Choose one of the public pub lic figures and decide where he or she will will speak, and on what occasion. occasion. F or example, you migh t decide that Glenda Jackson is going going to speak at the opening of a new building for the London Stock Exchange.’ (These British examples are given as as illustrations. In the activity, the people and places places you choose will will more likely likely be from your own country.) 3 Ask the groups to decide decide what the most important point in the speech will be. be. W hen they have decided, they write out ten or twelve twelve sentences illustrating illustrating this p oint (in English, because many foreign guests have been invited). 4 After abo ut five minutes, min utes, give give each group a set of three quotations. Ask them to choose any one one of the quotation qu otations, s, and to work it into the ir speech. speech. 5 Wh en the groups are ready, ask ask one person from each group to deliver their speech to th e rest o f the class. class. VARIATION 1

Instead o f giving the stu dents den ts a few few short qu otations, you can give give them one longer text (a sonnet, or a monologue monologue from a play) and leave them free to select any words or lines they wish.

VARIATION 2

Instead o f asking one studen t in each each group to deliver the speech, suggest that all three members take part. Each stude nt then the n speaks a short part of the text they have have prepared. This helps to make it more o f a joint activity. Variation 2, 2 , see Maley and Duff: Drama (For development of Variation Techniqu Techniques es in Language Learnin Lea rning g .)

NOTES

1 This Th is is a challenging yet most mos t enjoyable activity. It will probably proba bly work best b est if the stud ents are already already familiar familiar with approaches such as those those suggested su ggested in Section 1. 1. 2 Improvisation Improvisation is an important par t of this acti activit vity. y. T he students should be given enough time to make a rough draft of o f the speech, bu t they should also be ready to speak off the cuff if they are not fully prepared. 3 If you are working with set books, Or with textbooks which contain literary passages, you could take sample quotation s from passages passages the studen ts already know. Th eir familiarity familiarity with the words will lend added interest.

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GENERAL APPROACHES

SAMPLE TEXTS

1 Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have have greatness thr ust u pon them. (Shakespeare: Malvolio in Twelfth Night) 2 Wa Water, ter, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. (Coleridg (Coleridge: e: ‘The Th e Rime Rim e of the Ancient M ariner’ ariner ’)

3 A dog starved at his master ma ster’’s gate Predicts th e ruin of the State. (William Blake: ‘Aug ‘Auguries uries of o f Innocen Inn ocence’ ce’)) 4 Tu rning and turnin g in the widening widening gyre gyre The Th e falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things Thing s fall fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon upo n the world. (W. B. Yeats: ‘The Second Coming’) 5 All the world w orld ’s a stage, And all the men a nd women w omen merely players: players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts. (Shakespeare: (Shakespeare: Jaques Ja ques in As A s You Like Li ke It) It ) 6 We need to be able to lose lose our minds mi nds in order to come to our senses. senses.

2.2 Speculation 2 LEVEL___

Intermediate

TIME______

15 minutes

PREPARATION

1 Fro m a novel or sho rt story, select select a passag passagee of dialogue dialogue which is more or less less free free from comment by the auth or. On one sheet, copy out the dialogue (passa (passage ge 2). 2). On two othe r sheets, copy ou t the paragraphs which come before (passage 1) and after the dialogue (passage 3). (See sample texts A and B.)

2 Make enough copies of your texts for one third o f the class. class. IN CLASS CLASS

1 Ask the stud ents to form groups of three. Give Give each each group a copy copy of the dialogue (passage (passage 2) 2) in your sample text A. Ask them the m to deduce what they can about the situation: - Who is talking , about whom, whom, where, where, and a nd why?

Allow Allow time for the group s to com pare impressions. 2 Give the groups gro ups copies of the passage which comes before the dialogue (passage 1). Ask them to check their predictions against the text. 3 Before Before giving giving out the third passage, passage, ask the studen ts to decide (in (in this case) how Mary feels about what she has just heard, and whether, wh ether, for instance, she feels feels::

GENERAL APPROACHES

angry bored anxious shocked

49

indifferent surprised disbelieving self-pitying self-pitying

hu rt relieve relieved d jealous vengeful

4 To complete the discussion, give give the groups copies of passage 3. Which o f the words above do they now thin k are most/least most/least appropriate? NOTES

1 This is basical basically ly a warm -up exercise exercise which could be used to prep are the students stude nts for a more extended activity, such as 2.8 Completing the picture. 2 Translation. An intere sting way of extending this activity is to ask the stu dents den ts to trans late the dialogue (passa (passage ge 2) 2) before proceeding to speculate about the situation. After the speculation (In (I n class class,, step 4), ask the students to suggest suggest improvements to their translation s of the dialogue. 3 (Optional) Listening. (Optional) Listening. Before handing hand ing out passages passages 1 and 3, you may want wan t to play a recording of passage passage 2 if you are able to obtain one. 4 Short also be used to introduce Sho rt storie stories. s. The same approach may also students stud ents to a shor t story. An example is is given in sample sample text B. 5 See See also also the techniques suggested in 2.3 Storylines 1. 1.

SAMPLE TEXT A

2

‘She’s ‘She’s not no t fifteen any longer: it is ridiculous! ridiculous ! Someone should sho uld tell tell her about h er clothes’. ‘How old is she?’ ‘M ust be b e well well over thirty. She has has been going strong fo r years. years. She was working long before I began working, and that was a good twelve years years ago.’ ago .’ ‘Why doesn’t she marry? She must have had plenty of chances.’ Th ere was a dry chuckle. ‘I don’ do n’tt think thin k so. My husb and was keen on her h imself once, bu t he thinks she wil willl never marry. She just isn’t isn’t like that, tha t, isn’t isn’t like that at all. all. Something missing missing somewhere.’ ‘Oh , I do n’t n’t know .’ ‘She’s gone off so much, in any case. The other day I caught sight of her in the street and hardly recognized her. It’s a fact! The way she plays all those games, her skin is like sandpaper, and sh e’s e’s got so so thi n. ’ ‘But she’s she’s such a nice gir l.’ ‘She’ll She’ll never set the rivers on fire, tho ug h.’ ‘She’d make someone someon e a good wife. Sh e’s e’s a good sort, M ary. ar y.’’ ‘She should marry someone years older than herself. A man of fifty would suit her . . . you’ll see, she will marry someone old enough to be her father one of these these days.’ ‘One never can tell!’ >1

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GENERAL APPROACHES

1 She was in the house of a married ma rried friend , sitting on the verandah, veran dah, with a lighted room behind her. She was alone; and heard people talking in low voices, and caught her own name. She rose to go inside and declare herself: it was typical of her that her first thoug ht was, how unpleasant it would be for her friends to know she had overheard. Then she sank down again, and waited for a suitable moment to pretend she had just come in from the garden. This was the conversation she listened to, while her face burn ed and her hands w ent clammy clammy.. >€ 3 Th ere was was another chuckle, good-hearted good-hearted enough, but it sounded cruelly malicious to Mary. She was stunned and outraged; bu t most of all all deeply deeply wounded that her friends could discuss her thus. She was so naive, so unconscious of herself in relation to other people, that it had never entered her head that people could discuss her behind her back. And the things they had said! She sat there writhing, twisting her hands. Then she composed herself and went back into the room to join her treacherous friends, who greeted her as cordially as if they had not just that m oment driven knives into her heart and thrown her quite off balance; she could not recognize herself in the picture they had made of her! her! (Doris Lessing: The Grass is Singing ) SAMPLE SAMPLE TEXT TEXT B

2

‘W ha t’s t’s the letter, darling? I did n’t n’t know there there had been a post.’ ‘I t’s from Joseph ine. It came yesterday .’ ‘But you haven’t even opened it!’ she exclaimed without a word of reproach. ‘I don ’t want to think about h er. ’ ‘But, Bu t, darlin g, she may be ill.’ ‘N ot s he.’ ‘Or in distress.’ ‘She earns more with her fashion-designs than I do with my stories.’ ‘Darling, Dar ling, le t’s t’s be be kind. We can afford afford to be. We are so so hap py .’ So he opened th e letter. It was affectionat affectionatee and uncom plaining and he read it with distaste.

>1

GENERAL APPROACHES

51

1 How wonderfully w onderfully secure and peaceful peaceful a genuine marriage seemed to Carter, when he attained it at the age of forty-two. He even enjoyed every momen mo men t of the church ch urch service, service, except when he saw Josephine wiping away a tear as he conducted Julia down the aisle. It was typical of this new frank relationship that Josephine was there at all. He had no secrets from Julia; they had often talked together o f his his ten torm ented years with Josephine, of her extravagant jealously, jealously, of her well-timed hysterics. ‘It was her insecurity,5Julia argued with understanding, and she was quite convinced that in a little while it would be possible to form a friendship with Josephine. Josephine. ‘I doub t it, darling .’ ‘Why? I can’ can ’t help being fond of anyone anyone who loved you .’ ‘It was a rathe r cruel love.’ ‘Perhaps at the end when she knew she was losing you, but, darling, there were happy years.’ ‘Yes.’ But he wanted to forget that he had ever loved anyone before Julia. Her generosity sometimes staggered him. On the seventh day of their honeymoon, when they were drinking retsina in a little restaurant on the beach by Sunium, he accidentally took a letter from Josephine out of his pocket. It had arrived the day before and he h e had concealed it, for fear of hu rting Julia. It was typical of Josephine that she could not leave him alone for the brief period of the honeymoon. Even her handwriting was now abhorrent to him - very neat, very small, small, in black ink the colour of her hair. Julia was was platinum-fair. How h ad he ever thoug thoug ht that black hair was beautiful? O r been impatien t to read letters in black ink? >1

52

GENERAL APPROACHES APPROACHES

3 Dear P hilip, I did n’t n’t want to be a death’s death’s head head at the reception, so I had no chance to say goodbye and wish you both the greatest possible possible happiness. I tho ugh t Julia looked looked terribly beautiful and so very, very young. You must look after her carefully. I know how well well you can can do th a t, Philip P hilip dear. dear. When W hen I saw her, I couldn’t couldn’t help wondering why you took such a long time to make up your mind to leave me. Silly Philip. It’s much less painful to act quickly. I do n’t n’t suppose you are interested intere sted to to hear abou t my activities activities now, b ut just in case case you are worrying worrying a little little about me - you know what an old worrier you are - I want you to know that I ’m working very hard at a whole whole serie seriess for - guess, the Fre nch have Vogue. They are paying me a fortune in francs, and I simply have no time for unhap py thoug hts. I ’ve been back once once - I hope you don ’t m ind - to our ap artmen t (slip (slip of the tongue) tongue) because I’d I’d lost a key sketch. sketch. I found it at the back of our com munal drawer - the ideas-bank, do you remember? I thoug ht I ’d taken all my stuff away, but there it was between the leaves of the story you started that heavenly summer, and never finished, at Napoule. Now I’m rambling on when all I really wanted to say was: Be happy both of you. Love, Josephine. Carter hande d the letter to Julia and said, ‘It could have been been worse.’ ‘But Bu t would she like me to read it? ’ ay we Borrow Borrow your Husband? Husband ?) (Graham Greene: Greene: ‘Mortma Mo rtmain’, in’, from M from May

-x

2.3 Storylines 1 LEVEL

Interm Inte rmedia ediate te to advanc adv anced ed

TIME_____________

20 - 25 minutes

PREPARATION

shor t story or a chap ter from a novel (approximately 1 Choose a short fifteen pages). pages). From Fr om each page of the story, select select one or two key sentences; th at is, ones wh ich give give an indication of the storyline. Write ou t these sentences sentences in in order and m ake them up into a task sheet. (See sample text.) If you wish to mak e the activity slightly slightly easier, easier, you could also also add the o pening paragraph an d the ending. 2 Make enough copies copies of your task sheet for one third of the class. class.

IN CLASS_________

three. Give Give each each group a 1 Ask the stude nts to work in groups of three. copy of your task sheet. T he students discuss what they they thin k happens happ ens in the story, and find a possible explanation for each of the sentences.

GENERAL APPROACHES

53

2 After discussion discussion (ten (ten minutes), the groups compare their different versions of the story. 3 Class discussion. Ask the class class to call call out those sentences from the story which they they found most difficult difficult to explai explain. n. Let the m compare their the ir suggestions. Finally , reveal reveal what actually happene hap pened d in the story. NOTES___________

1 This activity helps to overcome one of the main difficulties of working w ith literatu re in class: class: how to deal with longer texts. Here, the stud ents are in a sense sense skimming through a longer text which they may later read on the ir own. You will will find tha t the interest aroused is usually usually great and that, by the end of the activity, activity, the stu den ts actually want to read the whole text. text. This eagerness to know wh at happens is not easily easily aroused when stu dents den ts are simply asked to plod thro ugh the text page by page. page. 2 Although Altho ugh the activity activity is best suited to unfamiliar material, it can also also be used as a form o f memory memo ry test to refre sh familiar texts, a nd it is particularly s uitable for revising set works or texts which may feature in examinations.

VARIATION_______

This Th is activity can also also be done orally orally througho throu gho ut.

IN CLASS_________

w hole class class.. 1 Read th e selected sentences aloud to the whole 2 Th en read the opening paragraph and the first first of the selecte selected d sentences sentences.. Ask the studen ts to suggest suggest what is happening. T hen go on to the second of the sentences. C ontinue in the same way through to the end. In th e oral variation, variation, you could try giving the the students longer fragments from the story. story.

SAMPLE SAMPLE TE TEX XT

Po iso is o n Opening It mu st have been been around midn ight when I drove home, and as I approached the gates gates of the bungalow I switched switched off the the headlamps of the car so the beam wo uldn’t uldn’t swing in through the window of the side side bedroom and wake H arry Pope. But I nee dn’t dn’t have bothered. Coming up the drive I noticed his light was still on, so he was awake anyway anyway - unless perhaps h e’d e’d dro pped off while while reading. reading. Fragments 1 I could coul d see he was awake. But he didn di dn ’t move. 2

‘Fo r God’s God’s sake don’ do n’tt make a noise. Take your shoes shoes off before you come nearer nea rer . . . ’

3

He was wearing a pair of pyjamas with blue, brown and white stripes, stripes , and an d he was was sweating sweating terribly. ‘W hat is it, Ha rry . . . O h, my G o d !. . . How long ago?’ ‘Small, abou t ten inch es.’

4 5

GENERAL APPROACHES

6 7

8 9

‘H ou rs,’ he whispered. ‘Hou ‘Hou rs and bloody bloody hours and ho urs .’ . . . and fetc fetched hed a small small sharp knife knife from the kitchen. kitchen. I put it in my pocke t ready to use instantly in case something went wrong while we were still thinking out a plan. ‘D r G ande an derba rba i,’ I said . . . ‘Look Lo ok,, could you come roun ro un d at once?’ . . . he walked across across the floor floor noisel noiselessl essly, y, delicat delicately, ely, like like a careful cat.

10 ‘Intravenously.’ 11 ‘Is he safe now? no w?’’ I asked. ‘No.’ 12 ‘Chlo roform, rofo rm,’’ he said said suddenly ‘Ord ‘Ord inary chloroform. Th at is is best. N ow qu ick!’ He took me my arm and pulled me towards the balcony. ‘Drive to my house!’ 13 I do not know how long it took took him to slide that tha t tube in a few few inches. inches. It may have been twenty minutes, it may have have been forty. I never once saw the tu be move. I knew it was going going in because the visible part o f it grew gradually shorter. 14 H arry lay there twitching his mou th, sweating, sw eating, closing closing his eyes, eyes, opening them , looking at me, at the ceiling, ceiling, at me again, but never at Ganderbai. 15 Th en I saw saw the white cord of his pyjamas pyjamas . . . a little little furth er and I saw saw a button, a mother-ofmother-of-pear pearll button . . . I distinct distinctly ly remem ber thinking about H arry being very very refined refined when I saw saw that button. 16 ‘M r Pope, you are of course quite sure you saw it in the first place?’ There Th ere was a note of sarcasm in Gan derbai’s derbai’s voice voice that h e would never have employed in ordinary circumstances. 17 ‘Are you telling me I ’m a liar?’ he shouted sho uted.. Ending ‘All he needs is a good holiday’, he said quietly, without looking at me, th en he started the engine and drove off off.. (Roald Dahl: ‘Poison’)

GENERAL APPROACHES

55

2.4 Storylines Storylines 2: suspense LEVEL___________

Intermediate

TIME_____________


PREPARATION

1 Fo r this a ctivity, select a passage from a novel in which the suspense is gradually built u p to a climax. climax. T he passage should preferably preferab ly contain an even mixture of dialogue dialogue and descriptive prose. 2 Choose Choose certain certain key points in the text, and blank ou t the words. (Your cuts should not be longer than five five or six words, a t most.) 3 Give each stud ent a copy of the text to read ou t of class. class. While they read it at home, they should thin k of possible possible words to complete the gaps.

IN CLASS_________

I Ask the stude nts to work in groups of three or four, and to discuss their various suggestions for the wording o f the blank bla nk spaces spaces.. Set a time-limit time-limit of twenty twenty m inutes for this p art o f the activity. 2 Class discussion. Ask the class class to call out th eir best suggestions for each of the blan k spaces. spaces. I f there are any errors of language, correct correct these on the spot. Th en reveal to the class class the original wording for each space.

N0TES___________

Th is activity combines several of the approaches app roaches already 1 This described, including speculation, suggesting suggesting the words, and character descrip tions. It also complemen ts certain othe r activities, activities, such as 2.3 Storylines 1 and 4.1 and 4.3 Focus on language. language. 2 Suspense, in literature, is often built up by holding the reader back, that is, b y deliberately deliberately slowin slowing g down the story throu gh the introduc tion of detail detail or through asides. asides. F or instance: instance: I had mechanical mechanically ly turn ed in this latter d irection, and was strolling strolling along along the lonel lonely y high-road high-road - idly wondering, I re m em be r, what the Cum berland young ladies ladies would look look like like - when, in one moment, every every drop of blood blood in my body was brought to a stop stop by the touch of a hand laid lightly and suddenly on my shoulder from behind me. I turned on the instant, with my fingers tightening round the handle o f my stick. There, in the middle of the the broad, b right high-road high-road - there, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth or dropped from the heaven - stood the figure of a solitar solitary y woman dressed from head to foot in wh ite . . . When preparing for this activity, activity, it is impo rtant not to not to cut ou t this detail detail (though you m ay, o f course, sho rten the text in other ways). ways). It is also also impo rtan t to give give the stu dents den ts time to ‘get into’ the passage: passage: this is why we suggest that the initial reading be done out of class. class.

56

GENERAL APPROACHES

3 In selecting the words to be omitted (the blank spaces), you may wish to tell the stude s tudents nts exactly how many words are missing , or to offer a clue to the wording. Fo r instance: a) (2 ). . . ? she said, still quie tly and an d rapidly. rapid ly. b) (2 ). . . ? she said, still quie tly and an d rapidly. rapid ly. (4 words) c) (2) (h e a r) . . . ? she said, still quietly quie tly and rapidly. Th e approach suggested unde r c) is particularly particularly useful if you wish to draw attention to a particular language language structure , say, say, the difference between: ‘Do you yo u hear me?’, me?’, ‘H avey av eyou ou heard heard me?’, me?’, ‘Can you hear me}’, me} ’, 'Did 'D idyo you u hear me?’, me?’, and so on. It also helps to bring out any incorrec t usages, such as ‘Areyou hearing me?’ will notice tha t, in the th e sample text, we have concentrated 4 You will more on the everyday use of language (Quite ( Quite sure, sure, Why do you yo u ask?, given little attention to soso Do you live in London?), Londo n?), and th at we have given called called literary expressions such a s : ‘. . . dressed from head to foot in white garments’, or ‘. . . he r face bent in grave inquiry’. These are expression expressionss which, in ou r opinion, the students do no t need to imitate or actively actively reproduc e; passive understa ndin g is all that is required. In devising your own version of a text such as this, you may find it helpful to disting uish between two kin ds of o f blank spaces: spaces: a. those which test language skill: (3) (3) I asked aske d i f that was to Lon don, (reported speech) speech) was the way to (6) (6) Tell me how I can can help you, and an d i f I can, I will, o f tenses will, (use of with i/-clause) b. those which test reading comprehension: (9) (9) Do you y ou know many people people in London? Yes, a great many. Many men of rank and title? Here, the missing words words in the question (know many people people in follow: London) Lond on) can be inferre d from the responses which follow: ‘Yes, a great many . . . Many men me n of rank ran k and title?’

SAMPLE TEX TEXT T

Th e Wom an in in White White (In the passage below, below, the narrator (I) is walking walking back to his home in Lon don , after a meeting at which he has agreed to teach painting to the two daughters of M r Fairlie, of Limmeridge Ho use, Cum berland, in north ern E ngland. O n his way home, he has a strange meeting.) The heat had been painfully oppressive all day, and it was now a close and sultry night. I walked forward a few paces on the shortest way back to London , then stopped and hestitated. hestitated. The moon was full and broad in the dark blue starless sky, and the broken ground of the heath looked wild enough in the mysterious light to be hundreds of miles away from the great city that lay beneath it. Th e idea of descending descending any sooner sooner than I could help into the heat and gloom of Lond on repelled me. me. Th e prospect


57

of going going to bed in my airless airless chambers, and th e prospect o f gradual suffocation, seemed, in my present restless frame of mind and body, to be one and the same thing. I determined to stroll home in in the pu rer air by the m ost round about way I could take; to foll follow ow the white winding paths across the lonely heath; and to approach Londo n thro ugh its most open suburb by striking into the Finchley Road, and so getting back, in the cool of the new morning, by the western side of Reg ent’s ent’s Park. By the time I had arrived at the end of the road I had become completely absorbed in my own fanciful visions of Limmeridge House, of Mr Fairlie, and of the two ladie ladiess whose practice practice in the art of water-colour painting I was was so soon soon to sup erintend. erinten d. I had now arrived at tha t particular point of my walk where four roads roads met - the road to Hampstead, along along which which I had returne d, the road to Finchley, the road to the West End, and the road back to London. I had mechanically turned in this latter direction, and was strolling strolling along the lonely high-road - idly won dering, I remember, what the Cumberland young ladies would look like when, in one mome nt, every drop of blood blood in my body was was brought to a stop by the touch of a hand laid lightly and suddenly on my shoulder from behind me. I turned on the instant, with my fingers tightening round the handle o f my stick. stick. There, in the middle of the broad, bright high-road high-road - there, as if if it had that moment sprung out of the earth or dropped from the heaven heaven - stood the figure of a solitar solitary y woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments, her face face bent in grave inquiry on mine, her hand po inting to the dark cloud cloud over Londo n, as I faced faced her. I was far too seriously startled by the suddenness with which this extraordinary apparition stood before me, in the dead of night and in that lonely place, to ask what she wanted. The strange woman spoke first. ‘(1 ). . .?’ she said. I looked attentively at her, as she put that singular question to me. It was then nearly one o’clock. o’clock. All I could discern distinctly by the moonlight was a colourless, youthful face, meagre and sharp to look at about the cheeks and chin; large, grave, wistfully attentive eyes; nervous, uncertain lips; and light hair of a pale, brownishyellow hue. There was nothing wild, nothing immodest in her manner: it was quiet and self-controlled, a little melancholy and a iitde touched by suspicion; suspicion; not exact exactly ly the manne r of a lady, and, at the same time, not the manner of a woman in the humblest rank of life. The voice, little as I had yet heard of it, had something curiously still and mechanical in its tones, and the utterance was remarkably rapid. She held a smal smalll bag in in her hand : and her dress bon net, shawl, and gown all of white - was, so far as as I could guess, certainly no t composed com posed o f very delicate or very expensive expensive materials. Her figure was was slight, and rather above the averag averagee height - her gait and actions free from the slightest approach to extravagance. This was all that I could observe of her in the dim light and under the

GENERAL APPROACHES

perplexingly strange circumstances of our meeting. What sort of a woman she was, an d how she came to be out alone in the high-ro ad, an hour after midnight, I altogether failed to guess. The one thing of which I felt certain was, that the grossest of mankind could not have misconstrued her motive in speaking, even at that suspiciously late hour an d in that th at suspiciously s uspiciously lonely lonely place. place. ‘(2 ). . . ?’ she said, still quietly and rapidly, a nd withou t the least least fretfulness or impatience. ‘I asked (3) . . . the way to Lo nd on .’ ‘Yes.’ I replied, ‘that is the way: it leads to St John’s Wood and the R egent’s egent’s Park. You m ust excuse my no t answering you you before. before. I was rather startled by your sudden appearance in the road; and I am, even now, quite unable to account for it .’ ‘You don’t suspect me of doing anything wrong, do you? (4) . . . . I have have met with with an acc accid iden entt - 1 am very very unfort unfortunat unatee in bein being g here alone so so late. late. Why do you suspect me of doing wrong?’ She spoke with unnecessary earnestness and agitation, and shran k back from me several several paces. paces. I did d id my best to reassure her. ‘Pray don’t suppose that I have any idea of suspecting you,’ I said, ‘or any other wish than to be of assistance to you, if I can. I only wondered at your appearance in the road, because it seemed to me to be empty the instant before I saw saw you.’ She turned, and pointed back to a place at the junction of the road to Lond on and th e road to Ham pstead, w here there was was a gap in the hedge. ‘I heard you comin g.’ she said, ‘and ‘and hid th ere to see see wh at (5). (5 ). . ., before I risked speaking. I doubted and feared about it till you passed; passed; an d then I was obliged obliged to steal steal after after you, and touch y ou .’ Steal Steal after me and to uch me? W hy not no t call call to me? Strange, to say say the least of it. ‘May I trust you?’ she asked. ‘You don’t think the worse of me because I have met with an accident?’ She stopped in confusion; shifted shifted her bag from one han d to the other; and sighed bitterly. bitterly. The lonelin loneliness ess and helplessness helplessness of the woman touched me. The natural impulse to assist her and to spare her got the better of the judg ju dgem em ent, en t, the th e caut ca ution ion,, the th e world wo rldly ly tac t, which wh ich an old er, er , wiser, wis er, and colder man might have summoned to help him in this strange emergency. ‘You may trust me for any harmless purposes,’ I said. ‘If it troubles you to explain explain your strange situation to me, don ’t thin k o f returning to the subject again. I have no right to ask you for any explanations. Tell me how I can help you; and (6 ). . .’ ‘You are very kind , and I am very, very thankfu than kfu l (7) . . . .’ Th e first touch of womanly tenderness that I had heard from her trembled tremb led in he r voice voice as she said said the words: bu t no tears glistened in those large, wistfully attentive eyes of hers, which were still fixed on me. ‘I have only been in London once before,’ she went on, more and more rapidly, ‘and I know nothing about that side of it, yonder. Can I get a carriage of any kind? Is it too late? I don’t know. If you could show show me where to get a carriage carriage - and if you will will only promise not to interfere with me, and to let me leave you,


59

when and how I please please - 1 have a friend in Lo ndon ndo n who will will be glad glad to receive receive me - 1 want nothing else - will will you promise?’ She looked anxiously up and down the road; shifted her bag again from one hand to the other; repeated the words, ‘Will you promise?’ and looked hard in my face, with a pleading fear and confusion that it tro ubled me to see. What could I do? Here was a stranger utterly and helplessly at my mercy - and that stranger a forlorn woman. woman. No house was near; near; no one was passing whom I could consult; and no earthly right existed on my pa rt to give give me a power of control over her, even if I had know n how to exercise exercise it. W hat could I do? What Wha t I did do, was to try and gain time by questioning her. ‘Are you sure th at your f riend in Lond on will recei receive ve you at such a late late hour ho ur as this? th is?’’ I said. ‘(8) (8) . . . . Only sa say you you wil willl let let me lea leave ve you you when when and how how I please please - only say you won ’t interfere w ith me. Will you promise?’ As she repeated the words for the third time, she came close to me and laid her hand, with a sudden gentle stealthiness, on my bosom - a thin hand ; a cold hand (when I removed removed it with mine) mine) even on that sultry night. Remember that I was young; remember tha t the ha nd which w hich touched me was a woman’s. woman’s. ‘Will you promise?’ ‘Yes.’ One word! The little familiar word that is on everybody’s lips, every hour ho ur in the day. Oh me! and I trem ble, now, when I w rite it. We set our faces towards London, and walked on together in the first still still hour of the new day day - I, and this woman, whose name, whose character, whose story, whose very presence by my side, at that m oment, om ent, were fathomless mysteries mysteries to me. It was like a dream. It was her voice again again that first b roke the t he silence silence between us. ‘I want to ask you something,’ she said suddenly. ‘Do you (9) •

•

• •

‘Yes, a great many. ’ ‘Many men o f rank and title?’ There Th ere was an unmistakable tone of suspicion in the strange question. I hesitated about answering it. ‘Som e,’ I said, said , after a mome mo me nt’s silence. ‘Many’ Ma ny’ - she came to a full full stop, and looked me searchingly in the face face - ‘many men of the rank of Baronet?’ Baronet?’ Too much astonished astonished to reply, I questioned her in my turn. ‘( 10) . . . ? ’ ‘Because I hope, for my own sake, there is one Baronet that you don’t know.’ ‘Will you tell me his na me?’ me? ’ ‘I can ’t - 1 daren’t - 1 forget forget myself when I m ention it. ’ She She spoke spoke loudly and almost fiercely, raised her clenched hand in the air, and shook it passionately; then, on a sudden, controlled herself again, and added, in tones lowered to a whisper, ‘Tell me which of them you know.’ I mentioned three names. Two, the names of fathers of families whose daughters I taught; one, the name of a bachelor who had

GENERAL APPROACHES

once taken me on a cruise in his yacht, to make sketches for him. ‘Ah! you don’t know relief. ‘Are you don’t know h im ,’ she said, w ith a sigh of relief. a man of rank and title yourself?’ ‘Far from it. I am only a drawing-master.’ As the reply passed my Up Ups - a littl littlee bitterly, perhaps - she took took my arm with the abruptness which characterised characterised all all her actions. actions. ‘Not a man of rank and title,’ she repeated to herself. ‘Thank God! God! I may trus t him.’ I had hitherto contrived to master my curiosity curiosity out of considera considera tion for my companion; b ut it got the better of me now. now. ‘I am afraid you have serious reason to complain of some man of rank ran k and title?’ t itle?’ I said. ‘I am afraid the baro net, whose name you are unwilling to mention to me, has done you some grievous wrong? Is he the cause cause of your being out here at this strange time of night?’ ‘D on ’t ask me; do n’t n’t make me m e talk of it ,’ she answered. ‘I ’m not fit now. I have been cruelly used and cruelly wronged. You will be kinder than ever, if you will walk on fast, and not speak to me. I sadly sadly want to quiet myself, if I can .’ We moved forward again at a quick pace; and for half an ho ur, at least, not a word passed on either side. From time to time, being forbidden to make any more inquiries, I stole a look at her face. It was always the same; the lips close shut, the brow frowning, the eyes looking straight forward, eagerly and yet absently. We had reached the first houses before her set features relaxed, and she spoke once more. (1 1) . . . ? she said. ‘Yes.’ As I answered, it struck me that she might have formed some intention of appealing to me for assistance or advice, and that I ought to spare her a possible disappointment by warning her of my approaching absence from home. So I added, ‘But tomorrow I shall be away from London for some time. I am going into the country.’ ‘Wh ere?’ she asked. ‘N ‘N orth or th or south?’ so uth?’ ‘North - to Cumberland.’ Cumberland.’ ‘Cumberland!’ she repeated the word tenderly. ‘Ah! I wish I was going there too. I was once once happy in C um berland .’ I tried again to lift the veil that hung between this woman and me. (12). . .,’ I sa id ,‘in ,‘in the beautiful beautiful Lake country .’ ‘N o ,’ she answered, ‘I was born bo rn in Ha mps hire; b ut I once went to school for a little while in Cumberland. Lakes? I don’t remember any lakes. It’s Limmeridge village, and Limmeridge House, I should like to see again.’ It was my tur n now to stop suddenly. I n the excited excited state state of my my curiosity, at that moment, the chance reference to Mr Fairlie’s place of residence, on the lips of my strange companion, staggered me with astonishment. ‘Did you hear anybody calling after us?’ she asked, looking up and down the road affrightedly, affrightedly, the instant I stopped. ‘No , no. I was was only struck by the name of Limmeridge H ouse. I heard it m entioned by some Cumberland people a few few days days since.’

GENERAL APPROACHES

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‘Ah! not my people. M rs Fairlie is is dead; and her hus ban d is dead; and their little girl may be married and gone away by this time, I can’t can’t say who live livess at Lim meridge now. If any more are left there of that tha t name, I only know I love love them for Mrs Fairlie’s sak e.’ She seemed about to say more; but while she was speaking, we came within view of the turnpike, at the top of the Avenue Road. H er hand tightened round my arm, and she looked looked anxio anxiously usly at at the gate before us. ‘Is the turn pike pik e man ma n looking out?’ she she asked. He was not looking out; no one else was near the place when we passed through the gate. The sight of the gas-lamps and houses seemed to agitate agitate her, a nd to make her impatien t. ‘This is London,’ she said. ‘Do you see any carriage I can get? I am ( 1 3 ) . . . . I want want to (14). (14). . . and be driv driven en away away.’ .’ I explained to her that we must walk a little further to get to a cab-stand, unless we were fortunate enough to meet with an empty vehicle; vehicle; and then trie d to resume the subject of Cumberland. Cum berland. It was was useless. That idea of shutting herself in, and being driven away, had now got full possession possession of her m ind. She could thin k and talk of nothin g else. else. We had hardly proceeded a third of the way down the Avenue Road when I saw a cab cab draw u p at a house a few doors below below us, on the opposite op posite side of the way. way. A gentleman got out an d let him self in at the garden door. I hailed the cab, as the driver mounted the box again. When we crossed the road, my companion’s impatience increased to such an extent th at she almost forced me to ru n. ‘I t’s so late ,’ she said. ‘I am only in a hur ry because becau se it ’s so so late .’ ‘I can’t take you, sir, if you’re not going towards Tottenham Court Road,’ said the driver civilly, when I opened the cab door. ‘My horse is dead beat, and I can’t get him no further than the stable. ’ ‘Yes, yes. T hat ha t will do for me. I ’m going that way - I ’m going that way.’ She spoke with breathless eagerness, and pressed by me into the cab. I had ha d assured ass ured myself my self that the m an was sober as well well as as civil civil before I let her enter the vehicle. And now, when she was seated inside, I entreated entreate d he r to let me see her set down safely safely at her destination. ‘No, no, no,’ she said vehemently. ‘I’m quite safe, and quite happy now. I f you are a gentleman , (15 ). . . . Let Le t him drive on till I stop him. Tha nk you - oh! oh! thank you, thank you!’ My hand was on the cab door. She caught it in hers, kissed it, and pushed it away. The cab drove off at the same moment I started into the road, with some vague idea of stopping it again, I hardly knew why - hesitated from from dread of frightening frightening and distressing distressing her - called, called, at last, last, b ut n ot loudly loudly enough to attract the driver’s attention. The sound of the wheels grew fainter in the distance distance - the cab melted melted into the black shadows shadows on the road - the woman wom an in white wh ite (16) . . . . Ten minutes or more had passed. I was still on the same side of the way; now mechanically walking forward a few paces; now stopping again absently. At one moment I found myself doubting

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GENERAL APPROACHES

the reality of my own adventure; at another I was perplexed and distressed by an uneasy sense of having done wrong, which yet left me confusedly ignorant of how I could have done right. I hardly knew whe re I was going, or (17) (17) . . . .1 was conscious of nothin g but the confusion of my own thoughts, when I was abruptly recall recalled ed to myself - awakened, I m ight almost say say - by the sound of rapidly approach ing wheels close close behind me. I was was on the dark side of the road, in the thick shadow shadow of some some garden trees, when I stopped to look round. On the opposite and lighter side of the way, a short distance below me, a policeman was strolling strolling along in th e direction of the R egent’s egent’s Park. Th e carriage carriage passed me - an open chaise chaise driven by two men. ‘Stop!’ cried one. ‘T he re’ re ’s a policeman. policeman. L et’ et ’s ask ask him .’ The horse was instantly pulled up, a few yards beyond the dark place where I stood. ‘Policem an!’ cried the first speaker. ‘Have ‘Have you (18) . . .?’ ‘Wh at sort o f wom an, sir?’ ‘A woman in a lavender-coloured gown - ’ ‘No, no,’ interposed the second man. ‘The clothes we gave her were found on her bed. She must have gone away in the clothes she wore when she came to us. In white, policeman. A woman in white.’ ‘I haven ’t seen her, sir. ’ ‘If you or any of your men meet with the woman, stop her, and send her in careful keeping to that address. I’ll pay all expenses, and a fair reward in to the barg ain.’ Th e policeman looked at the card that was handed down to him. ‘Why are we to stop her, her , sir? sir? (19 ). . . ?’ ‘Done! Done! She has has ( 2 0 ) . . . . Don’t Don’t forget forget;; a woman woman in white. white. Drive Drive on.’ (Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White) White )

KEY KEY

Original wording: 1 Is that the road to London? 2 Did you h ear me? 3 . . . if th at was . . . 4 I have done nothin g wrong. 5 . . . sort of m an you were . . . 6 . . . if I can, can, I wil will. 7 . . . to have met you. 8 Quite sure. 9 . . . kno w man y people in London? 10 Why Wh y do you ask? ask?

11 Do you live live in Londo n? 12 P erhaps erh aps you were bo rn . . . 13 . . . tired tir ed and an d frig fr ight hten ened ed . . . 14 . . . sh ut mysel my selff in . . . 15 . . . rememb rem ember er your you r promise. 16 . . . was gone. go ne. 17 . . . what wh at I meant me ant to do next. 18 . . . seen a woma wo man n pass this way? 19 Wh at has she done? 20 . . . escaped escape d from fro m my Asylum. Asylu m.

GENERAL APPROACHES

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2.5 Matching texts LEVEL___________ LEVEL___________

Intermediate

TIME_______ _____

20 - 25 minutes

PREPARATION

1 Find Fi nd two or three sho rt passages passages of prose or poetry which could be compared or contrasted. Th e texts you choose should have certain features features in common. F or instance, they migh t deal with different aspects of the same theme , be similar in in style or form (monologues, letters, speeches), have have similar or identical identical titles, and so on. 2 Make copies copies of both bo th texts for the whole whole clas class. s. Your Yo ur preparation for the In I n class class work will, of course, depen d on the texts you have chosen. Below we describe an approac h which could be us ed with two poems with the same title ‘The Lesson’. (See sample texts.)

IN CLASS_________

Ask the students to think back for a few few 1 Warm-up Warm- up discussion. discussion. minutes over their ow n lives, lives, and to recall recall any incident which left a deep impression on th em, em , and from w hich they or someone else else learnt a lesson. lesson. Wh at was the incident? A nd what was the lesson? lesson? 2 Now ask the stude nts to form groups of four and to describe to to each other othe r the incid ent they have in in mind. 3 Tell the stud ents tha t they are are going going to be working with two short poems, b oth w ith the same title ‘Th ‘Th e Lesson’. Less on’. Read one of the poems aloud (or play a recording of it). it). Ask the s tudents tude nts to recall recall any words or lines lines they can remember. Do the same again again using the other poem. 4 Ha nd ou t copies copies of the two poems to all all the stude nts. Ask them to work for a few minutes minu tes on their ow n, and to mark: a. any words or lines lines that are difficult to und erstand ersta nd b. any words or images they find particularly striking c. any though ts or comments tha t are similar in the two two poems. poems. themselves in in groups o f three, three, 5 Now ask the studen ts to rearrange themselves and to comp are and discuss the lines they have marked. mark ed. 6 (Optional) Class discussion. Two ques tions you could ask to to extend th e discussion are: are: - Why are both poems called ‘The Lesson’? Less on’? - Does either either of o f the the poems poems remindyou yo u o f anything that has happened to to you, you , or to someo someone ne you know?

NOTES___________

discussion n is an impo rtant p art o f this this activity. activity. 1 The warm-up discussio Firstly, because because it helps helps to pu t the students in the right frame of mind min d for working with th e poems. Secondly, because because it is is in itself an exercise exercise in contrast and comparison. An incident which happened happ ened in one st udent ud ent’’s life life will will often remin d others of similar similar incidents in their own lives. lives.

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2 One of the difficulties difficulties you may encounter encou nter in using matching texts is that, although the two passages passages clearly clearly have features in common, this fact alone does not necessarily generate discussion. It is usually easier to see the similarities than to explain them. This Th is is why, why , in step 3 of In class, en ts’ class, we focus first on the stud ents’ reaction to the words. Ask questions such as: - What Wha t lines lines do you fin fi n d difficult difficul t to understa understand? nd? - What imag images es do do you find fin d strikin striking? g? By thinking think ing about abo ut such questions, the students stud ents gradually come to see in what ways the poems are similar or different. For Fo r instance, the line: . . . Somewher Some wheree in myself, myse lf, Pride, Prid e, like a goldfish, goldfish, flashed a sudden fin. may for one one studen t be difficult difficult to understan d, w hile hile another student stude nt migh t find the image striking. Th eir discussion will will lead to to the questions: - Why is he proud? - Is ther theree a sugg suggest estio ion n o f pride in the other other poem? poem? - Is ther theree a sugge suggesti stion on o f shame shame? ? 3 The Th e techniqu e of matching or contrasting texts will will be further fur ther developed in Section 3 (3.4-3.5 Discussion Discussion topic topicss). SAMPLE TEXTS

The Lesson How we laughed! laughed! The old man coughing coughing All his life away With asthma. Stumbling Up the steps s teps (‘Poor fool!’) fool!’) To call call the register; In a world where we knew all And yet y et were learning still. still. “Get in the pension queue!” Someone Someone said (me, perh aps). But stilled we were, And all in awe When Wh en he lapsed silent, silent, Head upon the desk. (‘Poor (‘Poor old bugg er!’) er!’) Then Th en Came the ambulance and All All the inquisition in quisition fuss Before we breezed late Into the next ne xt one’s class class,, Full of new learning learning From his sudden lesson. (David A. Hill)


The Lesson ‘Your fa the r’s r’s gone ,’ my bald h eadmaster eadm aster said. His shiny dome a nd brow n tobacco tobacco jar Splintered at once in tears. I t wasn’t grief. grief. I cried for knowledge which was was bitterer Tha n any grief grief.. Fo r there and then I knew Th at grief has uses uses - that a father dead Could bin d the bu lly’s lly’s fist fist a week or two; And then I cried for shame, then for relief. relief. I was a month past ten when I learnt this: this: I still still remem ber how the noise was stilled stilled In school-assembly school-assembly when m y grief grie f came in. Some goldfish in a bowl quietly sculled Around their shining prison on its shelf shelf.. The y were indiffere indifferent. nt. All the other eyes Were turn ed towards me. Somewhere Somewhere in myself Pride, Prid e, like a goldfish, flashed a sudden sudd en fin. (Edward Lucie-Smith)

2.6 Character sketches LEVEL

Intermediate

TIME_____________


PREPARA PREPARAT TION IO N

selection of short sho rt character sketches from different differen t 1 Compile a selection novels or short s hort stories. stories. 2 Prep are sufficient copies copies of the passages passages for each each group o f four students stud ents to have one set of four or five texts texts each. (Fo r suggestions, see sample texts.) 3 Draw u p a list of stimulus q uestions for class class discussion after they have read the texts. T he questions should be designed designed to get the stu den ts to look back to the text for possible clues. If you ask, for instance: the charact characters ers might be a spy? spy? - Which o f the the response might be: be: Ric hard d Pratt Pr att,, because he - Richar h e is ‘pre ‘presid sident ent o f a small society’ of people who are probably rich and influential. influential. - Leama ‘not q uite a Lea mas, s, because he looks like a man who is ‘not gentleman’, and who would not be mistaken for a member in a Lond on club , though he w ould be given given the best table in a Berli Berlin n nightclub. - Sophie Graveney, because she has contacts with ‘the ‘the Lond L ond on embassy’.

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Below Below are two sets sets of suggestions for the pr om pt questions: q uestions: General - In I n your you r opinio opinion, n, which whic h o f the chara characte cters rs would: lend you £10 if you urgently needed money? money? regularly go to bed by 22.30 a t the latest? usually travel first class? rare rarelly rea read d a news newspa pape per? r? occa occasi siona onall lly y go go to to a footbal footballl matc match? h? enjoy dancing, a nd dance well? have have many many for forei eign gn stamp stampss in his/h his/her er passp passpor ort? t? talk ver very y slowl slowly, y, or ver very y quickl quickly? y? often, often, or rarely rarely use hand gestures? 9 keep a cat or dog at home? 10 have a printed visiting visiting card, or no tepaper with a printed letterhead? 11 frequently suffer suffer from headac headaches? hes? 12 do gymnastics in the morning? etc.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Specific - Each Ea ch o f the rema remarks rks below was made by one one o f the cha charac racter terss described described.. Who said what? For F or each remark, suggest suggest the the most likely speaker. 1 2 3

‘I t’s bloody ru d e .’ ‘I do n’t n’t like conversations about abou t Life. Life. ’ ‘Mrs Goddard, what say you to half a glass of wine? A small half glas glass, s, p ut into a tumb ler of water?’ 4 ‘We must mu st never fear what is is our ou r d u ty . ’ 5 ‘My life’s life’s a bit fraught frau ght at the m om ent.’ en t.’ 6 ‘I ’m perfectly willing to bet. ’ 7 ‘D on ’t inte rrupt. rru pt. Ju st dam n well wait till I ’ve finished, finished , do you mind?’ 8 ‘I am am not concerned with your gratitude to to me. me. Th ere is is One Above who has a p rior claim. claim. ’ 9 ‘He rageth and again he rageth, rag eth, because he knows his time is short.’ 10 ‘I assume, th en, that tha t it’s it’s from one of the smaller vineyards? ’ 12 ‘An egg boiled very soft is not no t unwho unw holeso leso me.’ me .’

KEY

1 Sop Sophie Gr Graveney 2 Leamas 3 Mr Woodhouse 4 Mrs Poulteney

5 6 7 8

Sophie Graveney Richard Pratt Leamas Mrs Mr s Poulteney

9 10 11 12

Joanna Joan na Childe R ichard Pratt Pr att Sophie Soph ie Graveney Grav eney M r Woodhouse Woodh ouse

GENERAL APPROACHES

IN CLASS

67

1 Warm-up Warm -up discussion discussion.. Ask the students to form groups of four or five five.. Write up on the board or O HP three column headings: headings: Speech

Clothes

Mannerisms

Under each each column, ask the students to list list anything that disturbs them or th at they dislike in other people’s appearance or behaviour, for instance: Speech (I do n’t n’t like) people who wh o say: say: ‘Have a nice day!’ day !’,, or ‘Super ‘Su per’, ’, or ‘Correct me if I ’m w rong’; people people who whisper in p ublic, talk with their hand in front of their mouth , d on’t on’t finish finish their sentences, or sneeze loudly. Clothes people who wear T-s hirts w ith advertising slogans; slogans; men or o r women who wear sunglasses sunglasses indoors; w omen who wear fur coats coats with jeans; m en who w ho wear wea r track tra cksu suits its,, and a nd d o n’t run . Mannerisms people who click ballpoints , jingle coins coins in in the ir pockets, keep looking at their watch, yawn when you’re you’re talking, or take their shoes shoes off in the train. 2 Th e groups exchange notes and discuss points of disagreement. Discussion based on the the texts. Th e students remain in the groups 3 Discussion they have already formed. Give Give each group copies copies of four of the character sketches. (See (See sample texts.) Allow Allow time for silent reading, then ask the students to discuss among themselves their first impressions o f the characters. 4 (Optional) Wri te up a few few adjectives adjectives to stimulate discussion, for instance: - Do any o f the following follow ing words words apply to the char charac acter terss you yo u have been been reading about? sly warm reserved reserved cynical timid pompous naive trustworth trustworthyy dull 5 While the stude nts are discussing, write up or display the questions you have prepared prep ared.. (See Preparation , step 3.) Give the groups at least ten minutes to discuss their own reactions. T hen rou nd off the activity activity with a class class discussion which could include talking talking abou t the portraits at the end of this activit activity, y, in w hich case case ask the students: - Do any o f the people people in the the pictures pictures resem resemble ble any of o f the chara characte cters rs you have just jus t read abo about ut? ? I f so, so, in what way? - Ho w do the portraits portraits differ from the ima image ge o f the cha charac racter terss you yo u had formed forme d from your you r read readin ing? g?

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NOTES


1 People are the life-bl life-blood ood of literature. literature. And we react to to these people, th e characters of fiction, fiction, m uch in the same way way as as we react to people in in everyday life. life. We love them , hate th em, suspect them , admire them - and want to talk talk about them. This is why the activity begins begins with a fairl fairly y long introd uctory exercise, which draws exclusively on the students’ personal feelings about abou t other othe r people. In discussing the give-awa give-away y details details o f speech, speech, appearance, an d mannerism s in people they they have already already me t, the studen ts are also also preparing to talk about people they have not yet met, me t, th at is, the characters of fictio fiction. n. 2 Selecting Selecting material for this activity activity should be no problem. Literature abounds in character character descriptions. descriptions. I t is important, however, to reme mber that tha t the aim of the the activity is to deduce rather rath er than to describe. The Th e students stud ents are not being asked (as they often are) to to ‘Describe the character in your own word s’. Instead, they are being asked to deduce, from clues clues in the text, wh at the person mig ht be like. like. Clearly, Clearly, the th e stu den ts’ personal impressions will will differ. differ. These T hese differences differences will come come out in th eir responses to th e general questions in Preparation, step 3. H ere, you may allow allow plenty o f room for disagreement. But in dealing with the specific specific questions, you should be more rigorous, and ask the stude nts to look for some connection between the dialogue fragments and details mentioned in the des criptive texts. Here Her e are some examples examples of the clues that could be picked up: a. Description (Mrs Poulteney) Poulteney) Mrs Poultene y had two obsessions. obsessions. One was was Dirt D irt and the o ther was Imm orality . . . Failure Failur e to be seen at church on Sunday S unday was was tantamou nt to proo f of the worst moral laxit laxity. y. Dialogue fragment ‘I am not concerned with you r gratitude to me. Th ere is One Above who has a prior claim .’ b. Description (Leamas) He looked like a man who could make trou ble, a man who looked after his money, a man who was not quite q uite a gentleman. Dialogue fragment ‘D on ’t interr in terrup upt. t. Just damn da mn well wait till till I’ve I’ve finished, do you mind?’

c. Description Desc ription (Joanna Childe) Childe) Joanna Childe had been d rawn to this profession by her good good voice and love of poetry poe try . . . poetry, poet ry, especially the declamatory declamato ry sort, excited and possessed her. Dialogue fragment ‘He rag eth and again again he rageth , because he knows his time is short.’

GENERAL APPROACHES

69

In each case, case, there is a clear link between what is mentioned men tioned in the description des cription and wh at is is said in the rem ark, for example: example: He ‘D on’t on’t interru pt. looked like a man who w ho could make trouble trouble and ‘D Jus t wait till till I’ I ’ve finished finis hed .’ But it mu st be stressed tha t here, as in all the speculation activities, activities, what w hat the s tudents tude nts should s hould be looking for is is a plausible plausible response. Th e ‘righ t answer’ can be given later. later. SOURCES

Paul P aul Thero ux: The London Embassy John Le Carre: The Spy Sp y Who Came in from the the Cold Girls o f Slender Means Muriel Spark: The Girls Roald Dahl: ‘Taste’, Ta ste’, in the collection collection of stories Someone Someone Like Lik e You 5 John Fowles: The French Lieutenants Woman 6 Jane Austen: Em ma

SAMPLE TEXTS

1 Sophie Graveney

1 2 3 4

The fashion fashion in L ondon that year was was rags - expensiv expensivee ones but rags rags all all the same. Wom en wore torn blouses and patche d jeans. The ir hair was was cut in a raggedy raggedy way way - front hanks of it it dyed pin k and green and brigh t orange and blue. I t was a popular look, bu t it was was not easy to achieve. achieve. I t took imagination, and time , and a great deal deal of money for these spoiled wealthy wealthy girls to appear down a nd out. o ut. But Sophie Graveney Graveney wore a smooth blouse of light silk silk the texture of skin and a close-fitting close-fitting skirt skir t slit all all the way to her h ip. She said said she could not bear to be mistaken for someone poor, and was willing willing to to risk being called called unfashionable for her rich clothes . . . People stared at Sophie. Sophie. She was no pun k. H orto n, my boss at the London Lon don em bassy, ha d called called her ‘an ‘an English rose’. 2 Leamas Leamas was was a short man with close, close, iron-grey hair, and the physique physique of a swimm swimmer. er. He was was ver very y strong strong . . . He had a utilitarian utilitarian approach to clothes, as he did to most other things, and even the spectacles he occasional occasionally ly wore had steel steel rims. Mo st of his suits were of artifi artificial cial fibre, non e of them h ad waistcoats. waistcoats. He favoured favoured shirts of the American American kind , with bu ttons on the points. points. It was hard to place Leamas. If he were to walk into a Lond on club the porter would certainl certainly y not mistake him for a member; in a Berlin night-club they usually gave gave him the th e best table. H e looked like a man who could make tro uble, uble , a man who looked after his money, a man who w ho was not quite a gentleman. The air hostess hostess tho ught he was interesti interesting. ng.


3 Joanna Joa nna Childe Joanna Childe was was a daughter o f a country rector. She had a good good intelligence and strong obscure emo tions. She was trainin g to be a teacher of elocution and, while attend ing a school of drama dra ma , already had pupils of her own. Joanna Childe had been drawn to this profession by her good voice and love of poetry which she loved rath er as it might be assum ed a cat cat loves loves birds; p oetry, oetry , especially especially the declamatory so rt, excited and possessed her; she would pounce on the stuff, play with it quivering in her mind, and when she had got it by hea rt, she spoke it forth with devouring relish. relish. Mostly, she indulged the hab it while giving elocution elocution lessons at the club where she was was highly though t of for it. T he vibrations of Joanna’s Joanna’s elocution voice voice from the room w here she frequently reh earsed were felt to add tone and style style to the establishment when boy-friends boy-friends called.

4 Richard Pratt The re were six of us to din ner th at nig ht at Mike Schofield’s Schofield’s house in Lon don: Mike and his wife wife and daughter , my wife wife and I, a nd a man called called Richard Pra tt. Richard P ratt was a famous famous gourmet. He was president of a smal smalll society society known as the Epicures, an d each mon th he circulated privately privately to its members a pam phlet on food and wines. H e organized dinners where sumptuo us dishes and rare wines were served. served. H e refused to smoke for fear of harming his palate, and when discussing a wine, wine, he had a curious ha bit of referring to it as thou gh it were a living being. ‘A prude pru de nt w ine,’ ine ,’ he would say. O r, ‘A good-humoured wine, benevolent and cheerful - slightly slightly obscene, perhap s, b ut none the less less good-humoured. ’

5 Mrs Poulteney Mrs Poulteney had two obsessio obsessions. ns. O ne was was D irt, and th e other was Immorality. Immorality. In n either field field did anything untow ard escape her eagle eagle eye. She was like like some plum p vultu v ulture, re, endlessly circling in her he r endless leisure, an d endowed w ith a miraculou s sixth sense as as regards du st, finger-marks, insufficiently insufficiently starched linen, smells, smells, stains, breakages and all the ills ills tha t houses are heir to. Bu t the most abominable thing of all all was that even outside her house she acknowledged acknowledged no bounds to her authority. Failure to be seen at church on Sunday was was tantam ount to pr oof of the worst moral laxity.


6 Mr Woodhouse M r Woodhouse Woodh ouse was fond of society society in his own way. way. He liked like d very mu ch to have his friends come and see him; and from various united causes, from his long long residence at Hartfield Ha rtfield,, and his good nature , from his fortune, his house, and his daugh ter, he could could command comman d the visits of his own little circle, in a great measure, as he liked. H e had not m uch intercourse with any famili families es beyond that circle circle;; his ho rror o f late late hou rs, a nd large dinner-parties, made him unfit for any acquaintance bu t such as would visit visit him on his own term s . . . Up on such occasions poor poo r M r. Woodho Woo dhouse use’’s feelings were in sad warfare. H e loved to have the cloth laid, because it had been the fashion of his his you th, b ut his convictio conviction n of suppers being very unwholesome unwholesome made him ra ther sorry to see anything p ut on it; and while his hospitality would have welcomed his visitors to to everything, his care for their health made him grieve grieve that they would eat.

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G E N E R A L A P PR O A C H E S

2.7 Suggesting the words LEVEL

Lower Lo wer intermediate interm ediate to advanced adva nced

TIME_____________


PREPARATION

passages of twenty to th irty lines lines 1 Fo r this activity, you will need passages involving dialogue dialogue between two characters. Th e extracts shou ld as as far as as possible possible be self-explanatory. self-explanatory. Th at is, the stu dents den ts should be able to to unde rstand them w ithout needing muc h explanation explanation of the context. Fro m the th e dialogue in the passage(s), select select eight to ten sho rt remarks, such as as ‘I ’d like that ’, ’, ‘Do you mind?’, mind?’, or fragments of remarks rem arks like ‘. . . driving away’, aw ay’, ‘. . . get some sleep’. sleep’. Th en write out the passage(s), omitting th e selected expressions. expressions. If you think it necessary, necessary, write a br ief summary to give the students a guide to the characters an d the con text. (See (See sample texts.) 2 Make enoug h copies copies for the whole class class..

IN CLASS_________

stud ents copies of the passage. passage. Ask the m to read it 1 Give the students throug h and note down th eir suggestions suggestions for the missing words. 2 After five five to eight minu tes, ask them to form groups of four and compare notes. notes. Du ring the discussion they should note down any fresh ideas which emerge. 3 Class discussion. Ask each group to call ou t its suggestions. Write up as many as you can on the board , or ask two students to help with the w riting. riting. over the stu den ts’ suggestions, suggestions, and ask them to help you 4 Go over correct any errors errors or awkw ard formulations. T hen reveal reveal the the original wording. wording .

NOTES___________

1 Th e emphasis in this activity is on the spoken language. I t is imp ortan t, therefore, in selecting selecting the m aterial to look for passa passages ges of dialogue which are close to everyday spee ch, and a nd which w hich will draw suggestions suggestions from from the studen ts witho ut deman ding great ingenuity. ingenuity. 2 You will will find, in preparing the material, that there are many ways ways of giving a particu lar language focus to the activity. F or instance, in text 1, you could concentrate on th e use of contracted forms such as I as I ’ve, I ’ll, You’l leaving blank the remarks Yo u’ll, l, You’r Yo u’re, e, by leaving in which these forms occur. In th e discussion, encourage encourage the students to offer offer as many suggestions as possible, for in this activity many differ ent wordings can be correct. Fo r example: example: ‘Your taxi’ ta xi’ss just left/already gone/driving away/not waiting/off are all equally valid. set books to study, they may find find this an 3 If your students have set enjoyable way of reviving tire d texts. language. 4 See also activity 4.1 Focus on language.

GENERAL APPROACHES

SAMPLE TEXTS

73

1 Summary Th e narr ator (‘ ( ‘I’) is employed at the American Embassy in Lon don. Recently, he has met Sophie Graveney, Graveney, an attractive, b ut somewhat distan t woman ‘in the full bloom of thirty ’. In this scene they are are going home after their first dinner together. I paid for the taxi, then walked with her to the fron t gate. gate. She s a id ,‘Your ,‘Your taxi’s taxi’s (1 ). . . .’ ‘I’ve I’ve paid him. I told him to go.’ ‘( 2 ) . . . . You’l You’ll nev never er get get another another one one around around here here - and the the bus buses es (3). . . .’ I said, ‘Th ‘Th en I ’ll walk,’ wa lk,’ and clung to her hand , ‘althoug ‘although h (4). . . .’ ‘I t’s not far to you r hote l.’ ‘I did n’t n’t mean that. I just mean t I ’d rather rath er (5 ). . . .’ ‘I know kn ow ,’ she said. ‘You’ Yo u’re re sw eet.’ Th e English are frugal. T hey can even economize economize on words. Sophie gave gave nothing noth ing away. She planted a rathe r perfunc tory kiss on my cheek, and when wh en I tried to embrace her she eased out of my grasp and said comically, comically, ‘(6 ‘(6 ). . .’, and took out her door-key. door-key. ‘You’ Yo u’re re beau be autifu tifu l,’ I said. ‘I ’m tire ti re d ,’ she said. ‘I ‘I mu st (7 ). . . .’ 1 said, ‘I want w ant to see you again so on.’ on .’ ‘(8 ). . she said. (Paul (Paul Theroux : The London Embassy) 2 Summary Sarah and L ouise are sisters. Louise has made a ‘brilliant ‘brilliant m arriage’, and no longer needs to work. Sarah, however, needs a job, and is thinkin g of leaving leaving home to look for work in Lon don. She receiv receives es a letter from her friend, frie nd, Gill, Gill, suggesting that the y look for a flat together. In the extrac t below, Sarah (me) broaches the subject to her m other. Th e conversation went along these well-oiled well-oiled grooves: grooves: Me Mu mm y, I’ve I’ve been thinking, I think (1 ). . . to London at the end of the week. week. M ama (pause) (pause) Oh yes yes?? Me Yes, a friend of mine wants someone to share a flat and I thought thou ght it would be (2 ). . . for me to . . . M am a Well, th at sounds a very good idea. idea. Where exactly is this flat? flat? Me Well, we haven’t haven’t exactly exactly got one, bu t I thought thou ght I might (3) (3) . . . - it’s it’s easie easierr if you’re you’re on on the spot. spot. M am a Oh yes, I ’m sure it is. I h ear it’ it ’s very very difficult to find flats flats in Lond on these days. days. Me (my heart sinking as I think of adverts, agencie agencies, s, Eveni Ev ening ng Standards, et cetera) Oh no, it’s not at all difficult, people get themselves fixed fixed up in no time. M am a Oh well, well, I suppose you (4 ). . . than me. What will will you (5) (5) . . . while yo u’re u’re there? Me I ’ll get a job. I ’ll have to sometime, som etime, you know. M am a Jus t any any sort of job? job?

GENERAL APPROACHES

Me Mama Me Mama

Whatever there is. Don’t you want a proper career, Sarah? No , n ot really. really. I don ’t know what I want to do. I’m not sure I like the idea of your going off all all the way to Lon don without w ithout a prop er job and with nowhere to live live . . . still, it’s your own life, I suppos e. No one can accuse accuse me of trying to keep you at home, eith er of you . . . Who is this this friend of yours? yours? Me A girl called Gill Slater. Mama And what (6 ). . . ? O h, she’s she’s a - she’s she’s a sort of research stud ent. Me nice idea. idea. After all, you you Mama (7 ). . .? Well, it sounds like a very nice won’ won ’t want to stay here all all your life cooped cooped up with your poo r old mo ther, the r, will you? I shall lose all my little ones at one fell swoop, shall I? Oh don’t be silly. Me do n’tt be silly? silly? It seems to to me you’ y ou’re re very Mama W hat do you m ean, don’ eager to be off. You know that’s th at’s not it at all. all. Me w hat is it it then? Mama Well, what Well, i t’s t’s just that I can’t ( 8 ) . . ., can I? Me course you can’t, can’t, nobod y ever suggest suggested ed anything of Mama No , o f course the sort. W hen have I ever ever tried to keep you at home? Hav en’t en’t I ju st said that you mu st lead your own life? And you can’t can’t say that tha t staying at home for a week just after y ou’ve ou’ve got back from abroad is (9). . ., can you? you? I’ve I’ve hardly h ad a chance to see see you yet, an d you’re you’re off. off. I sometimes won der what you and Louise bother bo ther to to come home for. You just use home as if (10) (1 0).. . ., you two. All I am is a servant, servan t, th a t’s t’s all I am . . . D on ’t say say tha t, don’t do n’t say that, that , of course I’ll I’ll stay, it (11 ). . .a t Me all. floods of tears) Oh, I know th ere ’s nothing to k eep you Mama (in floods here, I know there’s no reason why you (12 ). . ., the re’s nothin g to amuse you , yo u’ve u’ve outgrow n it all, you always were too clever for me. (weeping too) Oh do n’t, n’t, please please don ’t, Mu mm y, please don ’t, Me I ’ll stay with you as long as you like, like , you yo u know I will. (sniffing and reasserting her hairpins ) No , don d on’’t be silly. silly. O f Mama (sniffing course you (13). . ., what on earth would you do with yourself here. You go off to London Lon don , you’ll you’ll be (14 ). . . there. N o , I don’ do n’tt want to go any more. Me ou ght to go. So let’ le t’ss have (15). (15 ). . ., shall Mama Oh yes, you really ought we? (And so I went to to L ondon at the en d o f the week.) Summ er Bird-Cage) Bird- Cage) (Margaret Drabble: A Summer

GENERA L APPROACHES APPROACHES

75

3 Summary Betty Betty announces to to her frie n d , Carruthers , that she has has suddenly decided to get married . She asks asks him if he would join her for a drin k at Claridge’s Claridge’s before she has to go on to th e family meeting. ‘H e’s e’s bringing his family to luncheon toda y to meet father. I dare say it’ it ’ll be (1) (1) . . . You mig ht stand sta nd me m e a cocktail at Claridge’s Clar idge’s to fortify me, will will you?’ ‘At wh at tim e?’ he asked. ‘One.5 ‘All righ t. I ’ll meet you th ere .’ He was waiting for her when she came in. She walked with a sort of spring as though her eager feet itched to break into a dance. She was smiling. Carruthers really felt that she brought sunshine and the scent of flowers into the sober but rather overwhelming splendour of Claridge’s lounge. He did not wait to say (2) . . . to her. ‘Betty, you (3 ). . , ’ he said. ‘I ‘I t’s simply out of the ques tion .’ ‘Why?’" ‘H e’s awful.’ awf ul.’ ‘( 4 ) . . . I think think he’s he’s rather rather nice. nice.’’ Betty looked at Carruthers with those beautiful eyes of hers that managed to be at th e same time so gay and so tender. ‘H e’s e’s such a frightful frightful bou nder, Betty.’ ‘Oh, d on’t on’t be so silly silly,, Hum phrey. H e’s e’s (5) (5) . . . I think you’re you’re rather a snob.’ ‘H e’s so du ll5. ll5. ‘No , he ’s (6) (6) . . . I don’t don’t know that I want a husb and who’s who’s too brilliant. I think he’ll (7) . . . He’s quite good-looking and he has nice nice man ners.’ ‘My God, Betty. Are you going to pretend you’re in love with him?’ ‘I thin k (8). . ., don ’t you?’ ‘Why Wh y are you (9 ). . . ?’ ‘H e’s e’s got pots of money. I 5m (10 ). . .5 There was nothing much more to be said. He drove her back to her a un t’s t’s house. She had a very very grand marriage. (Somerset Maugham: The Human Element)

KEY KEY

Original wording: Tex t 1: 1: Paul Theroux: The London Embassy 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 8

drivi dr iving ng away T ha t was silly. silly. have stopped running. I don’t want to. stay here with you. you. Do you mind} get some sleep. I ’d like that. tha t.

GENERAL APPROACHES

Text 2: Margaret Drabble: A Summer Summ er Bird-Cage Bird-Ca ge 1 I m ig h t go 2 a good opp ortunity ortu nity 3 go and an d look 4 know better 5 live on 6 does she do? 7 Oh yes? 8 stay here her e all my life 9 stay at home hom e all your life 10 it were a hotel 11 doesn ’t matte r to me 12 should sho uld stay here 13 can’ can ’t stay here 14 better bet ter off 15 no mo re nonsense nons ense Text 3: Somerset Maugham: The Human Element 1 a bit grim . 2 how do you do 3 can’ can ’t do it 4 I do n’t n’t thin k he is. is. 5 just as good as anybody anyb ody else. 6 rather quiet. 7 make a very good backgroun back groun d. 8 it would be tactful 9 going to marry marr y him? 10 nearly twenty-six. twenty -six.

GENERAL APPROACHES

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2.8 Completing the picture LEVEL___________

Advanced

TIME_____________


PREPARATION

Select a passage of between twelve twelve and and twenty pages pages from a 1 Select novel. Loo k in particular for passages passages in which the reader learns something new or unexpected. 2 Read throu gh the th e passage passage you have have chosen, then select four or five five pages pages of the text on w hich you wish the stude nts to concentrate. 3 Divide th e pages you have chosen into four or five roughly equal sections. If you feel feel that the students stude nts will will not be able to unde rstan d the situation situation o ut o f context, context, prep are a b rief explanati explanation, on, o r use one section of the text as an introd introduction uction . (The (Th e texts used in this activity activity are a continuation of the incident described in 2.4 Storylines 2: stud ents will, therefore, already be familiar familiar with The suspense. Th e students also added an introd uction, uctio n, Woman in White. We have, however, also taken from the text o f the novel, as an aid to to compreh ension.) 4 Prepare Prep are copies of the sections you have chosen (as in sample s ample texts B). B). Each gro up o f three stude nts will need a copy of only one of the sections. sections. Also Also prepare prepa re copies of the introdu ction (sample text A) for for the whole class. class.

IN CLASS________ _

1 Give Give the class class a brief outline of the story of the novel up to the point poin t you have chosen. Explain who the characters are, and where they are. are. Th en distribute the introduction for silent silent reading. reading.

2 Ask the stud ents to form groups of three. Give Give each group grou p a copy copy of one of the sections sections you have have prepare d. Ask them to rea d through throu gh their texts an d to note dow n any questions they would like to ask of the other o ther groups gro ups (who have different sections). sections). join with any other 3 After about ten m inutes, ask each group to join group wh ich has been working on a different section. section. T ogether, oge ther, they exchange questions and, w here possible, answers. answers. (If time time perm its, ask the stu dents den ts to change change groups once again.) 4 Class discussion. still discussion. Th e stud ents call out any questions th at are still unresolved. Oth er mem bers of the class class offer answers. 5 (Optional) Listening. Play a recording o f the text.

NOTES___________

1 In plann ing this activity, you may find it helpful to thin k in visual terms. Th at is, to imagine that tha t the sequence you have have chosen chosen from the novel is being shown on television, television, and that th e stude stu dents’ nts’ viewing viewing has been inte rrup ted at some stage, stage, say, by a telephone telephone call. call. Each s tude nt will will want to know what happen ed before or after after the interrup tion. Th e aim of the discussion, discussion, then, is to find out what hap pens and a nd to piece together the missing bits.

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GENERAL APPROACHES

2 Clearly, an activity activity such as this will will work best with an unfamiliar text. If the story is already already known, par t of the interest is lost. lost. But the technique tech nique can also be used with familiar works of fiction, such as Oliver Twist, Madame Bovary, or An na Karenina. Kar enina. In such cases, you could try a slightly slightly different approac h. Instead o f giving the students stude nts consecutive passages (that is, fou r or five pages in sequence), you could prese nt them w ith short passages passages from different parts o f the the text and ask them to fill fill in in the missing missing narrative. 3 See also 2.4 Storylines 2: suspense, and the listening activities in Section 4. SAMPLE TEXT A

Introduction

(After meeting the woman in white, the narrator, Mr Hartright, travels on to Limmeridge House, where he meets his two art students, Miss Halcombe and Miss Fairlie. Here, he is talking to Miss Halcombe. He has not yet met Miss Fairlie.) ‘The very night before I arrived at this house, I met with an adventure; and the wonder and excitement of it, I can assure you, Miss Halcombe, will last me for the whole term of my stay in Cum berland, if not for a muc h longer period. ’ ‘You don ’t say so, Mr H artrigh t! May I hear it?’ ‘You have a claim to hear it. The chief person in the adventure was a total stranger to me, and may perhaps be a total stranger to you; but she certainly mentioned the name of the late Mrs Fairlie in terms of the sincerest gratitude and r egard .’ ‘Mentioned my mother’s name! You interest me indescribably. Pray Pray go on .’ I at once related the circumstances under which I had met the woman in white, exactly as they had occurred; and I repeated what she had had said to me about M rs Fairlie and and Limm eridge Hou se, word for word. Miss Halcombe’s bright resolute eyes looked eagerly into mine, from the beginning of the narrative to the end. Her face face expresse expressed d vivid interest and astonishment, but nothing more. She was evidently as far from knowing of any clue to the mystery as I was myself. ‘Are you quite sure of those words referring to my mother?’ she asked. ‘Quite sure,’ I replied. ‘Whoever she may be, the woman was at school in the village of Limmeridge, was treated with especial kindness by Mrs Fairlie, and, in grateful remembrance of that kindness, feels an affectionate interest in all surviving members of the family. She knew that Mrs Fairlie and her husband were both dead; an d she spoke of Miss Fairlie as if they had know n each other when they were were children .’ ‘You said, I thin k, tha t she denied belonging to this this place?’ ‘Yes, she told me she came from Hampshire.’ ‘And you entirely failed to find ou t her nam e?’ ‘Entirely.’

GENERAL APPROACHES

79

‘Very strange. I think you were quite justified, Mr Hartright, in giving the poor creature her liberty, for she seems to have done nothing in your presence to show herself unfit to enjoy it. But I wish you had been a little more resolute about finding out her name. W e must mu st really clear up this th is mystery, in some way. way. You had better not speak of it yet to Mr Fairlie, or to my sister. They are both of them, I am certain, quite as ignorant of who the woman is, and of what her past history in connection with us can be, as I am myself. But they are also, in widely different ways, rather nervous and sensitiv sensitivee . . . As for myself, myself, I am all all aflame aflame with curiosity, curiosity, and I devote my whole energies to the business of discovery from this moment. When my mother came here, after her second marriage, she certainly established the village school just as it exists at the present time. My sister and I have a large collection of my mother’s letters, addressed to my father and to hers. In the absence of any other means of getting information, I will pass the morning in looking over my mother’s correspondence with Mr Fairlie. He was fond of London, and was constantly away from his country home; and she was accustomed, at such times, to write and report to him on how things went on at Limmeridge. Her letters are full of references to the school in which she took so strong an interest; and I think it more than likely that I may have discovered something when we meet again.’

SAMPLE TEXTS B

1 We had been ou t on the terrace together, just in front o f the glas glasss doors, hardly so long as five minutes, I should think; and Miss Fairlie was, by my advice, just tying her white ha ndk erchief erch ief over her head as a precaution against against the night air - when I h eard Miss Halcombe’ Halco mbe’ss voice voice - low, eager, and altered from its na tural live lively ly tone - pronounce my name. name. ‘Mr Hartright,’ she said, ‘will you come here for a minute? I want to speak to to you .’ I entered entere d the room again again immediately. The Th e piano stood about halfway down along the inner wall. O n the side of the inst rument rum ent farthest from the terrace Miss Halcombe was sitting with the letters scattered on her lap, and with one in her hand selected from them, and held close to the candle. On the side nearest to the terrace the re stood a low low couch, on which I took my place. place. In this position I was not far from the glass doors, and I could see Miss Fairlie plainly, as she passed and repassed the o pening on to the terrace, walking slowly from end to end of it in the full radiance of the moon. ‘I want you to listen while I read the concluding passages in this lette le tte r,’ said Miss Halcombe. ‘Tell me if you thin k they throw any light upon your strange adventure on the road to London. The letter is addressed addressed by my mother to her second husband, M r Fairlie, and the date refers to a period of between eleven and twelve years ago. At that time Mr and Mrs Fairlie, and my half-

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GENERAL APPROACHES

sister Laura, had been living for years in this house; and I was away away from from t hem completing my education at a school school in Paris .’ She looked and spoke earnestly, and, as I thought, a little uneasily uneasily as well. well. At th e mo ment w hen she raised the letter to the candle before beginning to read it, Miss Fairlie passed us on the terrace, looked in for a moment, and seeing that we were engaged, engaged , slowly slowly walked on. ->§

2 Miss Halcom be began to read as follow follows: s: ‘ “You will be tired, my dear Philip, of hearing perpetually about my school and my scholars. Lay the blame, pray, on the dull uniformity of life at Limmeridge, and not on me. Besides, this time I have something really interesting to tell you about a new scholar. ‘ “You know old Mrs Kempe at the village shop. Well, after years of ailing, the doctor has at last given her up, and she is dying slowly slowly day by day. H er only living relation, relatio n, a sister, arrived last week to take care of her. This sister comes all the way from Ham pshire - her name is Mrs Catherick. Fo ur days ago ago Mrs Catherick came here to see me, and brought her only child with her, a sweet little girl about a year older than our darling Laura-” ’ i As the last sentence fell from the reader’s lips, Miss Fairlie passed us on the terrace once more. She was softly singing to herself one of the melodies melodies which she had been playing earlier in the evening. Miss Halcombe waited till she had passed out of sight again, and th en wen t on with the letter “ ‘Mrs Catherick Cath erick is a dece nt, well-behaved, respectable woman; middle-aged, and with the remains of having been moderately, only moderately, nice-looking. There is something in her man ner and in her appearance, however, I can’t can’t make out. She is is reserved reserved ab out herself, an d there is a look on her face face - I can’t can’t describe it - which suggests suggests to me tha t she has something on her mind. She is altogether what you would call a walking mystery. He r errand at Lim meridge H ouse, however, was was simpl simplee enough. When she left Hampshire to nurse her sister, Mrs Kempe, through her last illness, she had been obliged to bring her daughter with her, through having no one at home to take care of the little girl. M rs K empe may die in a week’s week’s time, or may linger on for months; and Mrs Catherick’s object was to ask me to let her daughter, Anne, have the benefit of attending my school, subject to the condition of her being removed from it to go home again with her mother, after Mrs Kempe’s death. I consented at once, and when Laura and I went out for our walk, we took the little girl (who is just eleven years old) to the school that very very day .” ’ >4


81

3 Once more Miss Fairlie’s figure, bright and soft in its snowy muslin dress - her face face prettily framed by the white folds folds of the hand kerchief which which she had tied under her chin - passed passed by us in in the moonlight. moo nlight. Once more Miss Halcomb e waited till till she was was out of sight, sight, and then w ent on ‘ “I have taken a violent fancy, Philip, to my new scholar, for a reason which I mean to keep till the last for the sake of surprising you. Her mother having told me as little about the child as she told me of herself, I was left to discover (which I did on the first day when we tried her at lessons) that the poor little thing’s intellect is not developed as it ough t to be at h er age. Seeing Seeing this I had he r up to the house the the next day, and privately arranged with the doctor to come and watch her and question her, and tell me what he thou ght. His opinion is that that she wil willl grow grow out of it. it. But he says her careful bringing-up at school is a matter of great importance just now, because her unusual slowness in acquiring ideas ideas implies implies an unu sual tenacity in in keeping them , w hen they are once received into her mind. Now, my love, you must not imagine, in your off-hand way, that I have been attaching myself to an idiot. This poor little Anne Catherick is a sweet, affectionate, grateful girl, and says the quaintest, prettiest things, in the most oddly sudden, surprised, half-frightened way. Although she is dressed very neatly, her clothes show a sad want of taste in colour colour and p attern. So I arranged, yesterday, that some some of our darling Lau ra’s ra’s old white frocks frocks and white hats should be altered altered for Anne Catherick, explaining explaining to her th at little girls girls of her complexion looked neater and better all in white than in anything else. She hesitated and seemed puzzled for a minute, then flushed up, and appeared to understand. Her little hand clasped mine suddenly. She kissed it, Philip, and said (oh, so earnestly!), ‘I will always wear white as long as I live. It will help me to remem ber you, m a’am, a’am, and to think th at I am pleasing pleasing you still, still, when I go away and see you no more.’ This is only one specimen of the qua int things thin gs she says so prettily. Poor little soul! soul! She shall shall have a stock of white frocks, made with good deep tucks, to let out for her as she grows ’ Miss Halcom be paused , and looked at me across across the piano. ‘Did the forlorn woman whom you met in the high-road seem seem young?’ she asked. ‘Young enough to be two- or three-andtwenty?’ ‘Yes, Miss Halcom be, as young as th at .’ ‘And she was strangely dressed, from head to foot, all in white?’ ‘All in w hite .’ >1

GENERAL APPROACHES

4 While the answer was passing my lips Miss Fairlie glided into view on the terrace for the third time. Instead of proceeding on her walk, she stopped, with her back turned towards us, and, leaning on the balustrade of the terrace, looked down into the garden beyond. My eyes fixed upon the white gleam of her muslin gown and head-dress in the moonlight, and a sensation, for which which I can find no name - a sensation sensation that quickened my pulse, and raised raised a fluttering at my heart - began to steal steal over over me. ‘All in white?’ Miss Halcombe repeated. ‘The most important sentences in the letter, Mr Hartright, are those at the end, which I will read to you immediately. But I can’t help dwelling a little upon the coincidence of the white costume of the woman you met, and the white frocks which produced that strange answer from my mother’s little scholar. The doctor may have been wrong when he discovered the child’s defects of intellect, and predicted that she would ‘grow out of them.’ She may never have grown out of them, and the old fancy about dressing in white, which was a serious feeling to the girl, may be a serious feeling to the woman s till.’ I said said a few few words in answer - I hardly know what. All All my attention was concentrated on the white gleam of Miss Fairlie’s muslin dress. ‘Listen to the last sentences of the let l etter ter ,’ said Miss Miss Halcombe. ‘I think they will surprise you.’ As she raised the letter to the light of the candle, Miss Fairlie turned from the balustrade, looked doubtfully up and down the terrace, advanced a step towards the glass doors, and then stopped, stopp ed, facing facing us. Meanwhile Miss Halcombe read me the last sentences to which she had referre d.

GENERAL APPROACHES

5

83

‘ “An d now, my love, seeing tha t I am at the end of my paper, pap er, now for the little reason, the surprising reason, for my fondness for little Anne Catherick. My dear Philip, altho ugh she is not half so pretty, she is, nevertheless, by one of those extraordinary caprices of accidental accidental resemblance w hich one sometimes sees, th e living likeness, in her hair, her complexion, the colour of her eyes, eyes, and the shape of her face-” ’ I started starte d up from the couch before Miss Halcombe Halcom be could pronounce the next words. A thrill of the same feeling which ran through me when the touch was laid upon my shoulder on the lonely lonely high-road hig h-road chilled me again. There stood Miss Fairlie, a white figure, alone in the moonlight; in her attitude, in the turn of her head, in her complexion, in the shape of her face, the living image, at that distance distance and unde r those circumstances, circumstances, of the woman in white! white! The d oub t which which had troubled my mind for hours and hours past flashed into conviction in an instant. That ‘something wanting’ was my own recognition of the ominous likeness between the fugitive fugitive from the asylum and my pu pil at Limm eridge House. ‘You see it!’ said Miss Halcombe. She dropped the useless letter, and h er eyes flashed as they met m ine. ‘You see it now, as my m othe r saw it eleven eleven years since!’ ‘I see it - more unw illingly illingly than I can say. To associate associate that forlorn, friendless, lost woman, even by an accidental likeness only, with Miss F airlie, seems like casting casting a shadow on the futu re of the bright creature who stands looking at us now. Let me lose the impression again as soon as possible. Call her in, out of the dreary moonlight - pray call call her in!’ ‘Mr Hartright, you surprise me. Whatever women may be, I thought that men, in the nineteenth century, were above superstition.’ ‘Pray call her in!’ ‘H ush, us h, hush! She is coming coming of her own accord. Say Say nothing in her presence. Let this discovery of the likeness be kept a secret between you and me. Come in, Laura, come in, and wake Mrs Vesey with the piano. So ended ende d my eventful first day at Limmeridge Lim meridge H ouse. >1

3 Deve Develo lopin ping g ideas: themes, topics, and projects Introduction I am a camera with its its sh utter open , qu ite passive, passive, recording not thinking. Recording the man shaving shaving at the window opposite opposite and the wom an in the kimo no washing her ha ir. Some day day all of this will will have to be developed, carefully printe pri nte d, fixed. (Christopher Isherwood) Isherwood) Personal experie experience nce is the theme run ning through this section. section. Memories, recollections, chance thoughts, observations, personal reactions reactions - all all of these will will be drawn upon in the activi activitie ties. s. Like Christo C hristo pher phe r Isherwoo d, each stude nt can say: say: ‘I ‘I am a camera camera with its shu tter o pen .’ And each has different pictures pictures to offer. We believe believe that tha t they are worth ‘developing’. In the main Introduction, main Introduction, we mentioned some some of the drawbacks to the conventional conventional question-and-answer question-and-answer approach to literature. Of these, two of the most serious are: are: 1 Th e students are restricted by the nature of the questions. questions. Discussion is confined to those parts of the text on which questions are asked, and these are not necessarily necessarily the parts which inte rest the student. 2 Th e text itself is made the sole focus of attention attentio n and little opp ortunity ortu nity is given for developing the ideas suggested by the text. One way of overcoming these drawbacks is to alter our app roach to the text. Instead o f making it th e focal focal point o f the the activity, activity, we allow allow it to become instead a point of reference. reference. This Th is can be do ne, for instance, by first allowing allowing the stud ents to discuss a topic related to the text. This will will be a free discussion, not influenced by anything the students have read. Ne xt, the text can be introduced as material material to spark off further ideas. ideas. F inally, the students can be asked to take their discussion a stage furth fu rther, er, sharing any fresh ideas ideas suggested b y the text(s). In Developing In Developing ideas, ideas, we have tried to strike a proper balance between the two extremes of rigidity rigidity and looseness. Th e discussion is not bou b ound nd solely solely to the tex t, b ut it is also also not completely openended. Th e texts suggest suggest the themes; the students develop develop them.

DEVELOPING IDEAS IDEAS

About the activities Th e activities activities fall fall into two grou ps: In the first group (3.1 (3.1 Picture stories, 3.2 Creating situations from dialogue, 3.3 Screen adaptation) adaptation),, the emphasis is on creation and transformation. In Picture Pictu re stories, stories, the stude nts begin by creating their own stories stories from a set of pictures which they arrange in sequence sequence as illustrations illustrations of key key points in their story. N ext, they work - almost in in reverse - on a sequence of pictures on the events in a short story. T heir task is to recreate recreate the story in their own words. Here, the text itself comes comes right at the end of the activit activity. y. By contrast, in Creating situations from an d Screen fro m dialogue and Screen adaptation adaptatio n, the texts serve as as the starting p oint for two kinds of transformation. transformation. In the the sec secon ond d group group (3 .4 -3 .8 Discuss Discussion ion topics topics), ), the emph asis is on the stud s tuden ents’ ts’ personal involvem ent with a given them themee or topic. Two important features which these five activities have in common are: 1 They involve the use of several several texts, includ ing in some cases cases non-fictional writing. Altho ugh one on e of the passages passages may be chosen to introdu ce the topic (th e poem ‘Cathed ‘Cathedral ral Builders’ in 3.4 Diffic Dif ficult ult jobs, job s, for instance), this does not mean tha t it needs to remain th e focus focus o f later later discussions. discussions. 2 All the the activities are designed to touch on areas of experience about which the studen ts can, if they wish, speak freel freely y from personal knowledge. knowledge. Even if they themselves themselves have never done any difficult jobs (see (see activity 3.4), they will have observed others (perhaps their own parents) at work; and there can be no studen t who does not have child hood m emories (see activity 3.6). 3.6). What we are are proposing in this section section is is that literature should not be divorced divorced from life, and also that stud ents sho uld be encouraged encouraged to see see the link betw een the ir own worlds and the no less real world of literature.

3.1 Picture stories Lower intermediate to advanced 40 min utes (2 x 20 minutes) The re are two stages to this activity. Fo r each stage stage you will will need different materials. Stage one Prepare a class class set of about th irty pictures o f people, an d people, objects objects,, and allow w you to to distribute places. places. Th ere sh ould be enough pictures to allo at least five five to each grou p.


DEVELOPING IDEAS

Stage two

1 Prepare Prepar e a set of simple simple line line drawings illustrating certain key points in a story you have chosen. An example is given on page 90. 90. If you are not good at drawing, ask the stu den ts to help. (See (See the comments in Notes.) Note s.) 2 Make enough copies for for the whole class, class, or prepare a transparency for displa display y on the O HP. Stage one

1 Ask the stude nts to form groups of three. three. Give each group gro up a set of five five or six pictures o f people, objects, an d places. 2 Tell each grou p to invent inven t a story story based on the pictures . All the pictures must be used, bu t the students may add anything that is needed to complete the story (for example, an aeroplane, or a customs officer). 3 When ready , each group lays lays out its its pictures in the order in which they occur in their their story. Any impo rtant add itional details details can be written on slips slips of paper and placed between the picture s, like this: Picture 1

P i c tu r e 2

P ic tu r e 3 P ic tu r e 4

aeroplane/ customs taxi officer

P ic t u r e 5

Picture 6

casino

4 Ask one student in each group to stay stay with the the pictures. The rest now move move around to other groups and try to work out the stories stories by looking looking at the pictures. T he studen t who stays stays with the pictures should listen to th e suggestions and give hints, before finally finally revealing revealing the story.


89

Stage two 1 Ha nd o ut photocopies photocopies of the line line drawings drawings for the the story, or display display them on the OH P. Ask the class class to suggest suggest what happens in the story. 2 After listening listening to the stud ents’ en ts’ suggestions, read out fragments fragm ents of the text relating to each picture. After each short passage, allow allow time for the stu dents den ts to revise revise their earlier suggestions. suggestions. 3 Listening. possible, let the students listen listen to a recording of the Listenin g. If possible, whole story. If not, no t, try to m ake copies of it available available for out-of-cl out-of-class ass reading. NOTES

1 A story can be sparked off by very small small details details - a smell, a gesture, a sudden so und, or a chance chance remark. (Somerset (Somerset Maug ham, for instance , said tha t his sh ort story ‘Rain’ developed developed out of a few brief notes notes in his diary.) T he purpose o f the the introd uctory activity activity is to pu t the stud ents in the right frame of mind for (Stage one) one) is speculation, by inviting them to devise devise their own stories from a few visual pointers. poin ters. Th e pictures suggest a framework framework wh ich they can can fill in as they th ey like. 2 In Stage two, activity becomes becomes more controlled. T he stud ents two, the activity are not inventing, b ut re-creating a story from pictures. pictures. Bu t they do not have the text. text. Th e challenge, challenge, the n, is to build up a plausible story in their own words. 3 Stage two of the activity may be difficult to prepar e, particu larly if you feel feel you are not good at drawing. If so, why not enlist the help of the students? Give Give them th e key words (snake, bed, doctor’s bag) bag) and ask them to draw th e pictures. 4 O ther books which may be helpful in developing this activity are: Wright: Visual Materials fo r the Language Teacher Teacher ; Maley, Duff, Eye ; and Hedge: Writing and Greenwood: and Grellet: The M ind ’s Eye; Class Readers Read ers,, both in this series.

SOURCE

Th e line drawings on page 90 are pictu re cues designed to be used with Roa ld Da hl’s short story: ‘Poison’. Poison ’. If you wish to work with these drawings and Roald Dahl D ahl’’s text, try to obtain a copy of the story to read to the class class at the en d of the activity. activity.

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DEVELOPING IDEAS

91

3.2 Creating situations situatio ns from dialogue LEVEL___________ LEVEL___________

Intermediate

TIME_____________

30 minutes

PREPARATION

Fo r this activity activity you will need shor t passages passages of dialogue dialogue which are easy easy to speak, and w hich are also also open to interpreta tion. Suitable Suitable extracts can easil easily y be found in the works of modern p laywrights such as Beckett, Pinter, Pirandello, Ionesco, and others. 1 Copy out the dialogue as as shown in the sample texts. texts. Replace R eplace the characters’ chara cters’ names with letters (A, B, or C), and leave out any stage directions. 2 Make enough copies copies for one thir d of the clas class. s.

IN CLASS_________

Give each each group gro up a copy copy I Ask the s tudents to form groups o f three. Give of one of the texts you have chosen, or, if you prefer, give each group the same text. text. 2 Set a time-limit (twelve (twelve to fifteen minutes). Ask the stude nts to expand t he text by writing dialogue of their own to come before and after th e passage (abo ut six lines in each case). case). Tell the stu den ts to imagine that the dialogue is is part of a play. play. T hey should ther efore decide on the ir own answers to the following following questions: characters ers (A and B )? - Who are the charact - Where are they, and an d why wh y are they the there re? ? - What Wha t is is happening happening,, and going going to happen happen? ? - Is there there a third person person presen present? t? each group to perform its its 3 Whe n the s tudents are ready, ask each version version of the dialogu dialoguee for another group. In tu rn , the observing observing groups try to work out what was happening in the performance. (The performers should not immediately give an explanation, but instead resp ond to the observ ers’ question s.) Allow Allow time for each group to see at least two two different performances.

NOTES___________

1 It is impo rtan t that the material you choose choose should be easy easy to speak. Stud ents are often asked to speak lines lines which they cannot get their tongues around. This leads to to embarrassment, which is is one of the reasons why ‘performances’ perform ances’ in a foreign language often fall flat. In this activity, activity, the stress should not be on performance bu t on interpretation. If any any of the the studen ts would prefer not to act out their dialogue, but rather read it sitting sitting down, let them do so. There Th ere will still still be plenty to discuss.

2 Fo r a similar activity activity using dialogue drawn from novels and short stories, see 1.7 Speculation 1.

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SOURCES

Passages 1 and an d 2: 2: Harold Ha rold Pinte P inter: r: Silence Passage 3: Brian Friel: Translations Passage 4: H. E. Bates: Fair Stood Sto od the the Wind for fo r France France

SAMPLE TEXTS

1 A B A B A B A B A B A

Will we meet me et tonight? tonig ht? I don’ do n’tt know. Come with me tonight. Where? Anywhere. F or a walk. I don’t want to to walk. W hat do you want to do? I don’t do n’t know. Come for a walk. No. I walk in my mind. But can’ can ’t get out of the walls, walls, into a wind. Meadows are walled, an d lakes. Th e sky’s s ky’s a wall. wall.

2 A B A B A B A B

Do you like music? Yes. I ’ll play you music. music . I t’s very dark dar k outside. It ’s high up. Does it get darker the higher you get? get? No. Aro und me sits the night. Such a silence. silence. I can hear myself. Cup my ear. M y heart beats in my ear. Such a silence. silence. Is it me? Am I silent or speaking? How can I know?

3 A B C B A C B A C A B A C A

May I come? come? Would Wo uld anyone object if I came? came? W ha t’s he saying? Who would object? D id you tell tell him? Sorry-sorry? H e says says may he come? come? T ha t’s t’s up to you. W hat does she say? She says What-what? Well? Sorry-sorry? Will you go? go? Yes, yes, if I may. may.

4 A B A B A

W ould you be ready to do something? For Fo r you? Fo r yourself. yourself. Wo uld you be ready to go? go? When? Tonig ht. The man who came here is no good. He was here for no good. good. We know him. He has an idea of something, something, an d if he has an idea he will talk abou t it.

DEVELOPING IDEAS

93

3.3 Screen adaptation Intermediate Intermediate to advanced 30 - 45 minutes minutes

1 Select Select a passage from a novel or short story which you think thi nk would be suitable for adap ting for the screen (film (film or TV). 2 Make Mak e enough enoug h copies copies for the whole class. class. Give the stud ents th e whole text to read at home. Ask the m to 3 Give think over how how they would adapt it for the screen. screen. In particular, they should mark any parts of the text which which they think would be difficult to convey in a film, such as the following following examples examples from the sample text: - He H e must be a wizard wiza rd at inte interrog rrogatio ation! n! - . . . it added ad ded to the sense sense I had o f the coldnes coldnesss o f the the occasio occasion. n. - You know how people people talk about faces ‘closin closing g up’? I think ‘clos closee down’ is is nea nearer rer to i t . . . What Wha t actually happens happens is that that the the face remains exactly the same but all a ll the lights go out. out. 1 Class discussion. Ask the class class to call call out any parts of the text which they th ink would be difficult or even impossible impossible to show on the screen. Note these, briefly, on the blackboard. 2 Ask the stude nts to form groups of three. Give Give each each group gro up a num ber: 1 ,2 , 3, or 4 (there (there may be several several groups with each numb er). Th e num bers correspond to the four sect section ionss into which the text is divided. Th ey work wo rk like this: group(s) 1 on section 1, group(s) 2 on section 2, an d so on. 3 Write up on th e blackbo ard the following following outline for a camera script: Camera script a. What Wh at the text tex t says says:: He was often pretty lonely. H e knew he had n’t n’t much to offer. offer. b. What Wh at the camera camera shows: shows: Th e camera is is behind M errick ’s back, looking over his shoulder. It shows Daphne’s face as she listens to him. c. What Wh at words are spoken: spoken: ‘I feel feel pretty lonely lonely at times. I know I h aven’t aven’t much to offe r.’

Ask each each group to draw up a camera script for their sequence. They should describe the sequence in not more than th ree different shots. Each sho t should be descr ibed in the same way: way: - What Wh at the text says - What Wh at the camera camera shows shows - What Wh at words are are spoken spoken..

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D EV EL OP ING IDEAS

4 Each group then joins another which has worked on the same same sequence from the text (each group gro up 1 joins another anothe r group 1, groups 2 join up, and so on). Together, they compare their different versions of the text. 5 If time permits , the gro ups can also also go on to discuss discuss their camera scripts with those who have worked on differe nt sequences. NOTES

1 As a language activity, t his exercise in visualization has has several advantages: a. It allows allows the stud ents to come to to grips with a text withou t having having to answer specifi specificc questions ab out it. Th ey, in fact, will will be asking asking their own questions (for (for instance, is Daph ne attracted to M errick, or does she simply feel sorry for him?). b. It is an activity activity which naturally generates discussion, because because the text is open to interpretation. (When Daphne says ‘Perhaps I ought oug ht to have taken my specs out’, does she make a movemen t on on screen or not?) c. Th e studen ts are free to adapt the language, for instance by turning r eported speech speech into direct speech: speech: His other reg ret was was that h e’d e’d never ‘met ‘met the th e right righ t sort of girl for him ’. 2 Teachers Teach ers (and, more rarely, stud ents) occasional occasionally ly object that they know nothin g about film techniqu e. In fact, to do this this activity activity you do not need to know anything about filming or film film technique. You need only to have watched watche d a few few films. films. The Th e camera scrip t does not no t need to look like a professional docum ent. It simply helps to give a clear focus to th e activity. 3 This Th is activity activity can can be made even more interesting if the stude nts have an oppor tunity tun ity to see a screen adaptatio n of a novel or sh ort story. T ry contacting co ntacting your local local television television station to find ou t what English films they plan to show during the year. You could use the original works as material for this activity. The students stude nts would then have the satisfaction of seeing seeing how th e director direc tor solved the problem s they too had faced.

95

DEVELOPING IDEAS

SAMPLE TEXT

The Th e MacGrego r House MacGregor Road Mayapore 1 Friday,

17th July 1942

Dear Auntie Ethel, 1

Many Man y thanks

for your letter lett er and news of the goings on in

Srinagar. Srinagar. Glad you got got the photograph photogr aph safely and in in time time for your birthday, but gladder gladd er still that you like the dress length. The photogra phot ograph ph seemed to me so awful that that I had to send something somethi ng else as well to make up for it it, and then wondered wonde red choos ch oosing ing that colour col our whether whe ther I hadn't made ever ythin yth ing g worse!

...

... I mostly mos tly get a lift to and from the hospital hospi tal in Mr Me rrick' rick' s car which whic h he sends send s round rou nd with a police pol ice driver.

I find fin d it a

bit embarrass embar rassing ing and have told him several times that I can quite easily easil y go on on my bicycle bicyc le on any day, day, but he insists it's really real ly his duty to see I don't come to any harm. I

like hi him m be bett tter er than tha n I us used ed to to. .

the fact fact that he's been kind and considerate. considerate . that's against him

I can't close my eyes to It's It's his manner man ner

(and (a nd something somet hing behind behi nd his manner, manner, naturally) .

And of course cour se a District Distri ct Superin Supe rinten tenden dent t of Police Pol ice is. a bit off putting.

But now that I've got used to him  and got got over somesom e-

thing thi ng that I think thi nk I must mus t tell tel l you  I quite qui te enjoy enj oy the times he takes tak es me out

...

... I feel I must tell tel l you, you, but please plea se keep it to y o u r s e l f . About a month mont h ago he invited me to his bungalo w for dinner. dinner. He'd gone to a lo lot t of trouble. trouble.

It was the best English Engl ish meal I've had in

India ...

2

...

(After dinner)

while whi le we were wer e drink dri nkin ing g he asked aske d me a lot

of questio que stions ns about my family, family, about how David was killed, killed, and about Daddy, Daddy,

and then about me, me, and what I thought thoug ht about ab out life and

all that sort of thing, thing, but in a chatty, chatty, me open up. up.

sympathe symp athetic tic way that made

(He must be a wi wizar zard d at at interrogatio interr ogation! n!

That's not

fair fa ir. . But you know what I mean.) Gradua Gra dually lly I realiz rea lized ed he he ha had d begun beg un to talk about himself.

And I was thinking: People Peo ple don't like you

much mu ch, , but you're fundamenta fund amentally lly

ki nd , and that's why you and I

have always got on surprisingly well.

DEVELOPING IDEAS

96

... He said he he came of grandparen grand parents ts had been

'a very ver y ordin ord inar ary y fa f a m il y' , and his

'pretty 'pretty humble sort sort of p e op l e ' . He had

worke wo rked d hard har d and done all right so far far in in the Indian I ndian Police,

and

his main mai n regret re gret was that being bei ng in it it he wasn't wasn 't all a llow owed ed to join up. up. His other regret was that that he'd never really had any 'met 'm et the right ri ght sort of girl gir l for h i m ' . He was often oft en

'you 'y outh th', ',

or

'pretty

lone lo ne ly '. He knew he hadn't much to offer offer. . He realized realiz ed his ba ck ground and mine were

'rathe 'rather r diff er en ent' t'. . Our friendsh ip meant a

lot to him. Then he dried up. up. I just just didn't know k now what to say say, , becau bec ause se I didn't know if I'd understood unders tood or misunderst misun derst ood what he was was driving dr iving at. at . We sort of stared sta red at each other oth er for a while.

Then he sa said id, ,

'I'm only asking whether after you've had time to think about it you'd consider the possi bility of becoming engaged engage d to me me.' .'

3

Do you you kno know, w, Auntie, that's the only proposa prop osal l I've ever had? had?

I'm sure by the time you were my age you'd had dozens. Does every e very girl find fin d the first one oddly moving? movin g? I suppose supp ose it depend dep ends s on the the man. But if if he's, you y ou know, all right, right, not be touched,

can you you, ,

decent dec ent enough,

you can't

whatev wha tever er you feel about him hi m as as a person per son? ?

I don't don't think my feelings for Ronald Rona ld Merrick Merr ick could c ould ever be de scribed scribe d a as s more than passing pass ingly ly affection affe ctionate ate

... I never feel quite

natural when wh en I'm with him, him, but can never be sure sure whether whet her that is my fault or his. his. But when he came out with this requ r equest est hardly har dly call it a proposal, propos al, been bee n able to make mak e things

can you you?) ?)

(you (y ou can

I wa wante nted d very ver y mu much ch to have

all right for hi him m and say

'Yes'

...

What made it so extraordinary was that he never so much as touched touc hed my hand hand. . At the time, time, this not touching touchi ng added ad ded to my wish not to hurt him. him. Later, Later,

think th inking ing about, about,

it added add ed to the sense I

had of of the coldness surroundi surr ounding ng the occasion. We were sitting s itting at opposi opp osite te ends of the sofa. sofa. Perhaps Perh aps I ought to have hav e taken take n my specs out and put them the m on on! Lookin Loo king g back bac k on it it I can't reall rea lly y recall whethe whe ther r I felt felt that what had ha d been bee n said was a shock shoc k or not not. .

It

seemed to be a sho shock ck, , but in retrospect retrospe ct the whole evening even ing was obviou obv iously sly leadin lea ding g up to it it, been bee n surprised,

4

so I can't think thin k why I should sho uld have

or even belie bel ieve ve that I wa was. s.

There must have been lots of things said before he came out

with it that I inwardly took notice of. At some stage or other I decide dec ided d that physically, physicall y,

in spite of his looks, looks, he repell repe lled ed me,

but I think thi nk that came later, later,

and was only mo mome ment ntar ary y

... The faint

DEVELOPING IDEAS

97

feeling of of repulsion pro bably came through because of the sense I had of of relief, relief,

of having hav ing got out of a difficu diff icult lt situati situ ation on and

retreated into myself in a way that left no room for others whoever they might be. I was now more concerned about the possible effect of my 'refusal' . Honest Hon estly, ly, Ronald Rona ld  but about

faces

becaus bec ause e

I'm sure sur e that all I said sai d was

but that was enough. enough. 'closing 'clos ing u p ' ? I th thin ink k

'close 'close up'

'thank you,

You know how people talk

'close down'

is ne neare arer r to it it,

suggests suggest s a sort of co cons nstr tric ic ti on on, , a

ch an ge .

whereas what actually happens is that the face remains exactly the same but all the lights go out. out. Like a house hous e where people peo ple have ha ve gone away. If you knock kno ck at the door now there won't be any answer. ... P Prese resently ntly he drove me home and we talked quite easily ea sily about nothing. He escort esc orted ed me up the steps to to the verandah. When we shook hands he hung hun g on to mine for a moment mom ent and said said, , ideas ideas take getting get ting used us ed to, to,' '

'Some 'S ome

from which whic h I gathere gat hered d he hadn't yet

given up, but it was a differ dif ferent ent man ma n who said it. it. The Th e Distri Dis trict ct Superinte Super intenden ndent t of Police, Police,

(Paul Scott: The Jew Je w el in the Crown)

the Ronald Ron ald Merrick Merr ick I don't care for. for.

98

DEVELOPING IDEAS

3.4 Discussion topics topics 1: difficu difficult lt jobs LEVEL___________

Advanced

TIME_____________


PREPARATION

passage which suggests a topic that 1 Choose a poem or a prose passage might mig ht be developed in class class discussion. discussion. Look Loo k for two or thre threee other texts (fictional (fictional or non-fictional) which are related to th e topic. 2 Prep are sufficient copies copies of the texts tex ts for for each group of |three |three stude nts to have one set. (See sample texts for a selection selection of literature re lating to the activity described below.) 3 Also, collect any visual material you can find which is related to the topic, top ic, such suc h as a large large poster showing a Europea Eu ropean n medieval cathedral, or any othe r architectural wonder.

IN CLASS_________

1 Preliminary discussion. Write up on the board the words Old Buildings. Building s. Ask the class to name any famous ancient monuments in their own coun try or elsewhere elsewhere in the world, for instance the Egyptian pyramids, the Forb idden City in Beiji Beijing, ng, the Tow er of Lon don, and so on. 2 The n ask the students to thin k of some some of the difficulti difficulties es that the ancient architects and building workers ha d to face. face. No te these on the board: - They had to clear clear forests, drain swamps, build on sand - They had no no drilling equipment, dynamite, cement, plastic covers, covers, tarred roads roads fo r transport transport o f material - The climate climate was very very hot/cold/wet hot/cold/wet - They had h ad little or or no no job security security;; they had to move from one one job to another another,, even from one one country country to another another,, and had little fam fa m ily life - The work was dang dangero erous. us. 3 If possible, show the class class a picture pictu re of a medieval medieval cathed ral, a mosque, a temple, a pyramid, a Khm er monu men t, or an Inca palace, palace, and ask them to say say which parts of each building building mu st have been the m ost difficult difficult to construct and why. Make a note o f their suggestions. Give them copies of the the 4 Ask the stu dents to form groups of three. Give extract from ‘Th e long climb climb back to glory’. They Th ey should sh ould read rea d the text and note any details which have been men tioned tione d in the earlier discussion, for example: example: - the work was dangerous (‘You pass graffiti commem orating a dangerous (‘You mason who fell fell in the 16th 16th centu ry’.) 5 Now , write up on the the blackboard or display display on the OH P these fragments from the poem ‘Cathedral Builders’: Cathedral Builders They climbed on ladders ladders hoisted rock into heaven heaven defied gravity took up u p God’ G od’ss house to meet him

D EVE LO P IN G IDEA S

99

And came down to their suppers lay with the ir smelly wives wives Quarrelled and cuffed cuffed the children Spat, sang, were happy or unhappy. And every day took to th e ladders again grew greyer, s hakier, became less less inclined to (1 ). . . Saw naves sprout arches Cursed the (2) . . . for their luck Somehow Somehow escaped escaped (3). . ., got rheumatism , Decided it was time to give it up , To leave the spire to othe rs; stood in th e crowd at the consecration, Envied the fat (4 ). . . his warm boots, Cocked up a squint squ int eye and said said (5 ). . . . Tell the stud ents that this is part of a poem about the lives lives of the old cathedral builde rs. Before going on, explain or translate any words or expressions which m ight give difficulty, for example: example: hoisted, cuffed, saw naves sprout arches, spire, consecration, cocked up a squint eye. 6 Allow Allow time time for questions and discussion. Th en ask the class class to suggest what was said in in the five five blank spaces. spaces. If you wish, ask the questions in this way: way: - What did the builders become less inclined to do? - Who did they ‘cur ‘curse sefo r their luck’? luck ’? Why were they lucky? - What did the builders ‘escape’? Was it something worse than rheumatism? - A t the conse consecr crati ation on,, who did the builde builders rs ‘envy’? ‘envy’? - Why Wh y is is he wearing ‘warm ‘warm boots’ boots’? - When the builders builders look up at the the work they have done (the cathedral cathedral they have built) wha w hatt do they say say? ? 7 Listen to the s tuden tud ents’ ts’ suggestions, the n give give them them a copy of the full text and, if possible, possible, play a recording recording of the poem.

NOTES

1 If you feel tha t the poem is too difficult, you could use the prose text from W illiam Golding: The Spire. One of the reasons for offering a shortened shorte ned version of the poem (in In (in In class, class, step 5) is that the main body of the text can easi easily ly be understood w ithout much explanation. explanation. T he p urpose o f the shortened text is to stimulate discussion. discussion. T he complete complete text should be easier easier to und erstan d after this discussion. 2 In what order should the material material be presented? Although it it would seem natural to presen t the literary text first, and use i t as a basis for developing the discussion topic , this does not always always prove to be the best app roach , for two reasons: reasons: a. Students ten d to be influenced influenced by the model. I f they read the literary literary text first, it shapes their thoughts and also constricts constricts their

100 100

DEVELOPING IDEAS

thinking . W hereas if they first range freely freely over the topic , they become more receptive to what is said in the text, b. Students Stude nts take more inter est in a work if they have already contributed something something of their own. own. Much language language work is restricted restricted to asking students to comment on texts. B ut their comment comm ent will will be much mu ch sharper sh arper if they have already formu lated their own thoughts. Ex pandin ding g the topic. topic. Any discussion topic 3 Expan topic will naturally natur ally stir st ir up thoughts on related themes. themes. Fo r instance, the passages passages on cathedral builders may lead to discussion of architecture, conservation, home interiors, town planning, traffic traffic regulation, and o ther related topics. O r, following following a different line of tho ught, ug ht, to diff icult, tir ing, ing , or dangerous types types of work. You may find that texts w ith which the students stude nts are already familiar familiar (for (for example example ‘Nig ‘Nig ht-S hift W ork ers’ ers ’ in activity 1.5 Split discussion. Sp lit poem poem could be used to stimulate further discussion.

4 Many useful ideas ideas which could be adapted to includ e literary texts are to to be found in Fried-B ooth: Project series. Project Work, Wor k, in this series.

DEVELOPING IDEAS

SAMPLE TEXT A

101 101

Thee long climb back to glory Th A line by the 19th 19th century Je suit poet Gerard Manley Hop kins says, ‘There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.’ The masons who crafted the medieval cathedrals of Europe knew that first; and their gift was not only to pluck that quality out of the deepest recesses recesses of hum an insig ht bu t to make it visible visible in the sky and in the air. In the town which their bishop christened New Sarum, the master masons went further in the purpose—and hazarded more— than almost anyone except the architects of the Pyramids. On foundations found ations four feet deep, a foot above the water table, they built a spire 404 feet high, the tallest in Britain and the second tallest in Europe. The incredible stone spaceship they left in a Wiltshire water meadow, its spire and pinnacles poised through 650 years for take off into D eep H eaven, has been an inspiration and friend of every every generation since. The funeral procession of its 13th century founder-bishop, Richard Poore, is commemorated in the nave by an effig effigy y worn smoo th by hum an touch. touch . N ot long ago ago WP WPC C Yvonne Fletcher’s parents passed it as they followed their girl’s funeral procession down the 448-foot stretch of the nave and choir. Salisbury Cathedral projects the first and last concerns of human beings on an epic but bu t identifiable scale. scale. The chain of testimony testimony to this is unbroken from Sir Christopher Wren, architect of St Paul’s, through Constable’s painting to the novelist William Golding who wrote ‘Fifteen miles away, you can feel the cathedral begin to pull.’ No generation before ours has had reason to expect that anything except the last trump could remove it. What our generation has to face is the forecast that—unless we change our way of life— Salisbury and many other churches, great and small, will be mouldering, defaced and unrecognisable within the lifetimes of our children or grandchildren. Twelve years ago, a b link of an eyelid eyelid in its lifespan, the ‘family’ of 800 staff and volunteers which clusters round it and cares for it began to realise realise that th eir dear frien d was almost terminally ill. ill. Fo r some time the faces of the famous 90 statues of saints on the west front had looked as if they were being ‘torn by some agent of evil’, as the clerk of works Roy Spring puts it. But the statues are, ultimately, decoration. The worst discovery was that the same enemy agent is attacking three sets of stone decorative bands on the outside of the spire. They help hold up the 4,800-ton combined weight of spire and tower. These bands have been melted in parts from their original eight inch thickness to two inches. L ike the faces of the statues, statu es, they look as if someone had hurled vitriol at them; and that is what’s happening. The modern industrial world world has been been throwing diluted sulphuric acid—in the form of acid rain—on top of the effects of frost, wind and the other traditional corroders corroders of stonework. stonework. F rost


is slow, slow, and this this artefact artefact can stare down hurricanes. But, thanks to acid acid rain, the rate of deca decay y has doubled in speed during Roy Spring’s 20 years in his job. ‘The statues are now just a mass of decayed ston e,’ he says. Th e spire would have fallen in an estimated 20 years. Thirty-five full-time masons have already begun a ten-year task, Even with £75,000 £75,000 laser laser machines which cut stone 12 12 times as fast as a saw, saw, they will still still take over a quarte r as long to restore mutilated parts of the cathedral as their medieval predecessors did to build it. This is what the w orld knows: knows: a cheering cheering picture of devotion and endeavour. What this picture omits is that the acid rain blitz will continue between now and 1992 and thereafter. We shall have to wait till 1991 1991 for the repo rt of a national mon itoring by th e Building Research Establishment on the impact of acid rain on ancient fabric. fabric. Meanwhile York Minster and Lincoln Cathedral are among the great British British churches bothered ab out it. F urt he r afield afield Colog Cologne ne Cathedral Cathedra l is being ravaged. But for Salisbury the background picture is the starkest yet described in Britain. Roy Spring says: says: ‘Th e decay is is accelerating accelerating so rapidly tha t some of the statues added by the Victorians Victorians are now in as bad a state as the medieval ones. ‘I have repair work mapped out which will take us 30 years to complete. At the end of that 30 years, the acceleration of decay elsewhere is going to be so great that we will have to start all over again again on th e parts we are restoring restoring now. If we don’t do something about acid rain—if the whole of our species doesn’t do something about it—not only will we not have any cathedrals left, we won’t have a habitable habitable plan et.’ It was Roy Spring who first discovered and photographed the damage. In his scholarly but gently deceptive monograph ‘Up the Spire’ (Cathedral bookshop, 50p), he says, ‘The climb to the capstone is one of interest.’ Prince Charles among others, has had cause to wince at the understatement. What Mr Spring is talking about is— first— 360 360 steps up to the tow er, some of the the way with no handrail to break a fall. You pass graffiti commemorating a mason who fell in the 16th century. Then you do about 150 steps up a series of 10 ladders inside the narrowing spire, with no safety net. These end at a storm door. Reaching through it, you manoeuvre rou nd the outside of the spire as as it vibrates vibrates in the wind and get hold of iron rungs put in by medieval masons. You climb up these the last 40 feet feet to the capstone and cross. cross. But how did they come come to build so wel well—co l—co mpared with us? In a sense, a cathedral builder’s ‘kit’ was available in the year 1220, just as a kit is plainly behind much of the modern housing at Milton Keynes or the unspeakably pseudo-grandiose offices which are now obliterating obliterating that old Victorian Victorian cathedral of steam, steam, Liverpool Street Station, and are shortly due to obliterate the back of Kings Cross. Th e medieval kit was was shared between master-masons and ordinary masons moving throughout Europe during the centuries when the

1 f

\ j ] j j

'j

DEVEL O PIN G IDEAS

103

possibilities of the Moorish arch were being explored with infinite local local variations variations in a bu rst o f building. Roy Spring thinks of these men, who knew what could and couldn’t be done with local stone at heights, as Fred and Charlie. ‘I have a phobia about architects who stand back and say “I built this” ,’ he says, says, T h e y d idn’t. idn’t. They drew the picture s.’ (The Guardian) Guardian)

SAMPLE TEX TEXT TB

Cathedral at hedral Builder s They climbed on sketchy ladders ladders towards God, With w inch and pulley hoisted hewn rock into heaven, Inhabited sky with hamm ers, defied gravity, gravity, Deified stone, too k up G od’s od’s house to meet Him. And came down to their supp ers and small small beer; Every nigh t slept, lay with th eir smelly wives, Quarrelled and cuffed the children, lied, lied, Spat, sang, were happy or unhappy. And every day took to th e ladders again; Impeded the rights of way of another sum mer’s mer’s Swallows Swallows,, grew g reyer, shakier, became less less inclined To fix a neigh bou r’s r’s roof of a fine fine evening. Saw Saw naves naves spr out arches, clerestories clerestories soar, Cursed th e loud fancy glaziers glaziers for their luck, Somehow Somehow escaped escaped the plague, got rheu matism, Decided it was time to give it up. up . To leave the the spire sp ire to others; stood in th e crowd Well back from the vestments at the consecration, Envied the fat bishop his warm boots, Cocked up a squin t eye eye and said, ‘I bloody did th at’. (John Ormond: ‘Cathedral Builders’)

SAMPLE TEXT C

When he woke at dawn next morning, he could hear the rain, and he remembered what the master builder had said. So he prayed among other things for fine weather. But the rain came for three days, with only a h alf day to follow follow it of low cloud cloud and an d soaked a ir; so that housewives hung what linen there was to wash before smouldering fires fires that dirtied mo re linen than they dried; and then there was wind and rain for a week. When he came out of his deanery, cloaked for the hur ried passage passage to the cathedral, he would see the clouds at roof level so that even the battlements of the roof were blurred by them. As for the the whole building building itself, itself, the bible in stone, it was slimy slimy with water w ater streaming dow n over moss moss and lichen and flaking stones. When the rain drizzled, then time was a drizzle, slow slow and to be endu red. At the crossways of the cathedral the re was no more digging. One day, Jocelin stood by the master builder, watched him lower a candle on a string, and saw how water shone at the bottom of the

104


pit. Also, he smelt the pit, and recoiled from it. But the master builder took no account of smells. He stayed where he was, staring gloomily down at the candle. Jocelin became anxious and urgent. He h ung by Roger Mason ’s shoulder. shoulder. ‘W hat will you do now, my s on?’ Roger Mason grunted . ‘Th ere’s plenty to d o. ’ He eased himself carefully into the bottom of a corkscrew stair and climbed out of sight; and later, Jocelin heard him moving carefull carefully, y, a hun dred and twenty feet up, by th e vaulting. vaulting. During this time, the master builder and some of his army worked in th e roo f over the cross crossways ways.. They broke up the vaulting so that now if there was any light at all in the crossways and you looked up, you could see rafters. While some men worked there, disappearing into the corkscrew stairs that riddled the walls of the building, to appear later flysize in the triforium, others built scaffolding round the south-east pillar of the crossways. They set ladders from level to level, a spidery construction so that when it was finished the pillar looked like a firtree with the branches cut back. This new work was not without advantage to the services, for the bu ilders could n ot be heard so easily easily in the roof. T here he re was little little more interruption to the stinking peace of the nave than the occasional blow of a maul at roofheight. Presently ropes began to hang down from the broken vault over the crossways, and stayed there, swinging, as if the building sweating now with damp inside as well as out, had begun to grow some sort of gigantic moss. The ropes were were waiting waiting for the beams that would be inched thro ugh the gap in the nor th wall; but they looked like moss and went w ith the smell. In this dark and wet, it took even Jocelin all his will, to remember that something important was being done; and when a workman fell through the hole above the crossways, and left a scream scored all the way down th e air which was so so thick it seemed to keep the scream as something mercilessly engraved there, he did not wonder that no miracle interposed between the body and the logical logical slab slab of o f stone th at received it. (William Golding: The Spire) Spire)

SAMPLE TEX TEXT TD

Brick making, bui ldi ng and and stoneworking stoneworking I shall also describe to you the bricklayer . . .When he must be outside in the wind, he lays lays bricks bricks w ithout a garment. His belt is a cord for his back, a string for his buttocks. His strength has vanished thro ugh ug h fatigue and stiffness . . . [and] [and] he eats bread bre ad with his fingers, altho ugh he washes hims elf bu t once a day. Labourers in the building trades are pictured in the tomb of Rekhmire. The task of laying bricks is here given to Nubian captives, an interesting parallel to the fate of the Children of Israel in the Bible (Exodus 1:13-14). On the left, a man is seen filling filling jars jars with water while, further right, others are hoeing the ground and filling baskets with earth. After mixing these two substances with straw to to bind the mass, the m ud is poured into wooden moulds and

DEVELOPING IDEAS

105 105

left in the sun to dry. Then, as now, most of the bricks were not fired, but were transported to the work-site as soon as the surface hardened, either in quantity with the aid of a yoke or a few at a time. Domestic architecture depended mainly on unfired bricks for the shell of a building, bu t any large large construction would b e made of stone, and its interior filled with earth as successive courses were added, or with a series of mudbrick ramps giving access. What appears to be a stone building pardy obscured by such a ramp is seen seen on the extreme right in the tomb of Rekhmire. Another good example is still preserved at Karnak, against the east face of the south wing of the first pylon, found here because the building remained unfinished in antiquity. Building in stone is also illustrated in the tomb of Rekhmire, in the two registers below the brickmaking scenes. Ships laden with stone are first seen on the bottom, arriving from the quarries. Masons are next seen chipping at the blocks or stretching cords across their surfaces to see whether they are truly smooth. Above, gangs of men are seen hauling huge blocks o f granite with the aid of ropes and levers, while at the right sculptors shape the hard stone into statues. Since at this time the Egyptians still had only soft metals metals - copper and bronze - at their disposal disposal,, the required shaping shaping of the stone was done with dolerite balls which were also used to literally pound the granite loose from the bed of the quarry: a good example of their patience is the unfinished obelisk in the granite quarries on the east bank at Aswan. T ransp ort o f granite columns, pictured on a block from from th e causewa causeway y to the p yramid of King Unis at Saqqara, fades into insignificance before the conveyance of Queen Hatshepsut’s great obelisks down to Thebes: the monu ments are settled on the decks o f two enormous barges, w ith groups of tugboats tugboats to guide these monsters downstream, and the profusion of masts and cables vividly evokes what must have been an astound ing technological spectacle spectacle in its day. In addition ad dition to s tatuary, tatuary , the Egyptians excelled excelled from earliest earliest times in making finely crafted stone vessels. vessels. Examples o f their art fill fill the world’s museums and the perfection they achieved is all the more amazing in that the only drill available was a cumbersome instrument: consisting consisting of a forked forked shaft made of hard stone , it was was turned by crank attached to its its upp er end, with stones lashed lashed to the handle to provide greater stability. Even so, great strength and stamina stamina mus t have been been requ ired of the operator. T his process, as well as polishing vases with a stone scraper, is pictured in many tombs, both of Old and New Kingdom date. (The Penguin Guide to Ancient Ancien t Egypt Egyp t )

106 106


SAM SAMPLE PLE TEXT E

M y Bu Busc scon ondu duct ctor or My busco nductor tells tells me he only has one kidney and that t hat may soon go on strike through overwork. Each busticket takes on now a different shape and texture. He holds a ninepenny singl singlee as if it were a rose and p uts th e shilling shilling in his bag bag as a child into a gasmeter. His thin lips lips have no quips for fat factorygirls and h e ignores ignores the dru nk who snores and the oldman who talks to to himself and gets off at the wrong stop. H e goes goes gently to the bedroom of the bus to collect and watch familiar shops and pubs passby (perhaps (perhap s for the last time?) time?) The sameold streets look different now more distinct as throu gh new glasse glasses. s. And the sky was it ever so blue? And all the time deepdown in the deserted busshelter o f his mind he thinks about his journey nearly nearly done. One day he’ he ’ll clock clock on and never clock off or clock off and n ever clock on. (Roger McGough : ‘My Buscond Bus conductor’) uctor’)

3.5 Discussion topics 2: observation observa tion LEVEL___________

Lower intermediate intermediate

TIME_____________


PREPARATION

Fo r this activity, you will will need descriptive material, particularly 1 For passages which evoke a strong sense of place. These T hese may be descriptions of cities, streets, landscapes, interiors, and so on. Such descrip tions can easily easily be found in novels and short shor t stories.

DE VELO P ING IDEAS

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Other useful sources are diaries, autobiographies, letters, and travel books. 2 Select one or two sho rt passages which whic h you feel would stim ulate the studen ts to think furth er about their own powers powers of observation. Two examples are given in the sample texts. T he approach appro ach describ ed below relates directly to to the extract from Isherwood: A Isherwood: A Berlin Diary (sample text A). 3 Make enough eno ugh copies of the text you have chosen for one third of the class. IN CLASS

1 Write up on the board the words From my window. Ask the studen ts, w orking individually, individually, to note down what they can see see from their th eir own window , or what wh at can be seen seen from any window in their home. After five five minutes, ask them to form groups of three three and to exchange exchange observat observations. ions. Remind the m th at in addition to the things things they see they could also mention the people who regularly pass by or who stand around in the street. 2 Read aloud or play a recording o f the passage from from A A Berlin Diary. After th e reading give each group a copy of the text. 3 Draw the studen ts’ attention to these these words words in the text: text: I am a camera with its shu tter open, quite passive, passive, recording, not thinking. Recording the man shaving shaving at the window window opposite and the wom an in the kimo no washing her hair. Some Some day all all this will will have to be developed, carefully print ed, ed , fixed. 4 Ask the studen ts, in their groups of three, to imagine imagine tha t they are ‘a ‘a camera with its sh utter utte r open’ ope n’ in their the ir own town, and th at they are going going to take photographs of their town in order to rem ember it as it is. Each group gro up should dra w u p a list of at least five five ‘shots ‘shots’’ (photographs) they would like to take. Ask the students to consider the following following points in decidin g on the ir shots: Wh at is thefocal foc al point poin t o f the the picture? picture? What detail(s) detail(s) would the eye eye be be - What drawn to? to? Wha W hatt would wou ld there there be in the background background? ? - A t what wh at time of day would you take the the pictu picture re? ? - Would Woul d there there be be any people or or animals in the picture? picture? - What Wha t would w ould beyour reas reason onfor fo r taking the pict pictur ure? e? - Does Does the the scen scenee have any personal personal asso associ ciati ation ons? s? 5 Allow Allow at least ten minutes minu tes for discussion discussion of the shots. T he n ask each group to exchange ideas with another. similar 6 Round Ro und-up -up disc discuss ussion ion.. D id any group s choose the same or similar shots? Which suggestions were the most mos t striking or unusu al? Which Wh ich would be the most difficult to take?

NOTES

1 Descriptive Desc riptive passages passages in literature often wash over us withou t leaving leaving any clear impress impression. ion. This Th is may be because in a foreign language we do not un derstan der stan d the words (words like ‘dirty ‘dirty plaster p laster frontages embossed with scroll-work’ s croll-work’), ), or because the scene

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described is too remote from ou r own experience, or because we cannot see in our m inds w hat the writer sees. sees. F or reasons such as these, stude s tudents nts often find des criptive passages passages difficult to work with. This is why we have placed placed the m ain emphasis in this activity on the studen stu den ts’ own powers o f observation. They The y will certainly be able to talk abou t what they themselves see see every day. A nd to do this, they do not ne ed to use ‘literary ‘literary language’. Sample text A is is not inte nde d to be stud ied for its use of language language,, b ut rather for the suggestive suggestive power of the central thou ght ‘I am a camera’. camera’. 2 In In In In class, class, steps 4 and 5, the students should be encouraged to use language as as precisely precisely as as possible. possible. I n describin g their s hots, hots , they will, will, for instance, need to make freque nt use of prepositions prepositions (at, next to, beneath, under, beside). If you wish, write up on the board a check-list check-list of prepositions and adverbs they may need. You migh t also also remind them that in the discussion discussion it would be natural to use the conditional form: ‘O ‘O ur first picture would show the greengrocer pulling down his shutters in the evening. evening. . .’ No te also also that, although the stud ents do not have to refer back to the literary tex t, they may like to borrow ideas from it, for instance: ‘. . . soon the whistling will begin. Y oung men are calling the ir girls.’

SAMPLE TEXT A

(The (Th e au tho r is reflecting on life life as it goes on beyo nd his own window.) From my window, the deep solemn massive street. Cellar-shops where the lamps burn all day, under the shadow of top-heavy balconied facades, dirty plaster frontages embossed with scroll work and heraldic devices. The whole district is like this: street leading into street of houses like shabby monumental safes crammed with the tarn ished valuable valuabless and second-hand furnitu re of a bank rup t middle class. class. I am a camera with its shutte r open, qu ite passive, passive, recording, not thinking. Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully carefully print ed, ed , fixed. At eight o’clock in the evening the house-doors will be locked. The children are having supper. The shops are shut. The electric sign is switched on over the night-bell of the little hotel on the comer, where you can hire a room by the hour. And soon the whistling will begin. Young men are calling their girls. Standing down there in the cold, they whistle up at the lighted windows of warm rooms where the beds are alread already y turn ed dow n for the night. They want to be let in. Their signals echo down the deep hollow street, lascivious and private and sad. Because of the whistling, I do not care to stay here in the evenings. It reminds me that I am in a foreign city, alone, far from home. Sometimes I determine not to listen to it, pick up a book, try to read. But soon a call is sure to sound , so piercing, so insistent, so despairingl despairingly y hum an, tha t at last last


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I have to get up and peep through the slats of the Venetian blind to make quite sure that it is not - as I know very very well well it could could not possibly possibly be - for me. me. SAMPLE TEXT B

(Christopher Isherwood: Isherwood: A A Berlin Diary) Diary) (The a uthor uth or is observing school school children from the window o f his flat, which overlooks the school.) I used to watch the school across the road; the kids coming and going in the morning and afternoon and streaming into the playground at breaks. It was getting getting near the time they brok e up for the summer; then the school would close for good and the demolition demolition men would move in. T hrou gh one o f the tall windows, windows, opposite but a little below our room, I could see the teacher standing before the blackboard, but because of the level of the window I couldn’t see his seated class. It looked as if he was speaking and gesticulating to no one. I watched him struggling to communicate with his invisible audience, waving his arms and raising his voice, voice, and I felt sorry for him. In the third week of July the school closed and the din from the playground ceased. Almost immediately several council vans turned up and took away the interior furnishings. Some of the equipment in the kitchen was dismanded and some old fold-up desks were stacked in the playgound. Then the vans drove away, leaving the school like a forlorn fort amidst the besieging demolition sites. I asked myself if the kids who had gone to the school cared that it was going to be flattened. I saw some of them sometimes, playing games over the demolition sites, rooting about amongst the rubbish heaps, setting fire to things and being chased off by the site workers. Then one day, only about a fortnight after the school closed, there were two boys in the school playground. They were walking around , looking at the heap of desks desks and peering through the wired ground-floor windows. I was puzzled as to how they’d got there. Then I saw the head head of a third boy - and a fourth - appear over over the the playground wall in the far left corner where it joined the school building. There seemed to be a loose section of the wire netting above the wall, which could be lifted back and squeezed under, and although t he wall was was a good ten feet, the pile of desks in the corn er made it possible, even for a boy of eleven or so, to lower himself down. In a short while there were five boys in the playground, mooching about in grubby jeans jeans and tee-shirts. tee-shirts. Their first impulse was to ransack everything. I watched them try to force their way way into the school school building building thro ugh th e big door from the playground. When this failed, they picked up some old lengths of piping left by the council workers and, poking them through the metal grilles over the windows, began smashing the panes. They used the same bits of piping to hack up lumps of asphalt from the playground, which they hurled at the upper windows. The noise they made was lost in the general noise of demolition. demolition. One o f them climbed up onto th e roo f of one of the two

DEVELOPING IDEAS

small lavatory buildings abutting the school wall, and with the aid of a drain pipe, tried to reach the first floor floor windows windows - bu t climbed down when he realised he would be visible from street level. Then they started to dismantle the lavatori lavatories es themselves themselves - crude little little temporary buildings made from flimsy prefabricated materials, with corru gated asbestos asbestos roofs. I wondered whether these these were the same same kids who broke into the tenement and set fire to the litter on the stairs. They came the next day, and the day after that, and the next day again. It seemed odd that they should retu rn at all to the school school - like like released released prisoners going voluntarily back to prison. Lear ning to Swim Sw im)) (Graham Swift: Swift: Learning

3.6 Discussion Discussion topics topics 3: memories All levels leve ls 45 - 60 minutes minutes 1 Fo r this activity, you will need a select selection ion of four to six texts relating to childhood memories and experiences. experiences. In m aking your selection, look out in particular for passages passages which touch on the mes and aspects o f life life which are par t of the common experience of children everywhere, everywhere, and w ith which your own own stude nts could readily identify, for instance, evocations of childhood dream s and fears, fears, d escriptions escriptions of home, family, friends and neighbo urs, memories o f games, games, parties, p arties, formal occasions, occasions, or festivals. Suitable Suitable texts are are not hard to find. Novels and sho rt stories stories aboun d in childhood recollections. recollections. So, too, do the autobiographies of writers such as as Graham Graham Greene, John Osbo rne, and V. S. P ritchett. 2 Make enou gh copies copies of the texts you you have chosen so that each group o f four students has a set of two two texts. texts. 3 Ask the stud ents to bring to class class any objects or pictures associated associated with th eir childhoo d (an old toy or doll, a faded photog raph, a favourite favourite book). book). 1 Warm-up discussion. Ask the students to form groups of four, and to show each other the objects they have brou ght to class. class. In I n tu rn , they des cribe any memories associated with these objects. 2 Th e students remain in in their groups groups of four. O n the board or O H P, display display a num ber of stimulus stimulus questions, such as the following: When you wereyoung: - What food did you most like! like!hate? hate? - Was there there a particular time time of o f day you liked best/le best/leas ast? t? - What Wh at smells smells did you yo u associa associate te with home home? ? - Who, or what, what , wereyou yo u most frightened of? of? - D id you have a favourite hiding hiding-pl -place ace? ?

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- What kind o f games games did you play, or inve invent? nt? - Were the there re any words (in you r own language) language) that you did not understand, or could not pronounce pronounce properly? properly? - What special occasi occasions ons (birthdays, festiv als, visits to relatives, relatives, going to church/mosque/temple) di d yo u enjoy or dislike? - D id you have any pet anim animal als? s? - Wh at clothe clothess did you most/least most/least like to to wear? wear? - Which person person in your fam ily or neig neighbo hbourh urhood ood could could you talk to most most freely? free ly? - Wh at task, at home home or or at sch schoo ool, l, d id you find most difficult to do? - Were Were you ever punishe punished? d? W hat for? - Wha t did you like most/least most/least about the fam ily rout routine ine (meal-time (meal-times, s, bed-time bed -time,, wash ing-up) ing- up) - What did you w ant to be be when you \grew \grew up’? up’?

3 In their group s, the studen ts discuss discuss their responses to the stimulus questions. 4 Give each group any two o f the texts you have chosen (or of those given given under und er sample texts). Ask the studen ts to read throu gh the passages passages quickly and to note down any remarks, comm ents, or descriptions descriptions that rem ind them of comments comments they made in their earlier discussion. T hey should also pick out any details details in the passages passages which remind them of things they ha d forgotten to mention. (Optional) Each g roup exchanges texts with a group wh ich was was working on different passages. passages. Again, the y discuss how how the passages relate to their own experiences. Lis tening ing . To r oun d off the session, 5 Listen session, read out or play a recording Expectations. This type of of the extract from Dickens: Great Expectations. listening activity activity need not be followed followed by discussion unless you particularly want to explore the text.

NOTES

1 In this activity everyone is equal. W e all all have childhood childhoo d memories, a nd only we know what those memories are. are. T he stude nts, then, the n, can speak without any fear of ‘being ‘being wrong’. They can also also choose choose what they would like to mentio n, and a nd w hat they would prefer to hold back. Starting discussion, therefore, should not be a problem. What Wh at may be a problem, proble m, however, how ever, is controlling the language of discussion. discussion. Since Since the stud ents will be talking about their own pas t experiences, they will will naturally be tem pted to use the mother tongue. One way of encouragi encouraging ng the students to use English English rathe r than the mo ther tong ue in the ir discussion is is to ask each each group to note down (in English) some of their responses to the stim ulus questions. clas s, step 3 by asking each group to read ou t to the Then , extend extend In class, class class a selection of their responses. resp onses. 2 The Th e texts texts which you distribute distrib ute (In class, step 4) will will also also help to establish the language of discussion as as English, because the stude nts will be relating certain lines lines and expressions back to their earlier discussion.

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These texts are not intend ed to be clos closely ely studied. studied . Th eir function is to stimulate stimulate further tho ught and talk. Th e main focus focus remains remains the discussion of childhood m emories, in which the texts serve as an outside poin t of reference. 3 Listening. time when students stude nts need to b e able to to relax Listening . The re is a time and enjoy enjoy literature without being required to comm ent on it. After such a long oral oral activity, the s tuden ts may welcome the chance to just jus t sit back ba ck and a nd listen l isten.. (See also 4.6 - 4.9 Listening.) Listen ing.) 4 F urthe urt he r ideas on the associat association ion of childhood memories and literature are to be found in Hedge: Writing, in this series.

SAMPLE TEXT A

My father was a very very clean man , who never took less less than two baths a day. One day I came home from school and found him wearing a white towelling dressing-gown and sitting on the closed lavatory seat in the bathroom. My mother was squeezing out his toothpaste. She She found his his hand and put the too thbrush into it. T hen she guided his hand towards his mouth. That was the first time I saw that he was totally totally blind. blin d. Eyesight was a problem for both of us. Up to the age of five I enjoyed the privileges privileges of myopia, seeing seeing the w orld in a glorious glorious haze like an Impressionist painting. My contemporaries appeared blurred and attractive, grown-ups loomed in vague magnificence. I went daily to school and kept my eyes politely on the blackboard where I could see only chalky confusion. After a year of this my mother noticed that my education was at a standstill and sent me to the oculist: the world sprang at me in hideous reality, full of people with open pores, blackheads and impetigo. A deep-focus mous tache appeared on an art mistress whom I had considered beautiful. Flinching from this unusual clarity I went to school and sat in my usual place at the morning assembly, unrecognizable in a nosepinching pair of wire-framed specs. The headmaster, whose awareness of his pupils was always somewhat vague, thought that this bespectacled intruder was a new boy. As I was too shy to disillusion him, I was put back in the bottom class to restart my unpromising academic career. I suppose I had become a new person, one who looked on life and actually saw it; but when faced with anything I am really reluctant to see, a pornographic film in the course of business, or an animal killed and plastered across the road, I still have the defence of taking off my glasses and returning the world to th e safe blu r of childhood. childhood. In the years before I could see clearly my father was not yet blind. (John Mortimer: Clinging to the Wreckage) Wreckage)

SAMPLE TEXT B

I was thrown into the society of young people. My cousins were none of them, I believe, believe, any longer longer children, b ut they were youths youths and maidens busily engaged in various personal interests, all


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collected collected in a hive of wholesome family family energy. Everybod y was very kind to me, and I sank back, after the strain of so many months, into mere childhood again. This long visit to my cousins at Clifton must have been very delightful: I am dimly aware that it was; yet I remember but few of incidents. My memory, so clear and vivid about earlier solitary times, now in all this society becomes blurred and vague. The life of a child is so brief, its impressions are so illusory and fugitive, that it is as difficult to record its history as it would be to design a morning cloud sailing before the wind. It is short, as we count shortness in after years, years, when the drag of lead lead pulls down to earth the foot that used to flutter w ith a winged winged impetuosity. But in memory, my childhood was long, long with interminable hours, hours with the pale cheek pressed against the window-pane, hours of mechanical and repeated lonely ‘games’, which had lost their savour, and were kept going by sheer inertness. Not unhappy, not fretful, bu t long, - long, long. long. It seems to to me, as I look look back to the life in the motherless Islington house, as I resumed it in that slow eighth year of my life, that time had ceased to move. There was a whole age between one tick of the eight-day clock in the hall, and the next tick. When the milkman went his rounds in our grey street, it seemed as though he would never disappear again. again. T here was no past and no future for me, and the present felt as though it were sealed sealed up in a Leyden jar. Even my dreams were interminable, and hu ng stationary from the nightly sky. (Edm und Gosse Gosse:: Father and Son)

SAMPLE TEXT C

We had oil lamps and a shallow tin bath, which was filled with water from the well. Going to the loo meant an icy journey to the end of the garden and sitting on a bench carved by Mr Mullard. Almost before you were finished he would be behind the shed with a spade, read y to dig and spread among his vegetables. vegetables. Apart from the Mullards my great friend was Iris Jones, the gardener’s daughter from the cottage along the common. She was exactly exactly my age and we would me et very early early in the mor nings, nings , and an d I would steal necklaces for her from Woolworth’s. All one summer we made houses on the common, enjoying the sharp, musky smell of the bracken, furnishing our homes with chipped Coronation mugs and bottomless, ru sty saucepans which which we found in the local local tip. . . . I had a recurri recurring ng dream which which was was that at the age age of nine I should be taken out and hanged. In my dream I protested to my father at this gloomy destiny, but he seemed not to hear. When I spoke to my mother she gave me her usual large-eyed, reasonable smile and told me that it was something that happened to all small boys and it was really nothing to worry about. I now feel sure that what I was looking forward to as the morning of my execution was my being sent away away to school. (John Mortimer: Clinging to the Wreckage)

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SAMPLE TEXT D

Following the long-established example of my father’s parents, we even had prayers before breakfast, during which performance everybody everybody - from my mother, who perturbedly watched the boiling boiling coffee-machine on the table, to the maids who shuffled uneasily in their chairs while the postman banged at the front door and the milkman thun dered at the back - presented an aspect aspect of inattentive agitation. The ceremony frequently ended in a tempestuous explosion explosion on the par t of my father , since Edwar d was almost alway alwayss late, and could neve r say say the L ord’s or d’s Prayer as rapidly as as the others . (Vera Brittain: Testament Testament o f Youth)

LISTENING TEXT

Though she called me ‘boy’ so often, and with a carelessness that was far from complimentary, she was of about my own age. She seemed seemed much older than I , of course, course, being a girl, girl, and beautiful and self-possessed; self-possessed; and she was as as scornful o f me as if she had been oneand-twenty, and a queen. queen. We went into the house by a side side door - the great front front entrance had two chains chains across across it outside outside - and the first thing I noticed was, was, that the passages were all dark, and that she had left a candle burning there. She took it up, and we went through more passages and up a staircase, and still it was all dark, and only the candle lighted us. At last we came to the door o f a room, an d she said, ‘Go in .’ I answered, m ore in shyness shyness than politeness, ‘After ‘After you, m iss.’ iss. ’ To this, she returned: ‘Don’t be ridiculous, boy; I am not going in .’ And scornfully walked walked away, away, and - what was was worse worse - took the candle with her. This was very uncomfortable, and I was half afraid. However, the only thing to be done being to knock at the door, I knocked, and was told from within to enter. I entered, therefore, and found myself in a pretty large room, well lighted with wax candles. No glimpse of daylight was was to be seen in it. It was a dressing-roo m, as I supposed from the furniture, though much of it was of forms and uses then quite unknown to me. But prominent in it was a draped table with a gilded looking-glass, and that I made out at first sight to be a fine lady’ lad y’ss dressing-table. dressing- table. W hether I should have made out this object object so soon, soon, if there had been no fine lady sitting at it, I cannot say. In an arm-chair, with an elbow resting on the table and her head leaning on that hand, sat the strangest lady I have ever seen, or shall shall ever see. see. She was dressed in rich materials - satins, and lace, lace, and silks - all all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil depend ent from her hair, and she had bridal flow flowers ers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some brigh t jewel jewelss sparkled on her n eck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less splendid than the dress she wore, and half-packed trunks, were scattered about. She had not quite finished dressing, for she had b ut one shoe on - the other was on the table near her hand - her veil veil was was bu t half arranged, arranged, h er watch and chain were were not


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put on, and some lace for her bosom lay with those trinkets, and with her handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a prayerboo pray erbook, k, all confusedly confusedly heaped abo ut the looking-glass. looking-glass. It was not in the first few moments that I saw all these things, though I saw more of them in the first moments than might be supposed. But, I saw that everything everything within my view view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left bu t the brightness o f her su nken eyes. eyes. I saw that the dress had been pu t upon the rounded figure figure of a young young woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone. Once, I had been taken to see some ghastly waxwork at the F air, representing I know no t what impossible impossible personage personage lying lying in state. state. Once, I had been taken to one of our old marsh churches to see a skeleton in the ashes of a rich dress, that h ad been d ug o ut of a vault under the church pavement. Now, waxwork and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me. I should have cried out, i f I could. ‘Who Wh o is it?’ said the lady at the t he table. ta ble. ‘Pip, ma ’am .’ ‘Pip?’ ‘M r Pum blechook’s blechook’s boy, ma’am. ma’am. Come - to play.’ ‘Come nearer; let me look at you. Come close.’ It was when I stood before her, avoiding her eyes, that I took note of the surrounding objects in detail, and saw that her watch had stopped at twenty minutes to nine, and that a clock in the room had stoppe d at twenty minutes to nine. ‘Look at me,’ said Miss Havisham. ‘You are not afraid of a woman who has never seen the sun since you were born ?’ I regret to state tha t I was not no t afraid of telling the enormous lie lie comprehen ded in the answer answer ‘N ‘N o. ’ ‘Do you know what I touch here?’ she said, laying her hands, one upon the other, on her left side side.. ‘Yes, ma ’am .’ (It made mad e me thin k of the young man.) ‘Wh at do I touc h?’ ‘Your hea rt.’ ‘Broken!’ She uttered the word with an eager look, and with strong emphasis, and with a weird smile that had a kind of boast in it. Afterwards, she kept her hands there for a little while, and slowly took the m away as as if they were heavy. heavy. ‘I am tired,’ said Miss Havisham. ‘I want diversion, and I have done with with men and women. P lay.’ I think it will will be conceded conceded by by my most disputatious reader, that she could could hardly have directed directed an unfortunate boy to do anything in the wide world more difficult to be done unde r the circumstances. ‘I sometimes have sick fancies,’ she went on, ‘and I have a sick fancy that I want to see some play. There, there!’ with an impatient movement o f the fingers of her rig ht hand; han d; ‘play, play, play!’

DEVELOPING IDEAS

Fo r a mome nt, with the fear of my sister’s sister’s working me before my eyes, I had a desperate idea of starting round the room in the assumed character of Mr Pumblechook’s chaise-cart. But, I felt myself so unequal to the performance that I gave it up, and stood looking at Miss Havisham in what I suppose she took for a dogged manner, inasmuch as she said, when we had taken a good look at each other: ‘Are you sullen and o bstinate ?’ ‘No, ma’am, I am very sorry for you, and very sorry I can’t play just now. now . I f you complain com plain of me I shall get into int o troub tro uble le w ith my sister, so I would do it if I could; but it’s so new here, and so strange, and so fine fine - and melancholy melancholy - ’ I stopped, fearing fearing I might say too much, or had already said it, and we took another look at each other. Before she spoke again, she turned her eyes from me, and looked at the dress she wore, and at the dressing-table, and finally at herself herse lf in the looking-glas looking-glass. s. ‘So new to him,’ she muttered, ‘so old to me; so strange to him, so familiar to to me; so melancholy to b oth of o f us! Call Estella Es tella.’ .’ As she was still looking at the reflection of herself, I thought she was still still talking to herself, a nd ke pt quiet. ‘Call Estella,’ she repeated, flashing a look at me. ‘You can do that. Call Estella. At the door.’ To stand in the dark in a mysterious passage of an unknown house, bawling Estella to a scornful young lady neither visible nor responsive, an d feeling feeling it a dreadful liberty so to to roar ou t her name, n ame, was almost as bad as playing to to order. orde r. But, she answered at last, and her light came along the dark dar k passage like like a star. Miss Havisham beckoned her to come close, and took up a jewel from the table, and tried its effect upon her fair young bosom and against her pretty brown hair. ‘Your own, one day, my dear, and you will will use it well. well. Let Le t me see you play cards with this b oy .’ ‘With this boy! Why , he is a common labouring -boy!’ I though t I overheard Miss Havisham answer - only it seemed seemed so unlikely - ‘Well? You can break his hear t.’ ‘What do you play, boy?’ asked Estella of myself, with the greatest disdain. ‘No thing bu t beggar my neighbour, m iss.’ ‘Beggar him,’ said Miss Havisham to Estella. So we sat down to cards. It was then I began to understand that everything in the room had stopped, like the watch and the clock, a long time ago. I noticed that Miss Havisham put down the jewel exactly on the spot from which she had tak en it up. As Estella Estella dealt the cards, I glanced glanced at the dressing-table again, and saw that the shoe upon it, once white, now yellow, yellow, had never been w orn. I glanced down at the foot from which the shoe was absent, and saw that the silk stocking, once white, now yellow, had been trodden ragged. Without this arrest of everything, this standing still of all the pale decayed

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objects, not even the withered bridal dress on the collapsed form could have looked like grave-clothes, or the long veil so like a shroud. So she sat, corpse-like, as we played at cards; the frillings and trimmings on her bridal dress, looking like earthy paper. I knew nothing noth ing th en, en , of the discoveries discoveries that are occasiona occasionally lly made of bodies bodies buried in ancient times, which fall to powder in the moment of being distinctly seen; but, I have often thought since, that she must have looked as if the admission of the natural light of day would have have struck her to dust. ‘He calls the knaves, Jacks, this boy!’ said Estella with disdain, before our first game was out. ‘And w hat coarse hands he has! has! A nd what thick boots!’ I had never thoug ht of being ashamed of my hands before; before; bu t I began to consider them a very indifferent pair. Her contempt for me was so stron g, an d it became infectious, infectious, and I caught it. She won the game, and I dealt. I misdealt, as was only natural, when I knew she was lying in wait for me to do wrong; and she denounced me for a stupid, clumsy labouring-boy. ‘You say nothing of her,’ remarked Miss Havisham to me, as she looked on. ‘She says many hard things of you, but you say nothing of her. Wh at do you think of her?’ ‘I don’t like to say,’ I stammered. ‘Tell me in my ea r,’ said Miss Miss Havish am, bending bend ing down. ‘I thin k she is very pro ud ,’ I replied, in a whisper. ‘Any thing else?’ ‘I thin k she is very very pret ty.’ ‘Any thing else?’ ‘I think thi nk she is very very insu lting .’ (She was was looking looking at me the n with a look of supreme aversion.) ‘Anything Any thing else?’ else?’ ‘I think thin k I should sh ould like to to go go hom e.’ ‘And never nev er see her again, th ough she is so pretty? pre tty?’’ ‘I am not sure that I shouldn’t like to see her again, but I should like to to go home no w.’ w. ’ ‘You shall go soon,’ said Miss Havisham, aloud. ‘Play the game out.’ Saving for the one weird smile at first, I should have felt almost sure that tha t Miss Havisha m’s m’s face could not smile. smile. I t had dro pped ppe d into a watchful an d brooding broo ding expression - most likely likely when all the things about h er h ad become transfixed transfixed - and it looked as if nothing could ever lift it up again. Her chest had dropped, so that she stooped; and her voice had dropped, so that she spoke low, and with a dead lull upon her; altogether, she had the appearance of having dropped, body and soul, within and without, under the weight of a crushing blow. I played the game game to an end with Estella, Estella, and she beggared me. She threw the cards down on the table when she had won them all, as if she despised them for having been won o f me.


‘W hen shall I have you here again?’ said Miss Miss Havisham. Hav isham. ‘Le t me think.’ I was was beginning to remind her that to-day to-day was was Wednesday, when she checked me with her former impatient movement o f the fingers fingers of her right hand. ‘There, there! I know nothing of days of the week; I know noth ing of o f weeks of the year. Come again again after six days. You h ear?’ ‘Yes, ma’ ma ’am .’ ‘Estella, Estella, take him down. Let him have something to eat, and let him roam and look about him while while he eats. eats. Go, P ip .’ (Charles Dickens: Great Expectations)


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3.7 Discussion topics topics 4: sound and silence ____________ Int ermediat e to advanc LE¥EIL __ advanced ed

TIME_____________ TIME_____________

30 - 45 minutes

PREPARATION

1 Make a selection of texts which focus strongly on sound: pleasant or irritating sounds, soun ds, sudden sudd en noises, silences silences which are soothing or disturbing.

2 Prep are enough copies for one third thi rd of the class. class. Warm- up discussion discussion.. Ask the s tudents to form groups o f three. IN CLASS_________I Warm-up Write u p o n the board two column headings headings:: Irritating sounds sounds

Pleasant Pleasa nt sounds sounds..

Und er each of these headings, headings, the students th en note their suggestions. For instance: Irritating sou sound nds: s: - the the thump, thump, thump of o f heavy roc rockk musi musicc from the the fla fl a t aboveyou above you at 3 a.m. - the sound of o f somebo somebody dy nervou nervously sly clicking clicking a ball-point pen, jangling jang ling keys or coins in their pocket, pocket , cracking their fingers, fing ers, sucking suck ing their teeth - dogs dogs barking at the fu ll moon, moon, cats cats calling calling for fo r their mates mates in February, February, parrot parrotss or or childre children n repeat repeating ing the same same words words over and over over again - the scre screec ech h of o f chalk on the blackboard, the whine whin e o f a dentist’s dentist’s drill, the dripping of o f a tap a t night - whispering, giggling, giggling, snigge sniggering ring,, wheezing, coughing - cuckoo clocks, alarm clocks, clocks, grandfather grandfat her clocks, chiming door-bells, door-bells, cracked rec recor ords ds,, fu z z y telephone telephone lines lines etc. Pleasant sounds: - the hissi hissing ng and crackling crackling of o f a logfire on a winter evening evening - the patter o f raindr raindrops ops after after a long dry spell spell - the ringing o f bells, bells, from fro m a church church or or temple temple - cicadas!crickets!fro cicadas!crickets!frogs gs on a summer evening evenin g - fountains founta ins splashing splashing swish o f skis on firm fir m snow - the swish - the phone ringing just ju st when whe n you yo u thought ‘he’ or ‘she’ ‘she’ would wou ld not call - the sudden sudden pop’ ‘pop’ o f a wine cor cork k - the clatter clatter o f coins coins when you win thejackpot jack pot on a fruit-machine etc. 2 Each group joins joins another to to compare notes. The students should not just read o ut their the ir notes to each other. other . T hey should also also explain explain why they find particular sounds pleasant or irritating. 3 Ask the students to return to their their former groups. Give Give each each group a copy of the extract from th e poem ‘Silence’. Silence’. After reading the poem, the students should add ten lines of their own, followin following g

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the same basic basic patte rn, beginning each line with the words There is the silence silence o f . . a n d . . . o f . . . (The lines do not need to rhyme or an or to have have poetic poetic rhyth m; they are just further though ts.) 4 (Optional) Ask the students to work in groups of three. Give Give each each group a copy copy of the extract from D . H. Lawrence: ‘Th e Fo x’ (see (see sample texts). texts). Ask A sk them to imagine that they are produ cing a filmed filmed version of the story for television. television. T he film sho uld follow follow the text as closel closely y as possible. T he task of the grou ps is to mark all parts part s of o f the the text which which would be reflected reflected in the s oun d-track of the film. film. This means that th at they shou ld mark all passages passages where sound would be needed, and all passage passagess where silence silence would be best. Fo r instance: Sound:

Th ere was a commotion commo tion everywhere. Th e fowls fowls were scufflin scuffling g and crawking, the ducks were quark-quarking.

Silenc Silence: e: He gathered gath ered all all his vision vision into a concentrated s park, par k, and saw the shadow o f the fox, the fox creeping creeping on his belly throug h the gate. Th ere he went, on his belly, belly, like a snake. discussion. Firs t, ask the stude nts to call 5 Clas s discussion. call out those parts of the text which they think should be reflected reflected on the s ound-track. Th en, if possible, possible, play a recording recording of the extract. A fter listening, listening, discuss any points of difference or disagreement.

NOTES

1 Th e theme the me of ‘Sound ‘Sound and an d silence’ is just one of many similar themes wh ich can be explored using literature as the basic material for discussion. I n addition ad dition to the sense of hearing, we could also also consider the senses of taste, tou ch, smell, and sight or vision. These sensory themes have two great advantages: a. All All students stud ents can speak about abou t them them from personal experience. b. Suitable supporting sup porting texts can easily easily be found: the senses and sensuality sensuality are pa rt o f the fabric o f literature. 2 As in many other activiti activities, es, it is is important that the stud ents should first discuss the th eme before coming to the texts. Otherwise, the ir thoughts will will be too much influenced by what they have read. The texts texts themselves themselves can be introduced in many ways ways other than those suggested in the descrip tion of the activit activity. y. You co uld, for instance, focus focus on vocabulary vocabulary by presenting the students w ith sh ort passages passages containing ‘sou nd’ words ( rumble, grate, rasp, thud, shrill, dull, dull , muffled muf fled,, raucous). Th en ask the students to decide decide from the context wh at kind of sound is described. Is it: it: - short/long, continuous/interrupted? - soft/loud, harsh/gent harsh/gentle, le, weak!strong? weak!strong? - slow!sudden, slow!su dden, deep/shrill? deep/shr ill? - soothing/menacing?

etc. F urth er ideas can can be found in Maley Maley and Duff: Sounds Intriguing The Inward E ar. and an d The


SAMPLE TEXT A

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Silence I have know n the silenc silencee of the stars and o f the sea, sea, And th e silence of the city when it pauses, And th e silence for which music alone finds the word , And the silence silence of the the woods before the w inds of spring begin, And the silence of the sick When Wh en their eyes eyes roam about the room . . . The re is the silenc silencee of a great great hatred , And the silence silence of a great love, love, And the silence silence of a deep peace peace of mind, And the silence silence of an embittere em bittere d friendship friends hip . . . There Th ere is the silence of defeat. defeat. The re is the silenc silencee of those unjustly punished; And the silence of the dying whose han d Suddenly grips yours. Th ere is the silence silence between father and son, When Wh en the fath er cannot canno t explain explain his life, Even though he be m isunderstood for it. it. Th ere is the silence silence that comes between hus band ban d and wife. wife. There Th ere is the silence of those those who have failed; And the vast silence tha t covers Broken nations and vanquished leaders. leaders. (Edgar Lee Masters: ‘Silence’)

SAMPLE TEXT 6

Th e Fox He skirted the fence, peering through the darkness with dilated eyes that seemed to be able to grow black and full of sight in the dark, like a cat’s. An owl was slowly and mournfully whooing round a great oak-tree. He stepped stealthily with his gun, listening, listening, watching. As he stood under the oaks of the wood-edge he heard the dogs from the neighbouring cottage up the hill yelling suddenly and startlingly, and the wakened dogs from the farms around barking answer. And suddenly, it seemed to him England was little and tight, he felt the landscape was constricted even in the dark, and that there were too many dogs in the night, making a noise like a fence fence of sound, like like the network of English English hedges netting the view view.. He felt the fox didn’t have have a chance chance.. For it must be the fox tha t had started all all this hullabaloo. Why not watch for him, anyhow! He would, no doubt, be coming sniffing round. The lad walked downhill to where the farmstead with its few pine-trees crouched blackly. In the angle of the long shed, in the black dark, he crouched down. He knew the fox would be coming. It seemed to him it would be the last of the foxes in this loudly barking, thick-voiced England, tight with innumerable little houses.

DEVELOPING IDEAS

He sat a long time with his eyes fixed unchanging upon the open gateway, where a little light seemed to fall from the stars or from the horizon, who knows. He was sitting on a log in a dark corner with the gun across his knees. The pine-trees snapped. Once a chicken fell off its perch in the barn with a loud crawk and cackle and commotion that startled him, and he stood up, watching with all his eyes, thinking it might be a rat. But he felt it was was nothing. noth ing. So he sat down again with the g un on his knees and his hands tuck ed in to keep them warm, and his eyes eyes fixed fixed unblin king on the pale reach of the open gateway. He felt he could smell the hot, sickly, rich smell of live chickens on the cold air. And then th en - a shadow. shadow. A sliding shadow shadow in the gateway. gateway. H e gathered all his vision into a concentrated spark, and saw the shadow of the fox, the fox creeping on his belly through the gate. There Th ere he w ent, on his belly, like a snake. T he boy smiled to himself and brought the gun to his shoulder. He knew quite well what would happen. He knew the fox would go to where the fowl-door was was boarded u p, and sniff there. He knew he would lie lie there for a minute, sniffing the fowls within. And then he would start again prowling und er the edge of the old old barn , waiting to get in. The Th e fowl-door was at the top of o f a slight incline. incline. Soft, soft as a shadow the fox slid up this incline, and crouched with his nose to the boards. And at the same moment there was the awful crash of a gun reverberating between the old buildings, as if all all the night had gone smash. But the boy watched keenly. He saw even the white belly of the fox as the beast beat his paws in death. So he went forward. There was a commotion everywhere. The fowls were scuffling and crawking, the ducks were quark-quarking, the pony had stamped wildly to his feet. B ut the th e fox was was on his side, struggling in his last tremors. tremo rs. Th e boy ben t over him and an d smelt his foxy foxy smel smell. l. There was a sound of a window opening upstairs, then March’s voice calling: ‘Who is it?’ ‘It’s me,’ said Henry; ‘I’ve shot the fox.’ (D. H. Lawrence: ‘The Fox’)

3.8 Discussion topics 5: the Underground Intermediate to advanced 25 minutes 1 Select Select four fou r to six six short sho rt poems (maximum length fou rteen lines) lines) which might be suitable for display in the Underground (metro) or

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some some other form o f public transpor t. In sample texts texts A, at the end of the pr inted inte d poems you will will find an example of a poem which was displayed displayed in the Londo n Un derground. 2 Make enoug h copies copies for one quar ter of the class class.. 3 Prepare Prep are a selection selection of six to eight advertisements similar to those usually seen in in trains an d buses. 4 Ask the s tudents tuden ts to bring to class class a copy of a poem they particularly like, e ither in En glish or in their own language. language. IN CLASS_________

collected (see Prep Pr epar arat ation ion , 1 Display th e advertisem ents you have collected step 3) so so that all the studen s tudents ts can see see them. Ask the stud ents to imagine that they are travelling by by train or bu s, and an d to pick out the picture pictur e or advertisem ent which would be most likely likely to to capture their atten tion. Allow Allow only only one minute min ute for this. 2 Now , cover or remove the pictures. pictures. A sk the studen ts to form groups of four. Th ey should discuss discuss which which pictures remain most strongly strongly in their mind s, an d try to recreate them in words and images in as much detail as possible. 3 Show the pictu res again, and allow allow time time for discussion discussion of the the missing details. 4 Give Give each group copies of the poems you have chosen chosen (see Pr epar ep arat ation ion , step 1). Ask the stu dents den ts to decide which of the poems they would most like to to see displayed in an undergr und ergroun ound d train, tra in, or in a bus, why they chose it, an d whether whe ther they have strong reasons for for not choosing the others. Allow Allow time time for discussion, then as k the stud ents, ents , as a single single group, grou p, to indicate their personal preferences. 5 Circulate the poems the studen ts themselves themselves have have bro ught ug ht (see (see Pr epar ep arat ation ion , step 4). Ask the m to decide which, i f any, of the new poems they would like to see displayed. displayed.

NOTES___________

flexible activity, activity, in which th e literary texts might be 1 Th is is a flexible introd uced at any chosen chosen stage. We have suggested using the poems as a starting point from which the students can work outwards towards towards discussion discussion of the wider theme. However, it would be equally valid valid to begin w ith the discussion (see (see Variation) and then work back tow ards the poems (see In class). 2 Many works of literatu literature re contain vivid descriptions of travel travel by by public tran spo rt. Suitable passages passages could could be found in Dickens: The Pic P ickw kw ick ic k P ap er s ; Guy de Maupassant: Boule Bo ule de d e Suif; Su if; Malcolm R ates es o f Exch Ex chan ange ge,, not to mention the novels Bradbury: Rat novels of Graham Graham Greene Greene and the travel works of Paul Theroux. Discussio n topics. 3 See also: 3.1 Pic tur e stories, and 3.4-3.5 Discussion

SOURCES________ SOURCES________

Sources Sources of o f the the poems in sample texts A: 1 W. B. Yeats 4 Catherine Cath erine Woods 2 Alan Jackson Jackso n 5 Alan D uff 3 D. H. Lawrence 6 Charles Reznikoff Rezniko ff

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______ ___ _ VARIATION ____

Extension

TIME ____ ______ ____ ____ __ __ 60 minutes PREPARATION____

If you wish to distribu te texts, prepare enough copies copies for for one quarte r o f the class. class.

IN CLASS_________

1 Th e activity can can be extended along the lines of 3.4 Dis 3.4 Discuss cussion ion will find three pro se texts which topics 1. In sam ple texts B you will could be used as supplemen tary material for discussion. discussion. 2 Fo r developing the topic, we would suggest the following following approach:

WARM-UP

1 Warm-up discussion. Write up on the board or OH P the heading: heading: Travelling Travelling by public transpo rt And und erneath , three column headings headings:: Dangers

Difficulties

Delights

Ask the class to to contribut cont ributee ideas for each each column, for instance: Dangers - risk o f being mugged mugged - possibility possibility of o f being being hijacked - overcrow overcrowding ding (on a ferry, for example), danger danger o f capsizing capsizing - no way out, out, in cas casee o f fire Difficulties - no place to stand!sit/lie stand!sit/lie down dow n - unpleasant smells of food foo d - filthy filth y toi toile lets ts - incorr incorrect ect information on display (about (abou t arrival!de arrival!departure parture times, times, for instance) - tedious tedious travelling compani companions ons who talk ta lk too much much or too too little Delights - freedom from responsi responsibili bility: ty: when you travel, travel, you do not have to work - intere interest: st: constantly changing landscape landscape - opportunity opportunity o f meeting meeting inte interes resting ting people people - being incognito: incognito: nobody knows who wh o you yo u are, or where you yo u are going, going, and why 2 Ask the students to form groups of four. Each group should draw up a ten-po int plan for improvements which could could be made to the public transp ort system of their their own country (road, rail, sea, and air). Each suggestion s hould be as specific specific as as possible: possible: a comment commen t such as ‘improv ‘improvee ticket dis tribu tion ’ should be clarified clarified by adding , for instance: ‘We should sho uld be able to buy tra in tickets from all all travel agencies, agencies, and n ot just from the main railway railway statio n.’ 3 Th e groups compare and discuss discuss their various various suggestions. suggestions. (Optional) While the students are discussing, circulate to the groups copies of the sample texts. T hey should look for any points


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mentioned in th e texts which would add fuel to their discussion, for example: example: ‘T he M etropolitan Police Police is is often called called upon to help transport office officers rs in trouble; they suffer a much higher proportion of attacks tha n in othe r forces. forces. T his has mainly been because they are often unable to s umm on assistance since since their radios do not communicate comm unicate below surface and are useless useless on deep lines.’ SAMPLE TEXTS A

1 Memory One had a lovely face, And two or three had charm, But ch arm and a nd face were in vain Because the m oun tain grass Cannot bu t keep the form Where th e mo untain hare has lain. lain. 2 Goldfish the scene of the crime was a goldfish bowl goldfish were kep t in the bowl at the time: tha t was the scene scene and tha t was the crime. 3 The Mosquito Th e mosquito mo squito know s full well, well, small as as he is is he’s a beast of prey. But after af ter all he only takes h is bellyfull, he doesn’t doesn’t p ut my blood in the bank. 4 Widowhood She’s over it by now, they say. How can they tell? She’s She’s over it by now . And An d doing well. well. Tho ugh I am still still frozen, frozen, And thaw ing is hell, hell, She’s She’s over it by now , they the y say, And doing well. well. 5 Fire-love Place two logs close close togethe r slightly slightly apa rt each will eat out the other’s heart. 6 Th is Subway Station This subway station station with its electric lights, pillars of steel, steel, arches arches of cement, an d trains quite an improvement on the caves caves of the cavemen; cavemen; bu t, look! on this wall wall a primitive drawing.

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Only a man harrowing clods In a slow silent walk

IN TIME OF THE BREAKING OF NATIONS’

With an old horse that stumbles and nods Halfasleep as they stalk. stalk. Only thin smoke without withou t flame flame

Thomas Hardy 1840-1928

From From the heaps hea ps o f couch-grass; couch-grass; Yet this will go onward the same Though Thou gh Dynasties pass. pass.

Th ou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with the e will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will 1destroy kingdoms’(Jeremiah 51.20)

Yonder a maid and her wight Come whisper wh ispering ing by by: War’s annals will cloud into night Ere their story die.

© Poem oems on on the the Unde Undergro rgroun und d SAMPLE TEXTS B

New Y orkers say say some some terrible things about the subway - that they hate it, or are scared stiff of it, or that it deserves to go broke. For tourists, touris ts, it seems seems just another dangerous aspect of New Y ork, tho ugh most don d on’’t know it exists. exists. ‘I haven ’t been dow n there ther e in yea rs,’ is a common enough remark from a city dweller. Even people who ride it seem to agree that there is more Original Sin among subway passengers. And more desperation, too, making you think of choruses of ‘O dark da rk dark. dark . They T hey all go into the dark . . .’ ‘Subway’ is not its name because, strictly-speaking, more than th an half of it is elevated. elevated. B ut which p erson who has rid den it lately is is going to call it by its right name, ‘The Rapid Transit’? It is also frightful-looking. It has pa int and signatures all over over its aged face. face. The Th e graffiti is is bad, bad , violent and de structive, structiv e, an d is so extensive and so dreadful it is hard to believe that the perpetrators are not the recipients of some enormous foundation grant. The subway has been vandalized from end to end. It smells so so hideous you want to pu t a clothes-pin on your nose , and it is so noisy noisy the soun d actually hur ts. Is it dangerous? Ask anyone and he or she will will tell tell you there are about two murders a day on the subway. It really is the pits, people say. say. You have to ride it for a while while to find o ut what it is and who takes it and who gets killed on it. It is full full of surprises. Three Th ree and a nd a half million fares fares a day pass pass through i t, an d in the first nine months o f last year year the the total num ber of murder victims victims on the subway subway amoun ted to six. six. This half-doze half-dozen n does not includ e suicides (one a week), ‘m an-u nde r’ incident inciden t (one a day), or o r ‘space-c ‘space-cases’ ases’- people who get themselves jammed betw een the train and the platform. Certainly the subway is very ugly and extremly noisy, but it only looks like a death-trap. People ride it looking stunned and holding their breath. It’s not at all like the BART system in San Francisco, where people are constantly chattering, saying, ‘I’m going to my father’s wedding,’ or ‘I’m

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looking after my mom’s children,’ or ‘I’ve got a date with my fiancee’s fiancee’s boyfriend. ’ In N ew York, Y ork, the subway is a serious matter the rackety tr ain, the silent passengers, the occasiona occasionall scream. A lot of people say say that. I did no t believe believe it when he said it, and, and , after a week of riding the trains , I still still did n’t. n’t. Th e subway subw ay is is New York City’s City’s best hope. The Th e streets are impossible, the highways are a failure, there is nowhere to park. The Th e private automobile has no future futur e in this city whatsoever. whatsoever. T his is plainest plainest of all all to the people who own and use cars in the city; they know, better than anyone, that the car is the last desperate old-fangled fling fling of a badly-planned trans port por t system. W hat is amazing amazing is is that back in 1904 1904 a group of businessmen solved New York’s transport problems for centuries to come. What vision! What enterprise! Whan an engineering marvel they created in in this un dergroun derg roun d railwa railway! y! And how amazed they would be to see what it has become, how foul-seeming to the public mind. When people say the subway frightens them, they are not being silly or irrational. It is no good saying how cheap or how fast it is. The subway is frightening. It is also very easy to get lost on the subway, an d the person who is lost in New Y ork City has a serious serious problem. New Y orkers make it their business to avoid avoid getting lost. It is the stranger who gets lost. It is the stranger who follows people hurryin g into the stair-well: stair-well: subway entrances are just dark holes holes in the sidewalk - the stations are below below ground gro und . T here is nearly always always a-bus-s a-bus-stop top near the subway entrance. People waiting at a bus-stop have a special pitying gaze for people entering the subway. Iti s sometimes not pity, b ut fear, bewilderm ent, curiosity, or fatalism; often they look like miners’ wives watching their menfolk going down the pit. The strang er’s er’s sense sense of disorientation down below is immediate. The station is all tile and iron and dampness; it has bars and turnstiles and steel grates. It has the look of an old prison or a monkey cage. cage. Buying a token, the stranger may ask directions, but the token booth - reinforced, burglar-proof, burglar-proof, bulle t-pr oo f- renders the the reply reply incoherent. incohe rent. And subway directions are a special special language. language. In any jungle, the pathway is a priority. People move around New Y ork in various ways, bu t the complexitie complexitiess of the subway have allowed the New Yorker to think of his own route as something personal, even original. No one uses uses maps on the subway - you seldom see any. Most subway passengers were shown how to ride it by parents or friends. friends. Then habit turns it into into instinct, just like like a trot down a jungle path. The passenger knows where he is going because he never diverges from his usual route. But that is also why, unless you are getting of f at precisely precisely his stop, he cannot ca nnot tell you how to get wh ere you’ you ’re going. (Paul Theroux: ‘Subterranean Subterra nean Gothic’) Gothic’)

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Crime and violence against Underground

Police plan new strategy to make the Tube safer Terry Kirby, Crime Correspondent, reports that as London struggles to control crime on the Tube, Glasgow’s system is almost crime-free.

MID-EVENING in the the grimy booking hall of Manor House underground station on the Piccadilly line in north London: the escalators rumble in the back ground as a vagrant shuffles aimlessly in and out. Scruffy Scruffy youngsters hang around the newspa per kiosk. kiosk. A middle-aged w oman ticket inspector adopts a deliberately stem manner to deal with a smart young man who has tried to walk through without a ticket. ticket. After some discussion, he pays up. While they were arguing, more young people walk past the kiosk, ignoring pleas from the collector inside. This “one-wo man-again st-the-tide” tactic tactic is the latest attempt by London Underground and British Transport Police to halt the crime wave on the sys tem. Wh ile the ticket inspectors are the fro nt line, the police are concealed as back-up. Travellers who pay are in the clear but those who do not can be arrested for ticket fraud and be searched for weapons o r other evidence o f illegal illegal activity. The process is being repeated in two of the London areas showing alarmingly high increases in robberies: the northern ends of the Victoria and Pic cadilly lines and the west London section of the Metropolitan line. The rise in robberies beg an in July last year and accelerated in 1988; figures for the whole system show an increase o f 150 per cent in the the first 10 weeks. Supt Tony Stopp ani of British Transport Police points out that the rise coincided with drives by the Metropolitan Police to tackle street crime; crime; the mu g gers and pickpockets had been forced underground.

This is only part of a rise in all all types o f crime crime on the Underground - from 12,800 offences in 1980 to 17,000 in 1987. Mr Stoppani is confident that crime can be “flushed ou t” with tactics tactics like those at Ma nor House. “The Metropolitan Police are aware of the result of their policies. They realise that our problem is their problem too. W hat we have to try and do togethe r is squeeze the criminal out.” Where they will go he does not say. There has to be a close relationship between the two forces. The Metropolitan Police is often called upon to help transport police officers in trouble; they suffer a much higher proportion of attacks than in other forces. This has mainly been because they are often unable to summon assistance since th eir radios radios do not commun icate below surface and are useless on deep lines. That is changing as part of a £15m plan to implement the 50 recommendations of the Depart ment of Transport’s 1986 report on Underground crime, which first identified the seriousness of the problem. The first 42 new deep level radios will be issued this year, with more to come. Mr Stoppani considers this the single most effec tive means of improving police responses. “O ur offi cers have to patrol in pairs for their own protection because they cannot easily summon help. W ith new radios they can patrol singly, knowing help is quickly at hand. This virtually doubles ou r available strength.” Other measures include a plan to install passen ger alarms in vulnerable areas, linked to glass-enclosed “focal points” in concourses, where sta ff would supervise “safe” waiting areas. Nervous passengers would be told when trains are approaching their desired platforms; the focal points will be equipped with closed circuit television.


This is due to be implemented first at Oxford Circus, a haven for pickpockets, some stations at the south London end of the Northern line around Clapham, and on the northern extremity of the Cen tral line. Mr Stoppani concedes that monitor cameras have not been used well; there are many around the system but their introduction has been ad hoc and their purpose mainly operational. It will not be until a new central control room opens this year that there will begin to be feedback to police from ex isting and new cameras. The present control room is as shabby and cramped as some of the Northern line stations. These efforts are in tandem with London U nder grou nd’s costly costly refurbishment of stations: improving lighting, crowd control and introducing automatic ticket barriers. But, unlike Glasgow underground, it has not put staff in glass-fronted kiosks where they can view what is happening, but have mostly rebuilt the old-style offices where it is difficult to see in or out. The prospects for the future are mixed. There have been some successes. CID squads formed to deal with robberies have mana ged to slow the rate of increase increase in the past few weeks and a concentration of efforts in the notorious Clapham and Stockwell area has resulted in a 20 per cent decrease in robberies since 1986.

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Graffiti, Graffiti, costing £lm a year to remove, remove, is getting w orse and the policy of not allowing trains out with graffiti graffiti has been abandoned. G reater secu rity at some depots and sidings has moved the vandals to other locations. One ominous trend is in the youth of some offenders. “In recent months what has been very noticeable is the staggering increase in the involve ment of children as young as 12 and 13. One 14year-oid is in custody over some very serious offences, while a number of accomplices have been identified - all around the the same a ge,” Mr Stoppani said. A Tube driver trapped a gang of “steamers” robbing passengers on his train by pulling up his train short of a station and telling his line control ler to call the police. The driver, who has not been named, stopped the District line train outside South Kensington station late on Monday night to prevent the gang escaping after a passenger told him what was happening. The gang ha d boarded the train at Victoria and were running through the carriages grabbing money and jewellery from other passengers. The driver awaited the arrival of British Transport Police of ficers who arrested seven juveniles. {The Independent, 6 April 1988)

How Big Brother keeps trouble off the Clockwork Orange A YO UNG boy being led away from a station by his mother was brandishing a large knife with a serrated blade. It was plastic, but realistic. “That is about the c losest you will get to violence here,” said Bob Adams, manager of the Glasgow Underground - nicknamed the “Clockwork Orange” because of its orange-painted trains, rather than a violent reputation.

Mr Adams searched his files files for anything worse than youths sliding down escalator handrails. He finds it: “We had some football supporters who leapt the ticket barriers without paying and went onto the platform. “We spotted them on the screens and used the public addre ss system to tell them to go back and pay immediately. immediately. A nd they did.”

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DEVELOPING IDEAS

Mr Adams pointed o ut that the supporters were not from Glasgow. Local fans knew better, he said. said. “They pay; they know the procedure and know it is n’t n’t worth it.” Recognising that the system is under tight con trol and that any misdemean our is likely likely to be swiftly swiftly spotted appears to be crucial to the success of the Underground sy stem in remaining almost completely crime-free. Comparisons with London are difficult. Glas gow Underground is far smaller and although although V icto rian in origin, was totally rebuilt in the late 1970s to help regenerate the inner city. As a 15-station, flat fare, fare, one-line system having only one interchange with the overground railway, it lacks the dark passageways and comers of the Lon don system. The kind of atmosphere which encour ages disrespect does not exist. Each station has only one central platform or two side platforms. The trains are clean and regular. The system is well used and at 14 million million passe nger jou r neys a year is close to capacity. Despite Glasgow’s reputation as a tough city, crime was never a serious problem on the under ground even before it was rebuilt when it was as dingy as many central London stations are now. The system was always relatively graffiti-free. The re building provided an oppo rtunity to ensure crime did not take a hold. Most stations have a light, open atmosphere and are constructed with a mixture o f ceramic tiles, smooth bricks and perspex that is difficult to vandalise and easy to clean.

The ticket offices are glass bubbles, so staff can see and be seen - designed on the basis that uniforms discourage misbehaviour. Vagrants are kept out and passengers are kept under watch. watch. Monitor cameras are placed in the larger station halls and at both ends o f every platform. platform. P ictures are relayed to their own station offices offices and to the control room at Govan where the controllers can play Big Brother. “Nobody gets up to to anything because they know we are watching them,” said duty controller Douglas McPherson. “I can talk to and see almost every part of the system at the flick o f a switch. switch. If you tell them to stop, they usually do.” He cannot see inside the car riages of the trains but can talk to the passengers through the drivers. The ticket offices offices are also alarmlinked to him. The biggest control problem is football support ers - Ibrox station has an entrance used only for Rangers matches - and a senior police officer is present in the control room linked to officers on the streets streets to ensure co-ordination. At other times, police are summoned by the con troller using 999 calls - there is no need to have a direct control room to control room link. Strathclyde Police has a visible presence because officers are encouraged encouraged to use the system during n or mal work and beat officers associate themselves themselves with the stations on their patch. patch. O therwise, the police have no special officer or team involved in the under ground and do not even collate figures for under ground crime as a separate category. (The Independent , 6 April 1988)

4 Over to you: further ideas, with a focus on language Introduction In the first three sections sections of this book , we have have concentrated mainly on approaches to literature. Th at is, on different ways ways in in which literary texts can be used to generate discussion. Here, Her e, in the final section, we suggest some of the ways in which these appro aches can be ada pted to focus more closely closely on language. Clearly Clearly it is no t possible to cover all all the areas of language language which could usefully usefully be practised throu gh literary texts. W hat we are offering offering here are suggestions suggestions for furthe r development. These are ideas ideas to begin with. A fter that - over to you. you.

Some general points In searching for material, mu ch time can be saved if you decide in advance precisely what you are looking for. for. Is it, for instance , the use of the passive? conditional forms? articles? -ing forms, phrasal and prepositional verbs? verbs? Once you have decided what the language focus focus should be, and have selected selected your material, che ck throu gh the following following questions: a. Do the th e texts illustrate a variety of uses of the selected language structu re or item (different (different uses of the the words got or got or go, or different structures following the word if)? b. Does the language of the text(s) text(s) reflect reflect natural usage, or is it it exceptional? (Sample texts sh ould , as far as possible, reflect customary usage.) usage.) c. Is the context clea clear? r? Can the students interpret the language language correctly correctly without needing furth er information? How useful are the passag passages? es? Will Will the students learn anything new by working on them? Or are the texts merely merely being used to illustrate points of grammar?

d.

e. Could the use of language language in the literary texts texts be contrasted with the use of similar similar structu res o r expressions expressions in no n-literary texts? texts?

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OVER TO YOU

About the activities activities The section section begins w ith activities activities which focus on three very very different areas of language: language: vocabulary, tenses, an d conditional forms. voc abula ulary, ry, the emphasis is on passive In 4.1 Focus on language: vocab understand unde rstanding. ing. The Th e words selected selected for discussion discussion are ones ones which the stude nts should be able to recognize recognize and understan und erstand d in reading, but bu t not necessarily necessarily to use. Th is helps to counterbalance the emphasis on th e active use of language language in earlier activities (as (as in 2.7 Suggesting the words. tenses and 4.3 Focus on language: In 4.2 Focus on language: tenses conditional cond itional form fo rms, s, the focus is is on structu re rather rath er than vocabulary. Many oth er comparable comp arable areas areas of language language could be explored in the ma y, same way (the future tense, -ing forms, and modals such as as may, might, must, could, should, wo uld ).

Activities 4.4 and 4.5 Translation open up endless possibilities, possibilities, particularly in the exploration o f colloqui colloquial al and formal language language and the th e use of idiomatic expressions. expressions. In the two activities activities outlined here, we have tried to show how translation translation can be used to sharpe n the stu den ts’ sensitivity sensitivity to everyday everyday language. language. Th e section ends with activities activities designed to develop listening and w riting skills skills through literature. literature.

4.1 Focus on language: language: vocabul vocabulary ary LEVEL

____ ____

TIME_____________ TIME_____________ PREPARATION

Low er intermediate to advanc advanced ed 15 - 20 minutes

Select Select a text text (prose or poetry) which you feel would help to ex pand the stu den ts’ passive passive vocabulary, and make it up into a task task sheet. Remove certain of the words, and for each blank space offer offer three alternatives, one of which should be the w ord actually actually used in the text. In our o ur sample task sheet, for instance, the activity looks like like this: Task sheet A The Th e word ‘tou ‘tou rist’ seems seems naturally to suggest suggest haste and (1 ). . . 1 a) compulsion b) impatience c) mindlessness mindlessness compu lsion .) (The word actually used was compulsion Task sheet B Ladies (3). . . like birds with their bright brig ht and pointed feet, 3 a) tiptoeing b) strutting strut ting c) stepping (The word w ord actually used was step ping .)

IN CLASS_________

1 Give Give each of the stude nts a copy of your task sheet. Ask the students stude nts to work on the ir own, and to select the alternatives alternatives they consider most appro priate for the blank spaces. spaces.

OVER TO YOU

133 133

2 After five five to eight minutes, min utes, the th e studen ts form groups of four and discuss their choices. choices. After the discussion, reveal the original original wording to the class. NOTES___________

1 Th e advantage of this techniq ue is that you can select select the texts to suit your s tuden tud ents’ ts’ language leve level. l. O f the two sample sample texts given, the prose passage (task sheet A) would be most suitable for advanced stud ents, ent s, while the poem (task sheet B) could could be used from interm ediate level level upwards.

2 It is imp ortan t to remem ber that this is not a multiple choice choice exercise, exercise, and that the alternatives given given are no t meant to be distractors. Each of the alternatives alternatives should be possible possible in context. The Th e function func tion of the alternatives is is to encourage the students to consider the differences differences between the three word s, and to thin k more carefully about the auth a uth or’s choice. choice. 3 This approach approac h is a useful way way both of refreshing familiar familiar texts texts and o f introducing introducing new ones. ones. TASK SHEET A

Read throu gh th e text below and consider the alternatives alternatives a), b), and c) given for each each blank. Select Select the one you consider most suitable suitab le in each case. The word ‘tou ‘tou rist’ seems naturally to suggest haste and (1) . . . . One th inks of those pitiable droves droves of Middle West school teachers teachers whom one encounters s uddenly at street corners and in public buildings, ( 2) . . ., breathless, their heads singing with unfamiliar names, their bodies strained and bruised from scrambling in and out of motor charabancs, up and an d down staircases, and from trailing (3 ). . . through thro ugh miles of gallery gallery and museum mus eum at the heels heels of a facetious facetious and (4 ). . . guide. guide. How H ow their eyes eyes hau nt us long after they have passed on to the next phase of their itinerary - haggard and uncomp unco mprehend rehend ing eyes, eyes, mildly (5). . ., like those of animals in pain, eloquent eloquen t of that world-weariness world-weariness we all all feel feel at the dead weight of Europ ean culture. Must Mu st they go on to the very end? Is there no ( 6 ) . . . in this pitiless rite? Mu st reverence still be done to the past? As each peak of their climb is is (7). (7) . . . scaled, scaled, each monum mo num ent on the schedule ticked off as as seen, the horizon recedes farthe r before them. And as one sits at one’s cafe table and sees them stumble by, one sheds not wholly wholly (8). (8) . . . tears tears for for these poor poo r scraps scraps of humanity thu s trapp ed and mangled in in the machinery of uplift. uplift. (Evelyn (Evelyn Waugh: Wau gh: Labels) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

a) a) a) a) a) a) a) a)

compulsion bemused wearily disdainful resentful r e s p it e doggedly m o c k in g

b) b) b) b) b) b) b) b)

impatience baffled abjectly haughty accusing rem is sion resolutely derisive

c) c) c) c) c) c) c) c)

mindlessness bewildered disconsolately contemptuous reproachful relief laboriously scornful

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OVER TO YOU

KEY TO TASK_____

Original wording: la 3c 2b 4c

TASK SHEET B

5a 6a

7c 8b

Read thro ugh th e poem below and consider the alternatives a), b), and c) given for each each blank. Select Select the one you consider most suitable in each case.

After the Opera Dow n the stone stairs Girls with their large eyes eyes (1). (1) . with tragedy Lift looks looks of shocked and ( 2). emotion up at me. And I smile. Ladies (3 ). . . like birds with their brigh t and pointed feet feet (4 ). . . anxiously anxiously forth, forth , as if for a boat to carry carry them out o f the wreckage; And among the wreck of the theatre crowd I stand an d smile. They The y take tragedy so (5 ). . .; Which Whic h pleases me. But when I meet the (6 ). . . eyes eyes The reddene d, (7 ). . . eyes eyes of the barman with thin arms arms I am glad (8 ). . . . (D. H. Lawrence ‘After the Opera’) a) a) a) a) a) a) a)

KEY TO TASK

wide grand Walking Glance much to heart tired pained

Original wording: la 3 b 2b 4c

b) b) b) b) b) b) b) b)

5 c 6b

tear-stained momentous Stepping Gaze personally weary aching to get away

7 b 8c

c) c) c) c) c) c) c) c)

fraught passionate Strutting Peer becomingly exhausted raw to go go back to where I came from

OVER TO YOU

135 135

4.2 Focus on language: tenses LEVEL ____ ______ ____ ____ ___ _ Lower intermediate to advanced TIME_____________ TIME_____________

10 - 15 minutes

PREPARATION

1 Select Select a passage passage which can easily easily be unders u nders tood out of context, and w hich contains a range of different tenses.

2 Remove some of the verbs or verbal phrases from the tex t, and replace them with the infinitive form of the verb in brac kets, as in this example from ou r task sheet: pas s) the Bargello, he stopped. He As he (1 go) home, hom e, just as he (2 pass) put his hand to his his breast pocket. pocket. He (3 rob). going), (2 wa s passing), passing), (3 had ha d been robbed) robbe d) Key: (1 wa s going), 3 Make up yo ur task sheet and provide enough copies for the whole whole class. IN CLASS_________

1 Give each stu dent de nt a copy of the task sheet. she et. Allow five five to seven minutes for the students to no te down their suggestions suggestions for the appropriate tenses. Clas s discussion. discussion. Ask the s tudents 2 Class tuden ts to call call out the ir suggestions for each of the verbs in bracke ts. A fter listening to the various various suggestions, reveal the original wording.

_________ _____ __ NOTES ______

1 In some respects, this approach is no no different from the standard stan dard

textbook exercise: ‘Put Pu t the verbs verb s in the following following sentences into the correct tense .’ There The re is, however, one important impo rtant difference. In the standard approach, ap proach, the students stud ents work on model (or (or ‘made ‘made u p’) p’) sentences sentences which have have no real real context. context. Here, Here , by contrast, they work on a coherent passage passage which not only provides provides a clear context, but also also makes it easier for the stu dents to decide which form of the verb is most suitable. 2 Many other features of language language such such as the different uses of contracted and full forms (I’ve/I have), use of the passive, passive, articles, prepositions, and so on can be explored explored through literature litera ture in a similar way. 3 See also 2.7 Suggesting the words.

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TASK SHEET

OVER TO YOU

__Read the passage below below and note dow n the correct tense of the verb in brackets. Aaron found hims elf in the street. street. It was half-past half-past seven seven.. Th e night was fine now. He had h ad his overcoat over his his arm. Leaving the Piazza, a gang of soldiers soldiers suddenly (1 rush) round him, buffeting him in one direction, whilst another gang, swinging swinging roun d the corner, (2 throw) him back b ack helpless again into into the m idst of the first gang. gang. Fo r some moments he struggled among the rud e, brutal little little mob of grey-gree grey-green n uniforms that (3 smell) so strong of d) himself soldier soldiers. s. T hen , irritated, he (4 fin (4 find) hims elf free again. again. As he (5 go) home, suddenly, just as he (6 pass) (6 pass) the Bargello, he stopped, and p ut his han d to his breast-pocket. His letter-case letter-case was was gone. He H e (7 (7 rob). It was as if lightning (8 run) through him at that momen t. F or a mom ent, unconscious and superconscious, superconscious, he (9 breast and robbed him. stand) there. They had pu t their hand in his breast If they (10 (10 stab) him it could h ardly have had a greater effect on him. Feeling quit e weak and faint, he walked on. And as soon as as he began to walk, h e began to reason. Perhaps Perha ps his letter-case (11 (11 be) be) in his other coat. Perha ps the (12 not have) it with him at all. all. He hu rried forward. H e wanted to make make sure. H e wanted relief relief . . . Reaching the house, he hastened up wards to his lonely lonely room. He sh ut the door and switched switched on the light. T hen he searched his other pockets. H e looked looked everywher everywhere. e. I n vain. vain. Fo r he knew the thing was stolen. H e (13 (13 know) it all along. along. T he soldiers soldiers deliberately (14 plot). (14 plot). The must (15 watch) him previously. H e sat down in a chair, to recover from from the shock. T he pocket-book contained four hun dred francs, three one-pound notes, and various letters. letters. Well, these were lost. And now he sat, weak in every every limb, and said to himself: ‘Yes ‘Yes and if I (16 (16 not rush along) so full of feeling, feeling, it i t would wou ld (17 (17 never away. I t is my own fault. I should (18 (18 be on happen). I gave myself away. sh ould always always be on my guard. my guard). I should So he rose and tidied himself hims elf for dinne r. His face was now set, and still. still. H is hea rt was also also still - and fearless. fearless. (D. H. Lawrence: Aar Lawrence: Aaron on’’s R od (abridged)) od (abridged))

KEY TO TASK_____

Original wording: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

rush ru shed ed threw s m e lt found was going was passing h a d b een r o b b e d ran stood

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

h ad stabbed stab bed was h a d n o t had h a d kn ow n had (deliberately) (deliberately) plotted have watched watc hed h a d n ’t r u s h e d never have happened happ ened h ave b e e n o n m y g u a r d

OVER TO YOU

137 137

4.3 Focus on language: conditional forms and if -clauses -clauses LEVEL

__ _____

Intermediate Intermedi ate t o advance advanced d

_____________ Flexible TIME __ F lexible

PREPARATION

1 For Fo r this activity you will need a text which illustrates th e use in English of conditional words such as if, would, could, were, and an d had. Look thro ugh your text and remove remove some parts of the conditional conditional structures struct ures (such as those in italics in the example below): below): Rita Ri ta You wo uldn ’t leav leavee her. N ot when she’s she’s like this. Jea n I would would if I had a good enough enough excu excuse se.. Rita Well, why do n’t n’t you just go? T ha t’s t’s all the excuse you need. Jean Would you stay with h er if I did? Rita I’d stay stay till Mel got back. 2 Make a copy of the text, tex t, leaving leaving gaps gaps for the structur es you have chosen. M ark each gap with a numb nu mb er and, and , on a separate sheet, draw up u p a list of the missing expressions. 3 Make enough eno ugh copies of the text for one thir d of the class. class.

IN CLASS __ three. Give Give each group a _________ 1 Ask the stu dents to work in groups of three. copy of the text. Each grou p should shou ld discuss possible possible wordings for the blank blan k spaces. spaces. 2 The groups compare their their idea ideas. s. 3 Class discussion. Ask the class class to suggest words to fill fill the gaps in the text. A fter listening to the various various suggestions, and comm enting (where necessary) necessary) on po ints o f language, language, reveal the original wording. NOTES___________

You may, pe rhap s, feel feel that tha t it is not fair to use literature merely as material for illustr ating points p oints o f language language which could equally well be practised thro ugh non-fictional texts. S uch reservations reservations are quite understandable, since it is commonly accepted that literature is studied primarily primarily for content rather than for structure. However, we would suggest that: a. Lite ratu re is just as as suitable for language language study as as is any other form of written material. material. And in certain respects, respects, in the use of the spoken language, for example, liter ature is even more suitable su itable because it creates a real, bu t unpredic table context. (Many textbook contexts are, by contrast, unreal and predictable.) b. If we focus on the language of literatu re, this does not mean that we are are ignoring ignoring the meaning. F ar from it. In order to pred ict a stru cture ctur e or expression, we need to be attun ed to the whole text. T o take an example from the sample text in the task sheet: Rita Wh at keeps you here? Jea n I don ’t know. know.

138

OVER TO YO U

(1 ). . . Now when she’s she’s like this. Rita You wo uldn ’t (1). Je an I would if (2) (2) . . . Rita Well, why w hy do n’t n’t you just go? T ha t’s t’s all all the excuse you need. Here, He re, the th e stude nts are asked to suggest suggest what might have been said in the gaps. In each case, a clue clue is given in what wh at is said later. T here he re is a logical logical link between betwee n Rita’s Ri ta’s first remark re mark:: ‘You would wo uldn’t n’t (leave her)’, and h er second: ‘Well, why don’ don’tyo ujust uju st go?’ go?’ And, similarly, between Jea n’s n’s words: ‘I would i f ( I had a good enoug an d enough h excuse)’, and Rita ’s response: ‘T ha t’s t’s all all the excuse you you ne ed.’ ed .’ Literatu Lite rature re can help to correct errors in the stud ents’ ent s’ use of language. language. I n this pa rticular activity, one of the common erro rs which could be co rrected is the tendency of non-native speakers to use full forms of the conditional (‘I (‘I do not no t love love Mother Moth er and yet I am stuck with w ith her h er ,’ or ‘You ‘You would have loved her more if she had left the house between u s .’) .’) instead of the more natu ral short sh ort forms (‘I (‘I don’ do n’tt love Mothe r and yet I ’m stuck with he r,’ ‘You’ ‘You’d’v d’vee loved her more if she’d she’d left the house between u s.’ s. ’)

TASK SHEET

Read the dialogue below below and discuss with your pa rtners w hat words you feel feel would be most suitable in the gaps. (Rita and Jean are sisters. J ean is at prese nt living living in the house o f their mo ther, who is dying. dying. Although Rita has children children to suppo rt (and no money) it is is Jean who will will inhe rit the house. D urin g the conversation, conversation, Rita suggests, amongst other things, that Jean is not happily married to her husb and, Mel.) Mel.) Jean Are you glad you’ve got children? Rita O f course course I am. Jean No. I mean reall really. y. W hen you think about it. Rita Yes. Yes. I am glad glad when I thin k about it. Jean Why? Rita I love them. Jean W hat good does that do you? Rita I t’s t’s bette r to love people, is n’t n’t it? Jean I don’ do n’tt know. Rita It doesn’ does n’tt make sense otherwise. otherwise. Jean It doesn’t d oesn’t make sense anyway. anyway. I don’ do n’tt love Mother Mo ther and yet I’m I’m stuck with her. Rita You do love her. Jean I ’m sick of her. Rita Why Wh y are you here then? W hat keeps you here? Jean I don’ do n’tt know. Rita You wouldn’ wou ldn’tt (1 ). . . . N ot when she’s she’s like this. Jean I would if (2) . . . Rita Well, why do n’t n’t you just go? Th at’ at ’s all all the excuse excuse you need. Jean (3 ). . . stay with her if I did? Rita I ’d stay till Mel got back. Jean He wouldn’t wouldn’t do anything. anything. What would you you do if he (4 ). . .?

OVER TO YOU

Rita Jean Rita Jean Rita Jean Rita

Jean Rita

Jean Rita

139 139

Well, I couldn’t coul dn’t stay indefinitely. indefin itely. I ’d have to (5 ). . . some time. How long would you stay? stay? I don ’t know. I ’d try and stay till she died. Wha t if she (6 ). . .? O h, I don’ do n’tt know. I ’d (7 ). . . .1 don’t know. It’s different when you’ve you’ve got children. God. Loo k, Jean, Jean , you can feel feel sorry for yourself all all you like bu t do n’t n’t expect me to. You wanted to live in in this house. You and Mel could’ve could’ve (8 ). . . years ago. ago. T here was no need for you to stay here. M other didn d idn ’t need you then. She never wanted m e to leave. leave. A nd anyway, it w ould’ve ould’ve been (9 ). . . on her own. Living by yo ursel ur selff s no joke. joke. You only stayed for what y ou could get. A house this size is worth wo rth a fortune . Ted Te d and an d I are struggling. A lot ofJw fJwS money goes to to the oth er kids. And w hat’ll hat’ll we we get when she dies? Half H alf of whatever’ whateve r’ss left in the bank. bank . T ha t’s t’s all. all. You’ll You’ll waltz off with the th e other half. If I was you, Jean, J ean, I ’d (10) (10) . . . . You’re You’re all all set to make a financ financia iall kil killi ling ng within within the next few days. days. (M other’s oth er’s eyes closed) closed) You’ You ’d ’ve loved her more if she’d she’d (1 1) . . ., wouldn’t wou ldn’t you? Yes, I would’ wou ld’ve ve appreciated it. I wo uld’ uld ’ve seen seen some sense in it. it. It would’ would’ve ve been been ( 1 2 ) . . . . I’ve I’ve got got child children ren.. (Catherine Hayes: Skirmishes )

KEY TO TASK_____

Original Original wording of the text: text: 1 leave eave her 2 I had a good enough excuse 3 would wou ld you 4 did n’t come back 5 go home ho me 6 started to get better

7 8 9 10 11 12

pu t her in a home bou ght a place place of your you r own lonely for her stay p u t left the house between betw een us fair

4.4 Translation Translation 1: dialogue LEVEL ____ ______ ____ ____ ___ _

Intermediate

TIME_____ ______ _______ _

25 - 30 minutes

PREPARATION

1 Choose a passage, preferably one co ntaining dialogue, from a novel, sh ort story , or play. I f the context is not immediately clear, clear, give give a short summary o f the situation, or ad d the preceding paragraph in brackets. (The text in brackets need not be translated.)

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2 Select Select any language features of the text to which you wish to draw the students’ attention. Mark the relevant words either by underlining them in the text or by providing guideline notes, such as those given after the task sheet. IN CLASS_________

1 Ask the stud ents to form groups of three. Give each each group a copy of the the full text, b ut ask them to translate translate only one-third of it (on the sample sample task sheet, sheet, lines lines 1-14, 15- 28,29 -42). Make sure that at least two two groups gro ups are working on the same section section of text.

2 After fifteen fifteen minutes, ask each group grou p to compare translations with another an other group g roup which has wo rked on the same section section of text. text. Clas s discussion discussion.. Which 3 Class Whic h lines were most difficult to translate? W hat were the best translations suggested? Was there anything th at could not be adequ ately translated? __________ ____ _ NOTES _______

1 In selecting material for this activity, activity , we suggest that you look for

passages which are easy to understand and which, as far as possible, reflect the everyday use of langua language. ge. Hence the emphasis on dialogue. If translation transla tion is to be used effectively effectively in the language class, class, it should s hould be an activity which is free from anxiety and a nd open to discussion. Students should not be asked (as (as they often are) to translate obscure and unnecessarily unnece ssarily complex passages passages of prose. And the texts chosen should provide interesting challenges, challenges, not insurm ountable problems. 2 Many of the passages in this book would be suitable for translation, pa rticularly those in 2.2 Speculation 2, and 2.7 Suggesting the words. 3 See, also in this series, Alan Duff: Translation, for ideas on using translation to reinforce specific points of language.

TASK SHEET

Translate the th e dialogue below, paying particular attention atten tion to the phrases in the notes tha t follo follow. w. (At the beginning of the novel novel The Frenc French h Lieuten ant’s Woman Wom an , Charles and Ernestina, Ern estina, who are are planning to marry, are walking walking along a steep path by the th e seaside. Ernest E rnestina ina is leading the way.) ‘Now, am I not kind to bring you here? And look.’ (She led him to the side of the rampart, where a line of flat stones inserted sideways into the wall served as rough steps down to a lower walk. ‘These are the very steps that Jane Austen made Louisa 5 Musgrove Musg rove fall down in Persuasion. ’) ‘How romantic.’ ‘Gentlemen were romantic . . . th e n .’ ‘And are scientific now? now? Shall Shall we make the perilous per ilous descent?’ 10 ‘On the way back ba ck.’ .’

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(Once again they walked on. I t was was only only then t hat he noticed, or at least realized realized the sex of, the figure at the end.) ‘Good heavens, I took that to be a fisherman. But isn’t it a woman?’ Ernestin E rnestinaa peered - her grey, very pretty pre tty eyes, eyes, were short sighted, and all she could see was a dark shape. ‘Is she young?’ ‘I t’s too far to te ll.’ ‘But I can guess who it is. It mu st be poor Tra ged y.’ ‘Tragedy?’ ‘A nickname. nickname. One of her nicknam es.’ ‘And w hat are the others ?’ ‘Th e fisherme n have a gross name for h er .’ ‘My dear Tina , you can surely . . .’ ‘They The y call call her the Frenc Fr ench h Lieuten Lie uten ant’s . . . W om an.’ ‘Indeed. Indee d. And is she so ostracized ostracized that she has to spend h er days out here?’ ‘She is . . . a little little mad. L et us turn. I don ’t like like to go near her .’ They stopped. He stared at the black black figure figure.. ‘But I ’m intrigued. intrigued. W ho is is this this French L ieutenant?’ ‘A m an she is said to have . . .’ ‘Fallen in love with?’ ‘Worse than th at. ’ ‘And An d he aband oned her? There The re is a child?’ No. I th ink no child. child. It is all gossip.’ gossip .’ ‘But what w hat is she doing there? ’ ‘They The y say she she waits waits for him to retu rn .’ ‘B u t . . . does no one care for her ?’ ‘She is a servant of some kind to old Mrs Poulteney. She is never neve r to to be seen when wh en we we visit. But Bu t she lives there. ther e. Please P lease let us turn back. I did not see see he r.’ French Lie ute na nts Woman) (John Fowles: The French

Notes line 7 Gentlemen were romantic then. The word then must suggest time past (the 18th century). Could the translation of then come at the beginning of the sentence? sentence? line 8 A n d are scientific scientific now? Would a synonym be more suitable pr actica ical, l, rationa rati onal l ? in translation, say, pract Shall we make the perilous descent ? Would it be the same if Charles said: Shall we go down the steep way ? Is he joking, or trying to give her courage? courage? line 13 I took that to be a fisherman. What is the most suitable tha t to be . . .? Can a link be made translation for: I took that tha t and it (isn’t it a woman? line 13)} between that line line 18 I f s too too fa r to tel tell. l. Possibilities Possibilities for rew ording (in translation): You!one You!one can’t tell from this distance!I ca n’t see see from here/We’ here/We ’re too f a r aw a w ay to see. see.

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line line 23 . . . a gros grosss name name for her. her. What does gross mean? Vulgar, ugly, common, rude? Is the d ictionary definition suitable? Charle less had had continu continued, ed, what what line 24 . . . yo u can surely . . . If Char would he have said? Perhaps: You can surely not mean to suggest that tha t she is (a loose loose woman)? woma n)? The translation should

suggest a similar similar uncompleted construction. Charles say say this word - with astonish line 26 Indeed. How does Charles me nt, o r no great surprise? surprise? . . . is she so ostracized . . . It may be nece necess ssar ary y in in translation to change the stru cture , an d use an active active form: form: Every Ev ery one on e openly open ly condemns her. her. line 31 A man she she is is said to have . . . Make sure tha t the stru ctu re of

this sentence (in translation) fits in with the next line: . . . fa lle n in love lo ve with, w ith, line 34 There is a child ? Is this a statement, a question, or both?

Why does Charles put in this way, instead of asking, for instance: Does Do es she have hav e a child?/D child ?/Do o they have hav e a child?, or Because Beca use o f a child? line 35 It is all gossip. Do not be too much influenced by the

English structure. line 38 B u t . . . does no one one care fo r her her? ? Does this mean: Does Do es no one like her?, or Does Doe s no one look after aft er her? her? or both? line 40 She is never to to be seen seen . . . Does this mean: We can never see her when we visit vi sit or When we visit, we never see see her?

4.5 Translation Translatio n 2: everyday words LEVEL LEVEL

________

TIME_____________ TIME_____________ PREPARATION

Lowe Lo werr intermediate interm ediate upwards upwards

20 - 30 minutes this activity is is to explore the different ways in in 1 Th e p urpose o f this which everyday words such as get, go, give, giv e, have, hav e, p ut, take, are used in English. 2 Make a selection selection of seven to ten short passages. passages. Once On ce you have decided which words and expressions expressions you wish wish to co ncentrate on, underline th em in the text. In looking for for suitable suitable material, bear in min d th e following following points: passages should be self-explanat self-explanatory, ory, tha t is, the stud ents a. Th e passages should be able to work work on them w ithout needing to know more about the context. b. Th e passages passages should illustrate illustrate a range of different usages usages of the chosen word or expression in English (literal, formal/informal, idiomatic ), as in this excerp t from sample text 6: ‘Got a new boy friend?’ ‘I’ve got to see a man on business. b usiness. ’ ‘Have you got go t a job there?’ ‘I ’m proba p robably bly going to get a car soon.’

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c. T he material should offer offer a challeng challengee to the students. Th at is, it should encourag e them to use a variety variety of expressions expressions when translatin g into the ir own language. language. 3 Make eno ugh copies of your set of passages passages for one third of the class. 4 Below, we describe how the sample texts, which focus on the words go and an d get , could b e used in class. class.

1 Ask the stude nts to work in groups group s of three. Give Give each group approximately approximately half of the texts you have chosen chosen (1-5, or 6-8 ). Ask the students to decide how they would translate translate the expressions in in itali italics. cs. Th e rem ainder o f the the text can be translated orally. orally. 2 Each group compares its its suggesti suggestions ons with another group w hich has worked o n the same set of texts. texts. 3 Th e groups exchange texts. (Tho se who have worked worke d on passages passages 1-5 exchange with those who have worked work ed on passages passages 6-8). 6-8) . Again, they translate th e expressions in italics, and compare th eir suggestions suggestions with another group. 4 Class discussion. Which Whic h expressions were most difficult to translate? Wh ich were easiest, easiest, and why?

1 We have concentrated here on just one tiny par t of language: the words go and an d get, and the expressions associat associated ed with them . T his may seem like a minimalist approach. But it is not. By working wor king on these few examples, the stu den ts will will not only be exploring some of the meanings of go of go and an d get, bu t also also reflecting, in two languages, on broader questions such as word order , emphasis, register, style, style, and meaning. 2 Many oth er activities activities in in this book could also also be adapted adap ted for translation. translation. We would suggest in particular, 2.7 Suggesting the words, and 4.3 Focus on language.

1 (The scene takes plac placee in in court, d uring a mu rder trial.) ‘After it was all over, w hat did y ou do?’ ‘I went hom e.’ ‘A serious and terrible te rrible crime had been co mmitted mm itted and you went he n you home, tucked y ourself up in bed and went wen t to sleepl sleepl . . . W hen went to bed, did you go alone}’ ‘I don’t don’t see see what wha t that’s got to do do with it.’ it .’ He r answer had a hint of sharpness. ‘Did you go alone?’

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‘I told you. I we nt to b e d ’ an d I shall shal l go on asking ‘Miss Evans. I shall ask my question again and it all night night if it’s necessary in the interests of my cl ie n t. . . Did you go to to bed be d alone?’ ‘Yes. Yes. I went to bed alon e.’ ‘H ow long had that been been going on?’ ‘How long had what been going on, Mr Rum pole?’ Sam (the judge) judge ) asked. ask ed. ‘Th at the witness had taken to sleepi sleeping ng alone, alone, my L or d. ’ Ru mpole ole o f the Ba iley) ile y) (John Mortimer: Rump

2 The Th e only playwright I knew was was Sean Sean O’Case O’Casey. y. His room was bare and co ntained only an iron be d, a table, and a couple of poor chairs. O n the shabby wall was a notice he had printed : G E T O N W IT I T H T HE HE B L O O D Y P L A Y M idni nigh gh t Oil) Oi l) (V. S. Pritchett: Mid

3 The Th e narra tor is is walking in Italy, wearing tight shoes.) I had a terrific pain in the ankle, so by the time I go t to Piacenza bare ly enough strength strength left to get my w al let le t out. railway railway station I ha d barely (Clive (Clive James: Jam es: Unreliable Memoirs) 4 ‘Betty, you can’t can’t do it,’ it ,’ he said. ‘I ‘I t’s t’s simply simply out of the que stio n.’ ‘Why?’ ‘He’s awful.’ ‘I don ’t thin k he is. I think he’s rather n ice.’ 'Are you going to pretend yo u ’re in love with him ?’ ‘I think thin k it would be tactful, don’ do n’tt you?’ ‘Why are yo u going to marry him ?’ She looked at him h im coolly. ‘H e’s e’s got pots of money. I ’m nearly tw enty-six.’ (Somerset Maugham: The Huma n Element) 5 Mrs S imon’s imon’s small face face tightened , hard ened , went a shade whiter among the pillows. H er manner ma nner became a positive invitation to Mrs Bettersley to go away. Mrs Bettersley, m oving to the edge of the bed, be d, caught caug ht the gir l’s l’s wrists and firmly, b ut not u ntenderly, forced them apart. ''W ''We’ve e’ve got three-quart three-quarters ers o f an hour alo ne,’ ne, ’ she said. ‘You’ve got to tell me. M a k e it come into word s. Wh en it’s once out, ou t, it won’t hu rt like like a tooth, you know. ’ (Elizabeth Bowen: Bowen: ‘Th e Apple T ree ’) 6 Sall Sally y shrugged her shoulders with a slight, impatien t, listless listless movement. T hroug hout this conversat conversation, ion, I noticed that she avoided my eyes. eyes. I began to won der how soon I could make mak e an excuse to go.

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Then Th en th e telephone bell rang. Sall Sally y yawned, pulled the instrum instr um ent across across on to her lap. (. . .) ‘And ‘And now, darlin g, I must fly!’ cried Sally, when, wh en, at a t last, the th e conversation conversa tion was over. ‘I ’m about two hours late already!’ ‘Got a new boy friend ?’ But Sally Sally ignored my grin. ‘I ’ve got g ot to see a man on business, ’ she said briefly. ‘And when shall shall we meet again?’ g ot such a lot on, just ‘I ’ll have to see, darling darli ng . . . I ’ve got jus t at prese pre sent nt ma y be going to Fra nkfur nk furtt quite soon.’ . . . I ’ll let you know . . . I may 'Hav eyou got a job there there}’ }’

‘No. Not exactly.’ Sally’s voice was brief, dismissing this subject. (. . .) We walked out togeth er to the corner of the street, where Sally Sally picked u p a taxi. taxi. ro bably bly ‘I t’s an awful nuisance nuisan ce living so far off,’ of f,’ she said. ‘I ’m p roba going to get a car soon. Well, goodbye, darling. I’ll see you sometime.’ ‘Goodbye, Sally. Enjoy yourself.’ (Christopher Isherwood: Isherwood: Goodbye to Berlin) 7 ‘Anyw An yway,’ ay,’ she added add ed a mo ment me nt later, ‘I ‘I know I ’ve got g ot a temperature temper ature ; my eye eyess hu rt when I move them .’ ‘Better Be tter get the doctor then.’ then .’

‘You don ’t sound soun d very sympathetic, sym pathetic, I mu st say.’ I ‘I ’ve got g ot a train to catch, ca tch, as you perfectly well well know .’ She wanted to say, ‘You ‘You did n’t have have a train to catch yesterday ,’ but hesitated. hesitated. ‘Be sure to call me at th e office if you’ you ’re feeling really ba d .’ He H e w a s getting gettin g late, and his hangover had by no means subsided. (Elizabeth (Elizabeth Jane Howard: Od d Girl Out) 8 ‘Do you w ant money? I ’ll give it to you if you like! like! . . . I’ll I’ll give you two hund red marks if you’ll you’ll kiss m e.’ ‘Wh at a condition! condition! A nd I do n’t n’t want to kiss you you - 1 do n’t n’t like as e goV kissing. Ple ase ‘Yes - you do! - yes, you do .’ He caught cau ght hold o f her arms above the elbows. She struggled, a nd was quite amazed to realize realize how how angry she felt. felt. '‘L e t me go - immed imm ediate iately! ly!’’ she cried . . . ‘Leav ‘Leavee me alone, I tell you!’ ‘Well, kiss me an d I ’ll go . ’ ‘I won’t won’t kiss you! you! - you brute! - 1 won’t!’ Somehow she slipped slipped outV she stammered. ‘Go out of his arms and ran to the wall. ‘Ge t outV on now , clear out!’ ou t!’ She thrilled at her own angry voice. voice. ‘To thin k I should talk to a man like that!’ tha t!’ He made a rush at her, an d held her against the wall wall.. T his time she could coul d not get free. free .

(Ka therine Mansfield: ‘Th ‘Th e Swing of the Pendu Pen dulum lum ’)

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4.6 Listening: stress and pause pause ____________ Low er intermediate LEVEL __ intermediate upwards upwards

TIME __ _____________ 15 - 20 minut es PREPARA PREPARAT TION

For this thi s activi act ivi t y, you wil wi l l nee need d a recording recor ding of a dialogue pa pass ssa age from a play, novel, or short story. Sources of suitable record ed material include: - British Council Council libraries libraries - BBC BBC World Servi Service ce - Public libraries libraries - Good Book Guides Guides - Recorded Book Book Service Servicess 1 Select Select a section of the dialogue dialogue (lasting abou t three min utes) in which the speakers freq uently pause or give give special special stress stress to certain words. 2 Make copies of the text of the extract you have chosen for the students stude nts to listen to in clas class. s. Ther T her e should shou ld be enough copies copies for each stude nt to have his or her own.

IN CLASS __ _________

s ure th at you can easily easily find th e passage you you have chosen 1 Make sure on the tape (note (note the num ber on the counter). Now , play the the students stud ents abou a boutt five five minutes o f the dialogue which comes comes before the passage you have chosen. cassette recorder. 2 Wh en you reach the chosen passage, stop the cassette Tell the students that you are going to give give them copies copies of the text which comes after the passage they they have just heard. 3 Give Give the students stud ents copies of the text. Ask them to work on their own for about five five minutes. They should look through th e dialogue dialogue and un derline any words they th ink will will be stressed stressed by the speakers, or any words w hich will be spoken spok en in a special tone (softly, angrily, sarcastically). They should also also mark with a V any place placess where they would expect the speakers to pause. Th e sample text shows how a text can be marked for stress and pause. pause. 4 After about eight eight minutes, ask the students students to form groups groups of three and an d to compare the pauses and stresses they have marked ma rked on their texts. 5 Play the recording to the class, class, and ask the students to compare their markings ma rkings with th e stresses and pauses actually used by the speakers. Allow the stud ents to hear the record ing at least least twice. twice.

NOTES __ ___________

m ain aims of this this activity is is to bring th e printe pr inted d page 1 One o f the main to life life for the students. Th at is, throu gh listening, to bring out impo rtant features of language language such as stress stress and intonation, which may be lost in silent reading. W hat the th e eye misses, the ear may easily easily pick up: a note of irony, or per haps evasiveness. evasiveness. F or

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instance: ‘W hat do you thin k o f her? Is she not very charming? ‘Oh! yes - very - a very pleasing pleasing young wom an.’ (Jane Austen) ‘Well, how do you like Sydney?’ ‘The harb our, I think, is wond erful.’ (D. H. Lawrence) 2 You may need to to remind the stud ents tha t in this activity activity there are no absolutely ‘rig ht’ ht ’ answers. No two readers reader s will give exactly exactly the same interpretation of a text. text. The aim of asking asking the stud ents to predict pred ict how the tex t will will be spoken is to encourage them to listen more attentively to the way in which it is spoken.

V

Frank Wh at are you doing here? here? I t’s t’s Th urs day, da y, you . . . I know I sh ouldn’t ouldn’t be here, it’s me dinner ho ur, bu t listen, listen, Rita I’ve gorra tell someone, \J have you got a few minutes, can y’ spare. . . Frank My God, what is it? it? Rita I had to come an’ tell tell y’, Fran k, last nigh t V ? I went wen t to the theatre! A prop er one, a professional professional theatre. Frank Fo r God’ God ’s sake, you had me worried \ J , I thoug ht it was was something serious. Rita No , listen, it was. I went out and got me ticket V >it was Shakespeare, \J I though t it was gonna be dead borin’ bo rin’ . . . Frank Th en why d id you go in the first place place?? Rita I wanted to find out. \J But listen, it wasn’t wasn’t bo rin’, rin ’, it was was bleedin’ great. . .

4.7 Listening: Listening: selective selective recall recall Low er intermediate upwards upwards 15 - 20 minutes

1 As in activity 4.6, yo u will will need a recordin g of a passage of dialogue for this activity. T he passage passage you choose choose should be about ten minutes in len gth, and an d it should preferably contain dialogue dialogue which is close to everyday speech. (A suitable text would be, for instance, one similar to to the extract from Skirmishes in 4.3 Focus on Language.) Lang uage.) 2 You will will not need copies copies of the text for the stud ents, ents , b ut you should have a copy for yourself to consult while playing the recording.

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3 Listen to the recording and m ark any of the dialogue dialogue exchanges exchanges which you thin k the students stude nts would be able to recall recall at at least least partly, from memory. For example:

Jean Rita Jean Rita IN CLASS

Are you glad you’ve got children? O f course course I am. No. I mean really. When you think about it. Yes. Yes. I am glad when I thin k about it. it.

1 Play the recording of the passage passage you you have chosen. W hen it is finished, ask the s tuden ts to recall as much muc h as they can of the situation: - Who were we re the speakers? speakers? - Where Where were they? they? - Wh at various thin things gs did they talk about? about? - D id either either of them them say anything unexpected unexpected or or stri strikin king? g?

2 Now play the recording again. again. But this time, stop the tape at Pr epar arati ation on ) and ask the stude nts to certain chosen poin ts (see Prep recall, as accurately as they can, the words which follow immediately after the pause. 3 Listen to all suggestions, and write up some of the best ones on the board. Th en continue playing playing the tape, until you reach reach the next stopping-point. Then proceed with the recall, as before. Follow the same same procedure throu gh to the en d of the tape. tape. 4 Play the recording once again, right righ t throug h, without with out a break. NOTES

1 This activity has two importa nt functions - to assist: assist: a. Lis ten ing comprehension. Did the students un derstand wh at they they heard? Was there anything that escaped escaped them , or th at they misinterpreted? Re formu mulatio lation. n. In attempting to recall recall the words tha t were used, b. Refor are the stude nts able to find differen t, but b ut equally acceptable acceptable ways ways of saying saying the same thing?

An importa imp orta nt skill in language language learning is the ability to reformula te, to say say the same thing in diffe rent ways. This is why it is impor tant to write up some of the stu dents de nts’’ suggestions on the board , as these will later serve as a useful point of comparison. the 2 A useful follow-up to this activity would be 2.7 Suggesting the words.

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4.8 Listening: What happens next? ____________ Advanced LEVEL __

TIME_____________

15 - 20 minutes

PREPARATION

sho rt passage passage of prose which leads up to a 1 Fin d a recordin g of a short climax climax or resolution. A suitable passage passage in this book would be, for instance, the extract from The Woman in White, in 2.4 Storylines 2. poin t towards the end o f the record ing at which you will will 2 Choose a point stop - about one m inute (or one page) page) from the end of the passage passage.. after the poin t at which you 3 Make copies of the text which comes after the will will stop the recording. You will will need one copy for each each group of three students.

IN CLASS_________

are going going to play play them a 1 Explain to the studen ts that you are recording of an episode episode from a literary text (novel, play, or story), and tha t you will will stop the recording shortly before the end. class, and stop at the po int you 2 Play the recording to the whole class, have chosen. 3 Ask the students to form groups of three three and to discuss discuss how they they think the episode ends. Th ey should note down all detai details ls they think will be mentioned, including any any remarks they expect the characters to make. Allow ten min utes for fo r discussion, th en give each each group a copy copy of 4 Allow the text of the missing part o f the recording. They should look through the text to find any points which they predicted. Ro und-up -up discussi discussion. on. How close did the various groups come to 5 Round the original text in their predic tion of the ending? 6 Finally, play the end of the recording. recording.

NOTES___________

Listening generally generally takes less time than tha n silent reading (at least, in a foreign language). language). Th e advantage of this activity, then , is that it allows allows you to work w ith a fairly fairly lengthy tex t withou t having to hurry hur ry the stude s tude nts on. Th e listening enables enables you to save save time for for the in-depth reading.

VARIATION_______

Ask your partner

PREPARATION

Fo r this variation you will need fewer copies copies of the text - one copy for every six students in the class. class.

IN CLASS_________

will require some co-operation 1 An interes ting variation, which will from the th e studen stu den ts, is to split the class class into two equal groups. Give Give one grou p (Group (Grou p A) copies copies of the last page of the text, and ask them to leave the room for th eir discussion. G roup B stays behind in the classroom.

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2 Play them th e end of the recording, bu t do not give give them copie copiess of the text. 3 Th en bring the two groups together. Each student from Group A should find find a partner from Group B. They work in pairs: pairs: th e students from Group B try to reconstruct as much as they they can recall recall of the episode episode from their listening. listening. T he students from Group A compare their pa rtners ’ oral oral summaries with the w ritten text.

4.9 Listening: word recognition LEVEL ____ ______ ____ ____ ___Inte _Inte rmedia rm edia te to advan ced TIME

15 minutes

PREPARATION

Select Select a recorded passage passage of dialogue dialogue from a play, novel, or short story. T he passage should contain words or expressions expressions which your students may have difficulty difficulty in identifying (in speech). speech). For instance, words w hich are similar similar in sound or meaning, such as: as:

genius/genie guilt!gilt warn/warm thread/ threat!tread threat!tread IN CLASS_________

doom!dome doom!dome flawed/floored bought/brought invincible/invisible

1 Display the words you you have have chosen on the board or OH P. Ask the students to copy out the list. 2 Play a record ing of the passage you have chosen. (Some of the words listed listed unde r Preparation are drawn from Willy Russell: Educating Educ ating R ita it a .) 3 Ask the students to listen listen to the recording and to mark w ith a tick tick ( / ) any of the words on their lists lists that they hear. 4 Class discussion. Which words from the list were heard on the recording?

_______ ___ NOTES __

activity in its its simplest form. T here he re is, 1 We have presented th is activity however, a way in which you could m ake it more varied and challenging: a. Write Write down what wh at you heard heard.. Stop the tape at certain chosen points, and ask the students to note down what they have just just heard. The re should be about ten stopping-points in the passa passage. ge. b. When you have played played the tape throug h to the end, play it once once again, again, this time w ithout pauses. Ask the s tudents to check their notes and, if necessary, necessary, correct them. c. Finally, reveal the correct wording. 2 See See also lso 4. 1 ,4 .2 ,4 .3 Focus on language for other aspects of language which could also also be tested th rough rou gh listening.

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4.10 Writing: summaries ____________ Int LEVEL __ Intermediate ermediate t o advanced advanced

TIME

___ ___

PREPARATION

20 - 25 minutes minutes This is a variation o f activity 1.7 Speculation 1, in which the written preparation was done by by the teacher. H ere, by co ntrast, it is the students who do the writing. writing. 1 Fin d three sho rt texts texts which outline a situation withou t being too too explicit, tha t is, texts which could be interp reted rete d in several ways ways (for examples, see the sample texts). 2 Write o ut a short, factual explanati explanation on of what is happening in each text (see Explan (see Explanations) ations)..

IN CLASS_________

Give each each group one of 1 Divide the stude nts into groups o f three. Give the texts you have chosen. Ask th e stude nts to discuss their texts and to decide what is happening: - Who are the protagonists? protagonists? - What Wha t are they doin doing? g? - What Wha t is going to happen? happen? 2 Ask each group to write down two possible possible explanations for their texts (these shou ld not be longer th an five to to eight lines). lines). 3 When th e studen ts are nearly nearly ready, ready, give each group the real real explanation of their text, te xt, th at is, the one you have have already already prepar ed (see Preparation, step 2). Ask one member o f the group to write out this third explanation explanation in in his or her own handwriting. 4 Ask each each group to join join up with another group which has been working on a different text. Th e two groups exchange exchange their written explanations. 5 In tu rn , they discuss discuss which explanation explanation they find the most plausible.

NOTES__________

1 Th e aim of this activity activity is is to to give give the stud ents an opp ortu nity to write in English w ithout ithou t having to to answer questions on a text. Here, the text provides provides the initial initial stimulus, bu t the stude nts are free to work o n it in whatev er way they they choose. 2 Before trying out this activity, activity, we recommend recomm end that you introduce introd uce the stu dents to some of the activit activities ies mentioned earlier earlier in the book, 1.7 and 2.2 Speculation and 2.8 Completing the picture. picture.

SOURCES________

Carre: The Spy 1 John Le Carre: Sp y Who Came in from the Cold 2 Aldous Huxley: Those Those Barren Leaves Leav es 3 Michael Fray n: Sweet Sw eet Dreams Dreams

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1 It was cold that morning; the light mist was damp and grey, pricking the skin. The airport reminded Leamas of the war: machines, half hidden in the fog, waiting patiently for their masters; the resonant voices and their echoes, the sudden shout and th e incongruous incon gruous clip of a girl’s girl’s heels heels on a stone floor; the ro ar of an engine that might have been at your elbow. Everywhere that air of conspiracy which generates among people who have been up since since dawn a sense - of superiority superiority almost, derived from the common experience of having seen the night disappear and the morn ing come. come. 2 It was night. Ha lf undressed , Iren e was was sitting sitting on the edge of her bed stitching away at an unfinished garment of pale pink silk. Her head was bent over her work and her thick hair hung perpendicularly down on either side, making an angle with her tilted face. face. T he light clung richly to her bare arms and s houlders. Her face was extremely grave; the tip of her tongue appeared between her te eth. It was a difficult job. 3 A man sits in his car at the traffic-lights, waiting for them to go go green. He is thirty-seven years old, with a high forehead, and thin hair that stands on end in the slightest breeze. His eyes are a little pro tub erant, era nt, and his lips are set set in a faint smile, so tha t as he leans forward against the wheel, gazing straight ahead though the windscreen, he seems to be waiting for the green light with eagerness. eagerness. In fact the light has been green for some time already. Howard Baker (for that is his name) is sitting in front of a green light waiting for a green light because he is thinking. He is wondering: wh ether he is adequately adequately insured, whether he should kiss Rose, the wife wife of the man he is on his way to see. see.

EXPLANATIONS

1 Leamas is a spy. He is about to set off east on a dangerous mission. H e has just left left his girl-friend, Liz, Liz , who does not no t know abou t his espionage activiti activities. es. He is feeling feeling nervou s, because he is carrying a false false passpo rt, an d almost no money. (‘W (‘W hat ab out money?’ Leamas asked. ‘You won ’t need any. I t’s t’s on the firm .’) .’) 2 Irene is is staying staying with her aunt, M rs Aldwinkle, Aldwinkle, in a pal a palazzo azzo in Rome. At the mom ent she is is embroidering her nightdress (that is the ‘difficult job ’). She feels feels slightly ashamed ashame d of spendin spe nding g so much mu ch time on her clothes when she could be doing something more ‘useful’. ‘useful’. Her aun t would not approve of this. H er thoug hts are preoccupied preoccupied with L ord H ovenden , the man she expect expectss to marry. 3 How ard Baker is a ‘modestly ‘modestly successful’ architect. He re, he is dreaming at the traffic lights; when he stops dreaming, he starts his car, runs throug h the red light, and is killed. killed. H e then goes goes to to heaven, w hich he discovers to be almost identical identical to the world he knew on earth, with the same ‘pretty ‘pretty s ubu rbs, cosy cosy dinner parties, and concerned sm all-talk.’ all-talk.’

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4.1 .11 1 Writing: Writing: dialogues dialogues for speculation speculation LEVEL

Intermediate

TIME

20 - 30 min utes

PREPARATION

This activity is is an extension of 3.2 Creating situations from fro m dialogue. dialogue. You do not need nee d to prepare any material. T he prep aration will will be done by the students, out of clas class. s.

OUT OF CLASS

1 Ask the studen ts to write out, at home, a short dialogue dialogue of no more than th an three to four exchanges on the lines of those given in the examples. 2 On a separate separate slip slip of paper, pap er, they should write out a short explanation o f the dialogue.

IN CLASS

1 Ask the stude nts to ma rk their initials initials (for example, M. B ., L. J. ) on the b ack of their dialogue slips slips and the ir explanations. Mak e two separate piles, one o f dialogue slips, the other of explanations. explanations. 2 Tell each studen t to draw a pape r from the pile of dialogue dialogue slips slips (and to check tha t they have not drawn their own slip!). slip!). 3 Th e students work in pairs. pairs. T ogether, they try to to find find explanations for the ir two dialogues. dialogues. 4 After five five to eight min utes, tell the studen ts that they can now check their suggestions against the genuine explanations. Th ey should look for the slip of paper pape r bearing the m atching initials (M. B., L. J. , etc.) on the back. back. 5 Round-u explanations not m atch Rou nd-up p discus discussio sion. n. Did any of the real explanations the dialogue? dialogue? If not, w hy not? Were there any ambiguities, or errors of language? language?

NOTES

1 This Th is is the last activity in the book. boo k. It is also the most mo st openended. He re, the students are creating creating their own material, without any supervision or control. ( Thou gh there is no reason why you should not control the material after it has been produced .) If students are to enjoy literature, literatu re, an d benefit from it, they mu st be allowed allowed to to engage engage with the texts, a nd to contrib ute som ething of their own. This Th is is why we we conclude with an open ending. 2 For fu rther rth er ideas ideas on on written activit activities ies connected with literature literatu re see: Maley and Duff: Variations on a Theme and an d The Inward Ea r ,; Maley Maley and Mouldin g: Poem into into Poem Poe m ; and also in this series, Hedge: Writing, Greenwood: Class Readers, and Morgan and Rinvolucri: Vocabulary.

EXAMPLES

Overleaf are some examples of the types of dialogues dialogues which mig ht be produ ced by the stu dents den ts themselves, following following the model of the literary dialogues in 1.7 Speculation 1 and 3.2 Creating situations from dialogue dialogue and the sample dialogues. dialogues.

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1 A B A B A

Ready? N ot yet. yet. I t’s nearly eight. I kno know, w, bu t . . . Do we we have have to go go? Bu t I must. mu st. You do n’t have to . . . But

2 A B A B A B A

Did you hear that? What? Listen! I can’t can’t hear anything. Shhh. . . O h, no. N ot again. It can’t can’t be! be! It is, I ’m afraid. afraid.

3 A Right then. W here are they? B Who are you talking about? A Come on , come on, on , I hav en’t en’t got all day! . . . Ju st show me where they are. Bu t I’ve I’ve no idea who you’ you ’re talking ab out. Who are you, B But anyway? A I ’m from the PCB. Th ere ’s my card. card.

EXPLANATIONS

1 A famous actress has agreed to appear in a fund-raisin g perform ance at her old school. All former pu pils have been asked to bring their hus bands o r wives wives.. He r husba nd is an airli airline ne pilot who has just return ed from a transcontinental flight. flight. 2 Two archaeologists (husban d and wife) wife) are sleeping in a hu t in the jungle of New G uinea. uinea. Suspended on the ro of of the hu t are some skulls. skulls. Every night, the rats play with the skulls, and make them rattle. 3 An inspe ctor from the Pest Con trol Board (PCB) (PCB) has had a call call to to exterminate some hornets which have built their nest in the attic. He has come to the w rong house.

SAMPLE DIALOGUES

Below Below are some fu rthe r dialogues from literary sources: sources: 1 T have somethin g to to tell tell yo u.’ ‘What?’ ‘I can’ can ’t tell you over the ph on e.’ ‘Why Wh y not? Is it bad ?’ ‘I t’s bad now. It might m ight have been good once. Anyway it ’s nothing definite. definite. I t’s t’s more a warning than an ything.’ ‘W hat can it be ?’ ‘Use your imagination.’ (John Updike: Marry Updike: Marry Me) 2 ‘I can see the w indm ill.’ ‘I can see the hou se.’ ‘I can see father. H e’s in a deckch air.’ ‘H e’s wearing his panama h at .’ ‘H e’s e’s gone to sleep.’

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‘I can see see your bedr oom window . I t’s op en.’ en. ’ ‘I can see the whole, whole w orld.’ orl d.’ ‘I can see a bird on a curran t bush. bus h. And it’ i t’ss a sparrow. I can see see its eyes.’ ‘Liar!’ (Susan Hill: Strange Meeting) 3 ‘Look. Look . Come and look.’ ‘Wh ere did d id you get it?’ ‘Fro m God. I got it from God .’ ‘Ma ry, are you all right?’ ‘Look.’ (Graham Swift: Waterland) 4 ‘Sometime we’ll we’ll have to tell tell him the tr u th .’ ‘N ot yet. L et’ et ’s wait till till summ er, the n we’ll we’ll talk abou t it. ’ ‘Why till summer?’ ‘To see how things go .’ ‘D on ’t you th ink we have a future together?’ ‘Sometimes I do and sometimes n ot .’ ‘Wh en do you think so?’ so?’ ‘W hen it suddenly sudden ly looks possible. possible. I feel calm calm and see it that w ay.’ (Bernard Malamud: A Malamud: A N ew Life Li fe)) 5 ‘But it’s it’s exquisite exq uisite.’ .’ ‘O f course it’s exquisite. T ha t’s t’s the dan ger.’ ge r.’ ‘Th e danger - 1 see see - is beca because use you’re you’re supe rstitious.’ ‘I ’m superstitious! A crack is is a crack is a crack - and an a n omen’ ome n’ss an omen.’ ‘You’d You’d b e afraid - for your happiness?’ ‘Fo r my happines s.’ ‘For Fo r your you r safety?’ ‘Fo r my safety.’ ‘Fo r you r marriage?’ ‘Fo r my marriage. marriage. F or everything.’ (Henry James: The Golden Bowl)

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Appendix Te n generative procedures Ten procedures for for developing language activities It has frequently been our experience when presen ting new technique s or materials to teachers that they tend to respon d to the specifi specificc piece of material/techniq ue and to at tem pt to relate it in a direct way to the classe classess they teach. (‘Th (‘Th at w ouldn ’t work w ith my Class Class 4. I t’s t’s too difficu lt.’) lt.’) This tendency is, o f course, w holly natural natur al but b ut it does not help teachers to see beyond the specific example to the generalizable generalizable procedure procedu re which lies behind it. By treating such activities activities as one-off speci specific fic instances, teachers teache rs risk being swamped in the flood of new new ideas and materials which po ur relentlessly relentlessly from the educational presses. They The y also fail fail to develop principled and generati generative ve procedures for producing their own materials and activities in an effective and economical way. The intention of this this appendix is to show show what lies lies behind th e kinds of activity activity advocated in this book. We hope th at this will provide the teache r with a useful tool-kit for generating his or her ow n materials. O nce the principle behin d the activity-type has been grasped, it can be applied to almost any specific text. We wish to acknowledge acknowledge the work o f Christina G rieser-Kindel rieser-K indel and Edgar Edga r Otten O tten at a t the University Un iversity of Cologne Cologne in helping us to clarify our own ideas. ideas. In 1988 1988 Alan Maley Maley gave gave a presentation entitled ‘Twen ty Things to do with Texts ’ at the IA TE FL Conference Conference in in Edinb urgh (see (see Bel B elll Academic Report: Bell Be ll at I A T E F L 1988). However, How ever, it was was Christina Gries er-Kindel’ er-Kind el’ss presen tation at the British Council Oxford Conference on Teaching Literature Overseas in April 1989, entitled ‘Six Discovery Methods for Developing Language-based, Student-centred Activities’ which brou ght about a full recogniti recognition on of the power, economy, economy, and elegance elegance of such procedures in the context o f pre- and in-service teacher training. Here we present, not six, but ten procedures. W herever appropriate appr opriate they have been cross-referenced to the activities activities described earlier in this book.

1 Reconstruction In every case case the text is presen ted either in an incom plete or a defective form. The Th e stud ents’ ents ’ task is to to restore it to its its com plete, original, or mo st plausible form. There Th ere are very many ways ways of doing this:

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1 Jum ble the words in sentences, the lines or sentences in a text, the verses in a poem, t he parag raphs in an article or story, the chapters or chapter headings in a novel novel.. Students rearrange them in an order orde r which they can justify. Examples in this book include: 1.5 Split poem poem 2.4 Storylines 2 2 Present only the end of a text (or the beginning or the middle, or the beginning and end without the middle). middle). S tudents predict the missing part. Examples in this book include: 2.2 Speculation 2 2.3 Storylines 1 3.2 Creating situations from fro m dialogue dialogue 3 Delete some some or all all of the punc tuation, paragraphing, or verse structure. Students try to restore restore the original. original. 4 Present Prese nt a poetry text laid out as a prose text (and vice vice versa). Students Stud ents m ust decide wh ether it was originally originally prose or poetry and restore it to its original layout. Examples in this book include: 1.3 Poetry Poet ry or prose? prose? 5 Splice Splice togeth er two or more texts. The se may be poems, articles, paragrap hs from stories, and so on. Studen ts have to disentangle the two texts. 6 Remove specific specific items from a text, leaving leaving blanks (for content conte nt words, word s, fun ction wo rds, w ord classes classes such as as adjectives, adjectives, linking words or phrases). T his is a modified cloze cloze procedure. proce dure. Studen ts attemp t to rep roduce the original or produce a plausible plausible version. version. Some versions of this activity simply present prese nt the th e texts with blan ks. Others offer offer a list list of possibl possiblee words at the e nd, or a num ber o f possible alternatives fo r each space. Examples in this book include: 2.7 4.1 4.2 4.3

Suggesting the words words Focus on language: vocabulary Focus on language: tenses Focus on language: language: conditional forms and if-clauses if-clauses

Th e most extrem e version is 100 100 per cent cloze. cloze. I n this version, students have to to interrogate the teacher (or a computer) abo ut the missing missing words, thus gradually gradually reconstructing the text. 7 Delete the names of the characters who are are speaking in a play, a novel, or a short story. Students Stud ents have to decide who is speaking from th e dialogue alone. alone. 8 Delete the write r’s r’s comments commen ts on what the characters say say or do, leaving leaving only only the dialogue or action. S tudents then restore auth orial comment.

APPENDIX

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Examples in this boo k include: 1.10 Author’s Auth or’s comme comments nts

2 Reduction Students Studen ts are invited to shorten the text by removing certain elements. Here He re are some ways of doing this: 1 Ask stud ents en ts to remove specific specific items items of grammar gram mar (adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases , adverbial clauses, clauses, and so on.) 2 Ask them to reduce the text to zero zero by progressively progressively removing removing one word or phrase at a time. Each resu lting version version has to be both grammatical and meaningful. (T he shorten ed texts can be used as inp uts to expansion ex pansion activities. See 3 below.) 3 Ask studen ts to remove authorial commen t, descriptive passages, passages, and interio r monologue. 4 Students Studen ts remove remove genre markers marke rs (that is, is, the items which help to to identify a text as belonging to a particular genre such as a detective story, novel, newspaper rep ort, horror horr or story, or fairy tale). tale). 5 Students remove a character character from a novel or short story. (This activity necessarily involves some rewriting.) rewritin g.)

3 Expansion Students are asked to add given elements to to a text. Fo r example: example: 1 They add ad d grammatical items, such as adjective adjectivess or adverbs. 2 The y add descriptive descriptive passages, passages, interior monologue, authorial authorial comment comm ent where these are missing. 3 They add a character of a specifi specified ed kind, kind , such as a bad old woman, or a good young man. (For (Fo r furth er ideas on this technique see Blair: Cultural Awareness throug through h Language Lan guage , in the New N ew series (OUP).) (OUP ).) Perspectives series 4 They add ad d an event or expand on one which is only marginal in the original text. 5 They exp and a narrative text by adding what happen ed before it or after it. 6 They Th ey add one or more lines or verses verses to a poem. 7 They expand a title, an advertising advertising slogan, or a headline into a poem, a story, a short play, or a newspaper newspaper article. 8 They The y add fictional fictional footnotes or or an introduction to a given given text.

4 Replacement Students Studen ts remove certain elements and replace replace them w ith others. Fo r example: example: 1 They Th ey change active verbs into the ir passive passive forms. 2 They replace one dominant tense by by another, for example, the

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simple past by the historic present (use of the present tenses to describe events events in the pa st), or past tenses by the futu re perfect. 3 They The y replace phrasal verbs by single single word equivalents (and vice versa) where possible. as possible by their 4 They replace as many co nten t words as equivalent synonyms or antonyms. 5 They The y change the gende r of characters, charac ters, replacing females females with males (and vice versa). 6 They change the point of view view by substituting first person with third person narration (and vice versa) versa).. 7 They The y transfo rm a poem or colourful prose prose text by replacing key images or expressions with others. 8 They transform a text from from one genre into into another by replacing the genre markers. 9 They change the tone of authorial comment, interior monologue, or descriptiv e passages passages (say, (say, from op timistic or p essimistic, from detached detach ed to involved, or from en thusiastic to cynical). cynical).

5 Matching In matching activities, activities, the stude nts mu st find correspondences correspondences between two sets of items. For Fo r example: example: 1 Beginnings and endings of several several texts are presented. prese nted. Students Stude nts decide which beginnings correspond with which endings. 2 Titles or headlines are presented along with beginnings, en dings, or quotations from the texts to which which they belong. Students m atch them up. 3 Quo tations are given. Stude nts decide which characters spoke the lines. Examples in this book include: 2.6 Character sketches 4 Students match authorial comment with gaps in a text. Examples in this bo ok include: 1.10 Auth 1.10 Author’ or’ss comme comments nts 5 Students match one fragment of a dialogue dialogue with another. Examples Examples in th is book include: 1.4 Sp lit exc exchan hanges ges text with a 6 Students match a title, qu otation, or extract from a text picture. (They might ask and answer: answer: Which picture would make the best be st illustratio n for a poem , or a book cover? for example.) 7 Chapter Cha pter head ings plus th e overall titles titles of several several novels novels are given given along with outlines of the plots. Students match the two. 8 Students ma tch descriptive descriptive words with a character in the text. Examples in this book include: 1.6 Word portraits portraits

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9 Students Stud ents matc h ‘mys ‘mystery’ tery’ texts with possible possible explanations. Examples in this book include: 1.7 Speculation 1 10 Students Stud ents match texts with musical extracts.

6 Media transfer This involves involves the trans fer of information information in a text from one medium or format into another. Fo r exampl example: e: 1 Information Inform ation from texts is is transferred into some visual visual representation. For example, charts, maps, diagrams, flow-charts, tables, photographic shots, sketches of characters or settings, and so on. Th e informa tion transfe rred can be pre-selected to to refer to characters, p lot, theme, the me, vocabulary vo cabulary (key words), an d so on. (F or further furt her ideas see Rinvolucri and Morgan: Vocabulary, also in this series.) Examples in this b ook include: 3.1 Picture stones 3.5 Discussi Discussion on topic topicss 2: observa observatio tion n 2 Students use the information on characters or plot to prepare advertisements, book covers, posters, and collages. (For further ideas ideas on visuals visuals see see Maley, D uff, and Grellet: Grellet: The Mind’ Min d’ss Eye.)

3 Using information information from the text, stude nts make up ‘wan ‘wan ted’ posters, obituaries, medical repo rts, or diaries for for characters. (See (See Hedge: Writing, also in this thi s series.) 4 Students transform one kind of text into into another. F or example, example, a short newspap n ewspaper er article into into a poem (and vice vice versa), versa), an internal monologue into a letter (and vice versa), versa), an extract from a play into into a narrative text (an d vice vice versa), versa), a narrative text into a film script or radio play, an d so on. Examples in this book include: 3.3 Screen adaptation 3.7 Discussi Discussion on topic topicss 4: sound sound and sile silenc ncee 5 W ritten text is is transformed transfo rmed into spoken text through thro ugh oral performance, perform ance, using a variety of techniques such as choral and solo speaking, speaking, part speaking, modulation of pace, volume, volume, and expression expression.. (For furthe r ideas ideas on the group performance of texts texts see see Maley and Duff: The Inward Ea r. A very useful source so urce of ideas on the subject su bject of media transfer is Greenwood: Class Readers, Readers , also in this series.)

7 Selection Students Stude nts are asked to make a choice according according to some specific specific criterion criterion or purpose. Fo r example example:: 1 Students Stude nts decide which of a num ber of opening lines lines are from poems and w hich from prose texts. Examples in this book include: 1.1 1.1 Opening lines

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2 Severa Severall possible possible paraphrases of a text are presented . Students Stude nts decide which one mos t accurately conveys conveys the meaning of the original. 3 Students comb throu gh a text looking looking for a short quotation which could serve as a title title for the th e whole text. 4 Students Stud ents look at dialogue spoken by a character and choose a quotation w hich best sums up that character’s character’s personality personality.. 5 Students are offered offered a num ber o f texts and mus t decide decide which would be most suitable for some specified specified purpose. They would w ould look at such questions as: Wh ich one could best be set to music? music? Which one would be best for displa display y in the Underg round? W hich would be mo st suitable for a teenage teenage magazine? magazine? Which wo uld be easiest to translate? Wh ich would be most suitable for radio broadcasting? Examples in this book include: 1.8 Personal choice 3.8 Discus Discussion sion top topic icss 5: the Underground 6 Several Several texts are presente d as entries to a competition compe tition (along with the rules for the competition). Students Stude nts decide which text is the winner. They Th ey need to justify their choice. choice. 7 Stud ents decide which of a series series of extracts come from literary and which from no n-literary sources. Examples in this book include: 1.2 Sources 8 Students Stud ents are presented prese nted with several several sets sets of texts with three extracts per set. They Th ey decide which text in each set is the ‘odd ‘odd m an ou t’ and why. Examples in this book include: 1.9 Odd man out

8 Ranking In ran king activitie activities, s, the students have to decide upon an ordering of texts texts or items from most to least suitable for a given given purpo se. For Fo r example: 1 Fo r any given series series of texts, s tuden ts might migh t be asked to rank the passages passages in ord er from: -

most like ‘norm ‘norm al’ English to least least like it it most to to least least formal formal most to to least least literary literary most to least least contemporary contemporary langua language ge richest to poorest vocabul vocabulary ary load load most to least grammatically complex most to least least personal personal easies easiestt to to most diffic difficult ult to understand most to to least least interesting. interesting.

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163

2 More Mor e specific specific criteria could also also be set. set. Fo r example: example: O f any any given set of texts which wo uld be most/least su itable - for inclusion in in a wom an’s an’s magazine? magazine? - for a Sunday Sunday colour colour supplement? supplement? - as a piece for broadcasting? - for use as part pa rt of a political political speech? speech? etc.

9 Comparison and contrast contras t Norm ally stud ents would w ould be given two two texts in parallel, parallel, usually on a related related topic or theme. They then note points of similari similarity ty and difference between the two. Fo r example: example: 1 Using two newspaper articles (or other othe r texts such as as diary entries) entries) covering an identical event, the stu dents: - say which text uses the more emotive (or colourful) language - compare the average length of words (or sentences) sentences) in each each text text - decide which text shows bias. bias. 2 Using two two poems, the students think about and discuss discuss:: - which words are common to to both poems - which words in one poem have have equivalences (synonyms or paraphrases) in the other - which ideas ideas or images images occur in both poems, and which in only one - what rhyming rhyming patterns there are in each each poem, and whether they are the same - wh ether the lines (or verses) verses) in in each are the same same length - which poem leaves leaves a clearer visual impression - which one is more pleasant to listen to to - which is is easier easier to understan d (which words, phrases, o r lines lines are are difficult difficult to understan d in either poem) - which they prefer, and why. why. Examples in this book include: 2.5 Matching Matc hing texts 3 Students Stud ents compare the ir own versions of a text with the original. original. Examples in this book include: Discussion ion topics topics 3: memo memori ries es 3.6 Discuss

10 Analysing This involves involves putting a text or part of a text und er the microscope microscope in some way. This T his may range from some very very mechanical procedures like counting words to the m ore sophisticated sophisticated evaluation of the effects effects of o f words. Here Her e are a few examples: examples: 1 Students make various various kinds of counts through a text: text: - the num ber of definite definite versus versus indefinite indefinite arti articl cles es - the numb er of nouns with adjecti adjectives ves compared with the number without

APPENDIX

- the num ber be r of active active versus passive passive forms - the num ber of instanc instances es of different tenses tenses and verb forms forms - the propo rtion of direct speech (dialogue) (dialogue) to indirect speech (or (or of dialogue dialogue to com mentary) - the numb er of single single word verbs verbs compared with with phrasal phrasal verbs - the average average length length of o f words (or of sentences) sentences) in the text. - the numb er of subordinate claus clauses es in the text, text, etc. 2 Analysis Analysis may als also o focus focus on particular types and instances of language. language. Students Stud ents may be asked to: to: - explore the different usages usages of common, commo n, everyday everyday words in the text (such as get, go, give, put). How would these translate into the s tud ents’ ent s’ own language? language? - make a list of all all the formal (or informal) informal) words in the text - list all the synonyms or equivalences equivalences of words found in the text - say which words in the text text are neutral neutr al and which are emotive or colourful - list all all the words relating to a given given topic (for (for example, heat) in the text - decide which are the key words in the the text (that is, is, the ones which convey its topic or its tone). Examples in this book include: 4.5 Translation 2: everyday words 3 The Th e focus may also also be on the ch aracteristic collocat collocations ions of words (the words which are commonly found alongside other othe r words). For Fo r example: - Every time a given word (say, ‘ho ‘home me’, ’, ‘the boss’, boss ’, ‘his moth mo ther er’’) occurs in the text, stude nts write it down with the four words preceding it and the four words following following it. it. These instances are arranged as a list on the page and can be subsequently analysed. A much faster way way of making such concordances is to to use a computer. (For fu rther ideas ideas on this, see see Tim Johns: Microcon Microconcord cord,, OUP 1990.) - Students comb through a text text lookin looking g for for unusual combinations combinations of words wo rds (‘an exquisite exquis ite skull’, sk ull’, ‘a ‘a hairless toma to mato’, to’, ‘he ‘he exuded exude d catastrophe catas trophe’’). They Th ey then th en supply more ‘norm al’ collocatio collocations. ns. - In longer texts texts students stude nts analyse analyse the words which typically typically occur in connection with pa rticular characters (the kin d of ‘signature ‘signature tunes’ tun es’ which are typical of many of Dickens’ Dicke ns’ characters). 4 Various kind ki ndss of pragm atic analysis are are also also occasional occasionally ly worthwhile. Here Her e are two examples examples only: only: - Students note down any any utterances utterances in which charact characters ers seem seem to be meaning som ething differen t from what they actually say. say. They then discuss discuss what the real intentions intentions o f the characters characters may have been. - Students Stude nts are given a particular sentence or extract to to analyse analyse first first in terms of its its propositional propositional content and then in terms of what may be inferred from it. (For example, in the sentence ‘George, ‘George,

APPENDIX

kindly p ut th e car back in the garage garage where you found foun d it, before I call call the police’ p olice’ propositionally we know th at th e addressee add ressee is a man , and an d that th at he has removed a car from a garage. garage. We can also also infer the relationship between the speaker and George, the reasons reasons for his having removed removed it, and a num ber of other things.) Th e examples given given in the above procedur es are by no means exhaustive. We hope however th at they will stimulate you to generate generate fu rther activit activities ies of your own using this framework of support.

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Bibliography Thee teaching o f literature Th literature for foreign learners learners Brumfit, C.J. and 1985. Literature and Language Teaching an d Carter, S. 1985. Literature Teaching.. Oxford: Oxford University Press. an d Long, M.N. 1987. The Web of Words. Cambridge: Cambridge U niversity niversity Carter, R. and Press. Collie, J. and Slater, S. 1987. Literature in the the Language Classr Classroo oom. m. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Fowler, R. 1981. Literature as as Social Socia l Disco Discours urse. e. London: Batsford. Gower, R. and 1986. Reading an d Pearson, M. 1986. Rea ding Literature. Literature. London: Longman. Greenwood, J. 1988. Resource Resource Books for fo r Teacher Teachers: s: Class Class Readers. Readers. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lach-Newinsky, P. and Seletzky, M. 1972. Encounters Encounters - Working With Poetry. Poetry. Bochum: Kamp. Leech, G.N. and Short, Short, M.H . 1981. Style Styl e in Fiction. London: Longman. Leech, G.N. 1973. A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry. London: Longman. an d Moulding, S. 1985. Poem Into Poem. Cambridge: Cambridge Maley, A. and University Press. Maley, A. and an d Duff, A. 1989. The Inward Ear. Cambridge: Cam bridge University Press. Moody, H.L.B. 1971. The Teaching of o f Literature. London: Longman. Morgan, J. and an d Rinvolucri, M. 1983. Once Upon a Time: Using Stories in the Language Press. Classroom. Cambridge: Cam bridge University Press. Widdowson, H.G. 1975. Stylistics and the the Teaching of Literature. Literature. London: Longman.

Collection of texts suitable for foreign learners Adkins, A. and 1980. Recollec llection tions. s. London: Edward Arnold. an d Shackleton, M. (eds.) 1980. Reco Hartley, B. and Viney, P. (eds.) Streamline Graded Readers. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hedge, T. (ed.) Oxford Oxfo rd Bookworms. Bookworms. Oxford: O xford University Press. Jackson, D. and Pepper, D. 1973. Story. (Books 1-3). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd. Books Ltd. Jones, E. 1987. British Short Shor t Stories o f Today. Harmonds worth: Penguin Books McLean, A.C. (ed.) Heinemann N ew Wave Readers. Oxford: Heinemann. Milne, J. (ed.) Heinemann Guided Guid ed Readers. Oxford: Heinemann. Oxford Progressive English Readers. Oxford: O xford University Press. ShackeltonM. (ed.) 1985. Double 1985. Double Act. London: Edward Arnold. Arnold.

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Sum merfield, G . (ed.) 1968 1968.. Voice Voices: s: An A n Anthology o f Poetry. Harmo nds worth: Penguin Books Books Ltd . Swan, M . (ed.) Zero (ed.) Zero Hour Hou r and Other Other Modem Mo dem Stories. Stories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Taylor, P. (ed.) A (ed.) A Day Da y Saved Sav ed and an d Other Modem Mo dem Stories. Stories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Taylor, P. (ed.) Modem Mod em Short Storie Storiess for Students o f English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Articles, papers (including collections) Ba rker, M .E . 1985 1985.. ‘Using ‘Using childr en’s literature literatur e to teach ESL to young learners’. English learners’. English Teaching Forum 23/1. Boardman, R. and Holden, S. (eds.) 1987. Teaching Literature. Oxford: Mode rn English English Publications. Brum fit, C J . (ed.) 198 1983. 3. Teaching Literature Literatur e Overseas: Overseas: Language-based Langu age-based Approaches. E L T Docs. 115. 115. Pergamon Press and Th e British Council. Council. Brum fit, C J . 1979 1979.. Readers fo r Foreig Foreign n Learners Learners o f English. Information Guide 7, The British Council. Carter, R., Walker, R., and Brumfit, C.J. (eds.) 1989. Literature and the the Learner: Methological Approaches Approaches.. ELT Docs. 130. Modern English Publications in association with Th e B ritish Council Council.. Languag e and Literature. Literature. London: Allen & Unwin. C arte r, R.A . (ed.) 1982 1982.. Language G ow er, R. 1986 1986.. ‘Can ‘Can stylistic stylistic analysis analysis help the E FL learner to read literatu re?’ E re?’ E L T Journal, Jour nal, 40/2. Holden, S. (ed.) 1988. Languag 1988. Languagee and Literature. Publications. Literature. Oxford: Mo dern English Publications. M arsh all, M . 1979 1979.. ‘Love and and death in Eden: teaching English English literature literature to ESL stude nts’. TESOL Quarterly, 13/3. M cC on ach ie, J. and Sag e, H . ‘Since Since feeli feeling ng is is first first:: thoughts on sharing poetry in in the ESO L classroom’ classroom’.. English TeachingForum, Teaching Forum, 23/1. Prod Pr odrom rom ou, ou , L. L . 1985 1985.. ‘Al ‘Alll coherence coherence gone: gone: literature in E F L ’. English ’. English Teach Teaching ing Forum, Forum, 23/1. Short, M.H. (ed.) 1988. 1988. Read Reading, ing, Analy An alyzin zing g and Teaching Literature. London: Longman. Wid dow son, H .G . 1983 1983.. ‘Talking ‘Talking shop: shop: literature in E L T ’. E ’. E L T Journal Jou rnal,, 37/1.

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