Transcript Short Stories and Fairy Tales in EFL Classroom

Victoria Tuzlukova, Christine Eltayeb
Sultan Qaboos University
Oman
 Current significance of English as a language of world
communication and demand of its meaningful
teaching
 Importance of classroom materials in achieving
excellence in foreign language pedagogy and practice
 Educational values of fairy tales in English language
classroom
 Supplement to core textbooks
 Learning support
 Source of more linguistic and socio-cultural models to
overcome difficulties related to students’ background
knowledge and meaning construction (Smith, 1988)
 Source of local and target culture interactions
 Students’ progress aid
 Source of linguistic, content, cultural and formal
knowledge (Day, 1994; Al-Brashdi, 2002; Al-Ajmi,
2006; Al-Mahrooqi, 2007)
 Tool for aiding students with their progress and
creating meaningful learning environment (Smith,
1988)
 Tool for bridging the language with the context in
which it is used (Byram, 1988)
 Instrument for personalizing the educational process
(Kay and Jones, 2000) and giving students additional
opportunities to deal with a foreign language
 Instrument for exposing students to new vocabulary,
style, structures and experiences, and relating them to
their own cultural and social context
 Tool for effectively engaging students in new contexts
and practices
 Sufficient support for the students who have a limited
language learning experience and have little
opportunity to practice their English language skills
outside the classroom
 Not widely used as a supplement to core text-books
 Limited use as a learning support for many social,
cultural, linguistic and even logistic reasons:
a. Traditional language teaching and learning practices
b. Students’ interests and motivations
c. Teachers’ own language learning experiences and
perceived images, aims and objectives of the courses
they teach
d. Local culture and traditions
 Population: about 3 million
 Nationality: Omani
 Ethnic groups: Arab,
Baluchi, South Asian
(Indian, Pakistani, Sri
Lankan, Bangladeshi),
African
 Languages: Arabic
(official), English, Baluchi,
Urdu, Indian dialects,
Swahili
 Opened its doors in 1986
 Comprises 9 colleges and
a number of centres
 Number of students
enrolled is about 15,000
 Medium of Education:
Arabic
 Academic Staff:
multicultural and
multilingual
 Both Arabic and English
are used outside the
classroom
 Content “suitability”
 Personal, academic and professional interest on the
part of the student (Day, 1994)
 Contributing to language learners’ experience and
effective involvement in real life practices
 Relating to the course objectives and structure
 Sensitivity to integrated skills teaching paradigm and
individual learning styles
 Matching with educational environment
 Social and cultural sensitivity (Tuzlukova, V., Eltayeb
C., 2007)
 Promotion of local culture and cultural heritage and
getting acquainted with other world cultures
The Emperor’s New Suit
By Hans Christian Anderson
1805-1875
Many years ago lived an emperor, who
thought all the time about new clothes
and spent all his money in order to
obtain them; his only ambition was to
be always well dressed. He did not care
for his soldiers, and the theatre did not
amuse him; the only thing, in fact, he
thought anything of was to drive out
and show a new suit of clothes. He
had a coat for every hour of the day; and
as one would say of a king “He is in his
cabinet,” so one could say of him, “The
emperor is in his dressing-room.”
HCA.Gilead.org.il
• To motivate the students, most of whom are struggling
with English
• To arouse students’ interest and enthusiasm by the
themes of the stories, which can be appreciated by all
readers whatever their age and level of English
• To appeal to the students' intellect
 Lesson 1
 Arrange the students into groups of four, five or six
according to the class size.
 Introduce the students to the story by telling them
they are going to read and listen to a story about an
emperor who always liked to wear new clothes.
 Show students real objects that illustrate some of the
items in the story: patterned cloth, plain cloth,
scissors, needles, thread, picture of weaver. Write
these words on board along with sew, weave, swindler.
 Indicate the theme by writing the words hypocrite,
hypocrisy, hypocritical on the board. Ask the students
if they know what any of these words mean.
 Allow the students 10 minutes to skim the story and
ask any questions.
 Play the tape with the story and allow the students to
listen and read.
 After listening once the students do the True/False
questions in their groups.
 Check the answers to the True /False questions.
Discuss reasons for answers. Discuss any ambiguities
or anything they disagree on.
 Allow students to listen and read again to reassure
them of the answers.
 Homework: Comprehension Questions B and
Vocabulary C
 Lesson 2
 Check homework
 Students do D (Vocabulary in sentences) and F (Did
you understand the story?) in class.
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If you have time, put the sentences from the story in order,
e.g.
The emperor realizes how stupid they have all been.
A child says he cannot see anything.
The emperor sends his ministers to check on the
work. They report favorably to the emperor.
Everybody says how nice the clothes are.
The emperor gets ready for a procession and puts on
the new clothes.
The swindlers pretend to weave gold and silk into
cloth.
 Students do E (More than one meaning) and G
(Find out about the author, Hans Christian
Andersen) for homework.
 Students are advised to use the following websites:
 http://en.wikipedia.org
 http://google.com
 Lesson 3
 Check homework
 Students complete the summary chart.
 TITLE
 1
 AUTHOR
 2
 DATE
 3
 STORY TYPE
 4
 STORY ABOUT
 5
 SETTING
 6
 TIME
 7
 CHARACTERS
 8
 EVENTS
 9
 MORAL
 10
 Students can do the first eight tasks on the chart
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individually and then check with the teacher.
In groups students arrange the sentences on pieces of
paper in the correct order according to the order the
events happened in the story.
Students can then complete the events section of the
chart.
They write what they think is the moral of the story.
This can be discussed first as their answers might be
different.
 Using their completed chart the students write a
summary of the story.
 Students can add any other details to the events that
they think are needed. The summary should include
all the items on the chart.
 A set of questions in English to find out students’
views on reading stories in English
 Some students answered in English and some in
Arabic
 Some students were interviewed in English with
Arabic if needed
 Likert Scale not used. Students encouraged to describe
their feelings/opinions/thoughts
Q: Do you like reading stories in English?
• Yes, it makes me able to structure sentences
• Yes, it helps me to broaden my knowledge
• No, there is difficulty in some words which hinders me
in reading
• Yes, there is acquisition of information related to the
curriculum which might benefit us in exams
• I like reading difficult things because it challenges me
• It is motivating to read because I love to read
Fairy Tales Project: What do our
students think?
Q: Do you like reading stories from other cultures in
English?
• Yes. English nowadays is the global language
• Yes. It helps me understand and know about other
cultures
• No I don’t because my English is bad
Q: Do you like reading stories from your culture in
English?
• Yes I do because I use from that many vocabularies
Fairy Tales Project: What do our
students think?
• No, because I know all the Omani stories and I want to
see another stories
• Yes, because I want to try to know some words in
English
Q: Does it help to read a story from your culture in
English before you read stories from other cultures in
English?
• Yes, because it opens the mind
• Another culture first because I learn new words and
more difficult words
Fairy Tales Project: What do our
students think?
• Understand my culture and learn about new and
difficult words
• First my culture because the vocabulary is easy
• Another culture first because there are more stories
about other cultures in English
Q: What do you think are the benefits of reading stories
in English in general?
• To development your culture
• It gets me used to reading
• To understand how people get along with one another
Fairy Tales Project: What do our
students think?
 To translate some words from English to Arabic to
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improve knowledge of English
I learn new words and can practise spelling and
writing the new words. Pictures are also important.
They help me to understand
For speaking and I can study another culture
It gives me new words and I learn a moral
To change your personality in English
Fairy Tales Project: What do our
students think?
Q: What do you think are the benefits of reading stories
from your culture in English?
 To keep the stories alive and let them spread to other
people from different cultures. They help me to read
and write English
Q: What do you think are the benefits of reading stories
from other cultures in English?
• To get to know the differences and similarities between
cultures
Fairy Tales Project: What do our
students think?
Q: Do you like to listen to the story first before you read
it?
• Yes, I like it because it is good to try to read like the
person who read before
• No, because I want to understand the stories myself
and after that listen to it
• Yes, because the listening helps me for understand the
story
• Listening will encourage me to read the story
• Yes, to be strong in listening and speaking
Fairy Tales Project: What do our
students think?
 No, I prefer to listen and read or read then listen,
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because you have more time to understand when you
read
Read first to check what I know, then listen
Listen first because many words are difficult to
pronounce
Listen first because we can understand the story before
reading
Read first so you quickly understand
Listen and read to understand the words
Conclusion
If we want to achieve excellence in English language
teaching, we should utilize the educational value of
fairy tales which can be a learning support for our
students as well as a source of linguistic, cultural and
social models and also a source of local and target
culture interaction.
QUESTIONS???