INTRODUCTION

One of the functions of language is the poetic function. This means that it can be used for aesthetic reasons,
for the sheer enjoyment of language. But reading or listening to literary text isn’t just a pleasurable activity, it
is also a communicative activity in which attitudes, values and socio-cultural aspects are transmitted.
Our current educational system is based on a methodological approach, called Communicative Approach. This
approach considers language as a vehicle of communication –the final objective is for the learner to achieve
communicative competence.
Materials such as stories, poems and rhymes are valuable teaching aids that will help our students attain this
communicative principle. They offer the teacher opportunities to encourage the learner to acquire the language
in a natural way. Here are some reasons why teachers should use literary texts in the English class:
1. Literary texts present language in context.
2. Literary texts provide authentic language.
3. Literary texts are motivating.
In this unit we will look at the most suitable children’s literary genres, periosd and authors. The best genres to
use in the English class are tales, children’s novels, nursery rhymes, riddles and limericks. We will also list a
typology of texts and the criteria to select them; finally, we will establish the didactic application of literary
texts.
1 MOST ADEQUATE LITERARY EPOQUES, AUTHORS AND GENRES TO BE USED IN ENGLISH
LESSON
Although forgotten for some time, literature has nowadays the importance it deserves within ESL teaching.
Teachers usually tend to select specific texts especially designed for primary students, leaving classic aside as
they are considered complex and boring for children. Nevertheless, the appearance of adapted and graded texts
contribute to the accessibility of these books and we, as teachers of English should take advantage of it, helping
students to get familiarized with the literature of those countries in which English is spoken.
Duff and Maley (1999) answer the question: Why teaching literature in the ESL class? Pointing out three
elements:

 Literary texts offer genuine samples of a very wide range of styles, registers, and text-types at many
levels of difficulty.
 Literary texts are, by their essence, open to multiple interpretation means that only rarely will two
readers’ understanding of or reaction to given text be identical.
 Literary texts are non-trivial.
1.1 CHARACTERISTICS AND FUNCTIONS
Most children always seem to be ready for a good story. As teachers, we can take advantage of their eagerness
for tales and use them for teaching purposes. Tales have the following features:

 Vocabulary and structures are contextualized.

 Natural repetition of words and structures, which will help the retention of language items.
 Simple grammatical structures
 In tales it is easy to predict what follows.
 Introduction of socio-cultural elements.
The use of stories in the English class has both a psychological and a didactic function.

 Psychological function.
 o Stories enable children to make sense of their feelings. Psychologists believe that stories help
children to solve their affective conflicts.
o Stories develop children’s imagination and creativity. Children become involved in a story and
identify with the characters.
o Stories develop social integration in the class. Storytelling provokes a shared response of
laughter, sadness, excitement and anticipation, which builds up confidence within the group.
 Didactic function.
o Stories develop positive attitudes towards the foreign language, since they provide the students
with fun, excitement and fantasy, creating in them a desire to continue learning.
o Stories encourage unconscious learning of the language. Frequent repetition, simple grammar
and the easiness to predict what follows allow language to be acquired.
o Stories develop receptive skills.
o Stories provide the starting point for a variety of follow-up activities.
o They provide an insight into other cultures and the lives of others.

1.2 THE EARLY DAYS OF CHILDRE’S TALES

The History of Literature is full of examples of tales and stories. However, to find the origins of children’s
literature, we must go back to the times in which children started to be taken into consideration. One of the
first authors to do this was Comenius, in 17th century. His book Orbis Pictus was filled with pictures and
images, was a humanistic work that revolutionized the pedagogy of the time and was to influence children’s
literature in the future.
Another predecessor was La Fontaine who read Greek writers and used their ideas about morality and politics
in his fables. He believed that fables were the best genre for children to learn to distinguish between good and
evil. He used animals to both instruct and delight.
In the 18th century Rousseau influenced children’s literature indirectly. In his book Emile, he stated his theories
about childhood: his naturalistic, tolerant and optimistic ideas about a child’s education influenced later
authors of children’s literature. For Rousseau, the best children’s book was Robinson Crusoe, because it
teaches children to learn from their own experiences.
1.3 TRADITIONAL TALES
Perrault (17th century)
He was the first important author who wrote for children. He shaped old tales and folk tales from the oral
tradition. He recalled tales he used to hear in his childhood from his mother and nurse, and wrote them in a
simple, fresh style –tales such as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Tom Thumb, Puss in
Boots. In his tales, he recreated a world of wonder with fairies, spells and ogres, a world in which fantasy and
morality went together.
The Grimm Brothers (19th century)
The Grimm Brothers were brilliant scholars and philologists who gathered old tales from the oral tradition,
but their style was more literary and poetic than the French author’s. Their tales are a romantic exaltation of
folk and fantasy. The characters are all close to Nature –kings, princes faithful servants, honest craftsmen
fishermen, shepherds. Birds, plants and stones speak and express their feelings. But we can also find monsters,
giants and obscure powers. Examples of their tales are: Snow White, Hansel and Gretel and Tom Thumb.
Hans Christian Andersen (19th century)
He was influenced by Danish folk tales, poetry, philosophy and scenes from his own childhood, which was
filled with misery. In Andersen’s tales everything is poetic. He exalts the beauty of Nature, whilst offering a
realistic view of life. Examples of this tales are The Ugly Duckling, The Nightingale and The Tin Soldier. In
contrast with the Grimm Brothers, some of Andersen’s tales have a sad ending, but this doesn’t affect the
poetic style of his work.
1.4 MODERN TALES
During this period, British authors contributed to children’s literature with delightful books. Books were
created for the enjoyment of children and the exclusive didactic intention of previous centuries was abandoned.
Children’s literature now embraced children’s imaginative worlds, ideas and feelings.
Lewis Carroll
He wrote Alice in Wonderland. The tale plays with logic in ways that have given the story lasting popularity
to adults as well as children. It is considered to be one of the most characteristic examples of the genre of
nonsense literature, and its narrative course and structure has been enormously influential, mainly in the
fantasy genre. This story is open to many interpretations. Reading this book at age 10 is a lot of fun, with
talking animals and nonsense; the same book read in college seems to be much deeper – loaded with social
and political commentary, match puzzles, language games, psychological images
Oscar Wilde
He is the crucial figure regarding storytelling during the Victorian period. The tales he wrote for his children
have persevered until the present time and have become classics everyone knows if we do not recognize the
source. He wrote books of deep symbolism and morality, such as The Happy Prince (it tells the story of a
prince’s statue who gave his own jewels to help poor people) and The Nightingale and the Rose (a nightingale
gives its own blood in order to provide the red color to a rose that a young boy wanted to give to his loved
one).
J.M. Barrie
He wrote Peter Pan, one of the most famous characters in children’s literature, magically refuses to grow up
and spend his never-ending childhood in the small island called Neverland.
Beatrix Potter and A.A. Milne
Exploring the charming relationship between animals and children –Beatrix Potter and A.A. Milne turn this
into an art of form. Beatrix Potter wrote Peter Rabbit, a tiny but delightful book, in which we get to know all
about a country rabbit. All her books show her deep love for animals and children. A. A. Milne wrote Winnie
the Pooh, the story of a teddy bear who is transformed into a living creature.
1.5 CHILDREN’S NOVELS
Novels appeal to older children. Children’s novels all have adventure in common. Some of these works were
originally written for adults, but have become children’s books.
Daniel Defoe (18th century)
He wrote Robinson Crusoe, the adventures of a Scottish sailor who is shipwrecked on an island. The
protagonist symbolizes, the loneliness of Man and his progress towards civilization. Robinson manages to
make fire, to look for food, to fish and hunt. Robinson has become a familiar character for children.
Jonathan Swift (18th century)
He wrote Gulliver’s Travels. It is a hard satire against the society of his time. Gulliver is also shipwrecked and
he ends up in Lilliput, a country inhabited by little men. This is the most famous Gulliver’s journey, but the
book narrates his adventures in other strange countries as well.
Jules Verne (19th century)
This author combined mystery and science. In his book, scientific knowledge always solves the obscure
situations that take place. He anticipates some of today’s inventions and Man’s feats (e.g. Twenty Thousand
Leagues under the Sea)
Robert Louis Stevenson (19th century)
He wrote Treasure Island, and his work has greatly influenced youth literature. It is a genuine book of
adventures written with poetic spirit. Romanticism is symbolized with pirates and treasure hunters.
Rudyard Kipling (19th century)
Rudyard Kipling was born in India, and lived there until he was a young man. He wrote the Jungle Books, the
adventures of a boy who grows up in the jungle among animals. The animals speak and act as human beings.
Mark Twain (19th century)
He wrote the immortal Tom Sawyer, a realistic and amusing novel that relates the adventures of a boy in a
credible way.
Roald Dahl (20th century)
He is a master of the short story. He wrote James and the Giant Peach, The Chocolate Factory, Matilda…They
all deal with current and varied subjects, and the narration is attractive and agile.
1.6 A SELECTION OF TODAY’S STORYBOOKS FOR CHILDREN
Nowadays there is an endless proliferation of storybooks for children. Many publishers produce adapted
storybooks for children learning English. These books are adapted to the learners’ age, level of English and
interests, and they are useful from a methodological point of view: they enable the teacher to recycle
vocabulary or structures in a profitable way.
Here is a selection of today’s storybooks that work well with children:
Picture Puffin publications

 Raymond Briggs. The Snowman (1978)

 Carle, E. The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1971) and The Bad-Tempered Ladybird (1977)
 Hawkins, C. Pat the Cat (1983).
 Hill, E. Where’s Spot? (1980) and Spot’s first Christmas (1984).
 Vipont and Briggs. The Elephant and the Bad Baby (1971).
Picture Lions publications

 Hawkins, C. Mr. Wolf’s Week (1987) and What’s the time, Mr. Wolf? (1983).
 Martin, B. Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? (1988)
 Tolstoy, A and Oxenbury. The Great Big Enormous Turnip (1988).
Walker Books publications

 Hawkins, C. Where’s my Mummy? (1985) and Terrible Terrible Tiger (1987)

Oxford publications

 Korky Paul and Valery Thomas. Winnie the Witch and Winnie in Winter.
 Wright, A. The Hairy Tree Man and Oh no, I’m a Cat!
2 OTHER GENRES
2.1 NURSETY RHYMES
A nursery rhyme is a short poem or song for young children. Most nursery rhymes are traditional and well-
known. This genre has few things in common with tales:

 Natural repetition of words and structures.

 Simple grammatical structure.
 Introduction of socio-cultural aspects.
Nursery rhymes differ from tales in the following aspects:

 They are short.

 They have marked rhythm and musicality, enabling children to grasp intonation patterns and
pronunciation.
 Most of them can be accompanied by actions.
 The reduced vocabulary of nursery rhymes makes them easy to learn.
Some examples of nursery rhymes are:

 Divine Songs for Children by Watts.

 Original Poems for Infant Minds and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star by Ann and Jane Taylor.
 The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning.
 Book of Nonsense by Edward Lear.
 A Child’s Garden of Verses by R.L. Stevenson.
 Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne.

2.2 RIDDLES AND LIMIERICKS

Like nursery rhymes, riddles are short, with marked intonation and rhythm. They add a new element: the
children have to think about what is being described.
Limericks are humorous rhymes, which have their origin in holiday parties in which each person has to say a
humorous verse. The origin of limericks is popular and the author is usually unknown. The first ones appeared
in The History of Sixteen Wonderful Women, in the 19th century. In Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense we can
find plenty of examples of limericks.
3 TYPOLOGY OF TEXTS
Once we have dealt with the most suitable literary texts we must pay attention to the different types of texts
we could choose when introducing literature in the English class, but before doing so, it is worthwhile pointing
out certain preliminary aspects that will bring light into text typology.

3.1 CLASSIFICATION OF TEXTS

There is a wide range of storybooks: from traditional tales to fantasy stories, and from picture stories with no
text to stories with rhymes. Ellis and Brewster (1991) have classified storybooks under three headings:
narrative features, content and lay-out.
Narrative features will allow us to distinguish between storybooks of the following types:

 Rhyming words
 Repeating structures
 Cumulative content and language
 Interactive
  Humorous
According to content storybooks can be divided into:

 Traditional tales
 Fairy tales.
 Fantasy stories.
 Animal stories.
 Cumulative stories with predictable endings.
 Humorous stories.
 Everyday stories.
 Adventure stories.
From the lay-out point of view we can distinguish between:

 Illustrated stories.
 Stories with no text.
 Stories with bubbles.
 Stories with flaps or pop-outs.
The main aim of all our teaching is to enable our pupils to reach communicative competence. As the focus
will be on assisting our pupils to do in class what they will need to do outside, the materials we use should
reflect the world outside. In other words they should have a degree of authenticity. We can distinguish between
authentic and adapted texts:

 Authentic texts. They are written for English-speaking children, so the language hasn’t been selected
or graded. The advantage of using them is that they provide examples of real language.
 Adapted texts. They are specifically written for the teaching of English as a foreign language, so
language has been selected and graded. They are useful for pedagogical reasons, since they adapt to
children’s level of competence.

3.2 CRITERIA FOR SELECTING LITERARY TEXTS

The teacher must take care when selecting the text he/she is going to use for teaching purposes. Here are
several criteria to take into consideration:
1. Student’s age. The teacher must take into account the students’ age. An 8 years-old child doesn’t have
the same interests and language competence as an 11 years-old student.
2. Level of vocabulary, structures and functions. The text shouldn’t be too easy or too difficult for the
student’s level of English, and the language should be included in the course syllabus.
3. The characters. They must stimulate curiosity, and their actions must be meaningful to children. The
attitudes and values that the characters present should be relevant and appropriate for the children’s
age group, as well as being applicable to their daily lives.
4. Use of visuals. The illustrations must be appropriate for the age of our pupils, attractive and colorful.
5. Language content. If the lexis is authentic, we should choose carefully: the language must be accessible
and relevant. If, however, the text is a simplified version, the language must be as appropriate and
representative of the variety spoken in the target language as possible.
6. Rhyme and rhythm. They help our students understand the story, and later imitate and improve their
pronunciation.
7. Balance between narrative and dialogue. It is important for the narrative to presented repeated patterns
of language which will encourage children to participate. Equally, dialogues are important because
they offer models of useful language for speaking practice.
 8. Potential for follow-up activities. The text must provide a starting point for language practice such as
role-play, practice activities, written exercises, etc. so as to reinforce vocabulary, pronunciation and
structures in a meaningful and memorable way.

4 DIDACTIC APPLICATION OF LITERATY TEXTS

4.1 HOW TO USE STORIES IN FLT
The main aim of using storybooks is to encourage general comprehension and to stimulate purposeful
language-learning activities. Stories offer variety and can be used to provide extra language practice by
supplementing and complementing a course book. Alternatively, they can be used as a short basic syllabus in
their own right. That’s to say, they can be used to introduce elements of the English language.
Here’s how to make the most of stories:

 Pre-listening stage. Here are some activities to arouse children’s curiosity and expectations:
o Identify elements in the pictures.
o Explain the context, key words, etc.
o Deduce from their own observations.
o Give opinions about their observations.
o Predict what they think might happen.
 While-listening stage. The students are now ready to listen to the story. The teacher can either read out
the story or play the story on a CD.
o Advantages of using a recording:
 The voice provides a model of English spoken by a native speaker.
 It provides a variety of voices.
 Some recordings provide sound effects, which are motivating and helpful.
o Advantages of storytelling:
 It allows closer proximity to children.
 The teacher can use gestures, intonation, repetitions, pauses, slow down the narration
to encourage them to predict what happens next or to clarify a language item.
 The teacher can disguise his/her voice for different characters to help convey meaning
and to attract the pupil’s attention.
Irrespective of the way the children are going to listen to the story, the teacher will have to tell (or
play) the story more than once. Pupils love hearing stories over and over again. Furthermore, repetition
helps to retain structures and vocabulary.
In the while-listening stage, the teacher can ask the students to perform a task. It is important to
remember that listening isn’t a passive activity; on the contrary, it’s a complex active process. While
listening to the story, children can:
o Follow the plot of the story without being too concerned about the details (skimming).
o Sequence the pictures of the story.
o Complete true/false exercises.
o Count the characters, places, animals, etc., that appear in the story.
o Do TPR activities.
o Repeat key vocabulary items or phrases.
o Mime the story.
o Correct the mistakes.
 Post-listening stage. These follow-up activities will consolidate the language presented in the story.
These activities also aim at skill integration.
o Describing characters and places of the story.
o Role-play.
o The students can read the story out loud.
o Comprehension questions about the story.
 o Pronunciation practice.
o Sequencing pictures of the story.
o Dictation of words or expressions from the story.
o Drawings.
o Doing word games using vocabulary from the story.
o Singing a song about the story or about its characters.
o Vocabulary activities.

4.2 STORYTELLING TECHNIQUES

Stories are the first contact that the children have with the written language and according to Brewster, et al.
(2004) there are a great variety of techniques using storytelling in language teaching:

 It is important to set the mood.

 The teacher should make sure the students can see the teacher’s face and the illustrations of the story.
 The teacher should read slowly and clearly, varying the pace and volume when necessary.
 The teacher should involve the students actively by asking questions, making them repeat key
vocabulary, point to the illustrations, or do an action.
 The teacher must use gestures, facial expressions, varied intonation and so on as much as possible to
help convey meaning and to maintain the students’ attention.
Above all, we must remember that storytelling is an art and telling stories in a foreign language isn’t easy.
Any teacher, whether a native speaker or not, needs careful preparation and practice.
4.3 HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF RHYMES, RIDDLES AND LIMERICKS
The common element in rhymes, riddles and limericks is that they are short and they rhyme. They are useful
for practicing intonation patterns, pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. The teacher can follow this
approach:

 Pre-listening stage.
o The teacher can explain difficult words the children may encounter.
o The teacher can explain the cultural background of the rhyme.
o The teacher can present pictures to help with understanding.
 Listening stage.
o Children listen to the rhyme to hear the natural rhythm of the verse.
o They listen to it again, but this time the teacher stops after each verse.
o They can clap as they say the rhymes. This will help to develop a sense of rhythm.
o Children can use gestures or mime the actions if it is an action rhyme.
 Production stage.
o Children imitate the model verse by verse.
o Taking turns to recite a verse.
o Performing the rhyme.
o Inventing new verses.

4.4 EXTENSIVE READING

As we said above, the use of stories develops receptive skills: listening comprehension and reading
comprehension. Listening comprehension is developed through storytelling, whereas reading comprehension
is developed through extensive reading. Extensive reading is another didactic application of literary texts.
In extensive reading, the student has to cope with a text without worrying about understanding every unknown
word or structure. The main objective should be to train the students to read fluently in English for pleasure,
without the aid of the teacher. According to Hubbard et al. extensive reading should play an important part in
the foreign language class for several reasons:
  It is an activity that can be carried out by pupils on their own, outside the classroom.
 It reinforces language that has already been presented.
 It gives students useful practice in deducing meaning from context.
 It increases motivation towards the target language.
 It may be the only opportunity students have to increase their reading sped, as this skill is rarely taught
in the average.
The most obvious way of directing students’ attention towards reading is to have a set of readers and adapted
books of different levels available for borrowing. A book corner in the classroom allows pupils to look through
books of their own choice, at their own pace.
Jean Brewster establishes useful tips to set up a book corner:

 Displaying books with the cover showing, it will make the selection of a book much easier.
 Decorating the corner with any artwork done by the pupils.
 Getting the pupils to write comments about different books and to stick them on the wall.
 Keeping a class record of books that have been read.
 Involving your pupils in the organization of the book corner.
 Devising a lending system.
Above all, extensive reading should become reading for pleasure. Forcing the students to read will defeat the
object of the activity. Students will never become lifetime readers unless they see reading as a pleasure task.
CONCLUSION
In this unit we have review the most suitable literary genres to use in the English class. The teacher will have
to decide on the type of text to use, according to criteria such as student’s age and interest, and the linguistic
and cultural potential of the text.
Literary texts offer a great source of teaching possibilities, since language is presented in a meaningful and
attractive context. But simple reading a story out loud or reciting a rhyme could be disastrous without careful
preparation. If a teacher selects an appropriate text and plans its exploitation carefully, he/she will be
developing students’ communicative competence, and purposeful receptive and productive skills will be
developed.