THEME 15: EPOCAS, AUTORES Y GÉNEROS
LITERARIOS
MÁS
ADECUADOS PARA SU APLICACIÓN DIDACTICA EN LA CLASE DE INGLÉS. TIPOLOGÍAS DE TEXTOS.
1. INTRODUCTION 2. REASONS FOR USING LITERARY TEXTS IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM (PAUL VALÉRY) 3. EPOCHS AUTHORS AND LITERARY GENRES MOST SUITABLE FOR INSTRUCTIONAL
APPLICATION
IN
THE
ENGLISH
CLASSROOM
(INCLUDING LIMERICKS) 4. DIDACTIC APPLICATION OF CHILDREN'S LITERARY TEXTS IN THE FLC 4. 1. TYPES OF TEXTS (7HE VALUE OFAUTHENTIC MATERIALS) 4.2. CRITERIA FOR SELECTING LITERARY TEXTS (ELLIS & BREWSTER, 1991) 4.3. USING STORYBOOKS IN THE FLC
5. CONCLUSION 6. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND WEBGRAPHY
______________________________________________________________________ Related with topic 16 Pre-while-post reading and listening Reading activities (Hymes)
1.INTRODUCTION During the late nineteen seventies and the eighties, the influence of the communicative and of the learner-centred approaches extended a tendency to put an emphasis on oral language, giving written language, especially in primary education, much less importance. The dominant theories about foreiY1 language teaching supported the use of authentic materials and real language as far as possible. Literature might have contributed to provide this language input, had its language not been considered too difficult to be appropriate for students at this learning stage. Consequently, there was a distancing effect from literature in foreign language teaching. Interest in it is recovering nowadays, and a good example of this phenomenon is the increase of titles and the amount of literature books published for FLT. In this theme, after studying different reasons for including literary texts in the lesson planning, we are going to see how to select an adequate text for primary pupils, taking into consideration aspects such as the epochs and literature genres in which a specific text might be included. We will also pay attention to the students' characteristics and to the teacher's goals connected with the use of literature in the FLC. Finally, in the last point we will consider different important aspects of using a literary text during a lesson.
2. REASONS FOR USING LITERATUER IN THE FLC
Why are literary texts suitable for being used in primary education? It is important to speak about these reasons because depending on which ones are taken into consideration, one kind of literary text or another should be chosen. We can classify them into 2 groups, according to their focus: - Reasons focusing on the students - Reasons focusing on teaching methodological aspects
Let's start with the reasons focusing on the students: - In Primary Education, our pupils are at the stage of operatory intelligence according to Jean Piaget, which implies an eminence of inductive thinking. In other words, it is easier from them to acquire the FL by being in contact with it than trying to learn a set of rules. Literature con provide this contact through real text. - Another reason for including literature texts in our classroom is the receptiveness of students at this age. They easily identificate themselves with the characters and the situations that appear in the stories. - Finally and from a different point of view, in the literary texts we can find a wide range of moral values and ethical aspects. Literature speaks of fundamental human aspects, and provides eternal information. Moreover, the acquisition of the habit of reading is an indicator of the autonomy reflected as one of the 8 basic competences developed under the proposal of the European Union the 18th of December of 2006. Let's move onto the reasons focusing on teaching methodological aspects: - Our students should be exposed to a wide range of text-types and styles, and to a language input with different difficulty, always within the grasp of their understanding. When they are in situations in which they have to speak English, they will have to make use of different linguistic styles and communicative objectives. And we can find this variety in literary texts, among other sources. And literature has the added value Of its richness and quality. - Another reason has to do with of the key questions regarding the nature of the language input our students will receive. David Nunan (Nunan, 1991) defines authentic materials as 'those which have been produced for purposes other than language teaching'. Literature fulfils the conditions that this author establishes for authenticity. It might be said that literary language is at a much higher level than the students in primary education can understand, and it is so for most kind of texts, but not for all of them, as we are going to see in point 2. And apart from this, we can always find brief fragments that can serve our teaching objectives, written with a vocabulary mostly known by our students, so that they can understand the gist of the text; or maybe the teaching objective is that pupils practise sensitising. Additionally, there is the question of abridging the original texts, but we might consider this as a last option, with some
advantages that have to do with our students' motivation to read (as they will be able to understand a text extracted from an abridged version, which will motivate them), and with the possibility it offers to present a language input where certain linguistic aspects appear repeatedly (eg a book with only certain verbal tenses), if a structuralist pattern is to be followed. Nevertheless, we can find texts that our students can understand in literary works too, and that is the subject of this paragraph. - According to techniques connected with motivational aspects, as we saw in theme 8, is enhanced through the practice of anticipating what is going to be read as these predictions help to recall vocabulary and structures that might appear afterwards, and provide a stimulus to
keep reading. It has to do both with motivational (as we can see in theme 25) and linguistic aspects. Literary texts help reading comprehension through the possibility of easily foreseeing the situations coming next. Because of its own nature, literature provides enough motivating elements, and clues, to allow the reader to infer different possibilities for the progression of a scene. - The mere activity of extensive reading supposes a linguistic enrichment, as the students will learn some vocabulary and will become familiarised with new structures. - Literary texts contribute to the students' cultural education, they introduce them to
characters of different-social status, with values different from their own, who possibly have feelings different from theirs. These texts provide an excellent resource for directly contemplating cultural aspects that may be different from those of the students, and that are difficult to deal with in a systematic way (eg eating habits, the house, daily routines, values, etc.). - Finally, it is well worth mentioning how, within the lesson planning, literary text can be easily adapted to different used as a complement to other materials. Teachers can plan as many activities around a text as they consider adequate for the text can have different extensions; in this way, working with a literary text can last as long as the teacher wishes, depending on their aims. The fact is that this kind Of activity can be easily included among others in which different materials are used, such as, for example, the textbook.
3. EPOCHS, AUTHORS AND LITERARY GENRES MOST SUITABLE FOR INSTRUCTIONAL APLLICATION IN THE ENGLISGH CLASSROOM 3.1 LIMERICKS, NURSERY RHYMES AND RIDDLES We know that literature refers to written materials characterised by excellence of style and expression or by Dell Hymes of general or enduring interest. But it is widely accepted that literature includes the oral tradition of a country in the shape of limericks, nursery rhymes or riddles, something that can be applied in or lessons due to their short length or linguistic simplicity. Let's start with limericks, funny five stanzas whose origin can be found in a custom that took place at festive meetings where each guest had to recite or sing what was called "nonsense verse" which was followed by a chant with le line "Will you come up to Limerick?" We can see here and example , useful to practice the difference between /i:/ and /i/ for example, maybe at 6th of PE, because of its content: There once was a man from Darjeeling Who travelled from London to Earling When it said on the door "Please, don't spit on the floor" He carefully spat on the ceiling Let's continue with nursery rhymes, short traditional verses or songs for children as the well-known "There was an old woman who swallowed a fly" unsed in the Top Class 4 or as "Two little monkeys" Two little monkeys fighting in bed. One fell out and hurt his head. The other called the doctor And the doctor said: That’s what you get for fighting in bed.
This may be useful for treating the past of some verbs. Finally it is more debatable whether riddles constitute a literary genre, but what is undeniable is their utility for FLT , as they are very short and simple, and incorporate a challenge for students. Also riddle are very motivating activities, and motivation is something reflected in the article 1G of the LOE. You eat me for breakfast But first crack my shell If I'm fresh I'm tasty If not, what a smell!! (Answer: The egg)
3.2 CLASSICAL LITERARY WORKS It would be a mistake to downplay the importance of what is usually considered as literary works those with the form of a novel, a poem or a tale. Tales have the advantage of their brevity. We can use traditional ones such as Perrault's (Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots) Andersen ( The little Mermaid) Grim brothers or Oscar Wild's ( "The happy Prince" Or "The selfish giant") . And we can use moderns tales such as Roald Dahl's for example ( Revolting Rhymes, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the chocolate factory, Matilda...) that have the characteristic of dealing with today's topics: showing an exciting cultural variety and are written with an agile and attractive style. Traditional tales, have the advantage that many of them are already known by our pupils, so they can understand more easily what they are reading or listening, they can make use of the transference from the first language (reflected in the article 9 of the Decree 111/2007). On the other hand, modern tales are more deeply connected with children's interests and characteristics today. J. Brewster (1992, The Primary English Teacher's Guide) finds very appropriate to use stories with animals as main characters (Beatrix Potter, The tale of Peter Rabbit) or common people (as in Postman Pat, also on TV) or with main characters that are familiar elements of our civilisation (Thomas, the Tank Engine) He also recommends tales where the stories take place in a typical English settings ( A.A Milne's Winnie the Pooh 1926) Among all the important literatures in the world, the English one is, perhaps, the only one that is really complete, as it is the only that embraces all the epochs since the
Middle Ages and all the genres including novels, tales and poetry especially written from young and very young learners. Let us make an overview on British Children's Literature grouping the works by centuries: - 15th century: W. Caxton translations of French fables were very popular - 16th century: Chapbooks (popular ballads, stories...) illustrated with pictures, constitute a good source for texts for the FLC - 17th century: In this century religious and didactic books predominated in England. Literature as fun or entertainment was considered as sin. A classical of this period is A book of boys and girls, written by John Bunyan in 1688. - The 18th and 19th centuries provide a very good examples to be used in the FLC including some non-English speaking authors (such as Jules Verne) In the 18th century, thanks to the influence of the ideas of philosophers such as John Locke or J.J. Rousseau, children started to be considered as individual with their own characteristics, different from adults, deserving specific attention and treatment. In the 19th century, the romantic spirit also determined the writing of many books appropriate for their use in the FLC (such as Little Women Louisa May Alcott, 1868). We can present a list of basic classical literature which does not intend to be exhaustive but constitutes a good sample of the tales and stories which we can use at the classroom always after and adaptation. 1- Fenimore Cooper's "The last of the Mohicans" (1826) 2- Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" ( 1851) 3- Robert Louis Stevenson "Treasure Island" (1883) "Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886) " Kidnapped" (1886) 4- Charles Dickens "A tale of two cities" (1859) "Oliver Twist" (1839) "David Copperfield" (1850) " A Christmas Carol" ( 1843) 5- Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876) "Huckleberry Finn"(1885).
6- Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Books (1894-1895) Kim (1901) 7- Jonathan Suift's Gulliver's Travels (1726) 8- Haggard's King Salomon's Mines (1885) 9- Daniel Defoe's The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" (1719) 10- Edgar Allan Poe: "The fall of the Horse of Usher" (1891) "Tales of the Grotesques and Arabesques (1840) "The Muerders in the Rue Morgue" (1841) 11 Arthur Connan Doyle series of Sherlock Holmes 12- Oscar Wilde's "The pictures of Dorian Grey"(1891) "The Canterville's Ghost" (1891) 13 Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820) 14- Lewis Carrol's "Alice's adventures in Wonderland" (1856) "Alice through the looking glass" (1871) In order to end this point we must comment that the 20th century made possible an immense audience of young people thanks to the increase of the acquisitioned power of the middles classes together with the universal extension of education. This is the century of the outburst of children's literature raging from Pamela Travers' Mary Popping or J.M Barrie's Peter Pan (1906) to the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings, Lewis' cycle around the World of Narnia, HG Well's The War of the Words or Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway. Nowadays in the 21st century, J.K Rowling's Harry Potter constitutes a good sample of the literature that is backed up by a big publishing industry 4. DIDACTIC APPLICATION OF CHILDREN'S LITERARY TEXTS IN THE FLC 4.1 TYPES OF TEXTS There are different ways of classifying literary texts to use them in the classroom as we can see in the Primary English Teacher's Guide (1992) by Brewster. We can do it
according to their literary genre, their authenticity or their level of difficulty for the students. First, we are going to focus on the question of authenticity. We have already commented this concept introduced by Nunan, in point one, but we must comment too that other authors such as Jeremy Harmer, considered as authentic all those material accepted by students to achieve their linguistic or communicative aims. According to this point of view, we can also use in the classroom graded, adapted, texts to make our students practice. Sometimes, there can exist problems with authentic texts because of their high level of complexity regarding vocabulary or structures. However, this does not mean that we should only and always adapt the texts because the difficulty should lay on the task more than on the specific language, preventing students from becoming disappointed for no understanding every single word or sentence. In the end, it is the teacher who has to decide if authentic, original, texts are more appropriate than adapted ones to their teaching objectives. Regarding the genre of the tales or the kind or discourse it must also be chosen according to our preferences and teaching style and to the characteristics of our students: age, level, interest, level of moral and cognitive development...We must remember that, when using texts, as with any others, the language must appear contextualised and backed up by pictures, photographies, flashcards, miming... 4.2 CRITERIA FOR SELECTING LITERAY TEXTS Let us see what characteristics the chosen texts should have: 1- Appropriated to their age, interests and personal goals. Short, simple and with illustrations and create positive attitudes towards English. 2- The text selected must have an appropriate linguistics level according to vocabulary and syntax. 3- The cultural background of the text (values, social conventions, geographical and historical features...) affects the students comprehension. Sometimes it will be necessary that the students know the relevant cultural background in advance. The knowledge of the cultural background of the English speaking countries in one of the general objectives (7) specified in the Decree 108/2014 of the VG
4- Finally independently of the characteristics in the text, the teacher's aims, and the use they are going to make of the text, it is necessary to determine the convenience of using a specific one. 4.3 USING STORYBOOK IN THE FLC A common place discussion topic in this field is how to use the story books in the FLC as they always constitute a change in the normal pace of the lesson. We can follow the scheme from pre- to post -reading in order to use the text as the nexus to connect all the elements (drills, compositions, surveys, interviews...), the excuse to do several different things. Moreover, written texts are not the only way to introduce literature into the FLC. We can also work through listening. However, and on the other hand, the teacher has the human touch. If it's the teacher who tells the story alive (as I do) the students can take part asking when they do not understand something or want to make any questions about the plot or the characteristics for example. In any case, the main objective of using literary texts in the FLC can always be to awaken the students' interest in literature and reading, in general, and to develop their reading habits. Understanding a story in English is hard work for our pupils, so the first thing we have to pay attention to is how to help our pupils understand the story. SUPPORTING CHILDREN’S UNDERSTANDING 1. We must provide a context for the story and introduce the main characters. 2. Provide visual support: drawings on the blackboard, cut-out figures, flash cards,... 3. Explain the context, keywords and ideas in the mother tongue, if necessary. 4. Identify your linguistic objectives. 5. Relate the story or associated activities to work in other subject areas if possible. 6. Decide how long you will spend on the story. 7. Decide in which order to introduce or revise the language necessary for understanding the story. 8. Decide when and how you will read the story. 9. If necessary, modify the story to make it more accessible to your pupils. 10. Find out if there are any rhymes or songs to reinforce the language introduce. 11. Decide follow-up activities to provide opportunities for pupils to use the language in different contexts.
Once we have decided on the previous questions we can begin to plan a story-based lesson:
Planning story-based lessons. There are many ways to plan a lesson. However, a predominantly oral lesson normally follows quite a fixed plan with small variations. We may have for example:
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Warm-up and review: informal chat to maintain rapport with our pupils. We remind our pupils of what we did during the last lesson. Presentation: both of the aims of the lessons and subsequently of the new language. Practice: controlled stage. Production: communicative stage. Final rounding-up.
6. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND WEBGRAPHY ABRAMS, M. H., ed.: (1993). The Norton anthology of English literature. London: W. W. Norton. CURRENT-GARCFA, E. and P. WALTON, R.: (1 982). American short stories. 4th ed. London: Scott, Foresman and Company Dahl, Roald: Revolting Rhymes (Spanish version: Cuentos en verso para niños perversos). Dakin, J. (1968): songs and Rhymes for the Teaching ofEng1ish. Hong Kong: Longman. D.C.B. Madrid: M.E.C. 1989. Dwyer, Anne (2003): 'I'm hungry', in English Teaching professional, 26. January 2003. Ellis, G. & Brewster, J. (1991): Hand book for Primary Teachers. London: Penguin. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Chicago: Enc. Brit. Inc. 1990. Gower, R., Phillips, D. & Walters, S. (1995): Teaching Pracnce Handbook. London: Heinemann. Grellq F. ( 198 | ): Developing Reading Skills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Harmer, Jeremy ( 1991 ): The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman. - ( 1998): How to Teach English. London: Longman. Hedge, T. (1987): Using Readers in Language Teaching. London: Macmillan. Hill, J. (1986): Using Literature in Language Teaching. London: Macmillan.
Khatib, Vicky (2002): 'Poetry for all', in English Teaching professional, 24. July 2002. Kramsch, C. ( 1994): Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Krashen, Stephen (1984): The Input Hypothesis. London: Longman. Lamb, Charles & Lamb, Mary (1998): Cuentos de Shakespeare. Barcelona: GrijaIvoMondadori. Lawday, Cathy ( 1998): Top Class 4. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lazar, G. (1999): A Window on Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. McRae, J. (1994): Literature with a small London: Macmillan. Nunan, D. ( 1991 ): Language Teaching Methodology. Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall. Nuttall, Christine ( 1996): Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language. Oxford: Heinemann. Savater, Fernando (2002): La infancia recuperada. Madrid: Taurus. SAMPSON, G.: (1970). The Concise Cambridge History of Engllish Literature. 3rd ed., rev. and enl. by R. C. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. VV.AA. (1990): The Cambridge Guide to English Literature. Cambridge: C.U.P. Williams, E. (1984): Reading in the Language Classroom. London: Macmillan. Williams, Melanie (2002): 'Ready for readers?', in English Teaching professional, 25. October 2002.
