Topic 15C

Topic 15B – Times, authors and genres suitable for application in teaching English class. Types of texts.
- Oposinet 5/10/21 12:11
1. INTRODUCTION
If we consider that level is what students can actually do with the

language, it will become obvious that even at the early stages students
can in fact do a great deal with the language: They can identify sounds
(vowels. consonants, intonation, stress, rhythm), certain words and
structures. They can produce these orally; recognize them in a text and, at
the very least, underline words, if they can’t actually set them down on a
separate sheet of paper. In short, even the very beginners can do
something with the language. The teacher then must build from that point
by adding input which is neither too advanced, nor too easy. The input
must be motivating enough for them to want to try to understand, first,
and then try to reproduce in some way.
Cinema, music, and literature are rich in motivating material, if the

teacher knows how to select and to present content in such a way that it
will both challenge and motivate them.
2. CONTENTS
2.1. The literary genres and Figures in EFL
The English language is certainly rich in literary figures and genres; and
the literary ages are full of intriguing aspects that students can find
extremely motivating. Chaucer, for example, is not merely an author who
wrote a few famous tales in a strange dialect that nobody uses today. But
rather he tells some very good stories which, if a teacher can get beyond
the purely academic side of the great literary figure, could well be
introduced to students in such a way that suits their particular age group
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Topic 15B – Times, authors and genres suitable for application in teaching English class. Types of texts. - Oposinet 5/10/21 12:11
introduced to students in such a way that suits their particular age group
and level. The Canterbury Tales, for example, is tremendously full of
material that will motivate students. As long as the teacher knows how to
select and to present the content (keeping in mind Krashen’s model of
“input + 1” (input just a little above the students’ level) a great many
literary figures can be successfully used in TEFL.
Without forgetting, of course, that literature must be suitable to the

students’ level and age group, and that any text can be adapted to suit
the needs and capabilities of EFL students, the following is a selection of
authors. genres, and periods that could be used in TEFL.
2.2. Well-known tales
The following are some of the well known tales which are often published
in colourful and easy-to-read graded readers: “The elves and the
shoemaker,” “The three little pigs,” “The gingerbread boy,” “The little red
hen,” “The princess and the pea,” “The sly fox and the little red hen,” “The
three billy-goats gruff,” “Chicken licken,” “The three bears,” “The ugly
duckling,” “The emperor’s new clothes,” “Town mouse and country
mouse.,”Sleeping beauty,” “Puss in boots,” “Rumpelstiltskin Rapunzel,” “The
wolf and the seven little kids,” “Little red riding hood,” The brave tailor,”
“Jack and the beanstalk,” “Hansel and Gretel,” “Cinderella,” “Beauty and
the, beast,” “Snow White and the seven dwarfs,” “Tomb Thumb”, “The little
mermaid,” and “The Wizard of Oz” (“Well-loved tales” Ladybird: 1966).
o Well-Know Rhymes
Additionally, the following are a few well known rhymes and songs: “One,
two, put on your shoe,“ “Where is thumbkin,” “Polly put the kettle on,” “Rain,
rain, go away,” Two little birds sitting on a wall,” This is the way,” “Old
Mlacdonald had a farm,” “Hickory, dickory. Dock,” “Diddle, diddle,
dumpling,” “This little pig,” “This old man”, “Baa, bas, black sheep,” “Three
blind mice,” “Here is a church,” ”Insey winsey spider,” “Pat a cake,” “Pussy
cat, Pussy cat,” “Humpty dumpty,” “Ride a cock horse,” “Jack and Jill,” “Hey
diddle, diddle,” “Little miss muffet,” “Little Jack horner,” “Wee Willie Winkie,”
“One potato, two potatoes,” “Ten green bottles,” “Eeny, meeny, miny, mo,”
“There was a girl,” “It’s raining, it’s pouring,” “Fie, fie, foe, fum,” “The brave
old Duke of York,” “There’s a hole in my bucket”, “There was an old woman
who lived in a shoe.” “Hush little baby,” “Little bo-peep,” “Sing a song of
sixpence,” “Oh dear, what can the matter be?,” “Little boy blue The house
that Jack built,” “She sells seashells,” “Peter piper.” “Thirty days has
September,” There was an old woman who swallowed a fly,” “Ten green
and speckled frogs The owl and the Pussy cat,” (Dakin 1968).
2.4. British Authors and Texts
Beowulf The text, in Old English. is from the 10th-cent. But it was believed
written in the 6th-cent. The tale is about the life of the Geatish hero
Beowulf who in his youth fights and kills Grendel, a monster and then kills
the monster’s mother. Fifty years later he battles a dragon and both are
killed.
Chaucer’s The Canterbury tales, in prose and verse, was written in the late
14th-cent. The story begins when twenty-nine pilgrims on their way to
Canterbury agree to tell tales as they go to make the time pass by
quicker. There are twenty-four tales told altogether. They include the
following: “The knight’s tale,” “The miller’s tale,” “The reeve’s tale The cook’s
tale,” “The man of law’s tale,” “The wife of bath’s tale,” “The friar’s Tale,” “The
summoner’s tale,” “The clerk’s tale,” “The merchant’s tale,” “The squire’s
tale The Franklin’s tale,” “The physician’s tale The pardoner’s tale,” etc.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an alliterative poem from the second
half of the 14th-cent. The story begins at King Arthur’s court in Camelot
during a new year’s feast. A large green man appears and dares the
knights to cut his head off. Young Gawain obliges him, after accepting the
challenge that he will allow his own head to be cut off on the same day
the following year. The Green Knight picks up his severed head and retires.
the following year. The Green Knight picks up his severed head and retires.
A year later, Gawain sets out to meet his fate, coming to a castle, where he
is invited in as a guest. The lord of the castle comes to an agreement with
him, that whatever comes to pass the young knight will report it to the
lord. When the lord’s wife tries to seduce him, he resists. but the lady insists
and he allows her at last to make a present to him of her garter. He does
not report this to the lord of the castle who reveals his true identity: he is
the Green Knight. The Green Knight honors him for his honesty and
courage, and pardons Gawain the debt he has come to pay. Nevertheless,
he cuts the young knight’s neck with his axe, for not telling him about his
wife’s garter.
Piers Plowman, a late 14th-cent. poem in Middle English by William

Langland, tells of how the narrator fell asleep in the forest one day and of
the many things that passed in his dream.
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86) is an attractive figure: He was a romantic poet

and a courageous knight who was killed in Flanders in an attack he led on
a Spanish supply convoy. There are aspects of his life-if not some of his
literary work-which students would find interesting.
Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-99) was author of, among other works, The
Faerie Queene, which contains some interesting material about courtiers
and knights, dragons and medieval castles. Spenser’s life is of some
interest, especially his friendship with Sir Walter Raleigh and his encounter
with the Irish people.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) has a great many plays which are of

particular interest to the young. His history plays are full of intriguing
stories of English kings and queens (Henry VIII, Richard III). There are parts
of some of his tragedies which are particularly motivating, such as the
three witches in Macbeth, or the ghost scene in Hamlet, and of course,
Romeo and Juliet attracts much attention among the young. Seviral of his
comedies are appealing to young students, especially A Midsummer
Night’s Dream and The Tempest , both of which have a good many,
Night’s Dream and The Tempest , both of which have a good many,
scenes involving youths about the same age as the students.
Though the “metaphysical” writings of John Donne (1572-1631) are very

difficult to appreciate, the life of the man can be of interest to you and
students. The poet sailed with Essex to sack Cadiz in 1596 and with Raleigh
to hunt the Spanish treasure ships off the Azores in 1597.
Ben Jonson (1572/3-1637) is another intriguing literary figure whose life is

of particular interest to students. Coming from the lower class, he
struggled to educate himself and eventually became one of the known
playwrights in England. Parts of his comedies are motivating: Volpone is
about a man who pretends he dying to get money from people who
pretend to be honest but are in fact rogues. He wrote The Masque
ofBlackness for Queen Anne because she had always wanted to appear
on stage as a Negress. And The Alchemist is an hilarious comedy about a
servant, Face, who, with a fake alchemist, takes advantage of the absence
of the owner of a house in Blackfriars in London during an epidemic. They
use the house to trick roguish people out of money.
John Milton (1608-74) lived during a very crucial period in the history of
Britain. He was a Puritan who sided with those who favored the execution
of King Charles I. The subject of the civil war is intriguing and full of
anecdotes. Milton’s Paradise Lost, an epic poem in twelve books written in
blank verse, is the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. The
character of Satan was unique in that the demon was presented in very
humanlike, and at times sympathetic, terms. There are scenes in long the
poem that are worth summarizing, such as when Satan, Beezelbub, and
the legions of the rebellious angels have an assembly; or when Satan and
Eve first meet.
Aphra Behn (1640?-1689) is a tremendously intriguing figure. She was a

spy for King Charles II and worked under cover in Antwerp during the
Dutch war. Her play The Rover is about the adventures of a band of English
Dutch war. Her play The Rover is about the adventures of a band of English
cavaliers in Naples and Madrid. And Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave, one of
the first novels ever written, is about Africans who are captured and sold
into slavery in South America. The novel is full of interesting anecdotes.
Animals were used in “Books for boys and girls” and “Country rhymes for
children”, published in 1686. The stories had a moral to teach. They were
well known not only in Britain but also in Italy, France, and Spain.
Furthermore, some of the verse from “Divine and moral songs for children”
are still heard to this day: “How doth the little busy bee?”
DanielDefoe(1660-1731) is best known fo rhis nove “RobinsonCrusoe” .The

time in which he wrote is particularly interesting, since it coincided with
the growth of the colonies in North America. The novel is based on the
experiences of Alexander Selkirk on the island of Juan Fernandez. The
relationship between the shipwrecked Robinson and an indigenous
inhabitant of a deserted island is of particular interest.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is especially well known for his Gullivers

Travels, about a shipwrecked surgeon on the island of Lilliput, where the
inhabitants are a mere six inches high. In the second part, the surgeon is
shipwrecked on an island where the inhabitants are as tall steeples. In the
third part, the surgeon finds himself on a flying island, and in the fourth
part he is in a country ruled by horses with more sense (reason) than
most humans.
William Congreve (1 670-1729) is of inter est to young students in that he

wrote his satirical plays during the Restoration period, when the monarchy
was restored after twenty years of exile in France. Congreve, Etherege,
Farquhar, Vanbrugh, and Wycherley wrote hilarious satires in the comedy
of manners style. The fashion and the influence of the French court on
English society is an interesting topic to develop; it is something which the
comedy of manners style has preserved.
Perhaps less intriguing for the young than Defoe and Swift, loseph Addison
Perhaps less intriguing for the young than Defoe and Swift, loseph Addison
(1672-1719) and Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729) are of interest in that they
wrote for newspapers and periodicals such as the Tatler, The Spectator,
The Guardian. Journalism is a very important literary style today as it was
in Addison and Steele’s day. Comparing !he two ages and making
periodicals or newspapers in class can be quite motivating.
The writings of the poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) typify the

Neoclassical style in British literature. His poem in rhyming couplets The
Rape of the Lock is interesting as a story in itself. At a card game, a young
gentleman, enamored with a young lady, brazenly cuts off a lock of her
hair in front of everyone. It is not only an excellent piece for discussing the
manners of that time, but also representative of the kind of encounters of
a sexual nature that young people normally face.
Samuel Johnson (1 709-84) is an example of a writer who was born with

few economical means and became one of the most renowned man of
letters in the 18th-cent. His early friendship with David Garrick, before the
latter because a famous actor, is interesting, as there are many of
Boswell’s anecdotes in his biography of Johnson’s life. Rasselas, Prince of
Abysinia is a novel which is full of adventures about a young prince and
his sister on a journey to exotic far away places.
John Newbery (1713-67) was one of the earliest known publishers of

children’s books. He published fables, poems, tales and novels. “Goody
Two Shoes”, considered the first book created especially for children, may
have been written by the playwright Olvier Goldsmith (? 1 730-74) -the
author of the uproariously funny play She Stoops to Conquer-for Newbery.
In 1753, he published “The Lilliputian Magazine”, in 1762, “Tuiii Telesuupe”,
and “Mother Goose Fairy Tales” in 1765. Nursery rhymes or “verse for
children” were a mixture of popular folklore, myths and age old songs.
Having been created for entertainment more than for didactic reasons,
they tended to be playful and imaginative. It is for this reason that they
often seem strange or absurd.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97) is a tremendously appealing figure whose

life was a continuous adventure. In 1792 she went to Paris to participate in
the French Revolution, and there fell in love with an American writer, by
whom she had a daughter who would die soon afterwards. Mary
managed to escape the Reign of Terror in France. Down and out in London,
she tried to take her life, but was nurtured back to health by William
Godwin, a philosopher of anarchical opinions, with whom she later had a
daughter, Mary, who would one day marry the poet Shelley and write the
novel Frankenstein. Mary Wollstonecraft is known for her two books, A
Vindication ofthe Rights of men and A Vindication of the Rights of Women,
written two years later. She died shortly after giving birth to her daughter.
There are obviously a great many aspects worthy of attention not only
with regard to the author’s life, but also to the messages of her books.
Mary Wollstoneeraft’s daughter, Mary Wollstoneeraft Shelley (1797-1851),

eloped with the young Perey Bysshe Shelley at seventeen, and lived with
the poet abroad till his premature death in 1822. She knew Byron and Keats
very well, and her life is an example of the young romantic world view of
the early nineteenth century. Her novel Frankenstein is still an often read
classic, and many versions of it have been reenacted.
William Blake (1757-1827) is an alluring figure and his poetry, especially

Songs of innocence and of experience, and is full of material suitable for
young people. And as he was also a painter and an engraver, there are
prints available of much of his work. Songs of Innocence and of
Experience contains some very motivating poems, such as “The Chimney
Sweeper” (“When my mother died 1 was very young,/ And my father sold
me while yet my tongue/ could scarcely cry <<‘weep! ‘weep, ‘weep!>>”), or
“The Tyger” (“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright/ In the forests of the night”) or
“The Little Black Boy” (“My mother bore me in the southern wild,/ And 1 am
black, but Oh! my soul is white”). And an added plus is that his poems are
generally expressed in a very simple language.
Robert Burns (1759-96) was an extravagant figure who wrote poems in

Scottish dialect. His life is of interest: As a young man he greatly believed
in the equality of all mankind, and so he defended the cause of the French
Revolution. One of his poems, “Auld Lang Syne”, though in a language
which is difficult to understand, is still sung by a great many native
speakers of English the world over on New Years Eve: “Should auld
acquaintance be forgot,/ And never brought to min’?/ Should auld
acquaintance be forgot,/ And days o’ lang syne?/ For auld lang syne, my
dear, For auld lang syne,/ We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,/ For auld lang
syne.”
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was a poet who was in favour of the

French Revolution when he was young, but who later spoke out against it.
He left a French girl, with child and returned to England and settled down
with his sister Dorothy. His Lyrical Ballads, which he coauthored with
Coleridge is considered a landmark in English Romanticism. Of particular
interest to the young is his long poem The Prelude, in which he spends a
great deal of time speaking about his infancy and school days. The
psychological insight into his childhood experience is remarkable.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) as a young man was an idealist who

favoured the French Revolution and in 1794, along with Robert Southey,
planned to start a Pantisocratic commune in America, which never came
to be. Coleridge became addicted to opium, as did people in Britain in the
early 19th-cent. after doctors prescribed huge quantities of laudanum
(opium dissolved in alcohol) to ease pain. There is a lot to his long poem
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” that can be adapted: A ship in the South
Pole region runs into a streak of very bad luck when a madner kills an
albatross for no particular reason. The story is told by the mariner, and the
scenes he narrates command attention.
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) wrote novels of medieval subjects which were
popular in Britain and America. “lvanhoe” is still widely, read among young
people: In it, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, son of a noble Saxon, joins Richard the Lion
Hearted at the Crusade in the Holy Land. John, Richard’s younger brother,
tries to overthrow him in his absence. Ivanhoe helps Richard restore
authority. In the novel, Robin Hood and Friar Tuck also appear. Other
novels by Scott include The Monastery, The Abbot, and Tales ofv the
Crusades.
George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) belonged to the generation of English

Romantic poets that followed Wordsworth and Coleridge. He gave up a
seat in the House of Lords to live in exile. His poem “Childe Harold’s
Pilgrimage” made him famous in 1812. The poem describes the poet’s
travels, among other places, through Portugal and Spain. Byron’s personal
life was the talk of Europe at the time, for he was rich and handsome and
notorious for his escapades of pleasure and “sinful” behaviour. He is said
to have swum the Hellespont with a friend for the fun of it. His “Don Juan”
contains parts which young Spaniards may find interesting, especially the
part that describes Juan as a youngster in Seville and, when he gets older,
his mother, “Donna” Inez, sends him away to Cadiz and then abroad. He
was also an idealist who armed a body of troops with his own money in
order to help the Greeks in their filht against the Turks. He died of fever,
though, before the “Byron Brigade” saw real action.
The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1922) was a friend of Byron. As a

student at Oxford, he was notorious for his unconventional dress and his
eccentricity. He was a rebel, denouncing royalty, and a vegetarian. He
eloped with Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft when she was seventeen, and he
lived abroad for the remainder of his life. “Prometheus Unbound” is
perhaps the most promising of his poems for the EFL teacher. Prometheus
is said to have disobeyed Zeus by teaching mankind how to use fire.
Shelley has him chained to a rock as punishment for disobeying the
supreme god. But Prometheus does not repent his act, and in the end,
Prometheus triumphs over tyrany. Shelley was drowned when, returning
from visiting Byron, his boat capsized near Livomo.
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John Keats (1795-1821) was a friend of Shelley. He didn’t write poetry until
he was eighteen, and just in a few years he had earned a name for
himself and had a very successful future ahead of him. But he died of
tuberculosis at the age of twenty-six. His poem “The Eve of St. Agnis” is
particularly promising in its treatment of legend that says that if a young
girl performs a certain ritual, she will dream of her future husband on the
evening before St. Agnes’ Day (January 21st). Keats writes a breathtaking
story of how a young maid is visited that night by a youn z man who is in
love with her, and what betides them.
AlfredTennyson(1809-92) was a popular poet in both England and the

UnitedStates. One of his most often read poems still is “The Charge of the
Light Brigade,” which he wrote after reading in The Times about a heroic
cavalry charge at Balaclava during the Crimean War in which three
quarters of the six hundred cavalrymen were killed or captured by the
Russians who defended the position.
Another example of expatriate English writers were the poets Robert

Browning (1812-89) and Elizabeth Browning (1806-61) who were married in
1846 and went to live in Italy. The fact that both were famous poets,
married, and expatriates is sufficient enough material to pursue. Robert’s
“Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister” and “Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day”
are alluring titles, but hardly material for young EFL students.
Charles Dickens (1 812-70) is by far one of the most useful authors for EFL
teachers. Especially popular are his novels David Copperfield, Oliver Twist,
and Great Expectations, and his A Christmas Carol is still customat
Yuletide reading for the yourth.
The Brontë sisters, Charlotte (1816-55), Emily (1818-48) and Anne (1820-49),
are interesting figures. Their father was an Irishman who was curate of
Haworth, Yorkshire. Their mother died in 1825, leaving them to be cared for
by their aunt. They were sent to a Clergy Daughters’ School which, it is
believed, proved to be such a harsh place that it impaired their health and
may have hastened the deaths of two elder sisters. The girls grew up
reading and admiring such authors as Byron and Walter Scott, and such
exotic tales as The Arabian Nights. The harshness of schools and
schoolmasters at that time is a subject of interest for young students, as is
the story of three girls who eventually became famous authors. Anne’s
Agnes Grey was originally published under the pseudonym Acton Bell.
Charlotte’s Jane Eyre is especially well known because of the Orson Wells
film that was made of it. And Emily’s Wuthering Heights was also made
into a film in 1994.
Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, (1832-
1898) is famous for two books which he wrote especially for children: Alice
in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Of the two, perhaps the
EFL teacher will find the former more useful: Certainly many of the scenes,
such as the rabbit rushing down the hole after consulting his watch, are
quite well known. The story of how Carrol had made up the tale to
entertain the two daughters –one of whose names was Alice- of a friend
on a boat trip offers possibilities of captivating the attention of the
students as well. He apparently later created the second tale specially for
Alice.
Roald Dahl (1926-1991) wrote some of the most popular novels for
children in recent years: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Wiiches,
Gremlins, and a many others. As a boy he was educated in English
boarding schools, and many of his novels reflect the many unpleasant
experiences he had there.
2.5. Authors and texts from the United States
Though it did have a few high spots in the early years of the Republic, The
United States had no flourishing literature of its own until the middle of the
19th-cent. It is a good idea for EFL teachers who are non-native speakers
to familiarize themselves with American authors and their works in order
to familiarize themselves with American authors and their works in order

to better understand the culture and the language that Americans use.
Though students can hardly be expected to read these authors
themselves, the teacher can help them to appreciate the literature, in the
hope that at some time in the future they will read the texts on their own.
Certainly just talking about any one of the following authors and the time
and place they lived would provide ample motivating material for EFL
class activities.
Washington Irving (1783-1859), a New Yorker, published his well known tale
“Rip Van Winkle” in 1820. Th6 still often told story is about a man who falls
asleep on a mountain and wakes up many years later to find that the
colonies have become a republic. The tale offers many possibilities of
comparing life in the U.S. before and after the Declaration of
Independence.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was a from New England Puritan stock.

His stories and novels depict some of the harshest realities of Puritanism
and its effect on people. Aside from his well known novels The Scarlet
Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, he also wrote some works for
children, such as A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales. His short story
“Young Goodman Brown” is an intriguing tale of how a man meets a
demon in the forest who invites him to a party.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was from Boston, Massachusetts, but he

spent five years in a primary school in England. His Tales of the Grotesque
and Arabesque includes one of his most famous stories, “The Fall of the
House of Usher,” a Gothic tale in which the narrator visits a childhood
friend in his decayed old mansion. Additionally, his poem “The Raven” is
still popular.
Herman Melville (1819-1891) was friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne. As a

boy, Melville sailed to Liverpool, found work on a whaler bound for the
South Seas, jumped ship and joined the US Navy, serving for three years.
From his experience on the high seas he wrote his famous novel Moby-
From his experience on the high seas he wrote his famous novel Moby-
Dick, about an obsessed captain in relentless pursuit of a great white
whale. Billy Budd, Foretopman is about a sailor who is abused by an officer
whom he strikes dead in a fit of anger and is hanged for it. A well known
short story is “Bartleby the Scrivener”, about a law-copyist who decides to
move into the office where he works in the Wall Street district of
Manhattan, and his boss’s repeated and unsuccessful efforts to get him to
leave. It is a good story for discussing how scriveners used to copy
everything by hand, and what Wall Street was like then and what it is like
now.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) was Samuel Langhome Clemens’ pseudonym. His

years growing up on the banks of the Mississippi river and later as a pilot
on the river were recreated in his two most famous novels Tom Sawyer-
about the antics of Tom in a small town- and Huckleberry Finn-about the
orphan Huck and his excursion down the Mississippi with an escaped
slave. The Prince and Pauper narrates how a prince changes places with
a beggar. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur Court is perhaps one of his
most imaginative works, telling of how a Yankee businessman is clubbed
over the head by his factory workers and comes to in during King Arthur’s
legendary reign in early medieval England. The novel can introduce a
comparison of medieval life to what life was like in the late 19th-cent. and
to modern life. Mark Twain also wrote some entertaining stories, such as
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and “Baker’s Bluejay
Yarn”.
Bret Harte (1836-1902) wrote a good many stories about life in the
American West. “Tennessee’s Partner’. “The Outcasts of Poker Flat,” and
“The Luck of Roaring Camp” provide excellent descriptions of what it was
like to live in the West. And his poem “Plain Language from Truthful
James,” does honour to a culture that respects directness and unadorned
simplicity.
Ambrose Bierce (?1842-1914) also wrote about the American West. He

Ambrose Bierce (?1842-1914) also wrote about the American West. He

served in the American Civil war. In “The Boarded Window” he narrates
what it was like in the area around Cincinnatrti, Ohio in the early 1830s,
where there is “an inmense and almost unbroken forest. The whole
reghion was sparsely settled by people of the frontier –rstless souls…
(Stegner 1957: 154).”
Henry James (1 843-1916) came from a rich family and was therefore able
to travel a great deal and to study in London, Paris, and Geneva. As a
young man he felt more at home among the European upper class
society and thus settled in Europe in 1875. His writings are a blending of
American and European world views: His novel Daisy Miller is a marvelous
example of the impact of American verve on European staidness. Daisy is
an energetic and freespirited young American whom the narrator, an
American who has spent most of his life living on the Continent and, as
such, is more European than American, becomes attracted to. But
because he is inhibited by manners and convention, he cannot get close
to her. Daisy scandalizes the members of “respectable society” with her
uninhibited language and behaviour. Other well-known novels of his
include Washington Square, The Bostonians, and Portrait oflady.
O. Henry (1862-1910), pseudonym of William Sydney, famous for his

amusing short stories which he began writing when he was in prison. “The
Ransom of Red Chief’ is about the kidnapping of a child who causes his
kidnappers so much trouble that they are willing to throw away the
ransom just to get rid of him. “The Gift of the Magi” narrates how a woman
sells her hair to buy her husband a watch chain and how he sells his
watch to buy her a set of combs for Christmas. “The Last Leaf relates how
a young lady, bedridden with pneumonia, is convinced that she will die
when the leaves fall from the trees. Her neighbour paints leaves on her
window, thus keeping her alive.
Edith Wharton (1 862-193 7) was a close friend of Henry James. And like
him, she wrote about. Americans in Europe. “Roman Fever” tells of two
elderly American ladies in Rome recalling an incident that happened to

them in, that very city when they were young.
Stephen Crane (1 871-1900) became famous at the age of twenty-four

with his novel The Red Badge of Courage about a young soldier in battle
during the American Civil War. He was a journalist and he wrote about the
Spanish-American War of 1899. He had tremendously promising career
ahead of him when, on visit to Germany, he died of tuberculosis.
Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941) was famous for Winesburg, Ohio, a

collection of short stories about life in a small town. Tar: A Midwest
Childhood is semi-autobiographical.
James Thurber (1894-1961) his humorous short stories, written for the
magazine The New Yorker of life in “middle” America were very popular.
His short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is still customary reading.
William Faulker (1897-1962), though a difficult novelist for many, wrote a

great deal from the perspective of a boy: The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay
Dying, and “Was” in Go Down Moses. A southerner from the state of
Mississippi, he served with the Canadian Air Force in the First World War
because he was not accepted in the US Air Force. His books narrate life in
the “deep” south. He won the Noble Prize in 1950. J. Blotner’s biography of
him, as recently translated and published in Spain. A reading of his
childhood would give the teacher a great deal of information about what
growing up in the South was like. Go Down Moses tells of a boy’s friendship
with an indian and his hunting a bear for the first time. And “Was” narrates
in humorous terms an incident that occurred when a slave runs off to visit
his girlfriend on a nearby plantation. One of the main characters in As I Lay
Dying narrates how his dead mother is transported in a wagon to a family
burial ground in another county.
John Steinbeck was from California. Most of his novels and stories deal
with the state. The Grapes of Wrath is about a family, the Jodes, which has
with the state. The Grapes of Wrath is about a family, the Jodes, which has
been forced off its land during the depression and tries to get to reach
State Califomia is full of immigrants who had to leave their Midwestern
homes as a result of the Great Depresion. There are children in the family
and parts would certainly interest young people. O fMice and Men is also
useful for teahers, since one of the characters is a very large man who, in
reality, is a big kid. “The Pearl” is a very good short story to consider for EFL.
He won the Noble Prize in 1962.
E. Hemingway (1 899-196 1) is particularly useful to the EFL teacher for his

close connection with Spain in the 1930s. The Sun Also Rises, Fiesta, and
For Whom the Bell Tolls are directly about Spain. The Old Man and the Sea
is about a Cuban fiisherman who catches an enormous fish he’ll never
manage to bring to port, and nobody believes him. He won toe Nobel Prize
in 1954.
J. D. Salinger (1919-) is still popular among young readers for his novel The
Catcher in the rye (1951) about an adolescent who runs from a boarding
school in a small town to New York City. And Franny and Zooey (1961) , who
is also about two adolescents, a brother and a sister, members of an
eccentric family.
Two Afro-American writers in particular offer material that can be of

interest. Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple was made into a film. It is an
excellent story about the life of an Afro-American woman in the South. It is
specially useful for the many parts it has that involve children. And Toni
Morrison, who just recently won the Novel Prize of Literature, writes
excellent stories about Afro-Americans. Her novel Beloved, which won the
Pulitzer Prize in 1988, has some good scenes involving adolescent girls.
3.- BIBLIOGRAPHY
ABRAMS, M. H., ed.: (1993). The Norton anthology of English literature.

London: W. W. Norton. CURRENT-GARCFA, E. and P. WALTON, R.: (1 982).
American short stories. 4th ed. London: Scott, Foresman and Company.
American short stories. 4th ed. London: Scott, Foresman and Company.
DAKIN, J.: (1987). Songs and rhymes for the teaching of English. Harlow:
Longman.
DRABBLE, M. and STRINGER, J. eds.: (1990). The Concise Oxford Companion

to English literature. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
SAMPSON, G.: (1970). The Concise Cambridge History of Engllish Literature.

3rd ed., rev. and enl. by R. C. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
WELL-LOVED TALES SERIES. (1974). Loughborough. Ladybird Books.
PART TWO: PRACTICAL DEVELOPMENT
1. LEVEL
3rd cycle (6th grade)
2. TIME OF SESSIONS
One week, in April, to be finished by the day dedicated to the children’s

book.
3. OBJECTIVES
3.1. General
– To read and comprehend short texts (Narrative form)
– To produce a short written text giving information
3.2. Specific
– Recognize the importance of reading habits
– Improve reading skills in the foreign language – Learn about the

– Improve reading skills in the foreign language – Learn about the

literature written in the foreign language.
4. METHODOLOGY
The methodology used should be suitable to a communicative approach

to teaching English as a foreign language. That is, taking into
consideration the age, ability and needs of the students, as well as the
criteria specified in the overall objectives of the course, the EFL teacher
should apply learning strategies which are based on learning by doing, i.e.,
task oriented strategies. The tasks required elicit a participative attitude
on the part of the learners and a guiding role on the part of the teacher.
Additionally, the teacher should help the students to learn both to think
and to do in the target language.
5. THE TEACHING UNIT: SPECIFIC CONTENTS
Conceptual:
– vocabulary: words related to literature (author/ different genres etc.)
– phonological aspects: the pronunciation of the names of the authors

worked.
– grammar structures: ‘Gulliver’s Travels by… /It is the story of… /J. Swift
was born in… and died in …
Procedural:
– group work
– note taking
– investigation in the Library.
Sociological aspects.
– cross curricular activities interactiovn
6. ACTIVITIES AND TASKS
6.1. The Teacher (T) brings several graded books tc the class and checks,
how many authors are known by students and starts the “Week of Travels
around English Literature ” (“Gulliver’s Travels”).
6.2. (T) divides students in groups of four and gives each group an
assignment: a research project on an author and his or her books.
6.3. Each group decides on its own class project which is to be finished by
the end of the week
6. 4. (T) helps students with the, re.search, bringirig all the materials from
the resource-room need (books, magazines, slides, postcards, movies,
music, etc.)
6.5. Each group will be given a big piece of butcher paper where they can
stick their work.
6.6 A class field trip to the local Library, to look for translations of the
authors selected.
6.7. Guided readings of famous stories so the students will be able to write
short sentences informing about some data (name of the author; place
and date of birth; names of the most well known books: what is the story
about and famous characters).
7. MATERIALS
The materials have already been mentioned.
8. FINAL TASK
Each group exposes its work to the rest of the class: they may paste the
information (texts, photocopies, drawings) on the wall paper and perform
something about it: Read aloud; sing a song; read a poem; perform a skit,
etc.
9. EVALUATION
(According to Theme Nº 14.)
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Topic 15B – Times, authors and genres suitable for application in teaching English class. Types of texts.

- Oposinet 5/10/21 12:11

If we consider that level is what students can actually do with the

Cinema, music, and literature are rich in motivating material, if the

2.1. The literary genres and Figures in EFL

Without forgetting, of course, that literature must be suitable to the

2.2. Well-known tales

2.4. British Authors and Texts

Piers Plowman, a late 14th-cent. poem in Middle English by William

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86) is an attractive figure: He was a romantic poet

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) has a great many plays which are of

Though the “metaphysical” writings of John Donne (1572-1631) are very

Ben Jonson (1572/3-1637) is another intriguing literary figure whose life is

Aphra Behn (1640?-1689) is a tremendously intriguing figure. She was a

DanielDefoe(1660-1731) is best known fo rhis nove “RobinsonCrusoe” .The

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is especially well known for his Gullivers

William Congreve (1 670-1729) is of inter est to young students in that he

The writings of the poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) typify the

Samuel Johnson (1 709-84) is an example of a writer who was born with

John Newbery (1713-67) was one of the earliest known publishers of

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97) is a tremendously appealing figure whose

Mary Wollstoneeraft’s daughter, Mary Wollstoneeraft Shelley (1797-1851),

William Blake (1757-1827) is an alluring figure and his poetry, especially

Robert Burns (1759-96) was an extravagant figure who wrote poems in

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was a poet who was in favour of the

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) as a young man was an idealist who

George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) belonged to the generation of English

The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1922) was a friend of Byron. As a

AlfredTennyson(1809-92) was a popular poet in both England and the

Another example of expatriate English writers were the poets Robert

2.5. Authors and texts from the United States

to familiarize themselves with American authors and their works in order

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was a from New England Puritan stock.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was from Boston, Massachusetts, but he

Herman Melville (1819-1891) was friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne. As a

Mark Twain (1835-1910) was Samuel Langhome Clemens’ pseudonym. His

Ambrose Bierce (?1842-1914) also wrote about the American West. He

Ambrose Bierce (?1842-1914) also wrote about the American West. He

O. Henry (1862-1910), pseudonym of William Sydney, famous for his

elderly American ladies in Rome recalling an incident that happened to

Stephen Crane (1 871-1900) became famous at the age of twenty-four

Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941) was famous for Winesburg, Ohio, a

William Faulker (1897-1962), though a difficult novelist for many, wrote a

E. Hemingway (1 899-196 1) is particularly useful to the EFL teacher for his

Two Afro-American writers in particular offer material that can be of

ABRAMS, M. H., ed.: (1993). The Norton anthology of English literature.

DRABBLE, M. and STRINGER, J. eds.: (1990). The Concise Oxford Companion

SAMPSON, G.: (1970). The Concise Cambridge History of Engllish Literature.

WELL-LOVED TALES SERIES. (1974). Loughborough. Ladybird Books.

PART TWO: PRACTICAL DEVELOPMENT

3rd cycle (6th grade)

One week, in April, to be finished by the day dedicated to the children’s

– To read and comprehend short texts (Narrative form)

– To produce a short written text giving information

– Recognize the importance of reading habits

– Improve reading skills in the foreign language – Learn about the

– Improve reading skills in the foreign language – Learn about the

The methodology used should be suitable to a communicative approach

5. THE TEACHING UNIT: SPECIFIC CONTENTS

– vocabulary: words related to literature (author/ different genres etc.)

– phonological aspects: the pronunciation of the names of the authors

– investigation in the Library.

– cross curricular activities interactiovn