Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Well-known tales.
The elves and the shoemaker; The tree little pigs
The little red hen; The princess and the pea;
Chicken Licken; The ugly duckling; The
emperors new clothes; Sleeping beauty; Puss in
boots; Little red riding hood; Hansel and
Gretel; Cinderella; Beauty and the beast; Snow
white and the seven dwarfs; The wizard of Oz;
Ladybird; Rumpelstiltskin; Goldylocks and the
three bears.
Well-know rhymes.
One, two, put on your shoe; Rain, rain go away;
This is the way; Old Macdonald had a farm;
Hickory, Dickory, Dock; Baa, baa, black sheep;
Three blind mice; Insey Winsey spider; Pussy cut,
pussy cat; Humpty Dumpty; Jack and Jill; Eany,
Meeny, Miny, Mo; There is a hole in my bucket;
The house that Jack built; She sells seashells;
Thirty days September; There was an Old Woman
who swallowed a fly
When selecting a work of literature we must bear in mind that we want our pupils
engage interactively with the text, with classmates, and with us, the teachers. To reach this we
must follow these guidelines:
a) The text itself, and not information about it, is of central importance.
b) Our pupils must genuinely interact with the text, their classmates and
the teacher and not be mere recipients.
c) Our activities must be designed so as to enable our pupils to share
their personal experiences, perceptions and opinions.
d) Our activities must be varied and interesting.
e) The selection must be based on their potential interest for our pupils
and not in the literary qualities of the works.
1.2. Storybooks.
1. Criteria for selecting storybooks.
We can find many simplified storybooks which have been graded with children learning
English in mind. Most authors, however, consider that the use of authentic materials can be
more fruitful (real language and motivation). We can also find authentic books with highquality illustrations which will play an important role in aiding comprehension.
a) Our pupils needs and abilities.
The chosen texts should always be appropriate to the age, interests and goals of our pupils.
In order to understand literary texts our pupils need to be able to read at a reasonable speed
for an extended period without fatigue. This speed should, for extensive reading, be at a rate
of at least 200 words per minute.
Our youngest pupils, those in the second cycle, will not be able to read at this speed in
English so we must use short, simple texts with illustrations. We can also use reading
techniques to improve our pupils reading speed. These are normally divided into technical
or practice methods.
Technical methods: use a device of some kind to cover up the written words
as our pupils read, forcing them to speed up their reading. These methods
may be more useful for the Spanish language classroom.
Practice methods are more suitable for the English class our oldest pupils,
as the texts they are able to cope with begin to increase in size, e.g. texts
followed by certain tasks, decrease the time allowed for reading.
1. CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STORYBOOKS (Ellis and Brewster).
Needs and abilities.
1. Content/subject matter.
a) Relevant; b) Interesting; c) Amusing; d) Memorable.
2. Visuals.
a) Use of illustrations; b) Attractive/colourful; c) Size; d) Target culture.
3. Encourage participation.
a) Repetition; b) Prediction; c) Develop memory; d) Build confidence.
4. Motivating.
a) Relate to their experiences and characteristics.
5. Arouse curiosity.
a) Interest in getting to know more about English language and culture.
6. Create positive attitudes.
a) Target language, b) Target culture; c) Language learning.
We can see how these first criteria of suitability depend on each particular group of
pupils, their needs and interests.
b) Language difficulty: linguistic and stylistic level.
Linguistic level:
If we want our pupils to enjoy reading a text we should bear in mind the following
points:
- the vocabulary and syntax of the text should be within our pupils grasp
- idiomatic language should be kept at a minimum
It would be absurd to use the masterpieces of childrens literature in our classes.
Unknown words should not occur more frequently than one or two every hundred. We
must also bear in mind complex structure. This may also hinder comprehension as they
will not see how one part of the text relates to another.
Therefore, if both sentence structure and vocabulary must be at a level they can
understand, we will not be able to use classic children storybooks masterpieces. In fact the
only type of classic childrens literature we can use will be rhymes and songs. We must
use modern storybooks with simple, short texts and meaningful illustrations.
Given the problems that lexical and structural difficulty pose, we may need to assess
linguistic difficulty in a systematic way. From the point of view of EFL it would be better,
as Hill suggests to use a cloze test:
THE CLOZE TEST
- We prepare a reasonably typical extract from the book and delete words from the passage
on a regular basis (every sixth or seventh word).
- We instruct our pupils to supply the missing vocabulary, so we will need 15 deletions to
have validity. Obviously we assume we cannot really use it with our youngest pupils.
- Average class results are:
a) More than 57 per cent correct: our pupils can read the text on their own.
b) Between 44 57 per cent: our pupils can read it with us or with the dictionary
help.
c) Below 44 per cent: they cannot read the text.
Stylistic level.
The use of unusual word order, divergent vocabulary, and son will produce
instances of foreground that cannot be appreciated if we do not have a solid
knowledge of what constitutes the linguistic norm.
It is useless therefore to choose texts of great stylistic complexity for the early
stages of language learning. Style analysis should be based on the linguistic features
with which our pupils are already familiar.
As a summary, based on Ellis and Brewster, we have:
Once we have decided on the previous questions we can begin to plan a story-based
lesson:
Presentation: both of the aims of the lessons and subsequently of the new
language.
Practice: controlled stage.
Production: communicative stage.
Final rounding-up.
2. Types of storybooks.
There is a wide range of texts that we could use for the teaching of English. However, we
consider storybooks as one of the most useful for that purpose, hence, we will mainly focus
on this type.
Ellis and Brewster have classified storybooks under three headings:
Narrative features
- Rhyming words
- Repeating words
- Cumulative content and language
- Interactive
- Humorous
Content
- Everyday life
- Animal stories
- Traditional/folk/fairy tales
- Fantasy
Layout
- Flap
- Cut-away pages
- Minimal text
- No text
- Speech bubbles
We have also made distinctions based on the level of difficulty but it is even more
important to distinguish between authentic and graded or adapted texts. We prefer to use
authentic texts if this is not possible, at least we should use real-simulated texts giving
suggestions to adapt too difficult texts.
2.1. Authentic vs graded texts.
The main aim of all our teaching is to enable our pupils to reach communicative
competence. As the focus will be on assisting our pupils to do in class what they will need to
do outside, the materials to be used will reflect the world outside.
Nunan describes authenticity as follows authentic materials are usually defined as those
which have been produced for purposes other than to teach language (video clips, recordings
of authentic interactions, extracts for TV).
Authentic materials are easily justified on the grounds that specially scripted texts are
artificial. Manipulating these texts does not mean that our pupils will comprehend and
manipulate language in real communicative situations.
However, especially with our pupils, who are beginners, it may be necessary to edit
authentic materials in a way. Edited materials can be classified into simulated authentic and
artificial.
A non-authentic text, in language teaching terms, is one that has been designed especially
for learners (Harmer). We can make a distinction here, however, between texts which have
been made to illustrate particular language points for presentation (artificial) and those which
appear to be authentic.
Manipulating and comprehending simulated authentic texts will help our pupils to acquire
the necessary skills they will need when they come to handle authentic material. So we can
conclude saying that the material designed to foster the acquisition of communicative
competence must at least be simulated authentic.
We will finally see how we can adapt authentic texts which are slightly above our pupils
level.
2.2. Adapting stories.
When adapting a story we face a dilemma: if we simplify too much our pupils will lose
the flavour of real stories, so, what we can do is to try and adapt stories without losing much
of the original magic following Ellis and Brewster guidelines.
Vocabulary and
general meaning.
Grammar.
Organization of ideas.
Story length.
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
4.
1.
ADAPTING STORIES
Check unfamiliar content or words.
Check idioms.
Check clarity
Check tenses.
Check use of structures.
Check word order.
Check sentence length and complexity.
Check time references.
Check the way ideas are linked.
Check the way ideas are explained.
Check the number of ideas in the story.
By following the previous criteria of selection and use of storybooks we will intend to
make the most of literature in the classroom.
3. Bibliography.
Childrens literature:
The Cambridge Guide to English literature. CUP. Cambridge, 1990.
Methodology:
ELLIS, G. and BREWSTER, J.: The storytelling Handbook for Primary
Teachers. Penguin. London, 1991.
WELL-LOVED TALES SERIES: Loughborough: Ladybird Books, 1974.