Teaching Folktales


Term Paper, 2008

12 Pages, Grade: 2


Excerpt


Table of contents

I. Introduction

II. The Folktale
2.1 Definition and Subtypes

III. History
3.1 Origins
3.2 Functions

IV. Reasons for using folktales in school

V. Using folktales in language lessons
5.1 Focus on listening and speaking
5.2 Focus on Reading
5.3 Focus on writing
5.4 Focus on pronunciation
5.5. Folktales and language games

VI. Conclusion

Bibliography

I. Introduction

Working as a teacher can often be very difficult. There are not just the questions of how to structure the lesson or motivate the students, but also whether or not the various topics are accepted by them and helpful in learning a language. In his book “The Folktale” Thompson points out that, “The teller of stories has everywhere and always found eager listeners.”[1] As a result, folktales seem to be incorporated very easily into a lesson.

In this paper, I want to look at the use of folktales in a classroom, where English as a second language is being taught. First of all, however, I want to consider the definition of folktales and explain the hidden subtypes behind the term. Apart from looking at the origins of a folktale, or folklore in general, I want to take a look at their function. Later on, I will also discuss the reasons for using these in school. Finally, I want to provide the reader with a variety of activities that combined can be used with reading folktales.

II. The Folktale

2.1 Definition and Subtypes

Folktale is a general term for the various kinds of narrative prose literature found in the oral traditions of the world. It is used for various related types of stories, which can include legends, myths, fables, parables, allegories, fairy tales, ghost stories and many others.

Folktales can contain religious, imaginary or mythical elements and deal with the sometimes ordinary traditions of everyday life. The telling of stories appears to be culturally universal, because the different forms of folktales often resemble one another.[2]

In her book British Folk-tales and Legends K. Briggs differentiates between two major categories, Folk Narrative or Folk Fiction and Folk Legends or “Sagen”. Alongside folk narrative, the subtypes animal tales, ordinary folktales and jokes, as well as anecdotes and formula tales, are also mentioned.[3]

Legends are said to be stories of persons with important accomplishments and describe plausible, but extraordinary past events. These are represented for example through Robin Hood, Faust, Hamlet, Beowulf and many others. Myths on the other hand, usually involve supernatural beings and explain how something came to exist, with protagonists such as Prometheus or Orpheus. Furthermore, the subgroup Fables generally embrace animals, plants or inanimate objects that show human characteristics and have an obvious moral lesson (e.g.: Aesop’s fables). Parables are short narratives about human-beings that ought to teach moral and ethnic principles, told by Jesus Christ, such as “The parable of the prodigal son” or “The blind man and the lame”. Allegories, which appear in both the Old and New Testaments, are more complex, because they have a double meaning, as in the story of “Gulliver’s Travels”. Fairy Tales are normally written in prose and include magical elements such as charms, disguise and spells. They deal with the fortune or misfortune of a hero or heroine who experienced various adventures (e.g.: Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella,...).[4]

Some of the stories are rooted in real events, while most of them are completely fictitious.

They generally have no known author, and different versions of one story sometimes exist.

Folktales can include moral or psychological aspects. Usually they also incorporate entertainment value, depending upon the nature of the teller or the story, the style in which they are recounted and age of the listeners.

By describing the different subtypes of folktales it can be noted that there are numerous types of folktales, which are very useful for language teaching of different ages.[5]

However, it is important to look at the origin and function of folktales before we move on to reasons for the use in school.

III. History

3.1 Origins

Folktales belong to the more general category of folklore. The word folklore was first used by the English antiquarian William Thoms in 1846. Folklore also includes music, dances, legends, oral history, riddles or customs. Narratives cover only a small part of folklore studies. Folktales belong to the oral tradition and are passed on from one generation to the next.

The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of romantic nationalism and lead to a remodelling of oral traditions. In the 20th century ethnographers began to record folklore. One of the first sets of oral tales to be collected and published were the “Children's and Household Tales" by the Brothers Grimm in 1812.[6] The Scottish classicist and folklorist Andrew Lang and the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, being inspired by them, followed their example.[7]

Where and how the custom of telling stories generally began cannot be determined. It can, however, be assumed that folktales came into existence with the lives of people. As a result, the tales are widely distributed having been carried from tribe to tribe or continent to continent. Oral folktales above all are not fixed in writing, but depend upon human imagination and memory for their preservation. This explains why numerous version of one story sometimes exist. The German philologist Theodor Benfey studied the tales on a factual historical basis to underline the theory of European folktales originating in India.[8]

Additionally, there have been collections of tales from all over the world, such as from Indonesia, Africa, North American Indian for example or in ancient literature, such as Egypt, Babylonia or Greece. The stories may differ in subject from place to place or the conditions and purposes of tale telling may change, but they always try to suit social and individual needs. As a result, the spread and exchange of folktales continues to this day.[9]

3.2 Functions

Having looked at the origins of folktales, one can see that the stories also have various important functions.

The tales might explore a common theme in the lives of people, such as for example birth and childhood, challenge and adventure, love and marriage or death and inheritance. They sometimes also explain something about nature: why the seasons come and go, why animals look or act in a certain way or why the weather changes. Aside from telling things about a certain country (social and cultural expression or behaviour), friendship or love, they could recount the story of a brave young hero. Moral teaching also plays a significant role in many of the tales. In this matter a story can, for example, tell us about what happens to lazy children or to children who do not do as they are told.[10] Folktales do not just have moral teaching – they also exist for the purposes of entertainment. Most of the students have fun reading folktales, because they deal with everyday problems. As a result, the tales are filled with hope, dreams, sorrow and pain that we all share.

IV. Reasons for using folktales in school

An important reason for using folktales in school is that they address listeners both young and old at the same time.

Aside from raising essential questions, such as “What is our duty toward the elderly/ parents/ poor or nature?” they help to work on a variety of language items (development of language and cognitive skills). Folktales also have a time-ordered story structure, because they tell about certain events in the order they happened. The frequent redundancy and repetition of main themes, phrases, or building refrains can be especially useful for language learning, as new vocabulary and grammar are reinforced. As a consequence of the frequent repetitions readers can easily predict what is coming next, which makes it easier to understand the text as a whole. The normally simple grammar, with short sentences and past or present tenses assist in understanding the story. The concrete vocabulary, with most of the words being things you can see, feel, taste, touch and smell, is easier to grasp than abstract language. The concrete ideas, with plain and concrete goals, but with characters who represent abstract qualities, such as greed, patience, humility, arrogance, foolishness, sneakiness, and kindness, contribute to the teaching of abstract vocabulary. As we look at books with folktales nowadays, we find numerous illustrations that provide support and context for the text. Apart from making the folktale more fun to read, the pictures help with understanding difficult parts of the story and correspond directly or indirectly with the text itself. Moreover, the unique reader-writer relationship, being a kind of peer relationship and so on the same level as the student, provides for a better level of identification and interaction with the story. On the other hand, there are also important cultural aspects when teaching multicultural issues. The students are able to read stories from different cultures, which help them to build bridges between different countries, because of relational themes. They can also learn a wide variety of things about other countries, because the folktales are part of the people’s heritage and cultural identity.[11]

Folktales are important for addressing listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Additionally, folktales offer a range of activities for school lessons, which will be introduced in the next section.

V. Using folktales in language lessons

5.1 Focus on listening and speaking

There are various ways folktales can be used in a school lesson. Instead of letting the students read the story for themselves, the teacher can read it aloud (with comments on pictures) and have the students summarise it. The teacher can also tell the tale orally and have the students draw, sort pictures, complete a timeline or make an event map of the story.

Another language learning approach is the discussion of story pictures. To do this the teacher picks an illustrated folktale and lets the students tell each other what they think. Depending on the grade, the teacher can also prepare questions that help formulate an answer. It is also possible to leave out the last few pictures, so that there is more opportunity for creativity. A discussion of the pictures before reading the folktale also helps to introduce the language needed for the story. By preparing strips with sentences that summarise the tale the students have to put them in the correct order, while the teacher recounts it orally or reads it out aloud. On the other hand, the students can create a story from the strips (ambiguous strip story), then share their versions with the class and compare it to the original story. An additional use of folktales is their dramatic presentation. In this case students act out or convert a folktale into a drama and then perform their results. The activity can be varied by, for example, creating a multipart story drama, where the class is divided into groups and each group has to act out a certain part of the story. This gives the students the opportunity to use English as a means of communication and to practise their listening skills, by observing and listening to their classmates. In the Jigsaw story reconstruction activity the teacher divides a story into sections, and each group receives one section. After they have been read as a group and collected in again, the students have to retell their sections from memory and form new groups later on. The aim of the activity is to recreate the story, find the right order of sections and compare the results with the original story. Another method of practising communication skills is the multiple story scramble, where each student receives a section of several stories. In addition to talking to each other about their parts, they need to locate the other students with the same story (they are not allowed to show each other the written version of the story). Having found the other students with the other parts of the same story, they must then put the sections into the right order. This provided the students with yet another opportunity to produce language by retelling a story. The teacher, depending on the class, can give help using keywords, phrases on the board, cut-out figures or a timeline. The opportunity to share and discuss sociocultural, personal or moral issues can be provided in the form of a discussion activity, in which the skills of speaking, listening, conversational turn-taking, negotiating and relating the literature to real life can all be practised.

Additionally, to practise public speaking and listening, students can tell stories from their own culture (if it is a multicultural classroom) and provide a visual representation (timeline or text structure chart).[12]

[...]


[1] Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale, 3.

[2] cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folktale [11.3.2008]

[3] cf. Briggs, Katharine (2002). British Folk-tales and Legends, 7.

[4] cf. Cuddon, John (1985). A Dictionary of Literary Terms, 24 ff., 256/ 258/ 275/ 356/ 408.

[5] cf. Taylor, Eric (2000). Using Folktales, 4-7.

[6] cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folktale [11.3.2008]

[7] cf. http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761556135/folktales.html [11.3.2008]

[8] cf. Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale, 428-431.

[9] cf. Thompson, Stith, 3 ff.

[10] cf. Stern, Anita (1995). World Folktales. An Anthology of Multicultural Folk Literature, 2 ff.

[11] cf. Taylor, Eric. Using Folktales, 9-17.

[12] cf. Taylor, Eric. Using Folktales, 48 ff.

Excerpt out of 12 pages

Details

Title
Teaching Folktales
College
Martin Luther University
Course
Teaching English in a Postcolonial Context
Grade
2
Author
Year
2008
Pages
12
Catalog Number
V114381
ISBN (eBook)
9783640152582
ISBN (Book)
9783640154722
File size
461 KB
Language
English
Notes
better to formulate a real hypothesis
Keywords
Teaching, Folktales, Teaching, English, Postcolonial, Context
Quote paper
Margarete Misch (Author), 2008, Teaching Folktales, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/114381

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