DISCOURSE-BASED APPROACH IN TEACHING

READING AND SPEAKING SKILLS

FINAL ASSIGNMENT

submitted as a final assignment for

Grammar, Meaning, and Discourse Subject
Dr. Atiq Susilo, MA
Dr. Frans Sayogie, M.Pd.
Dr. Alek

By:
Arnis Silvia

2111014000017

MASTER PROGRAM OF ENGLISH EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UIN SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH JAKARTA
2012
 DISCOURSE-BASED APPROACH IN TEACHING READING AND
SPEAKING

I. Introduction
Discourse and formal language teaching would be two different poles of
perspectives. However, when integrated well, immersing discourse into language
teaching could provide a wide range resource for the real language use which is
beneficial for communicative purpose of the language learners. This paper is
about to present two learning tasks which incorporate discourse by overviewing
the rationale of discourse-based approach, three major issues when incorporating
discourse in language teaching, discourse-based tasks in readiing and speaking,
and the discussion.

II. The Rationale for Discourse-based Approach

As the communicative approach developed in 1980s, a search for more

communicative tasks have also increased. Practically, teachers need to teach more
than grammatical knowledge, but also pragmatic one. For this reason, a wider
framework of the teaching materials increased to the necessity of authentic
materials (real discourse). The urge of integrating discourse into language
teaching was also supported by three premises of a discourse view towards
language use was proposed by Cots1 including: (i) communicative competence;
(ii) context, language variation and real data; and (iii) negotiation of intentions
and interpretation. The first premise deals with the principles of communicative
competence by Hymes2 mentioning that Hymes a learner’s capacity to
communicate in a foreign language involves knowing not only (i) whether and to
what extent a structure is formally possible (i.e., grammatical), but also whether
and to what extent it is (ii) psycologically feasible (i.e., that can be processed

1
Cots, J.M., Bringing Discourse Analysis into the Language Classroom, Links & Letters 3, 1996,
p. 77-101
2
Hymes, D., On communicative cornpetence, in .P ride, J. and Holrnes, J. (eds.), Sociolinguistics
(Hardmonsworth, England: Penguin),1972, 269-293.

1
without a great effort), (iii) appropriate and (iv) actually said. The second premise
deals with the idea that language use is varied and has different functions
depending on the context. It requires the use real instances of language use, in
which the full potential of language can be appreciated by looking at its social
effects. Lastly, the third premise bases from the notion that communication cannot
be explained as the simple transfer of pre-existing meanings. Rather, meanings are
created through the negotiation of intentions and interpretations.

III. The Key Principles of Incorporating Discourse in Language Teaching

The use of discourse as an authentic materials in language teaching should

be carefully planned in order to facilitate learning more effectively. Otherwise,
discourse tasks will be considered and done as another subject of English.
Therefore, before designing a discourse-based approach syllabus, teacher should
consider: (i) the segmentation of discourse, (ii) sequencing, (iii) selection and
presentation of instances of language use.

a. The segmentation of discourse

The discourse should be selected for its mode (written vs. spoken or dialogic vs.
monologic), genre (reporting, narrating, persuading, arguing, describing,
instructing, etc.), and strategies. Mc Carthy and Carter3 explain further about the
types of strategies that should be taken into account in immersing discourse, they
are:

1. Genre-related strategies: most frequent media, modes and genres; patterns of interaction
(narrative, problem-solution).
2. Coherence-related strategies: topic management, turn-taking, cohesion.
3. Politeness strategies: face, forms of address, reciprocity.
4. Planning strategies: anticipatory strategies (enumeration, cataphoric use of articles and
pronouns), sequences of tense, aspect and voice, appropriate degree of creativity and
risk-taking.
5. Convergence strategies: informational and cognitive convergence (theme, mood and
modality), affective convergence (solidarity routines, agreement disagreement), shared
cultural knowledge.
6. Repair strategies: risks of communicational problems and cultural misunderstandings,
self-repairl cooperative repair.

3
Mc Carthy, M, & Carter, R, (eds.) Language as discourse: Perspectives for language teaching,
(London and New York: Longrnan) , 1994, p. 180-181

2
b. Sequencing

Sequencing refers to the way/ order of presentation, including top-down approach

and bottom-up approach. Cots4 defines top-down process as “..moving from the
highest units of analysis to the lowest.” It is starting with background knowledge
and expectations about the purposed contents of the message and the structure of
the text (the sender, the intended receiver, the purpose, the genre) and looking for
confirmation of these at the lower levels. Meanwhile, bottom-up approach “..
begins with the smallest units of language (i.e. sounds, letters) and continues
through a series of inclusive levels up to the levels of the text or discourse.” The
order of these levels (from the lowest to the highest) are defined by Cook5 by:
sounds and letters, grammar and lexis, cohesion, conversational mechanisms,
discourse function, discourse structure, discourse type, shared knowledge, and
social relationships.

c. Selection and Presentation of language sample

In selecting and presenting the real language sample (discourse), there are five
principles to consider (Mc Carthy & Carter), they are:

1) The contrastive principle. The selected discourse should be able to provide

comparation or contrast with different situation/ texts between in the foreign
language and in the learner's first language.

2) The continuum principle: The selected discourse should not separate but show
contiuum role of its participants.

3) The inferencing principle: The taken sample should carry a cultural load in
order to make sense of it. Thus, inferring meaning strategies should be also taught.

4
Cots, J.M., Bringing Discourse Analysis into the Language Classroom, Links & Letters 3, 1996,
p. 97
5
Cook, G., Discourse, (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 1989, p. 80

3
4) Familiar to unfamiliar principle: the discourse-based tasks should scafffold
from simple and familiar into the more complex, elaborated and decontextualized.

5) The critical principle: the language sample could be as a means of creating

ideology beyond the language itself, but also to social issues for instance.

The following sections are two discourse-based tasks proposed by the

author deeaaling with teaching reading and speaking skills.

IV. Alice in Wonderland: Discourse-based Approach in Teaching Reading

Lesson Plan for a Discourse Based Reading Task

Level Grade X Senior High School

Skill Reading
Genre A Short-story
Text type Narrative
Topic Alice in Wonderland
Standard of Competence 5. Understanding meaning in short functional essay in the
form of narrative in the daily context to gain knowledge
Basic Competence 5.2 Responding meaning and rhetoric structure in the essay
by using accurate, fluent, and acceptable written expression
in the narrative text.
Aims - Students are able to infer the meaning of unfamiliar
words by guessing from the context (anaphora or
cataphora)
- students are able to identify the series of event in the story
- students are able to compare some cultural points in the
story with their own culture
Sources - book chapter
- movie trailer (Youtube)
- teacher made worksheets

4
Teaching Material - student worksheets
- LCD + screen
Procedures
Pre-reading activities
1) activating the students’ schemata about the story by playing the Alice in
Wonderland movie trailer
2) introducing the characters in Alice in Wonderland
3) pre-teach the vocabularies by doing matching activities
While-reading activities
1) Grouping the students into four members a group (Numbered Head)
2) Distributing the reading text to the students (the text is cut into four parts)
3) Having each member to read it silently
4) Member Number 1 are grouped together to discuss their parts, and so are member
Number 2, 3 and 4
5) distributing worksheet to be done by each member
6) Asking representation from each Number to present their part, the other Numbers
are asking some questions (when they don’t understand)
7) Asking each number to get back to their initial groups, and letting them read the
whole part of the story
8) delivering a worksheet to be done by the group
9) asking the students about the genre of the text, and explaining what the genre is
usually used for
Post-Reading activities
1) Retelling the stories (giving a quiz)
2) Comparing some cultural points from the story (worksheet)

Discussion

This discourse-based task is using Alice in Wonderland book chapter

aiming at checking the students’ comprehension on narrative text. Pre-reading
activities are designed to develop the students’ schemata, reconstructing their

5
prior knowledge about the characters in the story. Related to the Cots’s principle
of discourse syllabus, the Segmentation of this task is written and dialogic mode.
The genre is narrative, and the strategies required is genre-related strategies for
problem-solution. From the perspective of Sequencing, this task is designed
through Top-Bottom Approach, where the students are presented the characters,
the genre of the texts, the setting, and such at the beginning (pre-reading activity 1
and 2). Then, it leads to the more complex tasks, like “inferencing meaning of the
unfamiliar words” in activity 3. The selection and presentation of the discourse is
following the Constrastive principle where the students are asked to compare
some cultural points from the novel to their own culture.

While-reading activities are designed with the communicative language

teaching approch by Number-Head Together strategies (the numbering of each
group is selected carefully by mixing up higher competency and lower
competency learners). Activity 1 to 5 are hoped that the students can gather better
understanding by discussing the text together. Activity 5 is to encourage the
students’ comprehension in negotiating the meaning of some phrases or sentences
in the text. In this activity, some strategies like guessing from context, referring
back (anaphoric) or referring forward (cataphoric), looking at the synonyms, and
else. Activity 7 and 8 is aimed at letting the students to comprehend the whole text
and doing a genre-related tasks by answering some comprehension questions (to
find general and specific information from the text).

Lastly, the post-reading activities are aimed at connecting the text and the
students’ daily life by comparing and contrasting some cultural points from the
Alice in Wonderland novel chapter. This is essential for raising the students’
awareness about some similarities and difference among culture which could
expand their horizon and enrich their glossaries of moral values.

6
V. TEDx Talk: Discourse-Based Approach in Teaching Speaking

A Lesson Plan for A Discourse-Based Speaking Task

Level Grade X Senior High School

Skill Speaking
Genre A Monologue
Text type Narrative
Topic Youth Movement
Standard of Competence 4. Expressing meaning in short functional spoken text and
monologue in the form of narrative in a daily life context.

Basic Competence 4.2 Expressing meaning and rhetoric structure in the essay
by using accurate, fluent, and acceptable spoken expression
in the narrative text.
Aims - Students are able to make sentences in simple past tense
- Students are able to present a monologue in the narrative
text about the Youth Movement and Their Ideas
Sources - Talk/ presentation (from TED.com)
- teacher made worksheets
Teaching Material - student worksheets
- LCD + screen
Procedures
Pre-speaking activities
1) Opening the lesson
2) Leading the students’ attention to the topic (by showing some pictures of young
activist like Iman Usman (Indonesian Future Leader activist), Amilia Agustin (A high
school student whose campaign is anti-rubbish at school), and some others
3) Introducing a name of a speaker (Natalie Warne) who gave a talk at TEDxTeen
conference (she was the young activist from Southern California)
4) Playing the video presentation of Natalie Warne

7
5) Asking the students to fill out their worksheet while watching the presentation (the
worskheet contains some points to find, like: “who inspire her when she was a little
kid?”, “what makes her change?”, “what kind of disease that her movement is about?”,
and so on.
6) asking the students about some people (friends, family, or acquaintance) that inspire
them
7) asking them to fill out a speaking outline
- what did you want to be when you were a little kid?
- who is/ are the people in your family who inspire you a lot? Why?
- who is/ are public figure who become your role model? Why?
- what events in your life that motivates you to do best in your life?
- in your age now, what do you think you have achieved?
- if you are given a chance and fund to make a movement, what movement will you
make? Can you describe it?
8) Students are given 30 minutes to prepare their speech
While-speaking activities
1) delivering checklist and scoring scale to each students
2) asking the students to fill out the checklist and scoring scale when their friends are
presenting in front of the class.
3) recording the students’ presentation (to be used as the assessment later)
4) giving comments in the comment sheet
Post-Speaking activities
1) leading a voting for the best speakers of the day
2) giving some tips on giving a powerful talk

Discussion

Different from the previous task, the segmentation of this discourse is

monologic spoken discourse with the genre of persuading. According to Mc
Carthy and Carter, the strategies incorporated in this task is coherence-related
strategies where the learnes are required to construct a cohesive and coherence

8
talk about their motivating youth movement project plan. The sequence of this
task is bottom-up approach, in which the students are exposed to the complexity
of the discourse before analyzing the parts or the elements of the talk. The
selection and presentation of the discourse follows the critical principle to create
ideology for social issues.

This discourse-based task involves a conference talk by a native English

speaker at the normal speed. 100% comprehension of this talk is impossible to my
students, but meaning inferencing could be possible. When they know what
information they need to find, they will focus on this task instead of listening
every single word. For this reason, students are given a worksheet where they will
find out some required information about the speech. The list of the questions are
chosen carefully as such so that it could cover the overall meaning of the talk.

As this task is a productive one, the preparation stage spend the most of
the time. Activity 2 to 5 are aimed at giving input to the students about a narrative
persuasive speech. Activity 6 to 8 are purposed to dig up the students’ own
knowledge about the topic, could be from their own experience, observation, or
their ideas. This draft writing could be the hardest part for the students as they
need to cover some aspects at the same time: the content of their speech, the way
they communicate, and the audience expectation.

The while-speaking activities provide opportunity for peer-assessment

towards the presenters’ talk. This could be a bias but informative activity to do as
the scoring scale informs the presenter about the strength and the weakness of the
presentation and it will be a constructive comment for the future presentation.
This while-speaking activity is also a medium for negotiating meaning to the
audience. The presenters can use gestures, mime, facial expressions, visual aids to
help them communicating their ideas.

The post-speaking activities are designed to appreciate the effort of the

students. There are two best speakers: students’ choice and teacher’s choice.

9
These activities are also meant to motivate the students by giving constructive tips
for giving powerful talk.

VI. Conclusion

The main goal for every language teachers is to facilitate the learners’ into
a communicative language users. Cots adds “help our learners to become efficient
and effective participants in real communicative situations and that this involves
more than the knowledge and skills necessary to manipulate the structures of a
language, then we must inevitably appeal to a theory of language use that attempts
to integrate its social, cognitive and linguistic strands.” Therefore, integrating
discourse into language teaching is a powerful tool to expand the learners’ real
language input and widen their knowledge about meta-language aspects. From the
two proposed tasks, it can be drawn a conclusion that it needs a teacher effort to
scaffold this discourse so that it makes sense to the students. Pre-teaching the
vocabularies, providing the setting of the story, playing a short video about the
discourse are some of the ways to familiarize the students with the sociocultural
aspects of the discourse. Reinforcing the students for noticing some forms that
need inferencing is also needed. Students should be guided to do so by giving
some exercises like “find these words to their synonyms from the text”, or “guess
this reference mean” (it – in line 10, they – in line 7, she – in line 40) and so on.
More importantly, raising the students’ awareness towards the meta-language
aspects are essential. Analyzing the purpose of one’s talk, analyzing the cultural
points, and analyzing the moral values are some activities that can be done.

10
Bibliography

Cook, G., Discourse, (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 1989

Cots, J.M., Bringing Discourse Analysis into the Language Classroom, Links & Letters 3,
1996 p. 77-101

Hymes, D., On communicative cornpetence, in .P ride, J. and Holrnes, J. (eds.),

Sociolinguistics (Hardmonsworth, England: Penguin),1972, 269-293

Kurikulum Satuan Tingkat Pendidikan, Bahasa Inggris SMA/MA.

Mc Carthy, M, & Carter, R, (eds.) Language as discourse: Perspectives for

language teaching, (London and New York: Longrnan) , 1994

Warne, N. Being Young and Giving Impact. TEDxTeen Talk April 2011.
Retrieved at http://www.ted.com/

11
 Appendix 1

Reading Text : Alice in Wonderland Chapter 1

Down the Rabbit-Hole

ALICE WAS BEGINNING to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of
having nothing to do; once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was
reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “And what is the use of a book,”
thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”
So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made
her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would
be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White
Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it sovery much out
of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!”
(When she thought it over afterward, it occurred to her that she ought to have
wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit
actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried
on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before
seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket or a watch to take out of it, and, burning
with curiosity she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down
a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world
she was to get out again.

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped
suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping
herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.

Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as
she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next.
First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too
dark to see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they
were filled with cupboards and bookshelves: here and there she saw maps and
pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she
passed; it was labelled “ORANGE MARMALADE,” but to her great disappointment it

12
was empty; she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody underneath, so
managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.

“Well,” thought Alice to herself, “after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of
tumbling down stairs. How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say
anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house.” (Which was very likely true.)

Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end? “I wonder how many miles
I've fallen by this time?” she said aloud. “I must be getting somewhere near the
center of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think” (for,
you see, Alice had learned several things of this sort in her lessons in the
schoolroom, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her
knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it
over) “yes, that's about the right distance—but then I wonder
what latitude or longitude I've got to?” (Alice had not the slightest idea what latitude
was or longitude either, but she thought they were nice grand words to say.)
Presently she began again. “I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny
it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward!
The Antipathies, I think” (she was rather glad there was no one listening this time, as
it didn't sound at all the right word), “but I shall have to ask them what the name of
the country is, you know. Please, ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?” (and she
tried to courtsey as she spoke—fancy courtseying as you're falling through the air!
Do you think you could manage it?) “And what an ignorant little girl she'll think me for
asking! No, it'll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.”
Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again.
“Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!” (Dinah was the cat.) “I hope
they'll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah, my dear! I wish you were
down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you might catch a
bat, and that's very like a mouse you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?” And
here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort
of way, “Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?” and sometimes, “Do bats eat cats?” for,
you see, as she couldn't answer either question, it didn't much matter which way she
put it. She felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was
walking hand in hand with Dinah, and was saying to her very earnestly, “Now, Dinah,
tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?” when suddenly, thump! thump! down she
came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.
Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in a moment: she looked
up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another long passage, and the White

13
Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away
went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner. “Oh,
my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!” She was close behind it when she turned
the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found herself in a long, low
hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof.

There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked, and when Alice had
been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly
down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again. Suddenly she came
upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass; there was nothing on it but a
tiny golden key, and Alice's first idea was that this might belong to one of the doors of
the hall; but alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but at any
rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second time round, she came
upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about
fifteen inches high; she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it
fitted!

Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger
than a rat-hole; she knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest
garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about
among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even
get her head through the doorway; “and even if my head would go through,” thought
poor Alice, “it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could
shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only knew how to begin.” For, you see, so
many out-of-the-way things had happened lately that Alice had begun to think that
very few things indeed were really impossible.

There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she went back to the
table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at any rate a book of rules for
shutting people up like telescopes: this time she found a little bottle on it (“which
certainly was not here before,” said Alice), and tied round the neck of the bottle was a
paper label with the words “DRINK ME” beautifully printed on it in large letters.

It was all very well to say “Drink me,” but the wise little Alice was not going to
do that in a hurry: “No, I'll look first,” she said, “and see whether it's
marked ‘poison’ or not”; for she had read several nice little stories about children who
had got burned, and eaten up by wild beasts, and other unpleasant things, all
because they would not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them,
such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut

14
your finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten
that, if you drink much from a bottle marked “poison,” it is almost certain to disagree
with you, sooner or later.
However, this bottle was not marked “poison,” so Alice ventured to taste it, and
finding it very nice (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavor of cherry tart, custard, pine
apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast), she very soon finished it off.
*****
“What a curious feeling!” said Alice, “I must be shutting up like a telescope.”
And so it was indeed; she was now only ten inches high, and her face brightened up
at the thought that she was now the right size for going through the little door into that
lovely garden. First, however, she waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to
shrink any further; she felt a little nervous about this, “for it might end, you know,”
said Alice to herself, “in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should
be like then?” And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle looks like after the
candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing.
After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on going into the
garden at once, but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to the door, she found she had
forgotten the little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it, she found
she could not possibly reach it; she could see it quite plainly through the glass, and
she tried her best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery, and
when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried.

“Come, there's no use in crying like that!” said Alice to herself, rather sharply; “I
advise you to leave off this minute!” She generally gave herself very good advice
(though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely
as to bring tears into her eyes, and once she remembered trying to box her own ears
for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, for
this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. “But it's no use now,”
thought poor Alice, “to pretend to be two people! Why, there's hardly enough of me
left to make one respectable person!”
Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table; she opened it,
and found in it a very small cake, on which the words “EAT ME” were beautifully
marked in currants. “Well, I'll eat it,” said Alice, “and if it makes me grow larger, I can
reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either
way I'll get into the garden, and I don't care which happens.”
She ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself “Which way? Which way?” holding
her hand on the top of her head to feel which way it was growing, and she was quite

15
surprised to find that she remained the same size; to be sure, this is what generally
happens when one eats cake, but Alice had got so much into the way of expecting
nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for
life to go on in the common way.

So she set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.

*****

 Alice – Alice's character represents Alice Pleasance Liddell, who was one of
three daughters of the professor and Dean of Christ Church College in Oxford,
England.
 remarkable – outstanding, striking
 latitude – the distance north or south of the equator, measured in degrees
 longitude – the distance east or west of the earth's surface, measured in
degrees
 Antipathies – a pun on Antipodes, which was a 19th century term that applied
to Australia and New Zealand; prior to the discovery of these islands, it was
thought that people who lived in these unknown countries had their heads where
their feet should be and vice versa.
 earnestly – seriously, sincerely
 poker – a metal rod used to stir ashes in a fireplace
 ventured – took the risk
 * * * * * * – these symbols are indications Carroll uses to show the passage of
time
 curious – strange
 fancy – imagine
 croquet – a game in which players hit wooden balls through hoops
 “...the curious child...two people.” – This quote emphasizes Alice's loss of
identity. During the early chapters, Alice is portrayed as a child who has a poor
sense of self; she lacks confidence and decisiveness because she is still
growing and learning about herself. Alice's poor self-image lends to the thematic
concept of identity that runs through Alice in Wonderland.
Throughout the novel, Carroll does not use third-person omnipotent narration;
instead, the narrator reveals Alice's emotions and feelings only as she
experiences them. Therefore, some critics believe that the narrator is actually a
level of Alice's personality.
 currants – berries

16
Comprehension Questions:

1) Alice took a jar off the shelf. What did it say on it?

2) What is the name of Alice's cat?

3) How many legs did the table have?

4) What did Alice find on the table the first time?

5) What did the bottle say on it?

6) What is Alice's term for shrinking?

7) What did the box under the table say on it?

Activities and Links:

List five things that you find similar to your culture and list five things different
from yours.

17
Appendix 2

Pre-presentation

Biography of Natalie Warne

When she was 17, Natalie Warne learned about the Invisible Children Project -- a
campaign to rescue Ugandan children from Joseph Kony’s child armies. As an
intern for Invisible Children, she led a nation-wide campaign for the project. She
successfully got the campaign featured on the Oprah Winfrey show, a victory that
dramatically raised the profile of the movement. Natalie now works as a film
editor in Los Angeles.

Speaking task- outline

What’s your name?

What’s your age?

What did you want to be when you

were a little kid?

Who is/ are people in your family

that you admire / inspire you a lot?

Why?
Who is / are public figure who
inspire you?

What are some experiences in the

past that motivates you to do the
best?

In your age now, what do you think

you can do for:
- family
- your life
- others (society)?

If you are given a chance to make a

youth movement, what movement
will you make?

Tell more about it.

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