TOPIC 16

• CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

• TECHNIQUES FOR DIDACTIC EXPLOITATION TO IMPROVE ORAL COMPREHENSION.
• INTRODUCING AND ENCOURAGING READING HABITS.
• APPRECIATING THE POETIC FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE.

2. CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN THE ENGLISH 3. TECHNIQUES FOR DIDACTIC EXPLOITATION 4. THE INTRODUCTION AND 5. APPRECIATING THE POETIC
1. INTRODUCTION 6. CONCLUSION
LANGUAGE. TO IMPROVE ORAL COMPREHENSION ENCOURAGEMENT OF READING HABITS FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE.

2.1. A Brief History of 2.3. The Children’s Story in 4.1. How to choose
1.1. RELEVANCE 2.2. The Fairytale. 4.2. Suggested Texts 4.3. Activities.
Children’s Literature. the United States. a Book?
 TOPIC 16
• CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

1. RELEVANCE

we can point out

1.1. THE RELEVANCE OF THIS TOPIC

since In this way

the study of the periods, authors and genres

The Spanish authorities
in literature throughout the years

As a result, has made a

has contributed to it has become

a more accurate big emphasis in

an essential subject
understanding implementing those studies

since it when setting up

of the

type of text fosters reading habits the curriculum for Primary Education

Furthermore
that should be from to

only texts Decree 22/2007,

used within the books that match passed on the 10th of May, which establishes
by the end of the school
English classroom words to visual aids process
the curriculum for Primary Education in the
Community of Madrid

according to the
sets up in

children’s age the 2nd block of contents

that there must be an

APPROACH TO TALES, COMICS

in order to
AND OTHER TYPES OF BOOKS
 TOPIC 16
2. CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

As an introduction to this section

we will examine

2.1. A Brief History of Children’s Literature

We will now look at some of the

difficulty in defining children's literature AUTHORS

= that would be most suitable for students
difficult to trace its history to a precise starting point at Primary level

1658 1744 early 19th Century

Jan Ámos Komenský John Newbery' the Brothers Grimm 2nd half of 21th Century 19th CENTURY 20th CENTURY NOWADAYS OTHERS
Orbis Pictus A Little Pretty Pocket-Book The fairy tales of TGB
The most notable of We should also think One of the best known The most important
these is perhaps of the works of authors of recent time children’s writer is

Lewis Carroll Beatrix Potter Roald Dahl J.M.Barrie - Peter Pan

considered to be the first picture
book published specifically for
children
considered a landmark for the
beginning of pleasure reading
marketed specifically to children
responsible for the writing down growth in the numbers of books 2.3. The Children’s Literature
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Peter Rabbit, Enid Blyton James and the Giant Peach, J.K.Rowling Rudyard Kipling - The Jungle Book
and preserving of the oral that have been published for
tradition children
Alice through the Looking Glass Miss Moppet, Famous Five series Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, in the USA Harry Potter C.S.Lewis - Narnia's chronicles
(sequel) Squirrel Nutkin The Big Fat Giant J.R.Tolkein - The Lord of the Rings

gained fame through

e.g. is still
that is

FILMS
AUTHORS
Little Red Riding Hood We will look at these areas in E.G. The Wizard of Oz
the fairy tales of Snow White more detail as we move into the a favourite for young amongst the best selling
didactic work
Charles Perrault Treasure Island sections on the authors and the readers the most books in the world.
and relevant modern
Robinson Crusoe genres. famous
USA author

Additionally and there are

show a relation Dr. Seuss
E.B.White
to real life The Cat in the Hat,
Charlotte’s Web,
(make a difference from t The Lorax (movie)
Stuart Little (movie)
he European ones) The Grinch (movie)
some literature not written for
- many graded versions
children was given to them by
- videos
adults

such us available to develop

Robin Hood a variety of activities

 TOPIC 16
2. CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

2.2. THE FAIRY TALE OR FAIRY STORY

is a the

pioneered in
fictional story oral tradition ancient roots
England

that may
feature

came long before the

written page ancient Egypt The Golden Ass Panchatantra
folkloric characters
(from generation to (1300 BC) Rome, 100–200 AD India 200–300 AD
generation)

such as

fairies, goblins, elves,

HISTORY intended for adults as well as
trolls, witches, giants, and
difficult to trace children
talking animals

since
that take place

"once upon a time" only the literary forms The Brothers Grimm
rather than in actual times can survive Children's and Household Tales

altered the stories so that they

could be read to children

- eliminating sexual references

- increasing violence (when
punishing villains )
 TOPIC 16
3. TECHNIQUES FOR DIDACTIC EXPLOITATION TO IMPROVE ORAL COMPREHENSION

We will pay particular attention to the way that reading

can be used as a means of improving oral comprehension

regarding
LISTENING

stories are The first thing that we

Basically
have to think about is the

great way to Type of Activities is all about

improve their listening skills In a listening activity UNDERSTANDING

it is necessary for them

to hear the language before they

can speak it

language can be learnt in an almost
unconscious manner
subliminally acquiring the grammar rules, it is therefore important
pronunciation and so on
as
the listening activities lead into a
communicative activity

Topic 7 Topic 3
HARMER (2001) ACTIVITIES such as

points out,

there is a that must be

NUMBER OF LISTENING
SKILLS
that must be developed

PREVIOUSLY YES/NO-TRUE/FALSE GAP ROLE

DESIGNED PREPARED
CHECKED QUESTIONS FILLING PLAY

to extract completing to write

2. DEDUCING MEANING 3. GETTING THE 4. EXTRACTING 5. RECOGNISING 6. INFERRING OPINION pre
1. PREDICTING leaving with a teaching
FROM CONTEXT GENERAL PICTURE SPECIFIC INFORMATION DISCOURSE PATTERNS AND ATTITUDE to
improve space to by Information Sentences the missed
script
setting
means means means means up the
Global Specific from
LISTENING THE OTHER THE Difficult listening to
Warm-up
SKILLS SKILLS TEACHER vocab.
The organization
To predict what they are To use their general
of a given text: Scene for can be
going to hear knowledge about a To have an overall idea of To work out what the
To look only for the the vocab.
particular topic to deduce a situation rather than speacker's opinions are.
information we need. Words such as "but, or, WORK
the meaning of unfamiliar looking for details.
first" give us clues about GROUP
thus words
what is coming next.

encourage
UNDERSTANDING
them to
is the result of involves
also
Talk &
Exchange
the information ideas
the prediction made
found
by the listener
in the text

these three skills help students to develop a general understanding of a

these three skills involve a detailed comprehension of the text.
listening text
 TOPIC 16
4. THE INTRODUCTION AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF READING HABITS

This leads us onto

our next point

main consideration
4. THE INTRODUCTION AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF READING HABITS
has to be
PLEASURE
If, in the early stages of his education, books can be introduced that can
entertain and stimulate the child, then he will want to continue reading
throughout the learning process

but

Topic 15

4.1. How to choose

a Book?

important for the we have to Clearly we have

students to be able to think about to use
According to the work of

the amount of
ELLIS AND INTERACT COMMON SENSE
INFORMATION
BREWSTER with the chosen text when selecting a text
that is related to the text

Fourthly Thirdly if there are any considering

Secondly
Fifthly Firstly
And finally
- acting out scenes,
POSITIVE activities or videos the students’
- drawing characters,
CURIOSITY MOTIVATION PARTICIPATION VISUALS THE CONTENT connected to the story that
ATTITUDES - predicting what happens
we can use.
needs & abilities
next, etc.
can be aroused can be built by should be
should be created through ensuring that should include It should be
encouraged through

the student’s wish to activities that draw the

towards the target the stories are related bright, colourful interesting, relevant
know more about the student into the story:
language and the
story and the target
to the students'
e.g. repetition,
drawings that relate to and enjoyable enough LEVEL OF LANGUAGE LENGTH INTERESTS AGE
community experiences the story to remember the story
language culture prediction, role-plays

we may like to take into account

the following suggestions
e.g.

- Number of words used

- Grammatical structures used if they can relate to the story
- Length of words and paragraphs itself, the children will
- Relation between the language
very young student respond emotionally to the
very young student
and the curriculum text
- Unusual syntax/outdated style

text with pictures

unlikely to maintain his so that they can have visual
interest if the text is to long relationship with that which
he is reading

with keep the

clear texts as short

language as possible

ensuring that
they are

able to cope with the

language contained on it

at a
very young, low level
nursery rhymes
popular with English children
such as
Humpty Dumpty,
Mary Had A Little Lamb, etc
not only useful for
grammar/vocabulary
but also
encourage participation
singing, clapping,
acting out, etc
4. THE INTRODUCTION AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF READING HABITS
4.2. Suggested Texts
as
for
the students progress
popular fairy tales
such as
Snow White
Sleeping Beauty
advantage:
supplementary material
videos, colouring books,
songs, games, etc
TOPIC 16
we can divide into three
main areas the following reading
4.3. Activities
ALBURQUERQUE (1990)
older, higher level PRE–READING DURING READING POST-READING
students, ACTIVITIES ACTIVITIES ACTIVITIES
is the way that we Activities designed to
more complicated texts
introduce the story to the - Skimming the text: in order to gain check the understanding
students, a global understanding: (more communicative approach,
in order to arouse their interest e.g.: the other skills should be included)
- provide a title for the text
such as Activities - to try to match pictures with
various parts
Activities
fiction especially written - Introducing the topic and finding - Scanning the text: in order to get
out what they know about it. more specific information.
for students
e.g.:
- Pre teaching vocabulary or - questions that require the student - acting out role plays
structures to read the text more closely.
that feature - writing their own text
- Prediction activities what do they
think is going to happen?
large drawings - Visuals to make the story come to
simple language life
 TOPIC 16
5. APPRECIATING THE POETIC FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE.

Through these activities we hope to encourage our students to look

closer at the poetic function of the language in a literary text

Appreciating The Poetic

Function Of Language

at a young age As the child develops

through the use of through the use of

storytelling and simple

songs and rhymes
poetry

we can introduce them to The child could learn to

some of the devices, such as distinguish between the

alliteration and repetition different functions

thus leading to

originally designed to help people the production of his own

to remember the tales during the works
period of the oral tradition, thus
we can see how they can benefit
a child in the language classroom
 6. CONCLUSIONS

TO SUM UP REFERENCES

In order to develop this topic, I have used the following references:

In this unit we have seen how literature can play an important role in the
- A guide to children’s Literature by Seldon,
child's development, not just as a language learner, but also from a
- Teaching children to read by Cuddon
cultural viewpoint. If he is taught by the use of stories, not only will his - The Storytelling Handbook for Primary Teachers by Ellis and Brewster.
motivation to learn the language be improved, but also, hopefully, so too
will his desire to read books in his native language.