Learning Language Through Literature: A Sourcebook for Teachers of English in Hong Kong

Chapter 5. The Use of Children's Literature in the English Primary Classroom

C H A P T E R฀ The฀Use฀of฀Children's฀Literature฀in฀the฀ English฀Primary฀Classroom฀ John฀Harris฀and ฀Madeleine฀Leung฀ INTRODUCTION฀ This chapte r discusse s a special serie s entitle d 'Children' s Literatur e i n th e English Primar y Classroom ' recentl y produce d fo r classroo m us e b y th e Educational Television . Wha t make s thi s serie s differen t fro m th e regula r English ETV programmes is that every programme is devoted to reading and telling stories to children presented in a range of techniques. All the stories are authentic storybook s writte n for English speakin g childre n whic h have been selected a s being suitabl e fo r thos e learning Englis h a s a secon d o r foreig n language. The overall aim is to motivate pupils to leam English through reading and telling stories. The objectives of this 'Children' s Literature' series are as follows: 1. t o promote the use of authentic stor y texts for a wide variety o f Englis h language and learning activities; 2. t o provide an opportunity for young learners to share the joy of listenin g to and telling stories; 3. t o introduce teachers and young learners to a range of techniques for telling stories; 4. t o help develop children's imagination and creativity through a sharing of experiences in different storie s in which they identify wit h the characters, try t o interpret th e narrative an d illustration s an d respon d t o individua l circumstances or events. 74฀Joh n฀Harris฀and฀Madeleine฀Leung฀ PRE-READING฀QUESTION S฀ It might be helpful for the reader to think about the following three questions before reading the chapter: 1. Wha t arguments have been presented in previous chapters for the use of stories in the primary English language classroom? 2. I n what ways can stories on television assist the teacher? 3. Shoul d storie s o n television replac e the teacher tellin g storie s i n the classroom? CHILDREN'S฀LITERATUR E฀ The title of this special series is 'Children's Literature in the English Primary Classroom'. We would like to offer a brief definition of children's literature in this context. It certainly does not mean everything that local booksellers classify on their shelves as books for children. Rather, we take it to include texts written for a readership of children that are narratives, poems or rhymes; that is, texts written by authors whose primary aim is to shape and share experiences, to entertain and to create vital patterns of language without any prior intent to control vocabulary or grammatical structures. We take it also to include those folk and fairy tales and traditional rhymes that were not necessarily created in the first place for children but that have become, through their use in societies, part of the heritage of delight available to children. Such tales are a part of every culture. In them, many of the cultural values of a society are to be found and through them, those cultural value s are transmitted t o generation afte r generation. THE฀VALUE฀OF฀STORIE S฀ Authentic฀Tex t฀ How can children's literature assist language development? To make it very clear and simple, authentic storybooks for children contain authentic language we all want to teach in an English curriculum. 'Authentic' is a word much in vogue in discussions of language teaching. We would lik e to defin e wha t w e mean by the word 'authentic' . Fo r us, 'authentic' means the written and spoken language used every day in alanguage community. This encompasses language use on a broad spectrum of formality to informality dependen t on subject an d context. It will also mean that the language used is not, in an arbitrary way, homogenized or made suitable for children according to some preconceived notions of what constitutes ease of access. The฀Use฀of฀Children's฀Literature฀in฀the฀English฀Primary฀Classroom฀7 5฀ As an example, let us look at the following text which is from the beginning of Panda 1A, a series of English language readers for Hong Kong schools. 1฀Thi s฀is฀Tom.฀This฀is฀Linda.฀ Good฀morning,฀Tom.฀ Good฀morning,฀Linda.฀ I฀am฀Tom.฀ I฀am฀Linda.฀ 5...