blog
media download page
Essay / Teaching Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne in the Foreign Language Classroom Literature in the Classroom During second language acquisition, many internal and external factors influence language learners. Among them, two play a fundamental role in second language acquisition: input and interaction. Before you start speaking and writing in a foreign language, your brain needs to be exposed to the right amount of correct sentences in that language. Teaching literature in classrooms is one way to make the right contribution. As a teacher-in-training, I must properly learn how to provide meaningful and useful literature lessons to my future students. It's not easy because there are several conditions to meet, but if I want to be a good teacher, I must learn them by heart and I must also learn from my failures. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay How should we teach literature? When we teach literature, we must not forget the three stages of a reading task: pre-reading, during reading, and after reading tasks. Pre-reading is very important to set context, activate students' background knowledge, get them interested in the topic and make it relevant to them. Reading activities are used in the classroom to encourage students to look for the gist or specific information and examine the text closely. It takes most of the time out of all three. Finally, post-reading activities are related to the text, but they can facilitate imagination and allow students to do something related to the main topic of the lesson. A post-reading activity closes the course and gives it a framework. “A philosophy of language teaching that incorporates text examples of any kind demonstrating how language works within and beyond the rules will expose learners to the representational possibilities of any language.” (Brumfit and Carter, 20) According to Brumfit and Carter, practical criticism is based on two presumptions. The first is that a literary text is made up of language, so the emphasis is on linguistic utterances and patterns. Second, the effect of text on the mind and emotions is also worth analyzing. (Brumfit and Carter, 2-3) Michael N. Long stated that reading skills do not develop students' relationship with the text because teachers focus on accuracy rather than fluency and it does not There is no methodology for using literature in the teaching of foreign languages. The reason is very simple: students do not have the energy to respond to the literary work because they are busy understanding the text. Instead, teaching literature should encourage responses to the text currently being discussed. Student responses may refer to a first-hand response and a second-hand response. In a second language class, the practice of recounting the teacher's interpretation (which is the second-hand response) was common, but students should not be asked to make or repeat a criticism (which is the second-hand response). interrogation of a literary form in detail from a professional) rather to express their response to the text. During these years, teaching literature was about structures and formulas rather than understanding. Furthermore, theseparation of literature and linguistic studies reduced the effectiveness of language teaching, language lessons were rather linguistic and literature was not used. Let me point out a few words about the texts usually used in the classroom: they are practical, there is no lack of information, they are neither interesting nor motivating and there is certainly no aesthetic reason behind them . There is no response from the learner, it is rather an imitation of models. The good news is that you can master a foreign language by copying the method used in your native language: obtaining as much linguistic data as possible. This means that we should teach literature as a means of providing students with native input that is not oriented and structured for language learning. Although the input may come from referential texts, it makes no difference if we use the representational language of literary works and bring some elements of understanding and interpretation to our class. This way we encourage student responses. The more feedback we get, the more likely we are to speak another language faster, more safely, more efficiently and accurately. When I designed my lesson plan, I intended to keep these points in mind as well as create a unified and entertaining lesson for the second language learners in my class. Microteaching For my microteaching, I would like to use a short story because it is more convenient to read and therefore I can save time with it. After a quick search, I chose a chapter from House at the Pooh Corner by AA Milne. Why is this a good choice of text? It's still popular nowadays and is a good motivation to learn a new language. The cause is simple: it can give security to students because they already know it. In addition, the teacher can choose from a wide range of topics, for example friendship or adventures. The texts use easily understandable language, so they can be used at all levels. There are many adventurous and interesting episodes that help in identifying different topics. This chosen chapter is about the arrival of Tigger and how he can find his place in the forest. The chapter is not that difficult to understand; hence, I chose this particular one. I designed my lesson plan to be suitable for students aged 10 to 12 at level A2-B1. As a course topic, I try to set a useful theme for discussing the text itself. The objectives of the lesson are to become familiar with a literary text, to develop speaking, listening and reading skills, to increase critical thinking and to have students practice certain grammatical structures that they know Already. Pre-reading In the first step of my lesson, I give students the text in advance to read at home. Next, they should also create a reading journal as this makes it easier to progress with class work. I begin my introduction with questions intended to introduce the subject: which animals do you love the most? What do you think of a bear? What do you think when you hear the word “tiger”? What would you do if you found a tiger in your garden? etc. After this contextualized introduction, I ask if anyone can recognize the image on the PPT (it's an image about Hundred Acre Wood). Then I ask them if they have any basic knowledge about this place and its people. While Reading In the while reading section, I distribute the text and a handout. First, students should reread the chapter. Then the next task is to analyze the text intodepending on the questions in the document. These questions focus on characters, setting, and theme. In the first section, I ask lower order questions because they create an engagement with the text (When did Tigger arrive? Was Pooh happy to see him? How do you know? Where did Tigger go? Did he sleep? What was Tigger doing when Pooh woke up? What did Pooh give Tigger for breakfast?). After that, the next task is pair work. In this task, students must imagine that Pooh and Christopher Robin are having a conversation and create a dialogue about Tigger's arrival. This is a useful task because students not only construct a dialogue, but they can also differentiate between a literary text and a non-literary text. The next section is a group discussion. Students should discuss in groups the following question: What would you do if someone knocked on your door in the middle of the night? In this type of task, students can express their own opinion about the text and can also practice the way of producing orally. To expand on the I also show a video (with subtitles) on the same excerpt and compare it with the text itself. Post-reading At the end of my lesson, I give them an assignment in which they must choose a character in the text and present their choice as a new friend. The aim of this task would be to increase students' creativity and also develop their writing skills. Task for Higher Level Classes For older and/or higher level students, I would add a special task to make the work more challenging. It would be the Christopher Robin film whose story is based on the life of Christopher as an adult. First, students must watch the film at home. Then in class, they must compare extracts from the book with the film. The following questions would be the main points: Why do you think the book and cartoon became so popular? Did you read or watch it as a child? What emotions can you associate with the story? What are the similarities and differences between the text and the film? What is the main subject of the film? The emphasis of this upper-level class would be on the importance of childhood and how it stands out as adults. Analysis Winnie the Pooh is a very obvious and simple fairy tale: an adult tells a story in the evening to a little boy of about five years old. At this age, the child likes stories about himself and his close environment. This is why the writer chooses the little boy as the hero of the tales. Although the episodes focus on Pooh, the reader feels that the characters express Christopher Robin's imagination and emotion. The nature of the setting means that sometimes the storyteller and the little boy interact with each other, evaluate current events and provide a motive for the next story. Each chapter is a short story and is only connected to each other by characters and locations. In each of the episodes different childhood situations appear. There are some that are based on real events and there are also some that are imagined by the child. Real situation, e.g. tripping, miscarriage, searching for something, hospitality and giving. Situation planned for example the flight of the balloon, the trapping of the elephant and the flooding of our heroes. Each chapter is structured as follows: exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, and solution. This is the oldest and most common fairy tale structure. Christopher Robin and his friends do not live in an abstract, timeless world. The location is indirectly revealed in different episodes: daily life in the 1920s. We can also conclude thatChristopher Robin has no siblings, and it is Pooh who plays this role in his life. Christopher also has some parental responsibility and care for his animals, so he accepts the imitative role play that characterizes his age and approves of his parent-child relationship. The story shows the little boy's mentality and self-esteem: the conflicts and difficult situations in the fairy tale can only be resolved by Christopher. In the eyes of stuffed animals, the human child is the oracle: he or she expects sound advice, guidance, help, praise, everything a child expects from an adult. One of the greatest desires of a five-year-old is to feel safe. This desire is at the heart of almost every scene. In life, in most cases, it is adults who provide security, so children look to stronger and smarter adults; for animals, Christopher embodies this role. All the characters – except Christopher – are stuffed animals but they think, speak and behave like four-year-olds. The character who gives the title to the story is Pooh. He's the best-presented character and is involved in every adventure. He is a kind and adorable creature due to his personality: originally a teddy bear who behaves like a human child. He and his friends often think he's a bit silly, but sometimes he has a clever idea that can solve the problem. He is also a talented poet and readers can find his poems in the episodes which make them more colorful. All the characters are different people, so they all have different motivations, tasks, and problems. However, if there is a difficult situation or when they are in difficulty, they need each other's help and can obviously also rely on each other. Of all the animal characters, only Kanga is the one who possesses adult human qualities. She embodies maternal love and care in her work. She is more intelligent and humorous than the rest of the characters. Her child is the center of her attention. Christopher Robin is the character between the stuffed animals and the adult storyteller and connects the world of Hundred Acre Wood to the real world. He only has a relationship with the storyteller. Regarding the animals' clumsiness and flaws, the narrator interacts with Christopher Robin, realizing what is wrong and what the right decision is. The episodes therefore have educational intentions, but they are not explicit. In the behavior of Christopher Robin, we can observe the stage of development of the child's personality when his logical thinking began to appear. The episodes provide and show progress, how the child can learn the mechanism of thinking. Winnie the Pooh is a wonderful literary experience for adults and children. As adults, we can discover different values in working with our “adult” thinking, thanks to the experience we have gained over the years. While a child, without knowing it, searches for himself and finds himself in reading and listening to the work. Adults consciously seek the human equivalent of animal figures. They also unintentionally identify with a character and find the characters' personalities suitable for their friends and acquaintances. What's great about this children's book is that the recognized flaws make you smile. Because “silliness” is so enjoyable that its negative effects almost completely disappear. Winnie the Pooh carries the message that we must accept each other without prejudice and that the secret to coexistence is tolerance. We can point out human flaws in a constructive way, and if all this is accompanied by love, 1986, 42-58.
Navigation
« Prev
1
2
3
4
5
Next »
Get In Touch