OPOSICIONES AL CUERPO DE MAESTROS

GALICIA
ESPECIALIDAD: INGLS

THEME 15
AUTHORS, GENRES, AND LITERARY AGES
SUITABLE FOR TEFL. KINDS OF TEXTS

PART ONE: TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.

INTRODUCTION

If we consider that level is what students can actually do with the language, it will become
obvious that even at the early stages students can in fact do a great deal with the language: They
can identify sounds (vowels. consonants, intonation, stress, rhythm), certain words and
structures. They can produce these orally; recognize them in a text and, at the very least,
underline words, if they can't actually set them down on a separate sheet of paper. In short, even
the very beginners can do something with the language. The teacher then must build from that
point by adding input which is neither too advanced, nor too easy. The input must be motivating
enough for them to want to try to understand, first, and then try to reproduce in some way.
Cinema, music, and literature are rich in motivating material, if the teacher knows how to select
and to present content in such a way that it will both challenge and motivate them.

2.

CONTENTS

2.1. The literary genres and Figures in EFL

The English language is certainly rich in literary figures and genres; and the literary ages are full
of intriguing aspects that students can find extremely motivating. Chaucer, for example, is not
merely an author who wrote a few famous tales in a strange dialect that nobody uses today. But
rather he tells some very good stories which, if a teacher can get beyond the purely academic
side of the great literary figure, could well be introduced to students in such a way that suits
their particular age group and level. The Canterbury Tales, for example, is tremendously full of
material that will motivate students. As long as the teacher knows how to select and to present
the content (keeping in mind Krashen's model of "input + 1" (input just a little above the
students' level) a great many literary figures can be successfully used in TEFL.
Without forgetting, of course, that literature must be suitable to the students' level and age
group, and that any text can be adapted to suit the needs and capabilities of EFL students, the
following is a selection of authors. genres, and periods that could be used in TEFL.
2.2. Well-known tales
The following are some of the well known tales which are often published in colourful and easyto-read graded readers: "The elves and the shoemaker," "The three little pigs," "The gingerbread
boy," "The little red hen," "The princess and the pea," "The sly fox and the little red hen," "The
three billy-goats gruff," "Chicken licken," "The three bears," "The ugly duckling," "The
emperor's new clothes," "Town mouse and country mouse.,"Sleeping beauty," "Puss in boots,"
"Rumpelstiltskin Rapunzel," "The wolf and the seven little kids," "Little red riding hood, The
brave tailor," "Jack and the beanstalk," "Hansel and Gretel," "Cinderella," "Beauty and the,
beast," "Snow White and the seven dwarfs," "Tomb Thumb", "The little mermaid," and "The
Wizard of Oz ("Well-loved tales" Ladybird: 1966).
o

Well-Know Rhymes

Additionally, the following are a few well known rhymes and songs: "One, two, put on your
shoe, "Where is thumbkin," "Polly put the kettle on," "Rain, rain, go away, Two little birds
sitting on a wall, This is the way, Old Mlacdonald had a farm," "Hickory, dickory. Dock,
Diddle, diddle, dumpling," "This little pig, This old man, Baa, bas, black sheep," "Three
blind mice, Here is a church, Insey winsey spider," "Pat a cake," "Pussy cat, Pussy cat,"
"Humpty dumpty," "Ride a cock horse, Jack and Jill," "Hey diddle, diddle, Little miss

muffet," "Little Jack horner, Wee Willie Winkie," "One potato, two potatoes, Ten green
bottles," "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo," "There was a girl, It's raining, it's pouring, Fie, fie, foe,
fum, The brave old Duke of York," "There's a hole in my bucket, There was an old woman
who lived in a shoe." "Hush little baby," "Little bo-peep," "Sing a song of sixpence," "Oh dear,
what can the matter be?," "Little boy blue The house that Jack built," "She sells seashells,"
"Peter piper." "Thirty days has September, There was an old woman who swallowed a fly,"
"Ten green and speckled frogs The owl and the Pussy cat," (Dakin 1968).
2.4.

British Authors and Texts

Beowulf The text, in Old English. is from the 10th-cent. But it was believed written in the 6thcent. The tale is about the life of the Geatish hero Beowulf who in his youth fights and kills
Grendel, a monster and then kills the monster's mother. Fifty years later he battles a dragon and
both are killed.
Chaucer's The Canterbury tales, in prose and verse, was written in the late 14th-cent. The story
begins when twenty-nine pilgrims on their way to Canterbury agree to tell tales as they go to
make the time pass by quicker. There are twenty-four tales told altogether. They include the
following: "The knight's tale," "The miller's tale," "The reeve's tale The cook's tale," "The man of
law's tale," "The wife of bath's tale," "The friar's Tale," "The summoner's tale, The clerk's
tale, The merchant's tale," "The squire's tale The Franklin's tale," "The physician's tale The
pardoner's tale," etc.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an alliterative poem from the second half of the 14th-cent.
The story begins at King Arthur's court in Camelot during a new year's feast. A large green man
appears and dares the knights to cut his head off. Young Gawain obliges him, after accepting the
challenge that he will allow his own head to be cut off on the same day the following year. The
Green Knight picks up his severed head and retires. A year later, Gawain sets out to meet his
fate, coming to a castle, where he is invited in as a guest. The lord of the castle comes to an
agreement with him, that whatever comes to pass the young knight will report it to the lord.
When the lord's wife tries to seduce him, he resists. but the lady insists and he allows her at last
to make a present to him of her garter. He does not report this to the lord of the castle who
reveals his true identity: he is the Green Knight. The Green Knight honors him for his honesty

and courage, and pardons Gawain the debt he has come to pay. Nevertheless, he cuts the young
knight's neck with his axe, for not telling him about his wife's garter.
Piers Plowman, a late 14th-cent. poem in Middle English by William Langland, tells of how the
narrator fell asleep in the forest one day and of the many things that passed in his dream.
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86) is an attractive figure: He was a romantic poet and a courageous
knight who was killed in Flanders in an attack he led on a Spanish supply convoy. There are
aspects of his life-if not some of his literary work-which students would find interesting.
Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-99) was author of, among other works, The Faerie Queene, which
contains some interesting material about courtiers and knights, dragons and medieval castles.
Spenser's life is of some interest, especially his friendship with Sir Walter Raleigh and his
encounter with the Irish people.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) has a great many plays which are of particular interest to the
young. His history plays are full of intriguing stories of English kings and queens (Henry VIII,
Richard III). There are parts of some of his tragedies which are particularly motivating, such as
the three witches in Macbeth, or the ghost scene in Hamlet, and of course, Romeo and Juliet
attracts much attention among the young. Seviral of his comedies are appealing to young
students, especially A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest , both of which have a good
many, scenes involving youths about the same age as the students.
Though the metaphysical writings of John Donne (1572-1631) are very difficult to
appreciate, the life of the man can be of interest to you and students. The poet sailed with Essex
to sack Cadiz in 1596 and with Raleigh to hunt the Spanish treasure ships off the Azores in
1597.
Ben Jonson (1572/3-1637) is another intriguing literary figure whose life is of particular interest
to students. Coming from the lower class, he struggled to educate himself and eventually
became one of the known playwrights in England. Parts of his comedies are motivating:
Volpone is about a man who pretends he dying to get money from people who pretend to be
honest but are in fact rogues. He wrote The Masque ofBlackness for Queen Anne because she
had always wanted to appear on stage as a Negress. And The Alchemist is an hilarious comedy

about a servant, Face, who, with a fake alchemist, takes advantage of the absence of the owner
of a house in Blackfriars in London during an epidemic. They use the house to trick roguish
people out of money.
John Milton (1608-74) lived during a very crucial period in the history of Britain. He was a
Puritan who sided with those who favored the execution of King Charles I. The subject of the
civil war is intriguing and full of anecdotes. Milton's Paradise Lost, an epic poem in twelve
books written in blank verse, is the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. The
character of Satan was unique in that the demon was presented in very humanlike, and at times
sympathetic, terms. There are scenes in long the poem that are worth summarizing, such as
when Satan, Beezelbub, and the legions of the rebellious angels have an assembly; or when
Satan and Eve first meet.
Aphra Behn (1640?-1689) is a tremendously intriguing figure. She was a spy for King Charles
II and worked under cover in Antwerp during the Dutch war. Her play The Rover is about the
adventures of a band of English cavaliers in Naples and Madrid. And Oroonoko, or The Royal
Slave, one of the first novels ever written, is about Africans who are captured and sold into
slavery in South America. The novel is full of interesting anecdotes.
Animals were used in "Books for boys and girls" and "Country rhymes for children", published
in 1686. The stories had a moral to teach. They were well known not only in Britain but also in
Italy, France, and Spain. Furthermore, some of the verse from "Divine and moral songs for
children" are still heard to this day: "How doth the little busy bee?"
DanielDefoe(1660-1731) is best known fo rhis nove RobinsonCrusoe .The time in which he
wrote is particularly interesting, since it coincided with the growth of the colonies in North
America. The novel is based on the experiences of Alexander Selkirk on the island of Juan
Fernandez. The relationship between the shipwrecked Robinson and an indigenous inhabitant of
a deserted island is of particular interest.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is especially well known for his Gullivers Travels, about a
shipwrecked surgeon on the island of Lilliput, where the inhabitants are a mere six inches high.
In the second part, the surgeon is shipwrecked on an island where the inhabitants are as tall

steeples. In the third part, the surgeon finds himself on a flying island, and in the fourth part he
is in a country ruled by horses with more sense (reason) than most humans.
William Congreve (1 670-1729) is of inter est to young students in that he wrote his satirical
plays during the Restoration period, when the monarchy was restored after twenty years of exile
in France. Congreve, Etherege, Farquhar, Vanbrugh, and Wycherley wrote hilarious satires in
the comedy of manners style. The fashion and the influence of the French court on English
society is an interesting topic to develop; it is something which the comedy of manners style has
preserved.
Perhaps less intriguing for the young than Defoe and Swift, loseph Addison (1672-1719) and Sir
Richard Steele (1672-1729) are of interest in that they wrote for newspapers and periodicals
such as the Tatler, The Spectator, The Guardian. Journalism is a very important literary style
today as it was in Addison and Steele's day. Comparing !he two ages and making periodicals or
newspapers in class can be quite motivating.
The writings of the poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) typify the Neoclassical style in British
literature. His poem in rhyming couplets The Rape of the Lock is interesting as a story in itself.
At a card game, a young gentleman, enamored with a young lady, brazenly cuts off a lock of her
hair in front of everyone. It is not only an excellent piece for discussing the manners of that
time, but also representative of the kind of encounters of a sexual nature that young people
normally face.
Samuel Johnson (1 709-84) is an example of a writer who was born with few economical means
and became one of the most renowned man of letters in the 18th-cent. His early friendship with
David Garrick, before the latter because a famous actor, is interesting, as there are many of
Boswells anecdotes in his biography of Johnsons life. Rasselas, Prince of Abysinia is a novel
which is full of adventures about a young prince and his sister on a journey to exotic far away
places.
John Newbery (1713-67) was one of the earliest known publishers of children's books. He
published fables, poems, tales and novels. "Goody Two Shoes", considered the first book
created especially for children, may have been written by the playwright Olvier Goldsmith (? 1
730-74) -the author of the uproariously funny play She Stoops to Conquer-for Newbery. In

1753, he published "The Lilliputian Magazine", in 1762, "Tuiii Telesuupe", and "Mother Goose
Fairy Tales" in 1765. Nursery rhymes or "verse for children" were a mixture of popular folklore,
myths and age old songs. Having been created for entertainment more than for didactic reasons,
they tended to be playful and imaginative. It is for this reason that they often seem strange or
absurd.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97) is a tremendously appealing figure whose life was a continuous
adventure. In 1792 she went to Paris to participate in the French Revolution, and there fell in
love with an American writer, by whom she had a daughter who would die soon afterwards.
Mary managed to escape the Reign of Terror in France. Down and out in London, she tried to
take her life, but was nurtured back to health by William Godwin, a philosopher of anarchical
opinions, with whom she later had a daughter, Mary, who would one day marry the poet Shelley
and write the novel Frankenstein.

Mary Wollstonecraft is known for her two books, A

Vindication ofthe Rights of men and A Vindication of the Rights of Women, written two years
later. She died shortly after giving birth to her daughter. There are obviously a great many
aspects worthy of attention not only with regard to the author's life, but also to the messages of
her books.
Mary Wollstoneeraft's daughter, Mary Wollstoneeraft Shelley (1797-1851), eloped with the
young Perey Bysshe Shelley at seventeen, and lived with the poet abroad till his premature death
in 1822. She knew Byron and Keats very well, and her life is an example of the young romantic
world view of the early nineteenth century. Her novel Frankenstein is still an often read classic,
and many versions of it have been reenacted.
William Blake (1757-1827) is an alluring figure and his poetry, especially Songs of innocence
and of experience, and is full of material suitable for young people. And as he was also a painter
and an engraver, there are prints available of much of his work. Songs of Innocence and of
Experience contains some very motivating poems, such as "The Chimney Sweeper" ("When my
mother died 1 was very young,/ And my father sold me while yet my tongue/ could scarcely cry
<<'weep! 'weep, 'weep!>>"), or "The Tyger" ("Tyger! Tyger! burning bright/ In the forests of
the night") or "The Little Black Boy" ("My mother bore me in the southern wild,/ And 1 am
black, but Oh! my soul is white"). And an added plus is that his poems are generally expressed
in a very simple language.

Robert Burns (1759-96) was an extravagant figure who wrote poems in Scottish dialect. His
life is of interest: As a young man he greatly believed in the equality of all mankind, and so he
defended the cause of the French Revolution. One of his poems, "Auld Lang Syne", though in a
language which is difficult to understand, is still sung by a great many native speakers of English
the world over on New Years Eve: "Should auld acquaintance be forgot,/ And never brought to
min'?/ Should auld acquaintance be forgot,/ And days o' lang syne?/ For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,/ We'll take a cup o' kindness yet,/ For auld lang syne."
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was a poet who was in favour of the French Revolution when
he was young, but who later spoke out against it. He left a French girl, with child and returned
to England and settled down with his sister Dorothy. His Lyrical Ballads, which he coauthored
with Coleridge is considered a landmark in English Romanticism. Of particular interest to the
young is his long poem The Prelude, in which he spends a great deal of time speaking about his
infancy and school days. The psychological insight into his childhood experience is remarkable.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) as a young man was an idealist who favoured the French
Revolution and in 1794, along with Robert Southey, planned to start a Pantisocratic commune in
America, which never came to be. Coleridge became addicted to opium, as did people in Britain
in the early 19th-cent. after doctors prescribed huge quantities of laudanum (opium dissolved in
alcohol) to ease pain. There is a lot to his long poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" that
can be adapted: A ship in the South Pole region runs into a streak of very bad luck when a
madner kills an albatross for no particular reason. The story is told by the mariner, and the
scenes he narrates command attention.
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) wrote novels of medieval subjects which were popular in
Britain and America. "lvanhoe" is still widely, read among young people: In it, Wilfred of
Ivanhoe, son of a noble Saxon, joins Richard the Lion Hearted at the Crusade in the Holy Land.
John, Richard's younger brother, tries to overthrow him in his absence. Ivanhoe helps Richard
restore authority. In the novel, Robin Hood and Friar Tuck also appear. Other novels by Scott
include The Monastery, The Abbot, and Tales ofv the Crusades.
George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) belonged to the generation of English Romantic poets that
followed Wordsworth and Coleridge. He gave up a seat in the House of Lords to live in exile.
His poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" made him famous in 1812. The poem describes the

poet's travels, among other places, through Portugal and Spain. Byron's personal life was the
talk of Europe at the time, for he was rich and handsome and notorious for his escapades of
pleasure and "sinful" behaviour. He is said to have swum the Hellespont with a friend for the fun
of it. His "Don Juan" contains parts which young Spaniards may find interesting, especially the
part that describes Juan as a youngster in Seville and, when he gets older, his mother, "Donna"
Inez, sends him away to Cadiz and then abroad. He was also an idealist who armed a body of
troops with his own money in order to help the Greeks in their filht against the Turks. He died
of fever, though, before the "Byron Brigade" saw real action.
The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1922) was a friend of Byron. As a student at Oxford, he
was notorious for his unconventional dress and his eccentricity. He was a rebel, denouncing
royalty, and a vegetarian.

He eloped with Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft when she was

seventeen, and he lived abroad for the remainder of his life. "Prometheus Unbound" is perhaps
the most promising of his poems for the EFL teacher. Prometheus is said to have disobeyed
Zeus by teaching mankind how to use fire. Shelley has him chained to a rock as punishment for
disobeying the supreme god.

But Prometheus does not repent his act, and in the end,

Prometheus triumphs over tyrany. Shelley was drowned when, returning from visiting Byron,
his boat capsized near Livomo.
John Keats (1795-1821) was a friend of Shelley. He didn't write poetry until he was eighteen,
and just in a few years he had earned a name for himself and had a very successful future ahead
of him. But he died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-six. His poem "The Eve of St. Agnis" is
particularly promising in its treatment of legend that says that if a young girl performs a certain
ritual, she will dream of her future husband on the evening before St. Agnes' Day (January 21st).
Keats writes a breathtaking story of how a young maid is visited that night by a youn z man who
is in love with her, and what betides them.
AlfredTennyson(1809-92) was a popular poet in both England and the UnitedStates. One of his
most often read poems still is "The Charge of the Light Brigade," which he wrote after reading
in The Times about a heroic cavalry charge at Balaclava during the Crimean War in which three
quarters of the six hundred cavalrymen were killed or captured by the Russians who defended
the position.

Another example of expatriate English writers were the poets Robert Browning (1812-89) and
Elizabeth Browning (1806-61) who were married in 1846 and went to live in Italy. The fact that
both were famous poets, married, and expatriates is sufficient enough material to pursue.
Robert's "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" and "Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day" are alluring
titles, but hardly material for young EFL students.
Charles Dickens (1 812-70) is by far one of the most useful authors for EFL teachers. Especially
popular are his novels David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and Great Expectations, and his A
Christmas Carol is still customat Yuletide reading for the yourth.
The Bront sisters, Charlotte (1816-55), Emily (1818-48) and Anne (1820-49), are interesting
figures. Their father was an Irishman who was curate of Haworth, Yorkshire. Their mother died
in 1825, leaving them to be cared for by their aunt. They were sent to a Clergy Daughters'
School which, it is believed, proved to be such a harsh place that it impaired their health and
may have hastened the deaths of two elder sisters. The girls grew up reading and admiring such
authors as Byron and Walter Scott, and such exotic tales as The Arabian Nights. The harshness
of schools and schoolmasters at that time is a subject of interest for young students, as is the
story of three girls who eventually became famous authors. Anne's Agnes Grey was originally
published under the pseudonym Acton Bell. Charlotte's Jane Eyre is especially well known
because of the Orson Wells film that was made of it. And Emily's Wuthering Heights was also
made into a film in 1994.
Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, (1832-1898) is famous for two
books which he wrote especially for children: Alice in Wonderland and Through the LookingGlass. Of the two, perhaps the EFL teacher will find the former more useful: Certainly many of
the scenes, such as the rabbit rushing down the hole after consulting his watch, are quite well
known. The story of how Carrol had made up the tale to entertain the two daughters one of
whose names was Alice- of a friend on a boat trip offers possibilities of captivating the attention
of the students as well. He apparently later created the second tale specially for Alice.
Roald Dahl (1926-1991) wrote some of the most popular novels for children in recent years:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Wiiches, Gremlins, and a many others. As a boy he was
educated in English boarding schools, and many of his novels reflect the many unpleasant
experiences he had there.

2.5. Authors and texts from the United States

Though it did have a few high spots in the early years of the Republic, The United States
had no flourishing literature of its own until the middle of the 19th-cent. It is a good idea for
EFL teachers who are non-native speakers to familiarize themselves with American authors and
their works in order to better understand the culture and the language that Americans use.
Though students can hardly be expected to read these authors themselves, the teacher can help
them to appreciate the literature, in the hope that at some time in the future they will read the
texts on their own. Certainly just talking about any one of the following authors and the time
and place they lived would provide ample motivating material for EFL class activities.
Washington Irving (1783-1859), a New Yorker, published his well known tale "Rip Van Winkle"
in 1820. Th6 still often told story is about a man who falls asleep on a mountain and wakes up
many years later to find that the colonies have become a republic. The tale offers many
possibilities of comparing life in the U.S. before and after the Declaration of Independence.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was a from New England Puritan stock. His stories and
novels depict some of the harshest realities of Puritanism and its effect on people. Aside from
his well known novels The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, he also wrote
some works for children, such as A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales. His short story
"Young Goodman Brown" is an intriguing tale of how a man meets a demon in the forest who
invites him to a party.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was from Boston, Massachusetts, but he spent five years in a
primary school in England. His Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque includes one of his most
famous stories, "The Fall of the House of Usher," a Gothic tale in which the narrator visits a
childhood friend in his decayed old mansion. Additionally, his poem "The Raven" is still popular.
Herman Melville (1819-1891) was friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne. As a boy, Melville sailed
to Liverpool, found work on a whaler bound for the South Seas, jumped ship and joined the US
Navy, serving for three years. From his experience on the high seas he wrote his famous novel
Moby-Dick, about an obsessed captain in relentless pursuit of a great white whale. Billy Budd,
Foretopman is about a sailor who is abused by an officer whom he strikes dead in a fit of anger

and is hanged for it. A well known short story is "Bartleby the Scrivener", about a law-copyist
who decides to move into the office where he works in the Wall Street district of Manhattan, and
his boss's repeated and unsuccessful efforts to get him to leave. It is a good story for discussing
how scriveners used to copy everything by hand, and what Wall Street was like then and what it
is like now.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) was Samuel Langhome Clemens' pseudonym. His years growing up
on the banks of the Mississippi river and later as a pilot on the river were recreated in his two
most famous novels Tom Sawyer-about the antics of Tom in a small town- and Huckleberry
Finn-about the orphan Huck and his excursion down the Mississippi with an escaped slave. The
Prince and Pauper narrates how a prince changes places with a beggar. A Connecticut Yankee
in King Arthur Court is perhaps one of his most imaginative works, telling of how a Yankee
businessman is clubbed over the head by his factory workers and comes to in during King
Arthur's legendary reign in early medieval England. The novel can introduce a comparison of
medieval life to what life was like in the late 19th-cent. and to modern life. Mark Twain also
wrote some entertaining stories, such as "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
and "Baker's Bluejay Yarn".
Bret Harte (1836-1902) wrote a good many stories about life in the American West.
"Tennessee's Partner'. "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," and "The Luck of Roaring Camp" provide
excellent descriptions of what it was like to live in the West. And his poem "Plain Language
from Truthful James," does honour to a culture that respects directness and unadorned
simplicity.
Ambrose Bierce (?1842-1914) also wrote about the American West. He served in the American
Civil war. In The Boarded Window he narrates what it was like in the area around
Cincinnatrti, Ohio in the early 1830s, where there is an inmense and almost unbroken forest.
The whole reghion was sparsely settled by people of the frontier rstless souls (Stegner 1957:
154).
Henry James (1 843-1916) came from a rich family and was therefore able to travel a great deal
and to study in London, Paris, and Geneva. As a young man he felt more at home among the
European upper class society and thus settled in Europe in 1875. His writings are a blending of
American and European world views: His novel Daisy Miller is a marvelous example of the

impact of American verve on European staidness. Daisy is an energetic and freespirited young
American whom the narrator, an American who has spent most of his life living on the Continent
and, as such, is more European than American, becomes attracted to.

But because he is

inhibited by manners and convention, he cannot get close to her. Daisy scandalizes the members
of "respectable society" with her uninhibited language and behaviour. Other well-known novels
of his include Washington Square, The Bostonians, and Portrait oflady.
O.

Henry (1862-1910), pseudonym of William Sydney, famous for his amusing short stories

which he began writing when he was in prison. "The Ransom of Red Chief' is about the
kidnapping of a child who causes his kidnappers so much trouble that they are willing to throw
away the ransom just to get rid of him. "The Gift of the Magi" narrates how a woman sells her
hair to buy her husband a watch chain and how he sells his watch to buy her a set of combs for
Christmas. "The Last Leaf relates how a young lady, bedridden with pneumonia, is convinced
that she will die when the leaves fall from the trees. Her neighbour paints leaves on her window,
thus keeping her alive.
Edith Wharton (1 862-193 7) was a close friend of Henry James. And like him, she wrote about.
Americans in Europe. "Roman Fever" tells of two elderly American ladies in Rome recalling an
incident that happened to them in, that very city when they were young.
Stephen Crane (1 871-1900) became famous at the age of twenty-four with his novel The Red
Badge of Courage about a young soldier in battle during the American Civil War. He was a
journalist and he wrote about the Spanish-American War of 1899.

He had tremendously

promising career ahead of him when, on visit to Germany, he died of tuberculosis.

Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941) was famous for Winesburg, Ohio, a collection of short stories
about life in a small town. Tar: A Midwest Childhood is semi-autobiographical.
James Thurber (1894-1961) his humorous short stories, written for the magazine The New
Yorker of life in "middle" America were very popular. His short story "The Secret Life of Walter
Mitty" is still customary reading.
William Faulker (1897-1962), though a difficult novelist for many, wrote a great deal from the
perspective of a boy: The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, and "Was" in Go Down Moses.

A southerner from the state of Mississippi, he served with the Canadian Air Force in the First
World War because he was not accepted in the US Air Force. His books narrate life in the
"deep" south. He won the Noble Prize in 1950. J. Blotner's biography of him, as recently
translated and published in Spain. A reading of his childhood would give the teacher a great deal
of information about what growing up in the South was like. Go Down Moses tells of a boy's
friendship with an indian and his hunting a bear for the first time. And "Was" narrates in
humorous terms an incident that occurred when a slave runs off to visit his girlfriend on a nearby
plantation. One of the main characters in As I Lay Dying narrates how his dead mother is
transported in a wagon to a family burial ground in another county.
John Steinbeck was from California. Most of his novels and stories deal with the state. The
Grapes of Wrath is about a family, the Jodes, which has been forced off its land during the
depression and tries to get to reach State Califomia is full of immigrants who had to leave their
Midwestern homes as a result of the Great Depresion. There are children in the family and parts
would certainly interest young people. O fMice and Men is also useful for teahers, since one of
the characters is a very large man who, in reality, is a big kid. "The Pearl" is a very good short
story to consider for EFL. He won the Noble Prize in 1962.
E. Hemingway (1 899-196 1) is particularly useful to the EFL teacher for his close
connection with Spain in the 1930s. The Sun Also Rises, Fiesta, and For Whom the Bell Tolls
are directly about Spain. The Old Man and the Sea is about a Cuban fiisherman who catches an
enormous fish he'll never manage to bring to port, and nobody believes him. He won toe Nobel
Prize in 1954.
J. D. Salinger (1919-) is still popular among young readers for his novel The Catcher in the
rye (1951) about an adolescent who runs from a boarding school in a small town to New York
City. And Franny and Zooey (1961) , who is also about two adolescents, a brother and a sister,
members of an eccentric family.
Two Afro-American writers in particular offer material that can be of interest.

Alice

Walker's novel The Color Purple was made into a film. It is an excellent story about the life of
an Afro-American woman in the South. It is specially useful for the many parts it has that
involve children. And Toni Morrison, who just recently won the Novel Prize of Literature, writes

excellent stories about Afro-Americans. Her novel Beloved, which won the Pulitzer Prize in
1988, has some good scenes involving adolescent girls.

3.-

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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.
DAKIN, J.: (1987). Songs and rhymes for the teaching of English. Harlow: Longman.
DRABBLE, M.

and STRINGER, J. eds.: (1990). The Concise Oxford Companion to

English literature. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

SAMPSON, G.: (1970). The Concise Cambridge History of Engllish Literature. 3rd ed., rev.
and enl. by R. C. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
WELL-LOVED TALES SERIES. (1974). Loughborough. Ladybird Books.

PART TWO: PRACTICAL DEVELOPMENT

1.

LEVEL

3rd cycle (6th grade)

2.

TIME OF SESSIONS

One week, in April, to be finished by the day dedicated to the children's book.
3.

OBJECTIVES

3.1. General
- To read and comprehend short texts (Narrative form)
- To produce a short written text giving information
3.2. Specific
-

Recognize the importance of reading habits

Improve reading skills in the foreign language - Learn about the literature written in the
foreign language.

4.

METHODOLOGY

The methodology used should be suitable to a communicative approach to teaching English as a

foreign language. That is, taking into consideration the age, ability and needs of the students, as
well as the criteria specified in the overall objectives of the course, the EFL teacher should apply
learning strategies which are based on learning by doing, i.e., task oriented strategies. The tasks
required elicit a participative attitude on the part of the learners and a guiding role on the part of
the teacher. Additionally, the teacher should help the students to learn both to think and to do in
the target language.
5.

THE TEACHING UNIT: SPECIFIC CONTENTS

Conceptual:
- vocabulary: words related to literature (author/ different genres etc.)

- phonological aspects: the pronunciation of the names of the authors worked.

- grammar structures: 'Gulliver's Travels by /It is the story of /J. Swift was born in and
died in
Procedural:
- group work
- note taking
- investigation in the Library.
Sociological aspects.
- cross curricular activities interactiovn

6.

ACTIVITIES AND TASKS

6.1.

The Teacher (T) brings several graded books tc the class and checks, how many
authors are known by students and starts the Week of Travels around English
Literature " ("Gullivers Travels).

6.2.

(T) divides students in groups of four and gives each group an assignment: a research
project on an author and his or her books.

6.3.

Each group decides on its own class project which is to be finished by the end of the
week

6. 4.

(T) helps students with the, re.search, bringirig all the materials from the resourceroom need (books, magazines, slides, postcards, movies, music, etc.)

6.5.

Each group will be given a big piece of butcher paper where they can stick their work.

6.6

A class field trip to the local Library, to look for translations of the authors selected.

6.7.

Guided readings of famous stories so the students will be able to write short sentences
informing about some data (name of the author; place and date of birth; names of the
most well known books: what is the story about and famous characters).

7.

MATERIALS

The materials have already been mentioned.

8.

FINAL TASK

Each group exposes its work to the rest of the class: they may paste the information (texts,
photocopies, drawings) on the wall paper and perform something about it: Read aloud; sing a
song; read a poem; perform a skit, etc.
9.

EVALUATION

(According to Theme N 14.)