UNIT 13 TEACHING LITERARY TEXTS-I

Structure
13.1 Objectives
13.2 Introduction
13.3 Literature and Language Acquisition
13.4 Teaching Prose
13.5 Teaching Fiction
13.6 Teaching Drama
13.7 Let Us Sum Up
13.8 References and Suggested Reading
13.9 Answers

13.1 OBJECTIVES
After going through this Unit, you should be able to:
 understand and appreciate the role of literature in second language
acquisition;
 appreciate the unique features of the different types of literary texts;
 plan teaching-learning strategies keeping in mind the uniqueness of
each type of literary text; and
 develop language skills in your learners through the teaching of literary
texts.

13.2 INTRODUCTION
Whenever a syllabus for teaching language is made, literary texts are generally
included in it. For many centuries, literature has been regarded as the best
or highest form of language, and has great prestige. For instance, in the
history of English language teaching in India, English literature was taken
as the very basis of education in English, and is still quite important. We
need to ask the question: Why is literature considered to be such an important
aspect of teaching and learning a language? Firstly, it provides interest and
motivation for learning. Telling a story, reading a story or poem which has
actions, characters and dialogues , is very interesting for learners and they
become involved in the process of learning a language without having to pay
constant attention to its rules, or doing dull grammar exercises. In this unit,
our aim is to understand how we may approach the teaching of literature, as
it is an important element in the teaching of language. We will consider the
different kinds of literary texts and see if we can adopt ways of teaching
them effectively. Prose, fiction and drama may require different approaches;
therefore our aim is to explore the means of reading and appreciating each
type of literary text.1 27
Reading Comprehension
13.3 LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
Literature provides many examples of the use of language in different
situations. Indirectly, literary texts offer items of new vocabulary and new
structures of sentences and phrases which, as they are used in context, give
the learners valuable knowledge of the use of these words and sentences.
Further, literature provides a context for communicative activities like
discussion, speaking, role-playing and other types of interaction between
learners. The literary text becomes the basis for many such activities and
exercises. Most importantly, it is the practice of reading skill in the reading
of literature that leads to the achievement of better levels of reading
comprehension. This in turn enables learners to read many other kinds of
texts and acquire knowledge of other subjects. We know that reading a
literary text is also a cognitive challenge – a kind of problem solving activity.
The reader has to decode its layers of meaning, which involves thinking
critically. Moreover, if this is linked with practice in writing, it further
develops writing skills, as well as the skill of editing. Apart from all the
above purposes, literature is a part of our cultural awareness and develops
our aesthetic sense, our enjoyment of that which is beautiful, pleasing as
well as that which helps us to understand life, human beings and society. As
Collie and Slater (1987) put it: ‘Literature provides a rich context in which
individual lexical or syntactic forms are made more memorable. Reading a
contextualized body of text, students gain familiarity with many features of
written language – the formation and function of sentences, the variety of
possible structures, the different ways of connecting ideas – which broaden
and enrich their own writing skill. The extensive reading of a play or novel
develops the students’ ability to make inference from linguistic clues, and to
deduce meaning from context…a literary text can serve as an excellent
prompt for oral work…’
To sum up, the following are the benefits of teaching literature as part of
language teaching, as given by Collie and Slater (1987):
 It provides valuable authentic material.
 It contributes to language enrichment.
 It contributes to cultural enrichment.
 It fosters personal involvement and motivation in learning.
It is clear, therefore, that the teaching of literature is an essential component
of any syllabus and its purpose should be well understood by English teachers.
However, many of these objectives will not be fulfilled if the appropriate
teaching methodology is not used. Our methodology of teaching must include
ways of making the learners read the literature, talk about it and share their
ideas, write about it, and participate in the learning and enjoyment of it.
Literature is a form of communication, and also a part of our shared culture,
and this is why we study it in the curriculum. For example, if a teacher
spends most of the time explaining the text, then the time for the other
activities, such as discussion, reading independently and finding out the
meaning, etc., will be reduced and this would not serve the various purposes
28 we have in mind when we put literature in the curriculum.
In addition to adopting the kinds of methodologies which are best suited to Teaching Literary Texts-I
our purpose, we also need to take great care in the selection of the kind of
literature we choose to include in our curriculum. The level of the learners
in terms of the stage of language development that they are in, is the most
crucial consideration. If we try to teach a very complex literary text, and the
learners do not yet have the language ability to comprehend it, they will
neither enjoy it, nor will they find it interesting to explore it further or
discuss it. Therefore, the choice of the right kinds of literature is essential
for the teaching of literature. In making this choice, we have to consider
various kinds of difficulty: the language may be difficult, or the themes or
structures may be complex and learners may not be able to deal with them.
In this regard, we cannot say that ancient texts are necessarily difficult and
modern ones are easier, because there is often a lot of complexity in modern
writing. At the same time, literature from an older time has language which
is not used in the present day, and may be difficult for young learners to
understand. The length of a piece – whether a poem, short story or prose
writing – is another factor to be considered, as longer texts may become
tedious for young children and may not hold their attention. These points
emphasise the need to take great care of the choice of texts for children,
particularly at the primary school level. There is also a strong case for
introducing writing tasks as part of the reading of literature so that students
can learn to express their own responses, articulate their feelings and opinions
and share their perceptions, which is a crucial outcome of the study of
literature.
Types of texts: Prose, Fiction and Drama
Each type of text has its own unique features. The teacher needs to understand
the nature of each kind of text as a first step towards the construction of
certain useful activities and approaches to be used in the class. In this unit,
we will look at types of texts usually written in prose – for instance, essays,
stories and plays. In the case of prose (non-fiction), there are some facts,
ideas or information being presented. Stories have a structure of events and
characters. Drama has dialogues between characters and actions. Since
these are all different types of literature, they offer different kinds of challenge
and reading experience for the language learner, at linguistic, communicative,
and cognitive levels. The different genres can be taught separately, or mixed
up. It may be useful to organize literature according to themes, and present
a unit on each theme e.g. ‘Friendship’, ‘War’, ‘Journeys’ etc., and each unit
may include a poem, a story and a prose passage on that theme. This will
sensitise readers to reading different kinds of texts and how a particular
topic can be looked at – how a ‘poetical’ treatment is unique in its own way,
how a story reveals so many dimensions, and how, in prose, a writer tries
to explain or analyse the subject. All these perspectives are enriching for the
young learners.

13.4 TEACHING PROSE

Often, prose writing is considered to be less interesting than poems or stories.
So teachers are faced with the task of motivating the children to read prose,
which usually has some information or facts in it. While poetry may have
more delight, prose is useful in learning about facts and opinions as it is
more message-oriented. Reading prose is a good exercise in understanding 29
Reading Comprehension how sentences of different kinds are constructed, and how they are organized
to convey ideas. In addition, prose also has its own pleasures – there is
‘prose rhythm’ which we can appreciate when we read a piece of prose
aloud.
For effective teaching of prose, a well-structured and short piece of prose
writing should be chosen. Let us consider the following example:
The Olympic Games are among the most prominent international sporting
events. They are a highly respected event in which nations put their best
talents forward, in a spirit of friendliness and healthy competition. The
word ‘Olympic’ comes from the word ‘Olympia’ – a place in Greece. Centuries
ago, festivals and religious ceremonies were held there in honour of the
Greek god Zeus. The ceremonies included games, held every four years, in
the summer, around mid-July. Today, the Games are held in different cities
of the world every four years, and bring together athletes from all over the
world. They are held to promote the development of physical and moral
qualities through amateur sports.
The above passage is a little over 100 words, and similar passages up to 200
words can be chosen at the elementary level, while the length of a passage
can be longer for intermediate level students. This reduces the linguistic
challenge, as the text does not appear so formidable as to deter or demotivate
the learner.
The first part of the lesson can be that of giving instructions to the children:
 Underline keywords – or -most important words in the passage.
 Underline the words in the passage which are new to you.
The first benefit of this preliminary exercise is that it encourages children
to read through the passage and scan it for important words, and unfamiliar
words. This also has two other benefits: the teacher does not explain the
words in the beginning. This allows the children a chance to read on their
own, and the teacher can assess their level of vocabulary. Then the teacher
can give the meaning or the gloss of the words which the children themselves
pointed out, instead of assuming that each and every word has to be explained.
We must remember that even if a lot of words in the passage are not clear
or known to a child, at least a few are known, and the child can fit in the
unknown into the known, if encouraged to do so. A few words e.g. ‘amateur’
can be explained.
The keywords lead us to the topic of the passage. What is it about? A title
can be discussed, with inputs from both the teacher and students. The
teacher can ask some more questions e.g. ‘What is Olympia?’, ‘What are the
Olympics?’, ‘Who takes part in the Olympics?’, ‘Why are Olympic games
held?’ etc. and ask the students to search the text for the answers. Exercises
such as completing the sentence, filling blanks e.g. ‘friendly and ________’,
‘physical and _______’, etc. are useful. The benefit of this, apart from
language practice is that the learner will have to search the passage for the
information, and will read it again and again. This is our main aim, as the
30 more they read, the more they will appreciate the qualities of the text.
Next, there can be a discussion on sports – favourite sports, last Olympics, Teaching Literary Texts-I
great sportspersons etc. There can also be a G.K. quiz about sports. After
this, the learners can turn to the passage again to study some of the language
e.g. how the past and present is described (the use of was held, were held
as opposed to are held ); the sentences which are active or passive, (e.g.
are held is passive, while bring together is active, but both occur in the
same sentence!) etc. The students become familiar with different types of
sentences and the way in which the writer may combine them. For instance,
the teacher must draw attention to the connectors between sentences which
links in the passage e.g. ‘As a result…’ ‘First of all’, Secondly, ‘At the same
time…’, ‘However’, ‘The chief aim is to show’, ‘On the contrary’ etc .
These show whether the ideas are being added together, or some opposite
ideas are being given. It tells us a lot about how our thoughts and ideas can
be composed. So it is clear that the teaching of prose can serve several
aims.
The teacher must have a knowledge of different types of prose writing.
Prose is of several types: expository ( it explains, as in certain scientific and
informative topics), argumentative ( it gives opinions, on different issues or
problems), descriptive (it gives descriptions), and narrative (narrates events).
The writer’s personality and point of view is often clearly evident in prose
writing, and this makes up the style of a particular prose work. Particularly,
a prose passage in which the first person ‘I’ is used shows the writer’s point
of view more directly. A prose writer may also address the reader directly,
using second person. In some cases a writer may use ‘we’ in a general sense
while explaining something, thus making the reader share his/her point of
view. Sometimes, a prose writer may treat a subject very seriously, or may
use satire or humour. He/she may also makes use of images and comparisons.
It is usual for prose writers to explain a general point and then give examples,
but in some cases writers start with presenting particular examples, and then
give a general conclusion.
Let us look at some examples of prose sentences which illustrate the use
of different prose styles:
Long, complex sentence, which may need to be broken up into parts e.g.
‘I have brought philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools and colleges,
to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and coffee houses.’ (Joseph
Addison)
Short, epigrammatic sentences: Reading maketh a full man, writing an
exact man and conference a ready man’ (Bacon).
Repetitive, or Biblical style: ‘Love suffreth all things, believeth all things,
endureth all things’.
Use of similies and metaphors: ‘his voice rose like a gale’, ‘the hand of
death pressed on his eyelids’ etc.
Humourous style: ‘I am, I confess, a devotee of pockets. When I go to a
tailor, and he asks me what pockets I want, I tell him: all of them. If you
have enough pockets, you seldom lose anything…’ (Robert Lynd)
Similarly, teachers can take up examples from some quotations from other
great prose writers, such as Charles Lamb, Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw. 31
Reading Comprehension These are interesting, witty, and thought-provoking. Even the tradition of
‘thought for the day’ which is often used in our schools can be used to take
up more such examples and discussed in the classroom. It develops both the
capacity for thought as well as sensitivity towards language. Perhaps children
may not be told explicitly about all these different styles, but the teachers
need to be aware of such variations and gradually make the learners familiar
with them.

Check Your Progress 1

1. List the reasons for teaching of literature as part of the language
teaching curriculum.
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2. Consider the following prose passage and write some exercises for
use in teaching this passage:
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The Ganga, especially, is the river of India, beloved of her people,
of triumph, her victories and her defeats. She has been a symbol of
India’s age long culture and civilization, ever-changing, ever-flowing,
and yet ever the same Ganga.
She reminds me of the snow covered peaks and the deep valleys of
the Himalayas, which I have loved so much, and of the rich and
vast plains, where my life and work has been cast. Smiling and
dancing in the morning sunlight, and dark and gloomy and full of
mystery as the evening shadows fall, a slow and graceful stream in
winter, and a vast roaring thing during the monsoon, broad-bosomed
as the sea, and with something of the sea’s power to destroy, the
Ganga has been to me a symbol and a memory of the part of India,
running into the present, and flowing on to the great ocean of the
future.
Jawaharlal Nehru, My Last Will and Testament
Exercise 1
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Exercise 2
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32
 Teaching Literary Texts-I
13.5 TEACHING FICTION
Stories are fascinating for children, and they don’t need much encouragement
to be involved in reading stories. However, in India, we have strong traditions
of oral story-telling, and children may like to listen rather than read. Today,
we also have visual media, such as television. Therefore, there is a real
concern regarding the development of reading habits. It is often only in the
environment of the classroom that children’s interest in reading can be
developed. Therefore, the first objective in teaching fiction may be that of
encouraging the children to read. Teachers often mistake the teaching of
fiction as explaining or recounting the story to children, but this is a re-
telling, which is bound to be different from the story itself. The teacher may
re-tell the story, or ask the children to tell it in their own words, but this can
happen only after they have read it, therefore developing their motivation for
reading and reading skills is the first priority.
The correct choice of stories is important as regards their length and their
themes. Stories read by children in elementary school are usually short
narratives of various kinds. While some stories, like fables, have a clear
moral in them, other stories may be purely about adventure, or everyday life.
Some stories have a surprise element in the end, a ‘sting in the tail’. For
teachers, it is important to appreciate these variations in story-telling. The
Russian theorists of narrative make a distinction between the story itself i.e.
the bare plot of the events, and the way it is told. The first one is called
fabula (story) and the second one is calleds juzet (discourse). We can
understand this as follows:
Story: Events are described in sequence: event A – event B – event C –
event D…. etc.
Discourse: The sequence of events can be rearranged when narrating them,
as for example: event C – event B – event A – event D, or any other
combination. It may be noticed that the narrator puts in some information
that does not occur in everyday speech, e.g. ‘he said, looking a little ashamed’,
‘she spoke with some hesitation’ adds something extra - some additional
language and meaning to the character’s speech (which indicates the discourse,
or the particular manner of telling). We need to be alert to such indications
in a fictional text as they tell us a lot about the point of view from which
the story is told.
Accordingly, a teacher may decide what method is to be adopted for teaching.
The discourse in some stories may focus more on description of characters,
or a scene, or build an atmosphere. In this case, we need to pay more
attention to the language - there may be some striking vocabulary or phrases,
some vivid description that can be a pretext for introducing more words to
the students. On the other hand, some stories may be very simple as far as
the use of language is concerned, but may have some thought, or puzzle, in
them, which is a challenge for learners to comprehend. For example, the
stories of Mulla Nasruddin, or Akbar-Birbal stories are short, but have some
insight or knowledge that the child reader will enjoy discovering by himself
or herself, rather than having the teacher explain it. Another example is the
‘Stone Soup’ story. This is a short version of the hearing story:
33
Reading Comprehension One day, a traveler reached a house, tired from walking for many hours. He
was very hungry. He knocked on the door and asked the lady of the house
for some food. She refused, saying she did not have any food in the house.
The traveler took a stone out of his bag and said: ‘I have this stone. If you
will put some water to boil, I will make soup with this stone.’ The lady put
some water to boil in a pot.
He put the stone in the pot, and when the water began to boil, he said: ‘Ah,
now it only needs some salt’. The lady gave him some salt. He stirred the
water and said, ‘it’s tasty. It will be better if some pieces of carrots and
onions are put in. Do you have some spare?’ She brought some pieces of
carrots, potatoes and onions and he added them to the water. Then he said,
‘perhaps you have some scraps of meat?’ She had some odd scraps which
she gave him. He put those too into the pot. Soon the soup was ready, and
he tasted it. ‘It’s perfect!’ And he ate the stone soup and satisfied his
hunger.
A story like this can be read aloud and the students can be asked: ‘What
have you understood from this story?’ This may encourage them to make
inferences about the story, and they may discuss it more. Therefore, different
techniques for teaching fiction are to be used depending upon the degree of
language complexity, or cognitive challenge. At one level, reading and
comprehending the facts of the story, at another level, making inferences
regarding the events and characters, fitting these into a framework of
understanding, are to be given attention. These aspects are discussed below:
a. Focus on language of description of character and place.
The students may be directed to skim the story and see which character
is most prominent. They may then read the sentence in which that
character is first mentioned. Sometimes the name of the character is
not given initially, but there may be a description or some account of
the character’s background. Are there any particular adjectives, or similies
used for that character? Can we see from these facts if the story- teller
has a particular attitude towards the character – for example, sympathy,
dislike, etc?
Let us take the example of Khushwant Singh’s well known story ‘Portrait
of a Lady’. The story begins with the following description:
She had always been short and fat and slightly bent. Her face was a criss-
cross of wrinkles from everywhere to everywhere. No, we were certain she
had always been as we had known her. Old, so terribly old that she could
not have grown older. She could never have been pretty, but she was always
beautiful. She hobbled about the house in spotless white with one hand
resting on her waist to balance her stoop and the other telling the beads of
her rosary. Her silver locks were scattered untidily over her pale, puckered
face, and her lips moved constantly in inaudible prayer. Yes, she was beautiful.
She was like the winter landscape in the mountains, an expanse of pure
white serenity, breathing peace and contentment.
The description of character in the story can be classified under the following
heads: what the character is compared to, what the character does in daily
life, what the character looks like, etc. The activities on this could be:
34
a) Underline the adjectives (e.g. short, fat, slightly bent, old, not pretty, Teaching Literary Texts-I
beautiful). Which of these are positive? Which adjective is the most
important in the description?
b) What did she do? The activities she did most often were_______.
Read the story further to see what are the other actions of the grandmother
and what these tell us about her.
c) What is she compared to? Why? (Further questions: Are the mountains
young or old? What is the colour of mountains in winter? These
questions will lead to students understanding the basis of the comparison
of the old lady to the mountains)
d) Let us find synonyms for these words: stoop, puckered, inaudible, serenity
e) Which sentence(s) indicate the presence of a narrator?
Students can then be asked to put these facts together. They may even
discuss which feature of the character’s description is the most vital and
significant in its relevance for the story – is it the character’s physical
appearance or other qualities which are most crucial for the story?
Similarly, the teacher can ask the students to read a story and notice the
description of a house, village or city, or landscape. What is important in
this description? Is it some detail, such as that of a marketplace, or decoration
of a room, that may be important for the meaning of the story? It may also
be useful to look at repetition – which items in the landscape are mentioned
again and again – for instance, the description of a river may recur, thus
making it significant. Names of places, or people are particularly important
as they may indicate some mythological or cultural aspects hidden in the
story.
b. Focus on theme
The beginning and ending of a story is always worth considering very
carefully. Some stories may start right from the birth of a character, or from
a historical event, and even mention the dates. Some stories may start in the
middle of an event, e.g. a war, or a journey, and then go back to where it
began. Why does a story-teller start a story at a particular point? The
students can treat this as a puzzle which they have to uncover – and different
students will give different reasons. The teacher must allow this kind of
questioning and sharing of possible answers, as this is an important mental
exercise.
The endings of stories can also be discussed – why does the story end at a
particular point? The class can be divided into readers who are satisfied
with the ending and readers who are not satisfied. Each of them can explain
the reasons for their response. Students may be asked to give their own
ending to the story. This may be done orally, so that it can be part of the
discussion, where other children can ask each other why they chose a particular
ending. Or students can be asked to write an ending, and the teacher can
help them with some of the language they need for this purpose. One story
which can be mentioned in this regard is Mulk Raj Anand’s ‘The Lost
Child’. In the end of the story, we do not know whether the child finds its
parents or not – would children see this as a satisfactory ending?
35
Reading Comprehension ‘Sting in the Tale’ stories will have a sharp shock or surprise at the end, or
a sudden revelation, which may bring in some realization for the reader, e.g.
Guy De Maupassant’s ‘The Diamond Necklace’, O.Henry’s ‘The Gift of the
Magi’ etc.
Some other activities that can be done in teaching fiction in the class
are:
Suggestion consists of the teacher planting some thought, suggesting
some idea (even if it seems wrong) and asking the students to read the
story to check if the suggestion is correct or not.
Prediction can be made, after reading the first paragraph or section of
a story, to encourage readers to predict what happens next, or to predict
something about the character, and to read further to see if this prediction
will come true. We know that literature builds up our expectations, so
the game of prediction will lead to some surprises, and will become
interesting, while it also encourages the exploring of creative
possibilities.
Visualization, or the making of pictures, either word pictures, or
diagrams/sketches about a place, or a person, will be useful in making
the situation real for the students.
Rewriting the story, giving a jumbled order of events to be rearranged
or gap-filling, rewriting the end of the story, or imagining and giving
some more details about a particular character can all be helpful pretexts
for using more language, such as activating the use of more vocabulary.
Summary writing, making thought bubbles, as if making a comic
strip, or a ‘mini saga’ (in which the students are required to sum up
the whole story in 50 words), can be challenging activities.
Finally, the challenge of teaching fiction is that all the aims are to be
fulfilled without destroying the enjoyment of a good story. Our aim is
to make literature more interesting and enriching for our students.

Check Your Progress 2

Here is a short story. What kind of activities can be done in the teaching
of this story?
Stan Murch, in a uniform-like blue jacket, stood on the sidewalk in
front of the Hilton and watched cab after cab make the loop into the
main entrance. Doesn’t anybody drive their own car anymore? Then at
last a Chrysler Imperial came hesitantly up the avenue, turned into the
driveway and stopped at the entrance. As a woman and several children
got out of the right of the car, the driver climbed heavily out on the left.
He was a big man with a cigar and a camel hair coat.
Murch was at the door before it was half way open, pulling it the rest
of the way and saying, ‘Just leave the keys in, sir’.
‘Right’, said the man with the cigar. He got out, and, just as Murch was
about to get behind the wheel, he said: ‘Wait’.
Murch looked at him, ‘Sir?’
‘Here you go, boy’ the man said and pulled a folded dollar bill from his
36 pants pocket and handed it across.
 Teaching Literary Texts-I
‘Thank you, sir.’ Murch said. He saluted with the hand holding the
dollar, climbed behind the wheel, and drove away. He was smiling as
he made the right turn out on the street. It wasn’t everyday a man gave
you a tip for stealing his car.
Activities:
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13.6 TEACHING DRAMA

The teaching of drama in the classroom is most challenging, as drama is
primarily speech in action, or dialogue. It can be treated as a story in some
ways, but the manner of the unfolding of the action is different. There is no
narrative voice, but the characters speak and interact. The study of how
characters think and behave is central to drama. Conflict of some kind or
another is central to drama. There is a plot, and as it unfolds, the situation
brings some conflict and change in the characters.
Drama is also closest to human communicative interaction. It can be of use
in language teaching to show how dialogues are spoken and how
communication takes place.
Activities in the teaching of drama can be:
a) Written
Filling in blanks in dialogues, or writing more dialogues to add to the existing
ones can be activities that students at a slightly more advanced level can do.
Making tables with different points of view on each side, however, can be
done by students who have less language proficiency – they can read each
character’s speech and assign a position for each character on one or the
other side of the table, to show that they belong to opposing sides in a
conflict.
Prediction: Could the conversation exchange or dialogue be rewritten in
a different way?
Exploring relationships between characters: Who are the friends? Who are
opposites, who are similar to each other? Comparisons and contrasts between
characters can be made. For example, take the following exchange:
Cratchit: Er, pardon me, Mr Scrooge, but there’s a gentleman to
see you.
Scrooge: What about, Cratchit?
Cratchit: He didn’t say, sir.
Gentleman: Ah, good afternoon, sir. Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr
Scrooge or Mr Marley?
Scrooge: Mr Marley, my former partner, has been dead these seven years. He
died seven years ago this very night. 37
Reading Comprehension Gentleman: Then I have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his
surviving partner.
Scrooge: What do you want?
Gentleman: At this festive season, Mr Scrooge, we try to make some slight
provision for the poor and destitute. Many thousands are in want of common
necessities.
Scrooge: Are there no prisons?
Gentleman: Oh, plenty of prisons.
Scrooge: And the workhouses? Are they still in operation?
Gentleman: I wish I could say they were not. How much shall I put you
down for, Mr Scrooge?
Scrooge: Nothing.
Gentleman: Nothing?
Scrooge: Exactly. Let these deserving people of yours go to the establishments
I have mentioned.
Gentleman: Most of them would rather die than do that.
Scrooge: Then let them do that and help decrease the surplus population.
I’m busy. Good afternoon to you.
Gentleman: Very good, Mr Scrooge. A very Merry Christmas to you!
Goes out.
Scrooge: Charity! Pah! Humbug!
(adapted from Charles Dickens’ novel A Christmas Carol, extracted from
CBSE Interact in English, Literature Reader)
Even in such a short extract, there are several possibilities for writing
activities. The students can be asked to define Scrooge’s character, or write
about the situation- what is the occasion, what happens on such an occasion,
and whether the expected response is given or not, and the reason why it is
not. Since Scrooge refuses to give charity on Christmas, this is a sign of his
character. From this we see simply that character and action are linked in
this play. Once the students become aware of this, they can write a good
summary or description of the plot or character.
Themes: The movement of the plot can be traced by making a diagram of
the plot. This can be put up in the form of a chart, as a summary. Some
of the activities used in teaching fiction could also be useful in drama, as
drama has a narrative aspect. Endings, for instance, are important in drama,
as in stories. The activities can be based on recreation of some scenes or
dialogues in a play, which may change the direction of the plot.
There is also opportunity for vocabulary practice in drama e.g. in the above
extract, we can find out the opposites of words as: ‘the opposite of liberality
is_________’, ‘the opposite of destitute is_________’ etc. Using more
vocabulary, the students can attempt to write a piece on the condition of
poor people, or what should be done for the poor and needy especially, on
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b) Oral Teaching Literary Texts-I

Oral activities such as loud reading of extracts, with gestures, will be of use
in practice of spoken language at different levels: emphasis, tone and
pronunciation. Conversations can be developed from the play, as in the
extract above, the students can enact another imaginary conversation with
Scrooge. One student would speak as Scrooge, and another would persuade
him to donate something for poor people.
We can build on other kinds of opportunities that this extract provides.
Normally, we exchange greetings on meeting someone and say something
when we take leave at the end of a conversation. We also have ways of
greeting people on festive occasions. Students can make a list of different
kinds of greetings and leave-takings for different occasions, formal and
informal. They can also discuss whether this is a modern way of speaking,
and how our spoken interaction today can be very different.
It would be useful for students to enact a play, or prepare and present a play
in order to understand the kind of interaction which takes place in drama.

13.7 LET US SUM UP

In this unit, we have tried to understand the importance of teaching literature
and the manner in which we can approach the teaching of different forms
of literature in the classroom. Each type of writing poses a challenge and
we have to be quite creative in thinking about ways to make literature both
interesting and useful in the context of language learning. Prose texts can
be used for studying ways in which information and arguments are presented;
fiction can be used for studying how stories are told and how they are
understood, how characters are presented; and drama combines character
and action in a constant play of the language of dialogue. In all these
instances, the choice of words and arrangement of sentences and the building
of connections in the text are aspects of language use that learners can
benefit from studying. The literary text is a vast and enriching field for the
language learner.

13.8 REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READING

It will be useful to introduce students to the short stories of many great
writers, both Indian and those from other countries, such as Rabindranath
Tagore, Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Rudyard Kipling and many others.
Many other useful collections and anthologies are suggested in Collie and
Slater, referred to below.
Brumfit, Christopher and Carter, Ronald, ed. Language and Literature
Teaching, Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1986
Collie, Joanne and Slater, Stephen Literature in the Language Classroom,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Grellet, F. Developing Reading Skills, Cambridge University Press, 1981.
Moody, H.L. The Teaching of Literature, Longman, 1971.
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Reading Comprehension Sanger, Keith The Language of Fiction London, Routledge, 1998.
Simpson, Paul, Language Through Literature, London, Routledge, 1997.
Widdowson, H. Stylistics and the Teaching of literature, Longman, 1975.

13.9 ANSWERS
Test your understanding-I
a. Read the relevant section (13.3) for answering this question.
b. Some suggestions for activities are:
You could start with a question about the length of the sentences. Students
can count the words in each sentence (they like to do that) and see how long
they are. Then we can discuss why a particular sentence is long – what bits
of information does it contain? Does it repeat something? Can we cut it
down to make it shorter? If we cut it, what important meaning will be lost?
Other activities can be thought of: on the images in which the river is
portrayed; or open-ended such as ‘the Ganga stands for__________’. Students
can be asked to describe some other place (river, mountain, sea, forest) with
the help of vocabulary from the passage. Feel free to make as many exercises
as you want.
Test your understanding-II
Some suggestions for activities are:
Key questions for the story can be asked, for example: Who is Murch?
How does he succeed in stealing the man’s car?
You can think about a prediction activity too: will the students be able to
predict what happens? Or is this is a case of reading backwards, in order to
comprehend.
The descriptions of the characters can also be the basis of activity e.g. Why
is the description of Murch’s jacket so important? Is he pretending to be
someone else? What do you infer by the appearance of the man who owns
the car?
This story builds on background knowledge (of big hotels, of the practice of
giving the keys of one’s car to an attendant for parking it, etc). You may
think of ways in which students can guess what happens in such situations.
You can also make exercises on some aspect of language, or suggest some
writing exercise e.g. describing the man’s reaction when he comes out and
finds his car has been stolen.

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