Topic 16
Topic 16
Topic 16
Contents:
1. Introduction
3. Types of storybooks
3.1. Authentic versus graded texts
3.1.1. Graded texts
3.1.2. Authentic texts
3.1.2.1. Advantages
3.1.2.2. Disadvantages
3.1.2.3. Guidelines to make the story accessible in
authentic texts
4. Conclusions
REV.:10/14
5. Bibliography
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1. INTRODUCTION
- Linguistic:
- Methodological:
- Motivational:
- Legal:
Finally, the Ministry of Education and its Organic Law for the
Improvement of the Quality of Education (LOMCE) dating 9th
December,2013 and the Royal Decree 126/2014, 28thFebruary 2014,
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Educational Laws also ask teachers to take into account the different
paces in children’s development (mixed ability) not only in the Primary
Stage, but also in the Infant Stage where English should be introduced.
Literature will definitively help us teachers to cover different learning
paces and interests.
The EFL Primary Learners read at a lower speed. Because of this low
reading speed, it is better to start with very short texts, for example short
stories.
Hill suggests to use a cloze test to assess the linguistic difficulty of a text:
Linguistic level Does the text add to learning in the whole school
curriculum?
Is the vocabulary appropriate? And the structures,
functions, topics?
Is the language authentic?
Stylistic level Does the text contain stylistic features that may
hinder the understanding of the story?
Teachers should consider the following factors that are also important for
a text selection.
We must consider how easily we can make the text available to our
students, if they are easily available in our country, editorial or
bookshops. The prize is also relevant.
2.1.4.3. Exploitability
Once we have analysed the different criteria for selecting texts, we need
to decide the most suitable periods, authors and genres.
2.2.1. Periods
So, mostly nowadays literary works are the most suitable; although it is
recommended, as well, especially for our youngest pupils to use
classical literature as traditional tales, For example: Goldilocks and the
Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, The Enormous Turnip .... fairy tales
as The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and so on. Children are already
familiar with them in their mother tongue, so they can infer the meaning
of the unknown words and understand the story.
2.2.2. Authors
We can choose from a wide range of suitable authentic storybooks
written by traditional storytellers as Perrault and modern writers, as those
authors on the Puffin or Early Bird series such as:
Jack Kent ... The Fat Cat
Raymond Briggs ... The Snowman; The Mother Goose Treasury
(nursery rhymes) especially very suitable for the 1st and 2nd
graders.
John Burningham ... My Gumpy’s Motor Car
Colin and Jacqui Hawkins ... Pat the Cat
Eric Hill ... Where’s Spot?
Helen Nicoll ... Meg and Mog
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For 5th and 6th graders, we can select literary works from different
collections of texts for foreign learners, edited in different editorials as
Oxford, Cambridge or Heinemann, for example:
Jones, E ... British Short Stories of Today (Penguin Books)
Swam, M ... Zero Hour and Other Modern Stories (Cambridge)
Taylor, P ... Modern Short Stories for Students of English (*)
Milue, J ... Heinemann Guided Readers (*)
(*) Both of them are graded text, and only if we decide to use them in
class we can recommend them (see last section).
2.2.3. Genres
We can use different genres: Plays, small poems, but especially, short
stories.
2.2.3.1. Plays
Many students love planning costumes, sets, masks, etc. With groups
who like drama activities, put-on one scene or a short play, can be both
enjoyable and rewarding.
It is very useful because children have to act and this means that they
must learn a few lines by heart. They have to repeat the words or
sentences very often, so the particular words and structures become
more assimilated.
Saying their lines gives the children a chance to use English
interactively.
They need to work together co-operatively.
Acting in a play can help shy children gain self-confidence.
But a play reading is not really easy and we need much time available if
we want to perform it.
It would be suitable for shows to put on at the end of the academic year.
2.2.3.2. Poems
We think this genre is the most suitable for our pupils. Very young
children enjoy listening stories. Oldest children enjoy both listening and
reading stories.
Help to understand the overall meaning of the story and relate it to their
personal experience.
They are chosen to consolidate learning in other school subjects
across the curriculum.
Learning English through stories can prepare students for Secondary
School in terms of basic language functions, structures, vocabulary
and language learning skills.
3. TYPES OF STORYBOOKS
There are a wide range of storybooks: traditional and fairy tales, picture
stories, rhyming stories, everyday stories, etc..
Ellis and Brewster classify the storybooks under the following three
headings:
Narrative features
Content
Layout
Notice that the stories can belong to different groups. They are not
exclusive.
For instance, Little Red Riding Hood can be worked on the 2nd Cycle
because of the language level, but it can be used in the 1st cycle if we
adapt the story and the activities for beginners.
Jennifer Hill gives reasons to use graded texts in the Primary classes.
For Hill, such texts very often solve the problem of linguistic difficulty and
provide extensive reading at a level at which students can cope.
Hill thinks that graded readers are a very useful introduction to extensive
reading and should help students to improve their fluency and accuracy
in the understanding of a written text.
Authentic texts are those texts that have not been written specifically for
the teaching of English as a foreign language, and so, the language is
not selected or graded.
Ellis and Brewster say that there are many authentic storybooks written
for English-speaking children which are also suitable for those learning
English because many of these storybooks contain language traditionally
found in most beginner syllabuses.
3.1.2.1. Advantages
2.1.2.2. Disadvantages
But, at the same time this magic can also be lost if the language is too
advanced for children to follow. In this case Ellis and Brewster suggest
guidelines to make the story more accessible.
Check grammar
- Tenses Simplify
- Structures Reduce the number of structures
- Word order
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 outside, the materials we use should
reflect the world outside.
We mean, all the materials need to be authentic. Not only the fact but
also the activities and tasks must be relevant.
Moreover, the general aim or our approach to the teaching/learning of
literature, following Collie and Slater is “to let our pupils derive the
benefits of communicative activities for language improvement within the
context of suitable works of literature. If we make a balanced selection of
activities and present them with confidence, our pupils will advance in
the mastery of the four skills, and will be nearer the communicative
competence”.
We can therefore conclude that whenever we need to choose a
storybook, and if it is possible, we must use authentic material. And only
with beginners, who are not able to handle authentic texts, we will be
able to use an adapted story in order to help them to progress in small
regular steps, to acquire the necessary skills they will need in a future to
handle authentic material.
4. CONCLUSIONS
As Hill says “literature, carefully chosen, can open up and enrich the
language lesson, provide students with a window to new worlds and
engage their intellect and emotions in a way that study of the language
alone cannot”.
5. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Children’s literature:
Methodology:
Articles: