Hello Readers!
Language teaching is an integral part of academia. Students should learn language not only for scoring good marks in exam but also to learn their usages and contexts. Because language can't be separated from any branch of knowledge, discourse and technical programs. The more proficient a student becomes in a language, the more chances are there for him/her to excel in different arena of academia. After all, language is a medium to express the things we learn. Not to mention, the importance of good communication skill is much in demand in all walks of life.
Every literature has possibility to teach language, be it a novel, short story, drama or poetry. It's all about planning a lesson and executing it among students. While planning a lesson, a teacher needs to keep in mind the age group of students, their cultural background and the first language they speak. Let's see how a language teacher can use literature for teaching English language.
For further resources and material click here to navigate to Dr. Dilip Barad's blog.
* What sort of activities or tasks can be designed to teach language using a 'novel' or 'short story'?
* Lesson: Teaching language through the short story from Malgudi Days written by R.K. Narayan
* Age Group: 18-20 Years College Students
* Pre Reading Task:
Teachers can ask students to gather the information about the village. Asking them to write 10 things in English about their village and read them aloud in class. This can help measuring the sentence formation and grammatical abilities of students.
* While Reading Task:
Teachers can ask students to read aloud some of the paragraphs from 'The Axe' from Malgudi Days. An example of the paragraph is given here. Teachers can circulate the handouts of the short story in class.
The Axe
An astrologer passing through village foretold that Velan would live in a three-storied house surrounded by many acres of garden. At this everybody gathered round young Velan and made fun of him. For Koppal did not have a more ragged and godforsaken family than Velan's. His father had mortgaged every bit of property he had, and worked, with his whole family, on other people's lands in return for a few annas a week. A three storied house for Velan indeed!. . . But the scoffers would have congratulate The astrologer if they had seen Velan about thirty or forty years later. He became the sole occupant of Kumar Bagh - palatial house on the outskirts of Malgudi town.
When he was eighteen Velan left home. His father slapped his face one day for coming late with the mid day meal. Velan put down the basket, glared at his father and left the place. He just walked out of the village, and walked on and on till he came to the town. Is starved for a couple of days, begged wherever he could and arrived in Malgudi, where after much knocking about, an old man took him on to assist him in laying out a garden. The garden existed only in the mind of the gardener. What they could see now was acre upon acre of weed-covered land. Velan's main business consisted in destroying all the vegetation he saw. Day after day he sat in the sun and tore up by hand the unwanted plants. And all the jungle gradually disappeared and the land stood as bare as a football field. Three sides of the land were marked off for an extensive garden, and on the rest was to be built a house. By the time the mangoes had sprouted they were laying the foundation of the house. About the time the margosa sapling had shot up a couple of yards, the walls were also coming up. (Narayan. 136,137)
* Post Reading Task (Language Activity):
Language components such as adjectives, conjunctions and modal auxiliaries can be spotted right from the reading and a small exercise of the topics can be given in the form of fill-in-the-blanks. Exercises based on comprehension can be prepared.
Que: Find the similar word to assist.
Ans: help.
Que: Find the meaning of the phrase knocking about
Ans: Roaming without purpose.
Que: Find the adjective from the sentence given: He became the sole occupant of Kumar Bagh - palatial house on the outskirts of Malgudi town.
Ans: Palatial - Very spacious and large, well decorated.
Que: What did the astrologer tell to Velan about his future?
Ans: A passing by astrologer said that Velan would live in a three-stories house surrounded by many acres of garden.
Que: Find the modal auxiliary from the sentence: What they could see now was acre upon acre of weed-covered land.
Ans: Could.
* What sort of activities or tasks can be designed to teach language using a 'film or videos'?
Videos and films are a best support material while teaching literature. But, here language learning is at the center, so we can use video and films for that too. Watching videos and films has also become the part of learning activity. It has much to do with flipped learning model. According to the infographics mentioned in this flipped learning website, (click here to visit) two chemistry teachers in Colorado, USA, initiated this model in 2008.
To cite some words from Education Next,
Four years ago, in the shadow of Colorado’s Pike’s Peak, veteran Woodland Park High School chemistry teachers Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams stumbled onto an idea. Struggling to find the time to reteach lessons for absent students, they plunked down $50, bought software that allowed them to record and annotate lessons, and posted them online. Absent students appreciated the opportunity to see what they missed. But, surprisingly, so did students who hadn’t missed class. They, too, used the online material, mostly to review and reinforce classroom lessons. And, soon, Bergmann and Sams realized they had the opportunity to radically rethink how they used class time. (Tucker, 2004)
Yes, this was the beginning of "flipped learning". Now, as we live in the cutting-edge latest technology and tools, teachers can have plethora of tools to teach English language, of course through literature as well.! Here are some of the tasks to teach language.
Task 1. Listening and Speaking.
In this task, teacher can share the prerecorded video to students or play the video or film in class and ask students to say few dialogues and lines just the way it is spoken in the video.
Here is an example of a film that can be listened and few dialogues can be articulated to learn English.
Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies (2015)
Teacher can also ask students to read the subtitle of the film and to write few simple lines by pausing the video. After gathering the sentences, teacher can explain synonyms, adjectives, direct and indirect speech, active and passive voice or so. Here is the example.
Exact lines from film. (Timestamps given as per subtitles)
1. What's going on here ? (35:45)
Identify the tense and change the tense to past tense, without changing the meaning.
Ans: What was going on here ?
Task 2: Take Up the Lines, Think grammar.
There are many films based on the literary works. "The Importance of Being Ernest" is a good example. The film with the same name is quite faithful to this original play written by Oscar Wilde.
Here is the pdf link of the original play.
Teachers can give students the bookmarks of the pdf and the film. Students can listen to the dialogues and read the original play at the same time. It will improve their reading skill and listening skill.
Thank You!
Work Cited:
Narayan, R. K. Malgudi Days. Indian Thought Publication, 2006.
Tucker, Bill. "The Flipped Classroom." Education Next, 4 Oct. 2011, www.educationnext.org/the-flipped-classroom/. Accessed 21 Feb.
References and Links
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