1 The Use of Literature For Language Teaching A Course Book - Revised 1

The Use of
Literature for
Language
Teaching
A Course Book
Banu İNAN-KARAGÜL
Doğan YÜKSEL
Mehmet ALTAY
Dilek İNAN
Banu İNAN-KARAGÜL - Doğan YÜKSEL - Mehmet ALTAY - Dilek İNAN
THE USE OF LITERATURE FOR LANGUAGE TEACHING

A Course Book
ISBN 978-605-241-451-4
DOI 10.14527/9786052414514
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Banu İNAN-KARAGÜL
Banu İNAN KARAGÜL is currently an associate professor in the English
Language Teaching Department of Kocaeli University, Turkey. She obtained her
BA, MA and PhD from the English Language Teaching Department of Dokuz
Eylül University. Her research interests are the use of literature in the language
classroom, classroom discourse analysis and second language acquisition. Her
e-mail address is: banu_inan@yahoo.com
Doğan YÜKSEL
Doğan YÜKSEL is an associate professor at Kocaeli University English
Language Teaching Department. He received his PhD from Florida State
University’s Multilingual Multicultural Education program. He holds a Master’s
Degree from University of Pennsylvania, USA. His research mainly focuses on Use
of Literature in Language Teaching, Classroom Discourse and Foreign Language
Teacher Education. His e-mail address is: doganyuksel@gmail.com
Mehmet ALTAY
Mehmet ALTAY is currently an assistant professor in the Department of
English Language Teaching at Kocaeli University. He graduated from Dokuz Eylül
University, and holds a PhD degree in English Language Teaching at Çukurova
University. His research interests include literature in language teaching, semiotics,
lexicology, and neurolinguistics. His e-mail address is: mehmet.altay@kocaeli.edu.tr
Dilek İNAN
Prof. Dr. Dilek INAN has been teaching English Literature in the English
Language Teaching Department of Balikesir University since 2001. She obtained
her MA and PhD from the English Literature Department of Warwick University,
UK and her BA from the English Language and Literature Department of
Hacettepe University. She has published widely on dramatic and post-dramatic
theatre especially on the works of Harold Pinter, David Hare, David Greig, Martin
Crimp, Conor McPherson, Moira Buffini and Colm Toibin in national and
international journals. She has published a monograph entitled The Sense of Place
and Identity in David Greig’s Plays (2010), and İngiliz Tiyatrosu 1995-2015: Yazarlar
ve Eserlerinden Seçkiler (2017). Her e-mail address is:dilekinan@hotmail.com
INTRODUCTION
The use of literature for language teaching purposes has always been a
controversial issue in different contexts all around the world. It is still being
discussed whether it is a good idea to include literary works in the course material
list of language classrooms because even though literary works enable learners to
see authentic samples of the target language, give them a chance to understand
the culture of the target community better and to practice the target language in
different aspects, the complexity of the language presented to readers and the length
of books make it difficult for teachers to use them with learners of different levels.
With the new curriculum suggested by Turkish Higher Education Council
(YÖK) in 2018 for Faculties of Education, 2 courses, ‘Literature and Language
Teaching I-II’, were replaced by 2 other courses, ‘Teaching Language and Literature
I-II’ including some slight changes which were added to the course lists of English
Language Teaching Departments in Faculties of Education in Turkey. These
courses aim to train prospective teachers of English with a good command of not
only theoretical information about different literary genres such as short stories,
novels, plays and poems but also ideas related to their practice in the language
classroom. After a series of discussions with colleagues from different universities
in Turkey, we agreed that we needed a course material that would facilitate the
duty of teachers teaching this course and that would give students a chance to go
further than a simple analysis of literary works. For this reason, the aim of this
book is to provide students with theoretical information about the main literary
forms and some practical ideas for using them in the language classroom. This
volume is composed of the following parts:
Chapter 1 tries to explain the concept of “literature” in general and its
contribution to the field of language teaching. It also lists some different approaches
to the study of literature in the language classroom based on multiple activities.
Chapter 2 deals with “short story” as a literary form, starting with its
definition, its historical development and main elements. The second part of the
chapter discusses the advantages and possible challenges of using short stories for
language teaching purposes and suggests variousactivities based on a short story
by a well-known author.
Chapter 3 focuses on novels, which is a very popular course material in
language classrooms and it suggests a variety of tasks which are applicable in the
classroom while using novels.
vi The Use of Literature for Language Teaching a Course Book
Chapter 4 focuses on plays as course materials which might serve many

different purposes in the language classroom. After giving brief information
about what it refers to and its historical development, this chapter suggests some
classroom activities that might be used to improve students’ language skills.
Chapter 5 explains what poetry is, along with types and characteristics of
poems. It also deals with different types of literary devices and how to use poems
in the language classroom.
October, 2018
Authors
Banu İNAN-KARAGÜL
Doğan YÜKSEL
Mehmet ALTAY
Dilek İNAN
CONTENTS
Introduction............................................................................................................................................. v
Chapter 1
Use of Literature in Language Teaching............................................................................................... 1
Chapter 2
Use of Short Stories for Language Teaching Purposes..................................................................... 15
Chapter 3
The Use of Novels in the Language Classroom................................................................................. 35
Chapter 4
Using Plays and Drama Techniques in the English Language Classroom..................................... 51
Chapter 5
Poetry and Language Teaching............................................................................................................ 67
CHAPTER 1
USE OF LITERATURE IN LANGUAGE
TEACHING
Study Questions
Before you start reading this chapter, try to answer the following questions:
1. What is literature?
2. Is there anything called “literary language”? If yes, what are the similarities
and differences between literary language and daily language?
3. Are literary works good resources for language teaching? If yes, why? If no,
why not?
4. What are the approaches of the study of literature in the language classroom?
5. What are the criteria for selecting literary materials to teach in the classroom?
2 The Use of Literature for Language Teaching a Course Book
INTRODUCTION
When the term “literature” is taken into consideration, there are different
definitions that have been proposed up to now such as the followings:
• Literature includes any text worthy to be taught to students by teachers
of literature, when these texts are not being taught to students in other
departments of a school or university (Hirsch, 1978, p.34).
• Literature is a canon, which consists of those works in language by which
a community defines itself through the course of its history. It includes
works primarily artistic and also those whose aesthetic qualities are only
secondary. The self-defining activity of the community is conducted
in the light of the works, as its members have come to read them (or
concretize them) (McFadden, 1978, p.56).
Take the definitions above into consideration and write your own
TASK 1
definition of “literature”.
Literary Language
Rosenblatt (1978) defines literary texts primarily in terms of how readers
interact with them. She states that the common way of distinguishing literary works
of art from other types of texts has been to examine the text itself. For Rosenblatt, a
text is merely an object of paper and ink until a reader interacts with it.
Compare and contrast the following texts in terms of their language.

TASK 2
Are there any similarities or differences between them?
TEXT A TEXT B
When You Make a Call …
First check the code (if any) and number. In homes, a haunted apparatus sleeps
Lift the receiver and listen for dialling that snores when you pick it up.
tone (a continuous purring).
Dial carefully and allow the dial to If the ghost cries, they carry it
return freely.
to their lips and soothe it to sleep
Then wait for another tone:
Use of Literature in Language Teaching 3
Ringing tone (burr-burr) the number is with sounds. And yet, they wake it up,
being called. deliberately, by tickling with a finger.
Engaged tone (a repeated single note)
try again a few minutes later.
Number unobtainable tone (steady (From Craig Raine: “A Martian Sends a
note) replace receiver, re-check the Postcard Home”)
code and the number, and then re-dial.
After dialling a trunk call there will be
a pause before you hear a tone; during
this time the trunk equipment will be
connecting your call.
At the end of the call, replace the
receiver securely because timing of
calls stops when the caller hangs up.
When You Answer the Telephone
Always give your name or telephone
number.
If you hear a series of rapid pips, the
call is coming from a coinbox telephone.
Wait until the pips stop and then give
your name or telephone number.
General Post Office: Dialling
Instructions and Call Charges (GPO,
1970).
Apparently, the language used in these texts has some distinctive features as
they belong to different contexts. Both texts are, in fact, about telephones and how
they are used. As Text A is an instructional text, the expected language form is
“imperatives” and the language used is unambiguous. After reading this text, it
is possible to expect to be able to perform an action (making a phone call) in a
more accomplished manner. On the other hand, in Text B, the word “telephone”
is not mentioned. As can be seen in Text B, things are left unclear on purpose
and it is the reader’s job to clarify these unclear points, which is generally very
demanding. This is one of the most distinctive features of literary language. As
Brumfit & Carter (2000) suggest, students, most of the time, have to go backwards
and forwards and search in, across an outside the text so as to find clues that will
help them understand the texts.
THE STUDY OF LITERATURE VS THE USE OF LITERATURE AS A

RESOURCE
The study of literature involves an approach to texts as cultural artifacts; using
literature as a linguistic resource involves starting from the fact that literature is
language in use and can therefore be exploited for language learning purposes. The
study of literature also involves a considerable amount of metalanguage, critical
concepts knowledge of conventions and so on, which for second-language learners
presupposes a prior engagement with the study of literature in a first language.
Literature as a Resource for Language Teaching

Literary texts may be used in the language classroom as a resource for
language development. McKay (2001) argues that using literature in the language
classroom provides three major benefits for learners:
• it demonstrates the importance of authors’ choice of form to achieve
specific communicative goals,
• it is an ideal resource for integrating the four skills,
• it raises cross-cultural awareness.
In addition to the advantages mentioned above, Lazar (1993, p.14) explains the
following benefits of using literature in the language classroom. It is stated that
literature should be used with students because:
• it is very motivating
• it is authentic material
• it has general educational value
• it is found in many syllabi
• it helps students to understand another culture
• it is a stimulus for language acquisition
• it develops students’ interpretative abilities
• students enjoy it and it is fun
• it is highly valued and has a high status
• it expands students’ language awareness
• it encourages students to talk about their opinions and feelings
The advantages stated above are the general benefits of using works of literature in
the language classroom. Taking these general advantages into consideration, some
course objectives might be formed and the lessons might be planned according to
these objectives. The followings are some sample objectives for reading literature
suggested by Campbell (2007, p.6):
• Students will develop a variety of reading strategies in support of
comprehension.
• Students will identify literary terms and examine how these terms
contribute to the craft of writing.
• Students will develop skills in support of analyzing literature.
• Students will develop discussion skills that enable them to converse with
peers about the literature they read.
• Students will discover connections with the literature they read: text to
self, text to text, and text to world.
• Students will recognize the role literature plays in telling the story of
cultures.
• Students will read literature as a model for the kinds of writing they are
doing.
APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF LITERATURE

Different approaches to the study of literature have been put forward up
to now. A general understanding of these approaches is of great importance for
teachers and learners so as to understand the best way to benefit from literature in
their classroom with their own language learning and teaching purposes.
One of the categorizations of literature teaching approaches was suggested
by Carter & Long (1991) and their main emphasis was its suitability for ESL/EFL
settings. There are three main categories in their suggestion:
a) The Cultural Model: Within this model, the focus is on language as
a cultural artifact, requiring learners to investigate a literary text from social,
political, literary and historical perspectives.
b) The Language Model: It is based on the idea that literature provides a
rich repertoire of contextualized linguistic features which can be systematically
practiced through a wide range of activities with no regard for the literary quality
of the text or reader-text interaction.
c) The Personal Growth Model: This model has the potential to meet
the aims of the first two models, i.e. furthering language learning and cultural
awareness, and to bring about personal development through placing a premium
on the learner’s own response to and interaction with the text, feelings, ideas and
opinions.
Another categorization in terms of approaches was made by Lazar (1993,
p.23-24). She suggests using the following approaches while teaching literature:
1) Language-Based Approach: Studying the language of the literary text will
help to integrate the language and literature syllabi more closely. Detailed analysis
of the literary text will help students to make meaningful interpretations or
informed evaluations of it. At the same time, students will increase their general
awareness and understanding of English. Students are encouraged to draw on
their knowledge of familiar grammatical, lexical or discoursal categories to make
aesthetic judgments of the text.
Materials are chosen for the way they illustrate certain stylistic features of the
language but also for their literary merit.
This approach is favored because it is believed that thanks to this approach,
students are helped to develop a response to literature through examining the
linguistic evidence in the text. Students are provided with analytical tools with
which to reach their own interpretations. They are encouraged to draw on their
knowledge of English, so this approach may provide useful exposure to, or revision
of, grammar and vocabulary in interesting new contexts. It is a way of justifying
the inclusion of literature in the language syllabus since it fulfills students’ main
aim –to improve their knowledge of the language. According to some proponents
of this approach, literary texts are seen as a resource which provides stimulating
language activities. They are great sources for such kind of activities because they
offer a wide range of styles and registers; they are open to multiple interpretations
and hence provide excellent opportunities for classroom discussion; and they
focus on genuinely interesting and motivating topics to explore in the classroom.
In contrast to the advantages mentioned above, some negative aspects are
also stated. If applied too rigidly so that analysis of the text is undertaken in purely
linguistic terms with little chance for personal interpretation, this approach could
become rather mechanical and de-motivating. Also, it may not pay sufficient
attention to the text’s historical, social or political background which often provides
students with the valuable cultural knowledge to interpret what they read.
2) Literature as Content: This is the most traditional approach, frequently

used in tertiary education. Literature itself is the content of the course, which
concentrates on areas such as history and characteristics of literary movements;
the social, political and historical background to a text; literary genres and
rhetorical devices, etc. Students acquire English by focusing on course content,
particularly through reading set texts and literary criticism relating to them. The
mother tongue of the students may be used to discuss the texts, or students may be
asked to translate texts from one language into the other.
Texts are selected for their importance as part of a literary canon or tradition.
The most important advantage of adopting this approach in your class is that
genuinely educational approach in that understanding of texts is enhanced by
situating them within their literary and historical context. Students are exposed to
a wide range of authentic materials.
However, some teachers may be reluctant to use this approach in their
classrooms because it may be most appropriate to a fairly select group of
‘literary-minded’ students. Material may be difficult linguistically, and therefore
de-motivating for the average student. The approach may rely too heavily on
the teacher to paraphrase, clarify and explain, resulting in very little student
participation. A large part of the lesson may be carried out in the students’ mother
tongue, with students dependent on ready-made interpretations from the teacher.
In this approach, the background information to be supplied is very important
but how to present it to the students will mainly depend upon the text which will
be used, the time available, and the students’ interests. The following background
information might be provided:
• biographical information about the author
• historical or mythological events or characters to which a text refers
• philosophical, religious or political ideas debated or discussed in a text
• places, objects or other texts referred to in a text –either directly or
indirectly
• genre of the text
• relationship of the text to the literary movements of its time
• historical, political or social background against which the text was
written
• distinct features of the author’s style
3) Literature for Personal Enrichment: Literature is a useful tool for

encouraging students to draw on their own personal experiences, feelings and
opinions. It helps students to become more actively involved both intellectually
and emotionally in learning English, and hence aids acquisition.
Material is chosen on the basis whether it is appropriate to students’ interests
and will stimulate a high level of personal involvement. Material is often organized
thematically, and may be placed alongside non-literary materials which deal with
a similar theme.
A possible advantage of this approach is that it involves learner as whole
person, and so is potentially highly motivating. It demystifies literature by placing
it alongside non-literary texts.
On the other hand, using this approach may be a problem because it may
demand a personal response from students without providing sufficient guidance
in coping with the linguistic intricacies of the text. Some texts may be so remote
from the students’ own experience that they are unable to respond meaningfully
to them. Alternatively, some groups of students may dislike having to discuss
personal feelings or reactions.
This model has got important connections with the ‘humanistic approach to
language teaching’ by Williams and Burden (1997), which are:
• involving the whole person in the learning process
• engaging feelings and emotions
• developing personal identity
• encouraging self-knowledge and self-evaluation
• establishing a sense of personal value in learners
• encouraging creativity
These subcategories of the models by Lazar (1993) and Carter & Long (1991)
correspond to each other. The main ideas of “Language-based Approach” and
“The Language Model”, “Literature as Content” and “The Cultural Model” and
“Literature for Personal Enrichment” and “The Personal Growth Model” have very
important similarities.
Think about the learning/teaching situations in your country, which

TASK 3
model is suitable for which learning/teaching situations? Why?
The following extract is from the short story named “Mabel” by Somerset Maugham.
You will find some activities prepared according to the three approaches explained
above based on the same extract.
________________________________________________________________
It was at Pagan, in Burma, and I took the steamer to Mandalay, but a couple of
days before I got there, when the boat tied up for the night at a riverside village, I
made up my mind to go ashore. The skipper told me that there was a pleasant little
club in which I had only to make myself at home; they were quite used to having
strangers drop off like that from the steamer, and the secretary was a very decent
chap; I might even get a game of bridge. I had nothing in the world to do, so I got
into one of the bullock-carts that were waiting at the landing stage and was driven
to the club. There was an old chubby man sitting on the veranda and as I walked up
he nodded to me and asked whether I would have a whisky and soda or a gin and
bitters. The possibility that I would have nothing at all did not even occur to him.
I chose the longer drink and sat down. He was a tall, thin, bronzed man, with a big
moustache, and he wore khaki shorts and a khaki shirt. I never knew his name, but
when he had been chatting a little while another man came in who told me he was
the secretary, and he addressed my friend as George.
‘Have you heard from your wife yet?’ he asked him.
The other’s eyes brightened.
‘Yes, I had letters by this mail. She’s having no end of a time.’
‘Did she tell you not to fret?’
George gave a little chuckle, but was I mistaken in thinking that there was in
it the shadow of a sob?
‘In point of fact she did. But that’s easier said than done. Of course I know she
wants a holiday, and I’m glad she should have it, but it’s devilish hard on a chap.’
He turned to me. ‘You see, this is the first time I have ever been separated from my
missus, and I’m like a lost dog without her.’
‘How long have you been married?’
‘Five minutes.’
The secretary of the club laughed.
________________________________________________________________
SAMPLE ACTIVITIES BASED ON LANGUAGE-BASED APPROACH
ACTIVITY A
Read the extract above and identify which words were used to describe a place and
which words were used to describe a person.
ACTIVITY B
Match the following words in Column A with their synonyms in Column B.
Column A Column B
Devilish Worry
Chap evil, wicked
Decent appropriate
Brighten Illuminate
Fret a man, a fellow
SAMPLE ACTIVITIES BASED ON LITERATURE AS CONTENT

APPROACH
ACTIVITY A
Read the extract above and try to match the writing style with Somerset Maugham’s
style.
ACTIVITY B
The extract above is the beginning of a short story. Think about the parts of a short
story. Is this extract a good example of the beginning of short story?
SAMPLE ACTIVITIES BASED ON LITERATURE AS PERSONAL

ENRICHMENT APPROACH
Before you read the extract above, do the following activities:
• Suppose that you had to be away from your beloved ones, how would
you feel?
• How does the distance between couples affect the relationship? How
many different ways of overcoming this problem can you think of?
• Imagine that you are the partner of someone who has to go and live in
another country for 2 years. Do you feel
-- sorry because you will be away from someone you love?
-- bad because of the saying “out of sight, out of mind”?
-- free and happy?
Read the following extract from “The Glass Menagerie by Tenessee
TASK 4 Williams and prepare one sample activity for each approach
mentioned above based on that extract.
TOM: I’m getting a cigarette.

AMANDA: You smoke too much.
[LAURA rises.]
LAURA: I’ll bring in the blancmangé.
[He remains standing with his cigarette by the portières during the following.]
AMANDA[rising]: No, sister, no, sister - you be the lady this time and I’ll be the
darkey
LAURA: I’m already up.
AMANDA: Resume your seat, little sister, I want you to stay fresh and pretty for
gentleman callers!
LAURA: I’m not expecting any gentleman callers.
AMANDA[crossing out to kitchenette. Airily]: Sometimes they come when they
are least expected! Why, I remember one Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain
-[Enters kitchenette.]
TOM: I know what’s coming
LAURA: Yes. But let her tell it.
TOM: Again?
LAURA: She loves to tell it.
[AMANDA returns with bowl of dessert.]
AMANDA: One Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain, your mother received
seventeen! gentlemen callers! Why, sometimes there weren’t chairs enough to
accommodate them all. We had to send the nigger over to bring in folding chairs
from the parish house.
TOM [remaining at portières]: How did you entertain those gentleman callers?
AMANDA: I understood the art of conversation !
TOM: I bet you could talk.
AMANDA: Girls in those days knew how to talk, I can tell you.
SELECTING MATERIALS
The choice of the material is very important because everything the teacher is
going to do in the classroom will be related to it. Lazar (1993) states that there are
three things teachers should take into consideration while selecting the materials
to be used in the literature classrooms. They are:
• the students’ cultural background (for some literary works, some
background information must be supplied in order for students to
understand the content of the text, i.e. Jane Austin’s novels and their
connection with the class system and the values of the society at that
time.)
• the students’ linguistic proficiency (the texts including archaisms,
rhetorical devices, metaphors, or registers of highly specialized fields)
• the students’ literary background (what kind of works students have read
before up to that time).
Teachers can also take into consideration the criteria in the following checklist
while selecting a material for their literature course:
No Question YES NO
AVAILABILITY OF TEXTS
1 Is the material available to your students?
LENGTH OF TEXTS
2 Do you have enough time available to work on the text in
class?
3 Do the students have to work on the material a lot at
home?
4 Could you use only part of it, or an abridged version of it?
EXPLOITABILITY
5 Is the material exploitable in terms of tasks and activities?
6 Are there resources available to help you exploit the text,

such as a film version of the novel students are studying,
recordings of a play or poem, library materials giving
information about the life of an author, etc.?
FIT WITH SYLLABUS
7 Is the material linked with the syllabus thematically?
8 Is the material linked with the syllabus in terms of
vocabulary?
grammar?
discourse?
(Adapted from Lazar, 1993)
TASK 5 Is there anything else you can add to the parts of the checklist above?
Coser (2011) mentions some other important issues related to the choice of literary
materials. She points out that:
• The literary material should trigger the students’ interest
• A great variety of genres and styles should be considered when selecting
the literary materials
• The texts should be suitable for the age group, language level, needs,
interests and cultural background of the learners
• If the text is accompanied by exposure to different other media (tapes
with readings, movies on the author and/or work, hand-outs with
artwork, etc.
• The texts should fulfill the teacher’s previously set literary objective
• All these caveats should be kept in mind while choosing literary materials
in the language classrooms.
REFERENCES
Campbell, K. H. (2007). Less is more: Teaching literature with short texts. The USA: Stenhouse
Publishers.
Carter, R. & Long, M.N.(1991). Teaching literature.UK: Longman.
Coser, C. (2011). Communicative practices in the teaching of literature. Journal Plus Education,
7 (1), 197-210.
Lazar, G. (1993). Literature and language teaching: A guide for teachers and trainers. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Williams, M. & Burden, R.L. (1997). Psychology for language teachers: A social constructivist
approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
CHAPTER 2
USE OF SHORT STORIES FOR
LANGUAGE TEACHING PURPOSES
Study Questions
1. Before you start reading this chapter, try to answer the following questions:
2. What is a short story? What are the characteristics of a short story?
3. What are the important elements in a short story?
4. How can we integrate short stories into language lessons?
INTRODUCTION
In most of the definitions related to short stories, its narrative aspect is
generally mentioned. Russel (2009, p.2) defines short story as a plotted narrative.
According to Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest reference to the term “short
story” is in 1877. As suggested by Global Britannica, the evolution of the short
story first began before man could write. Short stories date back to oral storytelling
traditions through which Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey were produced. In order to
keep tales in mind, the early storytellers used stock phrases, fixed rhythms and
rhyme. As a result, many of the oldest narratives in the world, such as the famous
Babylonian tale The Epic of Gilgamesh (c.2000 BC) are all in verse.
In Europe, the oral story-telling tradition began to develop into written stories
in the early fourteenth century, most notably withGeoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury
Tales” and Giovanni Boccaccio’s“Decameron”. Both of these books are composed
of individual short stories. Even though there are early examples of short stories
that were published before, the first true collections of short stories appeared
between 1810 and 1830. In the United Kingdom, the first short stories were gothic
tales such as Richard Cumberland’s “The Prisoner of Montremos”. On the other
hand, in the US, Charles Brokden Brown’s “Somnambulism”, Washington Irwing’s
mysterious tales such as “Rip van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”,
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Twice Told Tales” and Edgar Allan Poe’s tales of mystery
and imagination such as “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Cask of Amontillado” and
the first detective story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” were the first short story
examples. According to Poe, short stories were important because as he stated in
“The Philosophy of Composition (1846)”, he argued that a literary work should be
short enough to finish in one sitting.
In the mid-nineteenth century, in the UK, Thomas Hardy wrote “The Three
Strangers” and “A Mere Interlude”. Rudyard Kipling wrote his short story collections
for both grown-ups and for children such as “Plain Tales from the Hills” and “The
Jungle Book”. The detective story improved with the efforts of Arthur Conan Doyle
with “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”. H.G. Wells, on the other hand, wrote
his first science fiction stories, one of the best known of which is “The Country
of the Blind”. In the meantime, as Aydınoğlu (2008) suggests, in the American
literature, the influence of realism was apparent. It mainly influenced very well
known authors such as Mark Twain.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, in the UK, with the help of some
periodicals like Story-Teller and The Strand Magazine positively contributed to
the development of short story. Hector Hugh Munroe, known by his penname
Use of Short Stories for Language Teaching Purposes 17
“Saki”, wrote satirical stories about Edwardian England. In Ireland, James Joyce
wrote his important book “Dubliners” as a short story collection in which he
wrote about his observations related to the people he observed in the city he was
born. The USA, at the same time, was under the influence of some unforgettable
stories (Aydınoğlu, 2008). Charlotte Perkins Gillman, Henry James and Stephen
Crane were some important names. While Henry James adopted the techniques of
modernism, Stephen Crane used the themes belonging to naturalism.
After the World War II, the increase in the number of short stories was
noticeable. Shirley Jackson, John Steinbeck and Jean Stafford were among the most
important contributors. In 1960s, cultural and ethnic identity gained importance
in short fiction with the help of such authors as Philip Roth, whose Jewish-
American identity was visible in his works. Similarly, James Baldwin’s “Going to
Meet the Man” (1965) portrayed the issues related to African-American life. Tillie
Olsen’s feminist perspective became more apparent with her work “I Stand Here
Ironing” in 1961. In fact, this was not the first appearance of feminist elements in
American short story tradition. When Kate Chopin wrote her short stories in the
last quarter of the 19th century, woman issues were the main content, which caused
the readers to criticize her very harshly because of the expectations of the people
at that time. Among the most popular literary works she wrote were “The Story of
an Hour” and “Desireé’s Baby”. In 1960s and after, Stephen King’s short stories were
published in important magazines. Post-modern short story became popular in
1970s and it is still possible to see examples of it.
Short stories generally focus on one main incident, they have a single plot, a
single setting, limited number of characteristics and they cover a short period of
time. The intention of the short story writer is to evoke a single effect or mood.
In order to achieve this, writers benefit from a number of literary techniques. In
terms of length, short stories are defined as the literary works that are read in one
sitting. In some sources, the length of short stories is said to be between 1000 and
9000 words; in some others, it is not longer than 20000 words or between 5 and
20 pages.
IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF SHORT STORIES

A) PLOT: Plot refers to the sequence of the events in a short story. The
structure of the plot has got five main parts:
a. Exposition: It is the part, which readers read firstly in the story. Setting,
characters and the situation are introduced to the readers.
b. Rising action: The event that introduces the conflict in the story is given
to the readers. It can be either internal conflict or external conflict.
c. Climax: This is the part in which there is most action. This is the point
of highest excitement and interest.
d. Falling action: After the climax part, the amount of excitement starts
to decrease and it starts to reach a conclusion. This part is called “falling
action”.
e. Resolution or denoument: This part is where the conflict in the story is
resolved and reaches a conclusion.
Climax
Fa
on
ll
ti
ing
Ac
Ac
ing
ti
Ris
on
Exposition Denouement
It is important to remember that not all stories obey this plot structure.
Especially the ones that belong to the Modern Period in literature do not follow
this traditional plot structure.
Authors usually benefit from special techniques of plot to be able to present a
vivid and striking style. The most common ones are:
a. Suspense: Excitement or suspense in the story
b. Foreshadowing: Hints or clues related to what will happen in the story.
c. Flashback: Flashbacks interrupt the normal sequence of the events to
tell about something that happened in the past
d. Surprise ending: A conclusion that the reader does not expect through
the author’s use of irony
B) CHARACTERS: Characters are one of the most important elements in
a short story. All the events in the stories revolve around them. Characters are
named according to the features they display in the story. The main character in the
story is called “protagonist”. Generally, protagonist is in conflict with “antagonist”.
Main characters are also called “major or central characters”, which are crucial to
the development and resolution of the conflict. The other characters that have less
significant roles in the story are “minor characters”.
CHARACTER DEFINITION
TYPES
DYNAMIC grows and changes in some significant manner by the
end of the story
STATIC changes a little or none throughout the story
ROUND refers to characters that show many different traits like
faults and virtues
FLAT refers to characters that are known to readers as one
type of person –the readers meet only one side
STOCK Typicalcharacters,such as the step-mother, that appear
CHARACTERS repeatedly in different stories. They are also named as
stereotypes.
A character in a story might have the features of more than one character
type. In other words, a character might be the protagonist, a round character and
a stock character at the same time.
Think about the literary works that you have read up to now. What
TASK 1 kind of characters did they have? Which characters were flat (static)
characters and which characters were round (dynamic) characters?
C) SETTING: Setting of a story includes the elements of time and place. It

prepares the readers for what they are going to read afterwards and it provides the
readers with the background for the story. Setting of a story might include such
details as time of the day, time of the year, weather, scenery, furniture, etc.
D) POINT-OF-VIEW: It refers to the position from which a story is told or
the perspectives from which events are seen. As Bonavoglia (2006) suggests it may
take different forms depending on the author’s choice:
a. First-person point of view: tells the story as a protagonist or reports the
events s/he has witnessed by using the pronoun “I”.
b. Third-person point of view: narrates the events from a third person’s
point of view. It can be omniscient, non-omniscient or an external
eyewitness. The omniscient narrator knows everything about the
characters. The non-omniscient narrator tells the story from a limited
perspective.The external eyewitness reports only what can be seen from
the outside and does not have access to the characters’ thoughts. The
third person point of view might also be intrusive, intervening in the
narrative with comments and opinions or unintrusive, avoiding explicit
comments.
E) STYLE: It refers to how a particular authorwrites about events: his word

choice, the figures of speech used such as simile, metaphor, irony, symbols, etc.,
and the sentence structure.
F) THEME: It is the central message that is expressed through the literary
work. It is either directly stated or implied by the author.
After this brief information about the term “short story” and the concepts
related to it, the following part will include the significance of short stories for
language teaching purposes.
ADVANTAGES OF USING SHORT STORIES IN THE LANGUAGE

CLASSROOM
When The Grammar-Translation Method was first suggested for language
teaching, the most important teaching materials included were literary texts.
The idea behind this was the significance of authentic materials and their roles
in language teaching. After this, the use of literary materials gained much more
popularity.
Aydınoğlu (2008) suggests that as a literary form, short stories are the most
suitable literary forms for classroom use because they share the same characteristics
with longer literary works but they are short enough for the course period that is
very limited. A lot of benefits of using short stories have been mentioned before.
Erkaya (2005) describes the following benefits of using short stories in the ELT
classroom:
a. Short stories allow instructors to teach four skills to learners of different
proficiency levels
b. They can be used to improve learners’ vocabulary and grammar.
c. Short stories contribute positively to students’ motivation as students
will continue reading until they find out what will happen at the end of
the story. Another motivational factor is related to the various themes
which will appeal to different interests these stories possess.
d. Students become knowledgeable about the culture of the target
community through the cultural concepts the author dealt with in the
story.
e. Students will need to analyze what they have read in the short stories,
reach conclusions, and predict what is going to happen next; as a result,
their critical thinking skills and cognitive abilities will improve.
In spite of all the positive aspects mentioned above, using short stories in the ELT
classroom might lead to some problems. In a teacher training session in which a lot
of experienced teachers participated and shared their experiences, some student
problems summarized by the teachers might be analyzed under the following six
main titles (Lazar, 1993):
1. Comprehension:
a. Following the plot
b. Understanding the characters
c. Understanding vocabulary
d. Understanding the role of the narrator
2. Motivation:
a. Lack of confidence
b. Uninteresting content of stories
c. When students know that short stories are not relevant to passing
exams in English
d. Students who are reluctant to read even in their own language
3. Inadequate reading strategies:
a. Tendency to focus on every word rather than the general meaning
4. Making interpretations:
a. Lack of confidence to make own interpretations
b. Difficulty in coping with ambiguity
5. Understanding the cultural background to the story
6. Appreciating the style
Think of the potential problems stated by the teachers above. If you
TASK 1 were the teacher of these students, how would you cope with them?
What strategies would you use?
Since the first appearance of The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT),

integration of different language skills in the classroom has always been a priority
for language teachers. For this reason, trying to use activities related to as many
different skills as possible while focusing on a passage is one of the most influential
ways of achieving this.
In the following part of this chapter, some sample activities to be used in the
classroom with the short stories are presented. They will be analyzed under three
main titles, namely:
1. Pre-reading (Before-reading) activities
2. While-reading (During-reading) activities
3. Post-reading (After-reading) activities
PART A: Pre-Reading
This step of the course includes the period before reading the story. Grabe &
Stoller (2001, p.191) claim that pre-reading activities
• help students access background information that can facilitate
subsequent reading,
• provide specific information needed for successful comprehension,
• stimulate student interest,
• set up student expectations
• model strategies that students can later use on their own.
In this part, teachers ask questions and students try to make predictions.
Depending on the needs of students and/or preferences of the teacher, the activities
in this preparatory session might focus on the language (grammar, vocabulary,
etc.), the content of the story or both. For this part, Lazar (1993, p.83) suggests
including activities related to the following titles:
• Helping students with cultural background
• Stimulating student interest in the story
• Pre-teaching vocabulary
When you read the titles above, what other titles come to your mind?
TASK 3
What kind of activities would you prepare for each of them?
PART B: While-reading
This stage of the course includes what students will be doing while they are
reading the text. The instruction given in this part “guides students through the
text, often focusing on understanding difficult concepts, making sense of complex
sentences, considering relationships among ideas or characters in the text, and
reading purposefully and strategically” (Grabe & Stoller, 2001, p.191).
One of the most commonly used activities by many teachers around the
world is asking comprehension questions. For this part, Lazar (1993, p.83) thinks
that activities related to the following parts might be appropriate:
• Helping students to understand the plot
• Helping students to understand the characters
• Helping students with difficult vocabulary
• Helping students with style and language
Read the titles above once again and try to suggest 2 potential
TASK 4
activities for each one.
PART C: Post-reading
This stage of the lesson is composed of activities students will do after they
have finished reading the story. This part “extends ideas and information from
the text while also ensuring that the major ideas and supporting information are
well understood” (Grabe & Stoller (2001, p.191). The activities used in this part
are often related to using the information gathered from the text for other tasks.
Lazar (1993, p.83) claims that activities associated with the following titles might
be used:
• Helping students to make interpretations of the text
• Understanding narrative point of view
• Follow-up writing activities
• Follow-up fluency practice
This pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading cycle could be easily used
in different learning contexts. With inexperienced readers, it is a good idea for
teachers to benefit from “Think Aloud”, which is a wonderful metacognitive
strategy. Students are shown what experienced readers do when reading with the
help of this strategy. The teacher verbalizes aloud while reading a specific part and
illustrates which clues he/she benefits from, what connections he/she uses and
how to cope with unknown vocabulary items while trying to understand the text.
A SAMPLE LESSON PLAN BASED ON “THE LANDLADY” BY ROALD

DAHL
The following activities have been prepared based on the story that you can
find in the Appendix.
A. Pre-Reading Activities
1. Refresh your knowledge about British culture and say what the following
concepts refer to in British culture:
a. Bed & Breakfast
b. Bath
c. Tea
d. Landlady
2. Look at the title of the story and the following photographs and try to guess
what the story might be about.
B. While-Reading Activities
1. Fill in the following table based on the description of the characters and
the setting.
Characters and setting Description
Billy Weaver
The Landlady
The street on which the B&B place

was located
Billy’s room
2. Answer the following questions

a. What is the connection between Christopher Mulholland, Gregory
Temple and Billy Weaver?
b. Why does the landlady keep those stuffed animals in that place?
c. In your opinion, is Billy’s first impression about the landlady and
the place correct? Why?
C. Post-Reading Activities
a. Complete the table below based on the traditional plot structure of short
stories
Plot Structure Events

Exposition
Rising action
Climax
Falling action
Resolution
b. As you can see, one part is missing in this story according to the sequence
above. How would you complete it?
c.
Read another short story by Roald Dahl and prepare a similar lesson
TASK 5
plan based on it.
REFERENCES
Aydınoğlu, N. (2008). Short Story Analysis and Teaching, Lefkoşa: Uluslararası Kıbrıs Üniversitesi
Yayınları
Bonavoglia, G. (1996). A World of Difference: Selected Short Stories by British and American
Writers, Italy: Black Cat Publishing.
Erkaya, O. R. (2005). Benefits of using short stories in the EFL context. Asian EFL Journal,
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED490771.pdf Retrieved on 10 August 2013.
Grabe, W. & Stoller, F. L. (2001). Reading for academic purposes: Guidelines for the ESL/EFL
Teacher. M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. The
USA: Heinle & Heinle.
Lazar, G. (1993).Literature and Language Teaching,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Russel, P. M. (2009). Short Story: An Introduction, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
APPENDIX1: THE LANDLADY by Roald DAHL

Billy Weaver had traveled down from London on the slow afternoon train, with
a change at Reading on the way, and by the time he got to Bath, it was about nine
o’clock in the evening, and the moon was coming up out of a clear starry sky over
the houses opposite the station entrance. But the air was deadly cold and thewind
was like a flat blade of ice on his cheeks.
“Excuse me,” he said, “but is there a fairly cheap hotel not too far away from here?”
“Try The Bell and Dragon,” the porter answered, pointing down the road. “They
might take you in. It’s about a quarter of a mile along on the other side.”Billy
thanked him and picked up his suitcase and set out to walk the quarter-mile to
The Bell and Dragon. He had never been to Bath before. He didn’t know anyone
who lived there. But Mr. Greenslade at the head office in London had told him it
was a splendid town. “Find your own lodgings,” he had said, “and then go along
and report to the branch manager as soon as you’ve got yourself settled.”
Billy was seventeen years old. He was wearing a new navy-blue overcoat, a new
brown trilby hat, and a new brown suit, and he was feeling fine. He walked briskly
down the street. He was trying to do everything briskly these days. Briskness, he
had decided, wastheone common characteristic of all successful businessmen. The
big shots up at the head office were absolutely fantastically brisk all the time. They
were amazing.There were no shops on this wide street that he was walking along,
only a line of tall houses on each side, all of them identical. They had porches
and pillars and four or five steps going up to their front doors, and it was obvious
that once upon a time they had been very swanky residences. But now, even in
the darkness, he could see that the paint was peeling from the woodwork on
their doors and windows and that the handsome white facades were cracked and
blotchy from neglect.
Suddenly, in a downstairs window that was brilliantly illuminated by a street lamp
not six yards away, Billy caught sight of a printed notice propped up against the
glass in one of the upper panes. It said BED AND BREAKFAST. There was a vase
of yellow chrysanthemums, tall and beautiful, standing just underneath the notice.
He stopped walking. He moved a bit closer. Green curtains (some sort of velvety
material) were hanging down on either side of the window. The chrysanthemums
looked wonderful beside them. He went right up and peered through the glass
into the room, and the first thing he saw was a bright fire burning in the hearth.
On the carpet in front of the fire, a pretty little dachshund was curled up asleep
with its nose tucked into its belly. The room itself, so far as he could see in the half
darkness, was filled with pleasant furniture. There was a baby grand piano and a
big sofa and several plump armchairs, and in one corner he spotted a large parrot
in a cage. Animals were usually a good sign in a place like this, Billy told himself;
and all in all, it looked to him as though it would be a pretty decent house to stay
in. Certainly it would be more comfortable than The Bell and Dragon.On the other
hand, a pub would be more congenial than a boardinghouse. There would be beer
and darts in the evenings, and lots of people to talk to, and it would probably be a
good bit cheaper, too. He had stayed a couple of nights in a pub once before and
he had liked it. He had never stayed in any boardinghouses, and, to be perfectly
honest, he was a tiny bit frightened of them. The name itself conjured up images
of watery cabbage, rapacious landladies, and a powerful smell of kippers in the
living room.
After dithering about like this in the cold for two or three minutes, Billy decided
that he would walk on and take a look at The Bell and Dragon before making up
his mind. He turned to go.And now a queer thing happened to him. He was in
the act of stepping back and turning away from the window when all at once his
eye was caught and held in the most peculiar manner by the small notice that
was there. BED AND BREAKFAST, it said. BED AND BREAKFAST, BED AND
BREAKFAST, BED AND BREAKFAST. Each word was like a large black eye
staring at him through the glass, holding him, compelling him, forcing him to stay
where he was and not to walk away from that house, and the next thing he knew,
he was actually moving across from the window to the front door of the house,
climbing the steps that led up to it, and reaching for the bell.He pressed the bell.
Far away in a back room he heard it ringing, and then at once —it must have been
at once because he hadn’t even had time to take his finger from the bell button—
the door swung open and a woman was standing there.Normally you ring the bell
and you have at least a half-minute’s wait before the door opens. But this dame
was like a jack-in-the-box. He pressed the bell—and out she popped! It made him
jump.She was about forty-five or fifty years old, and the moment she saw him,
she gave him a warm, welcoming smile.“ Please come in,” she said pleasantly. She
stepped aside, holding the door wide open, and Billy found himself automatically
starting forward. The compulsion or, more accurately, the desire to follow after her
into that house was extraordinarily strong.
“I saw the notice in the window,” he said, holding himself back.
“Yes, I know.”
“I was wondering about a room.”
“It’s all ready for you, my dear,” she said. She had a round pink face and very gentle
blue eyes.
“I was on my way to The Bell and Dragon,” Billy told her. “But the notice in your
window just happened to catch my eye.”
“My dear boy,” she said, “why don’t you come in out of the cold?”
“How much do you charge?”
“Five and sixpence a night, including breakfast.”
It was fantastically cheap. It was less than half of what he had been willing to pay.
“If that is too much,” she added, “then perhaps I can reduce it just a tiny bit. Do
you desire an egg for breakfast? Eggs are expensive at the moment. It would be
sixpence less without the egg.”
“Five and sixpence is fine,” he answered. “I should like very much to stay here.”
“I knew you would. Do come in.”
She seemed terribly nice. She looked exactly like the mother of one’s best school
friend welcoming one into the house to stay for the Christmas holidays. Billy took
off his hat and stepped over the threshold.
“Just hang it there,” she said, “and let me help you with your coat.”
There were no other hats or coats in the hall. There were no umbrellas, no walking
sticks—nothing.
“We have it all to ourselves,” she said, smiling at him over her shoulder as she led
the way upstairs. “You see, it isn’t very often I have the pleasure of taking a visitor
into my little nest.”
The old girl is slightly dotty, Billy told himself. But at five and sixpence a night, who
cares about that? “I should’ve thought you’d be simply swamped with applicants,”
he said politely.
“Oh, I am, my dear, I am, of course I am. But the trouble is that I’m inclined to be
just a teeny-weeny bit choosy and particular—if you see what I mean.”
“Ah, yes.”
“But I’m always ready. Everything is always ready day and night in this house just
on the off chance that an acceptable young gentleman will come along. And it is
such a pleasure, my dear, such a very great pleasure when now and again I open
the door and I see someone standing there who is just exactly right.” She was
halfway up the stairs, and she paused with one hand on the stair rail, turning her
head and smiling down at him with pale lips. “Like you,” she added, and her blue
eyes traveled slowly all the way down the length of Billy’s body, to his feet, and
then up again.
On the second-floor landing she said to him, “This floor is mine.”

They climbed up another flight. “And this one is all yours,” she said. “Here’s your
room. I do hope you’ll like it.” She took him into a small but charming front
bedroom, switching on the light as she went in.
“The morning sun comes right in the window, Mr. Perkins. It is Mr. Perkins, isn’t
it?”
“No,” he said. “It’s Weaver.”
“Mr. Weaver. How nice. I’ve put a water bottle between the sheets to air them out,
Mr. Weaver. It’s such a comfort to have a hot-water bottle in a strange bed with
clean sheets, don’t you agree? And you may light the gas fire at any time if you feel
chilly.”
“Thank you,” Billy said. “Thank you ever so much.” He noticed that the bedspread
had been taken off the bed and that the bedclothes had been neatly turned back on
one side, all ready for someone to get in.
“I’m so glad you appeared,” she said, looking earnestly into his face. “I was
beginning to get worried.”
“That’s all right,” Billy answered brightly. “You mustn’t worry about me.” He put his
suitcase on the chair and started to open it.
“And what about supper, my dear? Did you manage to get anything to eat before
you came here?”
“I’m not a bit hungry, thank you,” he said. “I think I’ll just go to bed as soon as
possible because tomorrow I’ve got to get up rather early and report to the office.”
“Very well, then. I’ll leave you now so that you can unpack. But before you go
to bed, would you be kind enough to pop into the sitting room on the ground
floor and sign the book? Everyone has to do that because it’s the law of the land,
and we don’t want to go breaking any laws at this stage in the proceedings, do
we?” She gave him a little wave of the hand and went quickly out of the room
and closed the door.Now, the fact that his landlady appeared to be slightly off her
rocker didn’t worry Billy in the least. After all, she not only was harmless—there
was no question about that—but she was also quite obviously a kind and generous
soul. He guessed that she had probably lost a son in the war, or something like that,
and had never gotten over it.So a few minutes later, after unpacking his suitcase
and washing his hands, he trotted downstairs to the ground floor and entered the
living room. His landlady wasn’t there, but the fire was glowing in the hearth,
and the little dachshund was still sleeping soundly in front of it. The room was
wonderfully warm and cozy. I’m a lucky fellow, he thought, rubbing his hands.
This is a bit of all right.He found the guest book lying open on the piano, so he
took out his pen and wrote down his name and address. There were only two other
entries above his on the page, and as one always does with guest books, he started
to read them. One was a Christopher Mulholland from Cardiff. The other was
Gregory W. Temple from Bristol.
That’s funny, he thought suddenly. Christopher Mulholland. It rings a bell.
Now where on earth had he heard that rather unusual name before?
Was it a boy at school? No. Was it one of his sister’s numerous young men, perhaps,
or a friend of his father’s? No, no, it wasn’t any of those. He glanced down again at
the book.
Christopher Mulholland
231 Cathedral Road, Cardiff
Gregory W. Temple
27 Sycamore Drive, Bristol
As a matter of fact, now he came to think of it, he wasn’t at all sure that the second
name didn’t have almost as much of a familiar ring about it as the first.
“Gregory Temple?” he said aloud, searching his memory. “Christopher Mulholland?
. . .”
“Such charming boys,” a voice behind him answered, and he turned and saw his
landlady sailing into the room with a large silver tea tray in her hands. She was
holding it well out in front of her, and rather high up, as though the tray were a
pair of reins on a frisky horse.
“They sound somehow familiar,” he said.
“They do? How interesting.”
“I’m almost positive I’ve heard those names before somewhere. Isn’t that odd?
Maybe it was in the newspapers. They weren’t famous in any way, were they? I
mean famous cricketers7 or footballers or something like that?”
“Famous,” she said, setting the tea tray down on the low table in front of the sofa.
“Oh no, I don’t think they were famous. But they were incredibly handsome, both
of them, I can promise you that. They were tall and young and handsome, my dear,
just exactly like you.”
Once more, Billy glanced down at the book. “Look here,” he said, noticing the
dates. “This last entry is over two years old.”
“It is?”
“Yes, indeed. And Christopher Mulholland’s is nearly a year before that—more
than three years ago.”
“Dear me,” she said, shaking her head and heaving a dainty little sigh. “I would
never have thought it. How time does fly away from us all, doesn’t it, Mr. Wilkins?”
“It’s Weaver,” Billy said. “W-e-a-v-e-r.”
“Oh, of course it is!” she cried, sitting down on the sofa. “How silly of me. I do
apologize. In one ear and out the other, that’s me, Mr. Weaver.”
“You know something?” Billy said. “Something that’s really quite extraordinary
about all this?”
“No, dear, I don’t.”
“Well, you see, both of these names—Mulholland and Temple—I not only seem to
remember each one of them separately, so to speak, but somehow or other, in some
peculiar way, they both appear to be sort of connected together as well. As though
they were both famous for the same sort of thing, if you see what I mean—like . . .
well . . . like Dempsey and Tunney, for example, or Churchill and Roosevelt.”
“How amusing,” she said. “But come over here now, dear, and sit down beside me on
the sofa and I’ll give you a nice cup of tea and a ginger biscuit before you go to bed.”
“You really shouldn’t bother,” Billy said. “I didn’t mean you to do anything like that.”
He stood by the piano, watching her as she fussed about with the cups and saucers.
He noticed that she had small, white, quickly moving hands and red fingernails.
“I’m almost positive it was in the newspapers I saw them,” Billy said. “I’ll think of
it in a second. I’m sure I will.”
There is nothing more tantalizing than a thing like this that lingers just outside the
borders of one’s memory. He hated to give up.
“Now wait a minute,” he said. “Wait just a minute. Mulholland . . . Christopher
Mulholland . . . wasn’tthatthe name of the Eton schoolboy who was on a walking
tour through the West Country, and then all of a sudden . . .”
“Milk?” she said. “And sugar?”
“Yes, please. And then all of a sudden . . .”
“Eton schoolboy?” she said. “Oh no, my dear, that can’t possibly be right,
becausemyMr. Mulholland was certainly not an Eton schoolboy when he came to
me. He was a Cambridge undergraduate. Come over here now and sit next to me
and warm yourself in front of this lovely fire. Come on. Your tea’s all ready for you.”
She patted the empty place beside her on the sofa, and she sat there smiling at Billy
and waiting for him to come over.He crossed the room slowly and sat down on the
edge of the sofa. She placed his teacup on the table in front of him.
“Therewe are,” she said. “How nice and cozy this is, isn’t it?”
Billy started sipping his tea. She did the same. For half a minute or so, neither of
them spoke. But Billy knew that she was looking at him. Her body was half turned
toward him, and he could feel her eyes resting on his face, watching him over
the rim of her teacup. Now and again, he caught a whiff of a peculiar smell that
seemed to emanate directly from her person. It was not in the least unpleasant,
and it reminded him—well, he wasn’t quite sure what it reminded him of. Pickled
walnuts? New leather? Or was it the corridors of a hospital?
At length, she said, “Mr. Mulholland was a great one for his tea. Never in my life
have I seen anyone drink as much tea as dear, sweet Mr. Mulholland.”
“I suppose he left fairly recently,” Billy said. He was still puzzling his head about
the two names. He was positive now that he had seen them in the newspapers—in
the headlines.
“Left?” she said, arching her brows. “But my dear boy, he never left. He’s still here.
Mr. Temple is also here. They’re on the fourth floor, both of them together.”
Billy set his cup down slowly on the table and stared at his landlady. She smiled back
at him, and then she put out one of her white hands and patted him comfortingly
on the knee. “How old are you, my dear?” she asked.
“Seventeen.”
“Seventeen!” she cried. “Oh, it’s the perfect age! Mr. Mulholland was also seventeen.
But I think he was a trifle shorter than you are; in fact I’m sure he was, and his teeth
weren’t quite so white. You have the most beautiful teeth, Mr. Weaver, did you
know that?”
“They’re not as good as they look,” Billy said. “They’ve got simply masses of fillings
in them at the back.”
“Mr. Temple, of course, was a little older,” she said, ignoring his remark. “He was
actually twenty-eight. And yet I never would have guessed it if he hadn’t told me,
never in my whole life. There wasn’t a blemish on his body.”
“A what?” Billy said.
“His skin wasjustlike a baby’s.”
There was a pause. Billy picked up his teacup and took another sip of his tea; then
he set it down again gently in its saucer. He waited for her to say something else,
but she seemed to have lapsed into another of her silences. He sat there staring
straight ahead of him into the far corner of the room, biting his lower lip.
“That parrot,” he said at last. “You know something? It had me completely fooled
when I first saw it through the window. I could have sworn it was alive.”
“Alas, no longer.”
“It’s most terribly clever the way it’s been done,” he said. “It doesn’t look in the least
bit dead. Who did it?”
“I did.”
“Youdid?”
“Of course,” she said. “And have you met my little Basil as well?” She nodded
toward the dachshund curled up so comfortably in front of the fire. Billy looked
at it. And suddenly, he realized that this animal had all the time been just as silent
and motionless as the parrot. He put out a hand and touched it gently on the top of
its back. The back was hard and cold, and when he pushed the hair to one side with
his fingers, he could see the skin underneath, grayish black and dry and perfectly
preserved.
“Good gracious me,” he said. “How absolutely fascinating.” He turned away from
the dog and stared with deep admiration at the little woman beside him on the
sofa. “It must be most awfully difficult to do a thing like that.”
“Not in the least,” she said. “I stuffallmy little pets myself when they pass away. Will
you have another cup of tea?”
“No, thank you,” Billy said. The tea tasted faintly of bitter almonds, and he didn’t
much care for it.
“You did sign the book, didn’t you?”
“Oh, yes.”
“That’s good. Because later on, if I happen to forget what you were called, then I
could always come down here and look it up. I still do that almost every day with
Mr. Mulholland and Mr. . . . Mr. . . .”
“Temple,” Billy said, “Gregory Temple. Excuse my asking, but haven’t there
beenanyother guests here except them in the last two or three years?”
Holding her teacup high in one hand, inclining her head slightly to the left, she
looked up at him out of the corners of her eyes and gave him another gentle little
smile.
“No, my dear,” she said. “Only you.”
CHAPTER 3
THE USE OF NOVELS IN THE
LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
Study Questions
1. What are the main benefits of using novels in the language classroom?
2. What are the criteria to be taken into consideration while selecting novels as
classroom materials?
3. What are the potential problems that might be encountered while using
novels? How could you cope with these problems?
INTRODUCTION
Novels are one of the most common materials that are preferred while
choosing reading materials for language classrooms. Lazar (1990) states that novels
give teachers a lot of opportunities to devise activities for students’ educational and
linguistic development. There are many different reasons why language teachers
use them in their classrooms. The experiences of characters in a novel are quite
similar to those of people in real life. Thanks to this characteristic of novels, it is
possible to say that novels have both a ‘portraying’ and an ‘enlightening’ function
(Asefa, 2017). In addition to this, novels have, as Asefa (2017) suggests, a number
of important educational benefits: a) they develop readers’ knowledge about
different cultures and different groups of people, b) increase students’ motivation
to read owing to being an authentic material, c) offer real life like settings, d)
give students the opportunity to make use of their creativity, e) improve critical
thinking skills, f) pave the way for teaching the target language culture, g) enable
students to go beyond what is written and dive into what is meant. Moreover,
Helton, et al. (19981-5) mention the following benefits:
• stimulate students’ imagination,
• help students to identify the emotions of the characters so that they can
learn how others cope with situations and problems similar to their own
experiences,
• help them master the skills that will enable them to acquire information,
process this knowledge, identify problems, formulate alternatives, and
arrive at meaningful, thoughtful, effective decisions and solutions,
• develop oral and written language skills,
• serve as a springboard for a multitude of holistic learning and critical
thinking activities beginning with basic comprehension and writing,
• present a unique way of teaching reading by getting students involved
and excited about the reading process,
• motivate students to become a lifelong reader
In addition to the benefits mentioned above, what other advantages

TASK 1
of using novels in the classroom can you think of?
The use of novels includes not only these positive aspects but it also involves
some difficulties. Lazar (1990) mentions some potential problems under
two categories; namely, practical and literary problems, for both of which he
The Use of Novels in the Language Classroom 37
suggests some solutions. The first practical problem related to the use of novels
in the language classroom is ‘length’. Whether it will be possible to handle
a novel satisfactorily in a limited period of time allocated for this course is an
important issue. At this point, some major issues should be addressed, which are;
the amount of time available per week for this course and whether the novel is
‘within the students’ grasp’ (Lazar, 1990, p. 206), in other words, whether they can
handle it when their linguistics, emotional and intellectual capacities are taken
into consideration. Another important factor is the number of students in the
classroom. These two issues; namely, the number of students and their linguistic
levels are the main factors that will determine the teachers’ approach to the use
of novels. Some possible approaches Lazar (1990) mentions are asking students
to read the novel at home before using it as the basis for classroom activities,
assigning students to read one chapter at a time and then devoting the class time
to activities on this particular chapter, and dividing students into groups, if time
is limited, and getting them to read different chapters over a period of time. The
teacher might also provide students with summaries of less important chapters
and encourage them to read the rest of the chapters.
The second problem is ‘unfamiliar vocabulary’ in the novel. Lazar (1993)
states that unfamiliar vocabulary is one of the most problematic aspects of using
novels in the language classrooms. The amount of difficult vocabulary might easily
lead to frustration as the students will feel the need to look up the meanings of
the words in the dictionary each time they encounter them. In fact, an important
benefit of novels as course materials is their contribution to students’ vocabulary
knowledge and the vocabulary novels include might be a good source of course
activities. If the teacher’s aim is to focus on the language of the novel, some
vocabulary teaching activities such as synonym-antonym, word-matching, fill-in-
the-blanks could be devised. Another possible strategy is to prepare or to ask
students to prepare a glossary that they might use while reading the novel. This
glossary might include the meanings of words either in English or in the students’
mother tongue. If teachers ask student to prepare this glossary, it may help them
improve their dictionary skills as well.
CHOOSING NOVELS FOR CLASSROOM USE

In many cases teachers have the freedom to choose the novel they will use
in their own teaching contexts regardless of the level they are teaching. However,
when it comes to making the correct decision, there are many factors that should
be taken into consideration such as learners’ interests, their age group, the time
allocated to teaching it, etc.
If you were required to choose 2 novels to use in your own teaching

situation, which ones would you choose? What criteria would you
use for selection?Rate the following criteria for selection:
• period
TASK 2 • canonical status
• is the novel a ‘good read’?
• cultural similarity vs. cultural difference
• variety/varieties of language e.g. novels written in standard
English vs. novels written in non-standard English
In addition to the criteria listed above, the following questions should be

answered:
1. Is the novel appropriate for students’ proficiency level and age?
2. Is the novel in line with the course objectives?
3. Does the novel require any literary background?
4. Is the length of the novel suitable for classroom usage or does it require
reading outside the classroom?
5. Is there a movie or theatre adaptation of the novel?
Paran & Robinson (2016) mention the following factors that might be taken
into consideration while choosing a novel to use in the classroom:
Length: For most teachers, this is the most important criterion of selection.
Even if the language of the novel is not too difficult, students might feel intimidated
by a book which looks too long. In this case, choosing a novel which is 150-200
pages long might be a good idea if you prefer to teach just one book. If you have
time to teach more than one, start with the shortest and go on with the longer and
more complicated texts.
Availability of support materials for teachers to work with: Asworking with
a novel will take up a great deal of time, it will be necessary to supply a variety of
activities, which will probably be the teacher’s responsibility. In this case, choosing
a novel from the literary canon would be a good idea because it will be easier to
reach critical essays, book reviews, etc., which will enable the teacher to have some
sort of critical understanding that they want their students to have.
Achieving variety: In the teaching contexts in which teachers will be
required to teach a number of novels, they need to ensure that there is variety.
Paran & Robinson (2016) recommend autobiographical novels, science fiction,
magical realism or novels with different narrative techniques such as letters,

novels including multiple narrators of the same event or an animal appearing as a
narrator, etc.
Availability of the film: When students are not motivated enough to read
long texts, availability of films becomes a really important factor. With the help of
films, students can understand the plot, the characters and the setting better.
Appeal to the teacher: Many of the previous factors are mentioned in different
resources but this one is usually ignored despite its significance. If you, as a teacher,
do not like the novel you have chosen for your learners, it is not very realistic to
expect your learners to like it.
Appeal to the learner: The age, gender and general attributes of the learners
are also very important factors in the process of choosing a course material. If your
students consist of young adults, for instance, it might be a good idea to choose a
novel whose protagonists are also young adults.
If you are not sure about what to choose for your teaching context, choosing a
text with a universal appeal is a good idea. As an alternative, you can include your
students in the process of selection. You can do this in the following ways:
Providing a menu of choices: Bring the Students providing possible choices:

books you are considering for classroom Ask your students to bring novels they
use with you together with their blurbs, are interested in reading or the ones
summaries of their plots, etc. Talk with they have heard of. If they cannot find
your students about these possibilities. the books they are interested in, they
It will give you a chance to make your can also bring their summaries or
students talk and read and also, they will reviews
gain some superficial acquaintance with
different novels which will widen their
knowledge of literature.
Students taking full responsibility: Relying on past students’ views:
When your students are advanced You can invite some students from
level or highly autonomous, try giving previous students to your classroom
the responsibility of choosing a novel and ask them to talk to the new
to students themselves. In some cases, students. Alternatively, you can collect
they can read all the pre-selected set opinions from students and use them
(either one, which the teacher has in the following years. You can present
constructed or prescribed by the each alternative to your new students
curriculum), and then decide which supplying some notes or student
one to study. recommendations as attachments.
After you have chosen the novel you want to use, it’s time to think about some
possible ways of using it in your teaching context.
In your opinion, what is the best approach to teach novels in the

TASK 3
language classroom? Elaborate on your answer.
HOW TO USE NOVELS

Because there are differences between learner needs and teaching contexts,
finding the correct methodology of using novels in the language classroom
becomes a challenge. In the related literature, most resources mention dividing
the course into three parts; namely, pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading
and then, adapting related activities to each section. Others suggest using novels as
textbooks and teaching different language skills based on the content of the book.
In this section of the chapter, these alternatives will be dwelled upon and sample
activities and lesson plans will be presented.
One of the ways of benefiting from novels in the language classroom is to use
them as ‘textbooks’ (Gareis et al., 2009) and teaching discrete language skills through
the content of the novels. They point out that four language skills; namely, listening,
speaking, reading and writing and two language components; namely, grammar
and vocabulary could be taught through the following activities (p.138-144):
SKILLS & COMPONENTS ACTIVITIES

Reading • Prediction
• Identification of main ideas and supporting
details
• Skimming
• Scanning
• Inferring
Listening • Listening for the main idea
• Listening for specific information
• Transferring heard information to a chart
Speaking • Role-playing
• Discussion of the issues and questions
raised by the novel
• Student presentations on the author’s
biography, historical context, cultural
content
Writing • Playing the role of a penpal and writing a
letter to one of the novel’s characters, with
classmates writing back.
• Inventing an alternative ending
• Writing a poem making use of vocabulary
randomly chosen from the novel
Grammar • Finding examples of a specific grammar
topic from the novel and testing each other
on these topics
• Sentence transformation practice
• Identifying sentence/clause types
Vocabulary • Guessing vocabulary from context
• Choosing a theme and conducting a
treasure hunt for words related to that
theme
• Connecting vocabulary to memorable
plots or characters
Gareis et al., (2009) contend that novels could also be used to teach integrated
skills because of their length and varied content. In this sense, the lesson might
start with a prediction activity after the first paragraph has been heard from a
recorded material (listening & speaking). A fill-in-the-blanks activity might be
devised based on a grammar topic that repeatedly appears throughout the novel.
A vocabulary game might follow this grammar activity including some target
vocabulary items. The main idea search can also be used as a follow-up activity
after each chapter is read by the students.
Nicolescu (2017) states that integration of different skills can be achieved
through a number of ways when using novels in the language classroom such as
developing and using exercises and activities involving active student participation,
interaction and collaboration and choosing instructional materials, textbooks,

technology, and activities which promote the integration of four language skills as
well as the associated skills of syntax, vocabulary, and pronunciation, for example.
Focusing on different ways of benefiting from this integrated-skills approach
while teaching works of literature, Nicolescu (2017) proposes the following sample
lesson plan based on the novel ‘The Alchemist’ by Paul Coelho.
Have a quick look at the suggested sample lesson plan below and
TASK 4
decide which skills are the target skills in each section of the plan.
A SAMPLE INTEGRATED-SKILLS LESSON PLAN BASED ON THE NOVEL

‘THE ALCHEMIST’
The Alchemist is a novel written by Paul Coelho which was first published in 1988.
It is about a
SKILLS
PRE-READING Write-Pair-Share: Think about 1-2 proverbs
ACTIVITIES from your culture, write them in your
notebook, and pair with another student to
discuss the implied meanings and contexts
associated with your proverbs.
WHILE- Read the excerpt below from Paolo Coelho’s

READING The Alchemist and highlight any words or
sentences containing references to hardship
or the testing of one’s courage.
Infer and discuss the possible meanings of
the proverb “The darkest hour of the night
came just before the dawn.”
“So, what should I do now?” the boy asked.
“Continue in the direction of the Pyramids,”
said the alchemist. “And continue to pay heed
to the omens. Your heart is still capable of
showing you where the treasure is.”
“Is that the one thing I still needed to know?”
“No,” the alchemist answered. “What you
still need to know is this: before a dream is
realized, the Soul of the World tests everything
that was learned along the way. It does this
not because it is evil, but so that we can, in
addition to realizing our dreams, master the
lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward
that dream. That’s the point at which most
people give up. It’s the point at which, as we
say in the language of the desert, one `dies of
thirst just when the palm trees have appeared
on the horizon.’
“Every search begins with beginner’s luck.
And every search ends with the victor’s being
severely tested.”
The boy remembered an old proverb from his
country. It said that the darkest hour of the
night came just before the dawn.
POST- Free-write about a time when you were
READING faced with an obstacle or difficult challenge
and what measures you took to overcome it.
Were you successful? What lessons did you
learn?
USING NOVELS AND FILM ADAPTATIONS TOGETHER

We are surrounded by visual data through cinema, TV, computers, videos,
films and social media; for this reason, these data, particularly films, can also
support the use of literature in the language classrooms. Nowadays it is possible
to encounter the film adaptations of literary works, even the updated versions of
old movie adaptations. Paran & Robinson (2016) state that the use of films ‘can
help to promote an understanding of literature and also help learners bridge any
perceived gap that they feel between the two’ (p.118). The other advantages they
mention are:
-- enhancing the appreciation of the literary work
-- allowing learners to gain a view of the piece as a whole
-- introducing variety into the classroom
-- helping focus on important aspects of a novel
-- allowing visual literacy or critical viewing as well as on non-verbal
communication and cinematographic aspects such as camera work, sets,
props, soundtrack, or acting
-- being ideal for homework tasks as they are accessible to learners.
There are 3 possibilities regarding the timing of showing the film adaptations
of the novels throughout a course (Paran & Robinson, 2016) :
a. Before reading the book: It helps learners to understand difficult texts.
It can also be very motivating. When they go on to read the novel, it will
be easier for them to focus on the details as they already know the plot.
b. After reading the book: After a long session/sessions of reading, you can
step back and experience the work as a whole. Then, you can discuss the
similarities and differences between the novel and the film.
c. Intermittently in the teaching cycle: You can start your lesson with
the film’s first part (it requires working on different parts of the film
beforehand), spend some time on a couple of chapters and watch another
segment of the film. In this way, you can produce different activities for
different parts of the film.
Suppose that you decided you have decided to use a novel and its
TASK 5 film adaptation as course materials. How would you integrate them
for your teaching purposes?
POSSIBLE ACTIVITIES TO USE IN THE CLASSROOM

Comparing the novel with its film adaptation: Compare and contrast the
novel and the film adaptation. In what ways are they similar and in what ways are
they different? Draw a Venn diagram.
Discuss and Write: What good adaptations of novels do you know? Which
adaptations can you think of that are terrible? Choose an adaptation of a literary
work that you believe was not successful, and write an essay in which you analyze
why.
Gareis et al., (1998) suggest the following activities that might be used while
watching the film adaptation of a novel:
Previewing discussion: This discussion focuses on students’ expectations of
the film regarding the locale, actors/actresses, and possible deviations from the
novel. As the endings of the novels are generally changed in the film adaptations,
students can be asked about what their predictions are for the ending of the film.
During-film: During the actual viewing of the film, possible activities that
could be conducted include cloze dictations of dialogues (previously transcribed
by the teacher), jumbled dialogues to be put in the correct order by student groups,
and prediction exercises concerning dialogue and content.
After-screening: Students might voice their opinions about the film by writing
a film review in the style of their favourite newspaper or magazine. They may also
stage a debate between two film critics, one arguing for and one against the film.
Consider the activities related to the use of film adaptations suggested

TASK 6
up to now and decide which ones are appropriate for which levels.
As can be seen from the example activities above, these two media can easily
be combined for classroom use. They can ‘offer myriad opportunities for intensive,
contextualized involvement and holistic learning’ (Gareis, et al., 1998, p.50). Such
activities not only address four language skill areas (listening, speaking, reading,
writing) and language components (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation) but
also they appeal to a wide variety of teaching and learning styles (individual work
and collaboration, critical analysis, affective sharing, reflection, use of technology,
etc.).
A SAMPLE LESSON PLAN FOR 1984 by GEORGE ORWELL
PRE-READING ACTIVITIES
1. Focusing on the cover, the title and the blurb of the book: Students have a
quick look at the title and the cover of the book and try to guess the content
of the book; namely, what the book is about, who the characters are, where
the events are taking place, etc.
2. Quick guesses: Read the first sentence and the first paragraph of the novel
quickly and try to visualize the setting of the novel and guess what is going
to happen next.
3. Multiple covers one novel: Consider the following covers used by different
publishing companies in different time periods and decide in what ways
they reflect the content of 1984.
4. Background Info Check: Ask students what they know about the term
‘Dystopia’. Inform them about it (through handouts, etc.) and provide
them with other examples of dystopian literature.
5. Author’s Biography: Giving students some information about the histo-
rical context and who George Orwell is and his style of writing will be
helpful for students to understand what the novel is about better. (It might
be assigned as a preparatory homework to be done before the lesson starts).
Organize a classroom discussion based on a quote by G. Orwell below:
‘Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported

in a newspaper’
WHILE-READING ACTIVITIES
1. Discussion activities: Choose some key quotations from the novel and ask
students to complete the chart below and then to discuss them either individually or
in pairs/groups.The following chart could be used for classroom discussion:
QUOTES WHO SAID IT? WHAT IS THE CONTEXT?
Freedom is the freedom to
say two plus two makes for.
If it is granted, all else follow.
Never again will you be
capable of ordinary human
feeling.
Everything will be dead
inside you. Never again will
you be
capable of love, or friendship,
or joy of living, or laughter, or
curiosity, or courage, or
integrity. You will be hollow.
We shall squeeze you empty
and then we shall fill you
with ourselves.
Don’t you see that the whole
aim of Newspeak is to narrow
the range of thought?... Has
it ever occurred to you,
Winston,
that by the year 2050, at
the very latest, not a single
human
being will be alive who
could understand such a
conversation
as we are having now?... The
whole climate of thought
will be different. In fact,
there will be no thought,
as we understand it now.
Orthodoxy means not
thinking—not needing to
think.
Orthodoxy is
unconsciousness.”
2.Preparing a character map: Think about the main characters in 1984 and
complete the following table according to them:
WINSTON SMITH
Physical qualities:
Personality:
Quote:
O’BRIEN
Physical qualities:
Personality:
Quote:
3.TRUE-FALSE: Read the following sentences about 1984 and decide whether
they are TRUE (T) or FALSE (F). If they are FALSE (F), correct them!!!
……a.The Party invented a new language called NEWSPEAK to be able to
control people’s mind and thoughts.
…..b. Winston works for Ministry of Peace.
…..c. Emmanuel Goldstein wrote the manifesto that O’Brien gives to Winston.
POST-READING ACTIVITIES
1.Film adaptation: Watch a video production of 1984. How is the book different
from the movie? Was it easier to understand or more difficult? Were scenes left out or
changed, and if so, how did those omissions or changes affect the way you interpret
the book?
2. A different ending: If you were George Orwell, how would you end the
novel? Write an alternative ending for 1984 and explain in what ways it is better
than Orwell’s version.
3. Debate: On reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, discuss the language
use and content of the two books.
REFERENCES
Asefa, H. T. (2017). Using literature as a tool for teaching English language: Animal Farm in the
EFL classroom. International Journal of Science and Research, 6(1), 1812-1819.
Gareis, E., Allard, M., Gill, S., Saindon, J. (1998). Beyond entertainment: Novels and film
adaptations in the ESL/EFL classroom. TESL Canada Journal, 15(2), 50-58.
Gareis, E., Allard, M., Saindon, J. (2009). The novel as textbook. TESL Canada Journal, 26(2),
136-147.
Helton, C.A, J.Asamani and E.D.Thomas. 1998. “A ‘novel’ approach to the teaching of reading”.
Tennessee State: Tennessee State University, p.p: 1-5, Available internet address: http: //
www.nade.net / documents / SCP98 / SCP98.19.pdf.
Lazar, G. (1990). Using novels in the language-learning classroom. ELT Journal, 44(3), 204-214.
Lazar, G. (1993). Literature and Language Teaching: A Guide for Teachers and Trainers. UK:
Nicolescu, A. (2017). Integrated skills in language teaching. In Inan-Karagul, B. & Yuksel, D.
(Eds.). The Theory and Practice of English Language Teaching, (pp.170-185), Kocaeli: Kocaeli
Üniversitesi Vakfı (KÜV) Yayınları.
Paran, A. & Robinson, P. (2016). Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Parkinson, B. & Thomas, H. R. (2000) Teaching Literature in a Second Language. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press.
CHAPTER 4
USING PLAYS AND DRAMA
TECHNIQUES IN THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
Study Questions
1. What are the benefits of using plays in the language classroom?
2. Talk about the text of a play and its performance.
3. “Drama is not made of words alone, but of sights and sounds, stillness and
motion, noise and silence, relationships and responses”. Discuss. (J. L. Styan,
1975, Drama, Stage and Audience)
4. Discuss the effects of sounds, lights, silences, movements and words in a play
performance that you have seen.
INTRODUCTION
Similar to the other genres of literary texts such as the novel, short story
and poetry, plays also distinctively extend the capacity of language teaching and
learning in terms of creativity, novelty and variety. Collie and Slater (1987) observe
that literary texts are valuable sources in terms of providing authentic language and
different kinds of registers. Similarly Maley and Duff, (1978) and Wessels (1987)
prioritize play scripts and argue that drama helps the teacher to achieve “reality”
and that drama facilitates an enjoyable experience by reducing the learners’ anxiety
and resistance. Similar to novels, short stories and poetry, drama provides cultural
and language enrichment by portraying the gists of the target culture and society
by employing language in authentic and realistic contexts.
Active use of play extracts in language teaching introduces the culture of the
target language to the learners. By using extracts of play scripts from different
periods, the teaching activities will surely be diverse and effective enabling the
learners to improve vocabulary, collocations, colloquial and formulaic language.
Indeed drama scripts tend to include much more naturalistic language than
poems and novels. Drama offers rich contexts in the field of literature and
language teaching. It covers a vast area in terms of teaching drama terminology,
the long history of dramatic arts in the Western tradition, and aspects of drama in
education. Before the sample textual tasks, the following part gives a brief outline
of important drama terms and traditions.
The word drama comes from the Greek verb dran, which means “to do.” A
drama is a story enacted onstage for a live audience. Plays can be in the form of
prose or verse telling a story through dialogue or action. A play is written by a
playwright and it consists of acts (the major sections of a play) and scenes (small
section or portion of a play). A script is the printed copy of a play. Plot is the
main storyline. It can be linear as in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, triangular as in
Shakespeare’s Macbeth and in reverse chronological order as in Pinter’s Betrayal.
A protagonist is the central character of the play who often undergoes radical
changes as the action progresses. An antagonist is the character who opposes the
main character and actively competes with him/her. Setting is the time and place
in a play; it may be realistic and detailed or abstract and minimal.
The characters’ speech may appear in the form of a dialogue (conversations
between characters on stage), monologue (a long speech given by one character to
others), soliloquy (a speech by a character alone onstage to himself or herself or
to the audience), or asides (remarks made to the audience or to one character; the
other characters onstage do not hear an aside). Chorus is the major part of ancient
Using Plays and Drama Techniques in the English Language Classroom 53
Greek drama; it consists of a group of actors acting as a single character. Today

some playwrights such as David Greig employs chorus in his plays (see David
Greig, Europe).
Along with using drama texts in which the learners interpret the playwrights’
works as a means of learning and improving language skills, “educational drama”
in the form of improvisation, pantomime, mimicry, role-playing, simulation,
games and creative drama activities provide a direct communication and
cooperation between individuals. Improvisation is made up and performed
without preparation, pantomime is a kind of communication without speaking
but using only facial and body gestures, mimicry requires copying or imitating
something very closely and role playing demand taking on the characteristics of
someone or something. Creative drama is a group work in which the students
learn life experiences, certain concepts and themes by imitating and playing
in an educational setting. In the process of drama activities the learner has the
opportunity to revise, question and strengthen the previous knowledge.
Figure 1 http://theconversation.com/us/topics/improvisation-2762
Figure 2 https://schoolworkhelper.net/what-is-pantomime-basic-principles/
A CHRONOLOGY OF WESTERN DRAMA

• Greek Drama (500-400 B.C.): Drama began in ancient Greece dating
back to 543 B.C. It started as choral performances of dancing and
singing in order to honor Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility.
Aeschylus (525–456 BC), Sophocles (496–406 BC), Euripides (484–406
BC) and Aristophanes (448–385 BC) are the great ancient playwrights.
Ancient Greek theatre has influenced Western theatre tradition since
the Renaissance. In Greek drama actors wore masks in order to help the
audience recognize the character they played.
• Medieval (1200-1500 AD): In the Middle Ages plays consisted of mimes
and liturgical drama. Mystery plays represented Biblical stories such as
Noah’s Flood. Miracle plays portrayed the lives of saints and religious
stories. Morality plays are allegorical plays that give moral lessons. The
most famous morality play is Everyman in which abstract concepts like
Vice, Virtue, Wisdom and Beauty act like real characters in order to stage
the eternal struggle between good and evil.
• Elizabethan and Jacobean Periods (1500-1642): Ben Jonson, Christopher
Marlowe, William Shakespeare wrote their plays in the extremely fruitful
periods. Their plays were defined by “elaborate speeches, violence and
horroronstage, characters who are dominated by a single, obsessive
passion, or an interest in the supernatural” (75).
• Restoration and 18th Century Drama (1660-1800): Restoration period

refers to the decades from 1660 (the year Charles II was re-established
as monarch) to the end of the century. Plays have been written in the
form of Comedy of Manners with the influence of French theatre. The
plays present a society of elegance and stylishness in a satirical way. The
main goal of these comedies of manners in the period of Restoration is to
entertain and to mock the society. The audience is supposed to laugh at
themselves. Chief representatives and plays include William Wycherley:
The Country Wife (1673); The Plain Dealer (1674), George Etheredge: The
Man of Mode (1676), William Congreve: The Way of the World (1700).
Later examples of the genre are Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being
Ernest (1895) and Noël Coward’s Private Lives (1930).
• Victorian Drama (1800-1900): Plays were characterized by contemporary
elegant settings, suspenseful plots, stereotyped characters. Oscar Wilde’s
(1856-1900) Comedy of Manners play The Importance of Being Earnest
(1895) is written in the form of witty exchanges and depicts the lives of
upper class. Comedy of Manners plays elegantly ridicule the relationships
amongst the idle rich.
• Modern Era (1900-Present): Plays such as George Bernard Shaw’s
Pygmalion (1912) contain social and political criticism. Shaw writes
socialist plays in which he employs the stage as a forum for investigating
social and political issues. He is critical of the moral imperatives of
the Victorian society. T. S. Eliot’s verse drama Murder in the Cathedral
(1935), brings a revival of the form. A postmodernist example of verse
drama is Serious Money (1987) by Caryl Churchill.
• Post-war Drama (1945-1990): By the mid-50s revolutionary movements
transformed British Theatre. John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (1956),
has given voice to a generation of angry young men with working-class
background. Osborne breaks literary conventions and examines his
generation’s disappointment with the conventions in British society and
politics. Post-war playwrights are opposed to the establishment and
they are discontended with the post-second world war British society.
Additionally Arnold Wesker writes Kitchen-Sink comedy in order
to portray the working-class life at the time. Multitude of playwrights
portray the individual’s search for identity in a hostile outside world, and
exploit the difficulty and fear of communicating with other individuals.
Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1954) andEndgame (1957) are
examples for Absurd drama, a movement between 1930-1970s, that
respond to the illogicality and purposelessness of human life after the

second world war. Absurd plays are characterized by a lack of clear
narrative, understandable psychological motives, or emotional catharsis.
Beckett’s drama of alienation, Waiting for Godot, with its minimalist
style is one of the most celebrated works in the theater of the absurd.
Harold Pinter is a pioneer in the practice of Comedy of Menace. Pinter
is fantasized by the impossibility of communication between characters
in a closed situation. The Birthday Party (1957), The Caretaker (1960)
and The Homecoming (1964) are the representative plays for Comedy of
Menace which depict characters that are threatened by mysterious and
frightening outside forces.
Figure 3 Look Back in Anger original 1956 production

https://rosariomariocapalbo.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/john-osborne-and-look-back-in-
anger/
Figure 4 https://www.davisenterprise.com/arts/ucd-professor-earns-top-drama-
honor-for-godot-set/
• In-yer-face Drama (1990s): With the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and
the end of the Thatcher era in 1990 a group of innovative playwrights
such as Sarah Kane and Mark Ravenhill wrote aggressive and violent
plays with a new kind of energy to redefine the clichéd values related
to cultural identity, politics and sexuality on stage in Britain and across
Europe.
• Postdramatic Theatre (1960-Present): The term ‘Postdramatic Theatre’,
has been coined by Hans-Thies Lehmann in his book Postdramatic
Theatre (German 1999; English translation 2006). Playwrights
deconstruct the structure of the well-made play. The plays depart from
plot, character, time and place in the traditional sense. Playwrights
such as Martin Crimp, Debbie Tucker Green, Simon Stephens write
postdramatic plays. In the postdramatic aesthetic, contemporary issues
such as consumerism, terrorism, globalism and alienation are depicted
in innovative ways by using technology and media.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
The playwrights may employ devices such as pauses, silences, repetitions
and interruptions in writing the dialogues. All these devices together with stage
directions add dramatic intentions to the plays. Extracts from the plays can be
used in order to study the language and analyze character, theme and context.
Depending on the needs, language levels and interests of the students, drama
texts can be examined through analytical approach and/or experiential approach.
When applying the analytical approach to drama/theatre texts, the main focus
stays on language components in order to improve the learners’ phonological
and lexical competency. The teacher draws the attention to particular sentence
structures and language items that he/she aims to teach. Analytical approach
needs careful selection of literary texts and conscious planning of learning tasks in
which the language is separated into its phonological and lexical parts in order to
practise or teach the intended language items.
On the other hand, the experiential approach to drama/theatre texts does
not prioritize language items. White (1988) identifies language as a tool, not as
an object. The learning process is designed through the inductive method as the
learners are encouraged to ‘experience’ and apply their personal experiences to the
text. The learners are engaged in producing comments, responses and expressions
based on the text or its theme/topic. Learning activities designed for theme/topic
of drama/theatre texts aim to improve various language achievement:
• Identifying the story, characters, plot (achievable at beginner level)

• Identifying the author’s / characters’ viewpoint, attitude or opinion
• Understanding the work in relation to its socio-cultural and historical-
political context
• Giving a personal / creative response (e.g. enacting the text)
• Answering the question: “does it work as literature?” (Extended citical
analysis of text)
Experiential approach involves learners actively. It consists of 3 stages: warm
up, reading the text and active learning activities. In the warm up stage, the
learners pre-discuss and anticipate the text through pictures, words and images.
Stimulating oral communication is more important than stylistic analysis.
By reading a drama text along with adding characterisation, language learners
become personally involved in the learning process due to expressing themselves
through the multiple voices (Vygotsky, 1987; Bakhtin, 1981, 1986) of the differing
characters.
- (adapted from Literature and Language Teaching, Gillian Lazar,
1993)
Below is a list of 10 reasons for using drama texts in the language
classroom. Which reasons do you think are the most important? Are
there other reasons you think are important?
Drama texts should be used with students because:
• They are very motivating
• They are authentic materials
TASK 1 • They are highly valued and have high status

• They are found in many syllabi
• They stimulate language acquisition
• They expand students’ language awareness
• They help students understand another culture
• They develop students’ interpretative abilities
• They encourage students to talk about their opinions and
feelings
• Students enjoy them and they are fun.
SAMPLE LESSON PLANS

The following part consists of a mixture of analytical and experiential
approaches tasks and explores the potential of drama and theatre texts through
various activities. In any task dealing with drama, learners’ imagination and
individuality are improved in a lively and experimental environment:
Short Drama Texts (Victoria Station, Harold Pinter)
a. Pinter’s characters have a serious problem in communicating.
By referring to the following extract, suggest why this
might be so. For example, the Driver is being deliberately
TASK 2
uncooperative.
b. How would you produce this play on the stage? For example,
where would you place the Controller and the Driver? What
lighting would you use?
CONTROLLER: 274? Where are you? 274? Where are you?

Pause
Hullo?
DRIVER: Hullo?
CONTROLLER: 274?
DRIVER: Hullo?
CONTROLLER: Is that 274?
DRIVER: That’s me.
CONTROLLER: Where are you?
DRIVER: What?
Pause
CONTROLLER: I’m talking to 274? Right?
DRIVER: Yes. That’s me. I’m 274. Who are you?
Pause
CONTROLLER: Who am I?
DRIVER: Yes.
CONTROLLER: Who do you think I am? I’m your office.
DRIVER: Oh yes.
CONTROLLER: Where are you?

DRIVER: I’m cruising.
CONTROLLER: What do you mean?
Pause
Listen son. I’ve got a job for you. If you’re in the area I
think you’re in. Where are you?
DRIVER: I’m just cruising about.
CONTROLLER: Don’t cruise. Stop cruising. Nobody’s asking you to
cruise about.
Pause
274?
DRIVER: Yes. That’s me.
CONTROLLER: I want you to go to Victoria Station. I want you to pick
up a customer coming from Boulogne. That’s what I
want you to do. Do you follow me? Now the question
I want to ask you is this. Where are you? And don’t say
you’re just cruising about. Just tell me if you’re anywhere
near Victoria Station.
DRIVER: Victoria what?
Pause
CONTROLLER: Station.
Pause
Can you help me on this?
DRIVER: Sorry?
CONTROLLER: Can you help me on this? Can you come to my aid on
this?
Pause
You see 274, I’ve got no-one else in the area, you see. I’ve
only got you in the area. I think. Do you follow me?
DRIVER: I follow you, yes. (Pinter, 1998, pp. 91-92)
Short Drama Texts (The Birthday Party, Harold Pinter)

1. Work in pairs. Write a dialogue of 7 or more lines using only
the words in the box.
2. Decide who the speakers are.
TASK 3
3. Perform the dialogue.
are don’t eh? I Jenkins know
name what’s who yes you your
Short Drama Texts (Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett)

As the title of Samuel Beckett’s absurdist play Waiting for Godot
suggests, the play is about waiting. Vladimir and Estragon are
tramps and they meet each day by a tree in a desolate place to wait
for a man called Godot:
a. In order to understand the core of the play students are asked
to brainstorm ideas about “waiting”, “sense”, “meaning”,
“life”, “despair”, “futility”, “hope”
TASK 4 b. Find phrases that suggest meaninglessness and aimlessness in
the play.
c. Write an acrostic poem:
G.............................................
O............................................
D............................................
O..............................................
T...............................................
ESTRAGON: Charming spot. (He turns, advances to front, halts facing

auditorium.) Inspiring prospects. (He turns to Vladimir.) Let’s go.
VLADIMIR: We can’t.
ESTRAGON: Why not?
VLADIMIR: We’re waiting for Godot.
ESTRAGON: (despairingly). Ah! (Pause.) You’re sure it was here?
VLADIMIR: What?
ESTRAGON: That we were to wait.

VLADIMIR: He said by the tree. (They look at the tree.) Do you see
any others?
ESTRAGON: What is it?
VLADIMIR: I don’t know. A willow.
ESTRAGON: Where are the leaves?
VLADIMIR: It must be dead.
ESTRAGON: No more weeping.
VLADIMIR: Or perhaps it’s not the season.
ESTRAGON: Looks to me more like a bush.
VLADIMIR: A shrub.
ESTRAGON: A bush.
VLADIMIR: A—. What are you insinuating? That we’ve come to the
wrong place?
ESTRAGON: He should be here.
VLADIMIR: He didn’t say for sure he’d come.
ESTRAGON: And if he doesn’t come?
VLADIMIR: We’ll come back tomorrow.
ESTRAGON: And then the day after tomorrow.
VLADIMIR: Possibly.
ESTRAGON: And so on.
VLADIMIR: The point is—
ESTRAGON: Until he comes.
VLADIMIR: You’re merciless. (Beckett, 1986, pp. 15-16).
Short Drama Texts (The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman

He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union, David Greig)
Scottish playwright David Greig’s play The Cosmonaut’s Last
Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union
(1999) is about a crowd of loosely connected people who struggle to
communicate and find love. The two cosmonauts are trapped and
deserted in their Soviet space station in which they continuously
struggle to make contact with the world that has long forgotten
them. However, communication constantly collapses. By presenting
characters with distantly connected lives, Greig examines the
emotional impact of personal isolation in a frightening world of
helplessness. The end is, like the cosmonaut’s final message, a bit of
disappointment:
Deducing a word in context: “Sprill”
a. In each case describe what kind of word “sprill” is, and say
TASK 5 why.
b. Find the correct words from the box to replace “sprill”.
(answer key is at the end of the chapter)
Oleg recording the log.
OLEG: This is the last sprill in the log. The mission is now sprill. The
results of the experiment are as follows. The limit is this. I am at it.
I can go no sprill through time alone. I don’t know what else to say.
If anyone finds this log…I am sprill Europe. It is night. Moving east.
I have set explosive charges throughout the sprill. In a few moments
the ship will consume sprill. Somewhere on earth is a sprill I once
loved. Who has most probably forgotten me. If she looks at the sky.
Or takes notice of the stars. She may notice the disappearance of the
Harmony module. Or maybe not. This is my final sprill to her. End
of entry. (Greig, 1999, p. 93).
craft /woman /further /statement /entry/ over/over/itself

Dramatic storytelling and performing a prose text

The learners read the following extract from The Boy in the Dress by
David Walliams paying attention to intonation and characterization.
“For a while Dennis thought life without his mum would be some
kind of adventure. He’d stay up late, eat take-aways and watch rude
comedy shows. However, as the days turned into weeks, and the
weeks turned into months, and the months turned into years, he
realised that it wasn’t an adventure at all. It was just sad. Dennis
and John sort of loved each other in that way that they had to
because they were brothers. But John tested this love quite often by
doing things he thought were funny, like sitting on Dennis’s face and
farting. If farting had been an Olympic sport (at time of writing
I am told it isn’t, which I feel is a shame), he would have won a
number of gold medals and probably received a knighthood from the
Queen. Now, reader, you might be thinking that as their mum had
left, the two brothers would be brought closer together. Sadly, it only
TASK 6 drove them apart. Unlike Dennis, John was full of silent rage with
his mum for leaving, and agreed with Dad that it was better never
to mention her again. It was one of the rules of the house: No talking
about Mum. No crying. And worst of all – no hugging. Dennis,
on the other hand, was just full of sadness. Sometimes he missed
his mum so much that he cried in bed at night. He tried to cry as
quietly as possible, because he and his brother shared a room and he
didn’t want John to hear. But one night Dennis’s sobs woke John up.
“Dennis? Dennis? What are you crying for now?” demanded John
from his bed. “I don’t know. It’s just... well... I just wish that Mum
was here, and everything,” came the reply from Dennis. “Well, don’t
cry. She’s gone and she’s not coming back.” “You don’t know that...”
“She’s never coming back, Dennis. Now stop crying. Only girls cry.”
But Dennis couldn’t stop crying. The pain ebbed and flowed inside
him like the sea, crashing down on him, almost drowning him in
tears. He didn’t want to upset his brother, though, so he cried as
quietly as he possibly could.” (Walliams, 2008, pp.13-18)
CONCLUSION
We have examined the ways of using play extracts. The tasks cover the key
forms and styles of theatre focusing on extracts from dramatic and post-dramatic
plays. Students learn the ways in which drama texts can be approached. Both
approaches, either analytical or experiential, improve the learners’ knowledge on
language use, playwriting conventions, subtexts and performance skills. Studying
the dialogues in plays provides the learners with acquiring colloquial language,
new collocations and conversational language. The characters’ utterances suggest
new phrases and formulaic language. Reading or performing a play strengthens
group dynamics and fosters the learners’cooperation skills. Moral dilemmas and
ethico-political issues in plays appeal students intellectually and emotionally.
Language learners also improve non-verbal features, such as body language,
gestures and maintaining eye-contact.
REFERENCES
Bakhtin, M M. (1981). The Dialogical Imagination: Four Essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas
Press.
Bakhtin, M M. (1986). Speech Genre and Other Late Essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas
Press.
Beckett, S. (1954). Waiting for Godot. New York: Grove Press.
Collie, J., & Slater, S. (1987). Literature in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Greig, D. (1996). Europe/The Architect. London: Methuen.
Greig, D. (1999). The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former
Soviet Union. London: Methuen.
Lazar, G. (1993). Literature and Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Lehmann, H. T. (2006). Postdramatic Theatre. London: Routledge.
Maley, A., & Duff, A. (1982) (2nd Edition). Drama Techniques in Language Learning. Cambridge:
Pinter, H. (1960). The Birthday Party: A Play in Three Acts. London: Samuel French.
Pinter, H. (1998). Victoria Station inPlays: FourVictoria Station. London: Faber and Faber.
Styan, J. L. (1975). Drama, Stage and Audience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vygotsky, LS. (1987). Thinking and speech. In Rieber & A Carton (Eds)., The Collected works of
L Vygotsky. New York: Plenum.
Wessels, C. (1987). Drama: Resource Books for Teachers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Walliams, D. (2008). The Boy in the Dress. London: Harper Collins.
White, R.V. (1988). The ELT Curriculum: Design, Innovation and Management. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Credits:
Figure 1: http://theconversation.com/us/topics/improvisation-2762
Figure 2: https://schoolworkhelper.net/what-is-pantomime-basic-principles/
Figure 3: https://rosariomariocapalbo.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/john-osborne-and-look-
back-in-anger/
Figure 4: https://www.davisenterprise.com/arts/ucd-professor-earns-top-drama-honor-for-
godot-set/
CHAPTER 5
POETRY AND LANGUAGE
TEACHING
Study Questions
1. What was the first poem that you were exposed to? Do you remember it?
2. Are you familiar with any poems in English?
3. What do you know about the terms “rhetoric”, “prosody”, and “stylistics”?
4. Which figures of speech are you familiar with?
INTRODUCTION
Poetry is a fundamental property of literature. Unlike many other forms
of literature, the earliest samples of poems are believed to be some millennia
earlier than the invention of true writing, which is believed to have taken place
round 3200 BC by Sumerians. Those poems, which were basically epic types, had
been passed down from one generation to the other verbally by then. Some of
the earliest examples of written poems, on the other hand, date back to the 2nd
millennium forth, and the most well-known one is the Epic of Gilgamesh. The
Mahabharata and the Ramayana from Hindu and Buddhist mythology, the Iliad
and the Odyssey from Greek mythology and known to be written by Homer, and
many more in Ancient Egypt which were written in hieratic script are some of the
further examples for written poetry.
Poems’ having borne not only written transcriptions but also oral
transmissions over generations is a significant detail for at least three reasons: The
first that makes sense is they are good means to analyse various aesthetic needs
of humans in history. But more specifically, they are invaluable anthropological
resources that tell us the experiences, feelings, and stories, and thus teach the
upcoming generations utilizing them. Last but not least, poems are unique in that
they existed as a means of oral tradition before writing. Hence, it is older even
from civilization, which provides anthropologists with rare and invaluable data
and takes them into uncharted areas to be analysed.
When the issue is language learning, there are three basic approaches to using
any literary work in a language classroom: (1) “a language-based approach” for
the linguistic and stylistic study, (2) “a content-based approach” for a focus on a
course content, and (3) “literature for personal enrichment” in which students
are encouraged to draw their own experiences, feelings and opinions, and relate
them with whatever they read. At this point, poetry appears to be a fertile field in
literature. It contributes to all three approaches as it is relatively rich in formative
and stylistic elements which are given in content to be related. Therefore, you
will see the theoretical framework of poetry in 5.1. Later on, the pedagogical
framework of poetry will follow that in 5.2 and we will concentrate on how to put
poetry into practice with language learners.
Poetry and Language Teaching 69
1.1 THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF POETRY
1.1.1 The form of poetry

Poetry diverges from prose and everyday speech inasmuch as it is, as defined
by Baldick (2001), “the language sung, chanted, spoken, or written according to
some pattern of recurrence that emphasizes the relationships between words on
the basis of sound as well as sense.” It is organized according to the formal patterns
of verse1; rhythm and metre, which are explained in the further line, are mostly
present. In order to meet the requirements of its peculiar stylistic dynamics, a
poem may disobey some linguistic, often syntactic, rules in an intentional way.
Poems are organized simply in the following two forms: (1) end-stopped, or
(2) enjambed. The former stands for having a pause at the end of each verse line
as it coincides with the completion of a sentence, clause, or other independent
unit of syntax. That is to say, the end of each line in this form is also the end of a
syntactic unit. The use of punctuation marks at the end of the lines may indicate
such units. The latter form, on the other hand, includes the very same sense
and/or grammatical structure running over a single line and extending into the
following line or lines. A poem can purely be in one of these two, but it can also be
a combination of both.
Analyse the form of the Fire and Ice by Robert Frost and underline
the enjambment(s).
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
TASK 1 I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
1 Verse: (1) Writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme. (2) A group
of lines that form a unit in a poem or song; a stanza. (Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms,
2018)
1.1.2 Types of stanzas

Poems usually consist of divisions of lines which are grouped in accordance
with their having a fixed length, metre, and/or rhyming scheme. These divisions
are known as stanzas. Still, not all poems are stanzaic; some others, called as
stichic, have a continuous flow. Yet many others are divided into stanzas, but in
an irregular manner as in Blank Verse, Free Verse, or Heroic Couplets (see a good
literary dictionary for further information please). They are sometimes also called
as verse paragraphs rather than stanzas.
In many resources, which rely highly on the etymological background of the
terminology, a stanza includes four or more lines. However, the divisions of two
or more lines are widely acclaimed to stand for a stanza as well. Although there
are longer types in other cultures, the longest stanza seen in the English literature
is nine lines, best known of which is the Spenserian stanza. It is named after its
inventor, Edmund Spenser, whereas the other types are referred to using some
Latin origin words as the following:
Couplet: /ˈkʌp.lət/ a stanza with two lines
ercet: /tɜːsɪt/ a stanza with three lines (The most common subgenre of it is
T
a triplet.)
Quatrain: /kwɒtreɪn/ a stanza with four lines
uintain: / kwɪntɪn/ a stanza with five lines (Quintet and cinquain also refer
Q
to stanzas with five lines, but with some further details.)
S estet: / sɛsˈtɛt/ a stanza with six lines (Some of its synonyms are sexain,
sextain, or sextet.)
Septet: / sɛpˈtɛt / a stanza with seven lines
Octave: / ɒktɪv / a stanza with seven lines (Octet is an alternative of it)
The following stanza is from Annabel Lee, composed by Edgar Allan
Poe. Determine its stanza type please.
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
TASK 2
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
1.1.3 Persona
In prose, readers are exposed to either of these points of views: first-person
narrative or third-person narrative. The third-person point of view can also be
either omniscient, in which the narrator has an unlimited knowledge of the
event, or non-omniscient and the narration is restricted with whatever the teller
knows. Just as in many other verse forms, poems are not told by a narrator; teller
is called persona. Depending on the type of poem, the term used may vary. For
example, it is called speaker in lyric poems and narrator in narrative poems. To
avoid complexity, persona works fine in general. The persona of a poem can well
be a different person from the poet; it even does not necessarily have to be a real
person, character, or a thing.
1.1.4 Rhetoric
Not every body of lines accumulated in stanzas can form good poems since
poetry is the art of using language in an effective way to persuade its audience;
touch their emotions, feelings, or states of mind. This art is what we call rhetoric.
How you express your message can be as important as what you transmit.
Although there is not a clear-cut taxonomy for the components of rhetoric, we
will categorize it under two subheadings, (though one may occasionally overlap
the other), in accordance with their contributions to poetry in this chapter.
1.1.4.1 Prosodic Elements

We stated in the previous paragraph that poetry is the art of using language
in an effective way. To be more precise, the sub-fields of linguistics, the
scientific study of languages, are known to be as semantics, pragmatics, syntax,
morphology, phonology, and phonetics. In this regard, poetry is probably the most
comprehensive form of literature that covers almost all of these sub-fields in an
effective way. There is always a deep; underlying message beyond the lines and
thus we need to study meaning. The orders of the words can obey the syntactic
norms of the language used, but we often see grammatically ill-formed (if there
is any) structures headed for by poets on purpose for certain reasons. While
doing so, they consider phonological reasons too because poems rely highly on
prosody, which Gross defines (2018) as “the study of all the elements of language
that contribute toward acoustic and rhythmic effects, chiefly in poetry but also
in prose.” That is to say, prosody is the analysis in which metre, rhyme, rhythm,
and stanzatype 2of a poem, also how repetitions at phonological, morphological,
2 A detailed overview of stanza types are already given earlier in the previous pages, and
thus is not needed to be replicated under the heading of “prosodic elements”. Please refer
to that page when needed.
lexical, or syntactic level are studied. Now let’s take a glance at some significant
examples of them:
Rhythm: Just like songs or even our heartbeat, most poems also have a rhythm,
or a measured pattern of motions in which beats recur in regular intervals. It can
be regarded as the key feature of prosody to sort out poems into categories with
the help of foot and metre.
Foot:Before going further with foot, we need to consider the variation in the
prosodic metrical patterns. That is to say, languages usually have different sets of
parameters. Therefore, the literature of different societies can have partially or
totally different literary elements from one another. A good example for this is the
types of prosody. In certain cultures, the lines of a stanza almost always include
the same amount of syllables, and the other linguistic features are of secondary
importance. This type is called syllabic prosody. Another type of prosody is
the accentual one in which accents and stresses are measured. Yet another one
is quantitative prosody in which the duration of syllables is analysed. Most
English poems belong to the fourth type: accentual-syllabic prosody, which is
a combination of the first two types, and hence accommodate syllables hand in
hand with stress. At this point, we have the metrical units of poems called foot for
the stress patterns as in the following table:
Table 1 Main Types of Poetic Feet
X* /** Iambic
/ X Trochaic
/ / Spondaic
X X / Anap(a)estic
/ X X Dactylic
*X is for unstressed, ** / is for stressed syllables.
Metre (US meter): Prosody does not depend only on the type of foot used in
verse, but it also depends on the number of feet repeated in each single line of a
stanza. This recurrence of feet forms the metre aspect of prosody. The following
are the most common types of metrical lines seen in English literature:
Table 2 Typical metrical verse lines
Di(a)meter Two feet

Trimeter Three feet
Tetrameter Four feet
Pentameter Five feet
Hexameter Six feet
Heptameter Seven feet
Shakespeare is famous for his plays, but he is probably more famous

with his poetic side. The following is one of his best compositions
known as Sonnet 18. Read it spontaneously first example of iambic
pentameter.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
TASK 3 And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Now if it is over, read it once again keeping in mind that this poem
TASK 4
is a good example of iambic pentameter.
Doubtless to say, Shakespeare is known to be the master of poems, and his sonnets
(which we will mention in the further lines) are some of the rarest masterpieces.
However, it may not be that easy to answer why they are so. In an attempt to clarify
this, Shakespeare mostly preferred iambic pentameter, which is regarded to have a
tempo of human heartbeat, in a very generative way and he probably had very little
(if any) difficulty with that. He nevertheless did not always stick to it and also had
rhythmic variations. As long as these variations are rare or occasional, they do not
spoil the overall rhythmic patterns of poems. However, we better call them as free
verse if there are considerably more irregular rhythmic units, or blank verse if totally
isolated from rhythm at all. One more point worth mentioning, when the issue is
Shakespeare and his poems, is the language spoken in his time. He lived round
the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries, and English that was spoken then is quite
different from that of we speak today. Although there are some studies which aim
to investigate these transformations and rearticulate the most accurate resemblance
of the original form of them, we may still be far from understanding the rhythmic
tenets of Shakespeare and many more other poets, which also means a gap between
the meanings we understand and the originally intended meanings.
Rhyme: One final component that we will state under the heading of prosodic
elements is the repetition of the sounds usually between the last syllables of the
lines within the same stanza, simply to say, rhyme. The harmony can (but not
necessarily have to be) within the successive lines. A rhyme is usually determined
to be the repetition of the final vowel and whatever sound elements follow it. It
is called a masculine rhyme when only the final syllable is repeated, a feminine
rhyme when the last two syllables, and a triple rhyme when three. Sometimes, the
syllables from multiple words constitute a rhyme, almost always a feminine or
triple one, with other lines. That is called a mosaic rhyme. The lines which are the
rhyming partners are coded with the same letter, e.g. a – b – a – b in which the
first and the third lines rhyme together while the second and the fourth lines are
another rhyming couple. The rhyming scheme of a stanza can be different from
the other stanzas of the same poem. There is definitely further to say on rhymes,
but is quite enough for our part here.
The following stanza is from “Love and Friendship” by Emily Brontë.
Analyse its rhymes and determine its rhyming scheme, please.
Then scorn the silly rose-wreath now
TASK 5
And deck thee with the holly’s sheen,
That when December blights thy brow
He may still leave thy garland green.
1.1.4.2 Stylistic Elements

We identified rhetoric in the lines above as the effective use of language
mainly to convince or persuade an audience, and categorized its elements in
poetry under two groups. The first was the prosodic elements. In a nutshell, those
are the elements peculiar (but not restricted) to “prose” such as metre and foot.
A second group of elements used for the rhetoric in poetry can be categorized
as the stylistic elements. We also implied in the previous lines that these two are
not clear-cut categories and it is probable to see the elements of one can interact
with the elements of the other, or can even be studied under the other category.
Still, most stylistic elements are universally used in any field of language use rather
than merely in verse as most prosodic elements. They are the preferences of writers
in their language use, which usually requires talent, a broad sense and knowledge
of language use. In short, what determines the style of a poet is highly related to
the use of stylistics that is preferred. For example, you may refer to someone’s
skills on coping with earthly affairs through his already existing knowledge by
only saying “He is a very experienced man”, but you can also transmit the same idea
in a more stylish way through uttering “Such an old wolf he is”.
Stylistic elements are various and all cannot be given here since dictionaries
are written on them. We will provide some of the most well-known and most
popular ones with their examples (the italicised lines below descriptions) hereafter,
which are mainly figures of speech, words which are used more or less different
from their literal usages, and other literary devices:
Alliteration /əlɪtəˈreɪʃ(ə)n/: It is also known as head rhyme or initial
rhyme, and is the repetition of the same sounds that are at the initial position of
neighbouring words or stressed syllables and are almost always consonants.
Scarce from his mold
Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved
His vastness.
(from “Paradise Lost”, by John Milton)
Allusion /əˈluːʒ(ə)n/: It is making a reference to some event or person in
history, a place, mythology, a bibliographic or artistic resource, and so on. Allusion
is notably useful for attaining a common ground that poet and readers share.
I bathed in theEuphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near theCongo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon theNile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of theMississippi when AbeLincoln

went down to NewOrleans, and I’ve seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
(From “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, by Langston Hughes)
Anaphora/əˈnaf(ə)rə/: It is the repetition of the same words or phrases at the
successive lines, clauses or sentences.
In every cry of every man,
In every Infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.
(from “London”, by William Blake)
Apostrophe /əˈpɒstrəfi/: It is a figure through which the persona of a poem
addresses a dead or absent person, an abstract concept, or an inanimate object. The
addressee can also be amongst the audience. Apostrophe almost always appears to
the beginning of a line, and very often in the first line of a stanza or poem.
O generation of the thoroughly smug
and thoroughly uncomfortable,
I have seen fishermen picnicking in the sun,
I have seen them with untidy families,
I have seen their smiles full of teeth
and heard ungainly laughter.
And I am happier than you are,
And they were happier than I am;
And the fish swim in the lake
and do not even own clothing.
(From “Salutation”, by Ezra Pound)
Assonance /ˈas(ə)nəns/: It is the repetition of the same or similar vowels
usually in the same line, and again usually at the stressed syllables.
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sightof Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
(from “The World is too much with Us”, by William Wordsworth)
Consonance /ˈkɒns(ə)nəns/: Just like in alliteration, consonance is also the
repetitive use of the same or similar consonant sounds. In fact, alliteration is a type
of consonance but it chiefly employs the initial consonants of words. However,
other types of consonance can be seen in the midst or at the end of words, and
again usually in the stressed syllables.
Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven,
And veils the farmhouse at the garden’s end.
(from “The Snow-Storm”, by Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Hyperbole /hʌɪˈpəːbəli/: It is a figure of speech in which there is an emphasis
on an intended exaggeration. Since poetry has strong ties with exaggeration of any
sort, it is not uncommon to see examples of hyperbole.
Was this the face that launched a thousand ships
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
(From “Doctor Faustus”, by Christopher Marlowe)
Irony /ˈʌɪrəni/: Irony is probably the most well-known and catholic figure of
speech in literature, and etymologically a far cry from the derivatives of “iron” (see
a good dictionary for the variation in their pronunciations). Irony is quite common
in Greek tragedy. This is because of the interaction of it with Greek comedy as
there is a stock character called Eiron there who pretends to be less clever than
he normally is. The modesty in his speech contrasts with his capabilities. The use
of such inconsistency is called irony and it has several forms. The discrepancy
between what is said and what is meant, for instance, is known as verbal irony.
Another example is dramatic irony in which the action and the intention of a
character do not overlap, and both that character and the audience are aware
of this fact. The following lines are from the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex, which
is where the term Oedipus complex comes from. In this tragedy, King Oedipus
searches the murderer of his father, even though he himself is the killer by stating:
Over the mirrors meant
To glass the opulent
The sea-worm crawls — grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.
(From “Oedipus Rex”, by Sophocles)
Litotes /lʌɪˈtəʊtiːz/: It is a type of understatement at which an affirmative

structure is obtained by denying its opposite negative structure. In litotes, the
emotion conveyed is usually less strong than is felt.
I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
(From “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, by T. S. Eliot)
Metaphor /ˈmɛtəfɔː/ or /ˈmɛtəfə/: It is the use of a word or an expression to
refer to another idea or concept than its literal meaning. Although a metaphor
is often a noun, it may also appear in other parts of speech such as a verb. As an
instance, “the train” in the following lines stands for motherhood:
I’ve eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there’s no getting off
(From “Metaphors”, by Sylvia Plath)
Metonymy /mɪˈtɒnɪmi/: A metonym is a noun or a noun phrase that substitutes
the name of something else which is a highly associated with it. While a metaphor is
more of an analogy, a metonym has nothing to do with it but a kind of association
such as “the White House” for the presidential house in the USA. The use of “ear” in
the line below is different from the use of “ear” in the previous example in that Mark
Anthony, the addresser, asks for their “attention” with the latter use. However, it is
not a substitution in the former example, rather a part-of relation.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
(From “Julius Caesar”, by William Shakespeare)
Onomatopoeia /ˌɒnə(ʊ)matəˈpiːə/: It is the formation of a word which
imitates the natural sound of an animal, plant, thing or natural phenomenon.
Although it is also regarded to be a literary device, it is more of a linguistic device
in general sense.
Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.
(From “Piano”, by D.H. Lawrence)
Oxymoron /ˌɒksɪˈmɔːrɒn/: An oxymoron is a type of paradox which is

compressed usually within a single phrase. That is to say, there are usually two
contradictory words following one another in oxymoron, often with the help of a
conjunction.
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
(From “The World is too much with us”, by William Wordsworth)
Paradox /ˈparədɒks/: In its purest form, paradox can be defined as a
statement that contradicts within itself. Whether it is a figure of speech or a more
sophisticated form of literature is still hypothetical. Epigrams, facetious turn of
thought usually as short poems or prose, can bear paradox as in the following:
I mean the opposite of what I say.
You’ve got it now? No, it’s the other way.
(Quote by Bruce Bennett)
Personification /pəˌsɒnɪfɪˈkeɪʃ(ə)n/: It is the attribution of human qualities
to animals, abstract concepts or ideas, plants, natural phenomena and the like.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
(From “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, by Robert Frost)
Pun /pʌn/: A pun is yet another enjoyable literary device in which a word
or a phrase that has homonyms, or at least sounds just like another one, is used
often causing a semantic ambiguity, and thus emphasis or humour is obtained. It
is more probable to see it in the texts which date back to the ancient times before
the invention of writing and passed down mainly orally from one generation to
another. It is also quite popular to see puns in British literature, especially round
Shakespeare’s time, as the RP then was quite different when compared to that
of our time. As a result, understanding the original pronunciations of poems
is of high importance to analyse their meanings. For example, the word “loins”
normally has a genealogical meaning. However, the word “lions” in the following
lines is suggested to be articulated exactly in the same manner and forms a pun as
for Crystal (2011):
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.
(From “The Prologue to Romeo and Juliet”, by William Shakespeare)
Refrain /rɪˈfreɪn/: It is the repetition of the same lines mostly at the end of the
stanzas of a poem with very slight or no variation.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
(From “Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night”, by Dylan Thomas)
Simile /ˈsɪmɪli/: It is a kind of metaphor in which two or more concepts are
compared by using comparison and contrast words such as “like” below:
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies
(From “She Walks in Beauty”, by Lord Byron)
Synecdoche /sɪˈnɛkdəki/: It is another figure of speech in which a part of
a concept refers to the whole such as “talented hands” for “talented craftsmen”.
Synecdoche is a kind of metonym as well.
Cuckoo, cuckoo: O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!
(From “Love’s Labour’s Lost”, by William Shakespeare)
1.1.5 Poetic categories and forms

Poems appear in several forms. Some are as short as three lines, while some
others are thousands of; some have simple language use, but others are really
complex; there are poems that deal with nature, living things or people as well as
those which are written after the loss of a beloved one. In addition to their forms,
poems are classified under three major categories in accordance with what they
tell: narrative, dramatic, and lyric. Normally, any particular form of poetry bears
the characteristic of one of these categories, but it is not carved in stone and may
well belong to more than that. On poems and their classifications, Portuguese poet
Fernando Pessoa (as cited in Hirsch, 2017, p. 83) says “... this one is useful and
clear; like all classifications, it is false.” Further details on these three categories are
given below preceding the forms:
Narrative poetry: Simply to say, each narrative poem has a unique story to
tell. There is no fixed layout of narratives, but generally speaking, the persona is
the first person and (s)he starts telling the story. Later on, other characters join the
story and continue telling the rest of the story from their part. Ballads, epics, and
verse romances are typical examples of narrative poems.
Dramatic poetry: Poems in this category originally have theatrical qualities
since the earlier dramas were mostly written in verse. That is, actors and actresses
were generally to vocalise poems to dramatise the characters, or personae, which
they act. Comedies, tragedies, and dramatic monologues can be given as the
examples of dramatic poems.
Lyric poetry: Earlier examples of poems in this category came from the
ancient Greece and they were the songs chanted together with the instrument lyre.
The contemporary sense to be understood, on the other hand, is that they are
relatively shorter poems in which personal feelings and moods of a single persona
are expressed. Hymns, sonnets, odes, elegies, and haikus are only a couple of
distinguished representatives of this broadest category.
Now that the classification of poems into categories is never fully accurate,
then why is there such a need to do so? The answer for this question is probably
on the need for poems. In other words, every poem more or less serves for a
purpose other than its aesthetic structure. Some are to illustrate a situation, or tell
the life story of a, say, hero while the others are to be sung for religious purposes.
Therefore, the three categories stated above, on the one hand, are somewhat for our
understanding the purpose that pushed the poet to compose it. On the other hand,
again each poem consists of a form, and mostly these are fixed forms that one can
see in various poems. The forms also tell us a lot to understand the background to
the time when it was written, or the sociological setting and the like. The following
lines describe the typical features of some of the most common poetic forms:
Ballad: It is a short narrative poem that usually tells the achievements of a
local hero or a love story. They are the poems composed with the purpose of to
be sung. They are a part of oral tradition and usually around 12 to 50 lines. Most
of them are anonymous with simple language use. La Belle Dame sans Merci and
Annabel Lee are two of the most well-known examples.
Epic: An epic is a long narrative poem that tells the heroic achievements,
but this time, of a king, a nation, or a historic character. The characters may also
include Gods and Goddesses, or their children. The narration mostly starts from
the middle of events with the support of flashbacks, and the setting is relatively
larger than almost all other types of poems. Some famous examples are Beowulf,
Paradise Lost, and The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Verseromances: They tell the fictional and adventurous stories of medieval
heroes who have bizarre or improbable qualities. They have nothing to do with
realism or everyday circumstances. The best examples to be given are on Arthurian
Romance by Chrétien de Troyes.
Sonnet: It is a lyric poem of fourteen lines with equal length and a set rhyme
pattern. The two distinguished types are the Petrarchan (aka Italian) Sonnet, and
the Shakespearean (aka English) Sonnet. The former consists of an octave (or
two repetitive quatrains) as abba, abba and a sestet follows it usually as cdcdcd or
cdecde. The latter has three quatrains as abab, cdcd, efef and is followed by a final
couplet as gg, which Shakespeare mostly practised. An alternative to this pattern is
abab, babc, cdcd as three quatrains and ee as the final couplet.
Ode: It is an elated lyric poem in which an abstract entity or a person is
praised by being addressed in a serious manner and elevated tone. It has two basic
types as Pindaric, which is habitually to praise a person (e.g. athletes) in public
through choral musical performance and dancing, and Horatian, which is more
privately to praise a friend for the sake of joy. Odes of both are the longest type of
lyric poems.
Elegy: It is a lyric poem composed to mourn after the death of a person
with complimentary words. It begins with a lament and the grief and sorrow is
expressed, continues with praise of good memories towards the dead, and ends
with consolation.
Dramatic monologue: The mind of the persona, but not the poet, is uncovered
in a dramatic monologue. (S)he can be a historical or fictional character. What
makes this form distinct from a lyric is that the ideas and feelings of the character
are not given explicitly, but the audience observes and figures them out. Briefly
to say, the persona does not tell what happens but lives it. The focus is on one
situation and the persona dramatises it simultaneously.
2.1 The Practical Framework of Poetry

As already mentioned on the first page of this chapter, literature of any sort
can be utilized in language classrooms to serve not only linguistic purposes, but
also those of content and personal enrichment. That is, learners can practise the
parameters of the target language, can learn more about the target culture, or
can reflect and compare their own experience. Therefore, educators should first
determine the needs of their student population beforehand, and then find the most
appropriate technique for the integration of literature to their classes, of course,
considering their language proficiency levels. With all practical techniques to be
conducted on it in pedagogical setting, poetry provides invaluable opportunities
for language teachers.
2.1.1 Tasks with poems

Several references can be given that aim to facilitate the burden on their
shoulder and guide them in that regard such and Spiro (2004). She classifies poems
under ten groups of use by taking the language aspects and their properties that
they serve into account. She also identifies suggested levels and their aims of each
task to be applied. The following literary task list is organized with this resource
of inspiration, and covers simply some suggestions to be tailored into language
classrooms.
Table 3 Suggested pedagogical language tasks with poems
Task Level Purpose
Elementary To explore the common

1.1 Animal sound poems sounds that animals articulate
to advanced and that appear in English
Elementary to To explore the sounds which

1.2 Onomatopoeic poems appear in onomatopoeic words
upper-intermediate in English
1. Sound poems
To explore the sounds and

meanings of nicknames,
1.3 Nickname poems Elementary to intermediate
focusing on adjectives for
describing people
To work on words that have
1.4 Rhyming poems Pre-intermediate to advanced
similar sounds
To realize the rhythm, also
1.5 Rhythm poems Elementary to intermediate intonation and stress patterns
of words
Pre-intermediate to upper- To realize the opening sounds
1.6 Alliterative poems
intermediate of words
2.1 Word invention poems: To focus on the forms and

Pre-intermediate to advanced meanings of prefixes
beginnings of words
2.2 Word invention poems: To focus on the forms and
Pre-intermediate to advanced meanings of suffixes
the ends of words
2. Wordplay poems
To practise using morphemes

2.3 Morpheme play poems Pre-intermediate to advanced to construct new words or
reproduce them
Intermediate to upper- To study antonyms and other
2.4 Opposites poems
intermediate contrastive uses
To focus on prepositions; their
2.5 Preposition poems Pre-intermediate to advanced
meanings and juxtapositions
To see the connotative
2.6 Word association poems Intermediate to advanced
meanings of words in culture
3.1 Similes about language To learn to describe concepts
Pre-intermediate to advanced using comparison words
learning
To learn common idiom
structures and idiomatic
3.2 Idiom poems Intermediate to advanced
3. Wordmixing poems
expressions in English, and

practise them
To work on adjectival phrases;
3.3 Adjective/noun poems Pre-intermediate to advanced reproduce examples using
various alternatives
To be able to figure out
3.4 Metaphor poems Intermediate to advanced analogies that words bear other
than their literal meanings
To find out words that can
3.5 Natural phenomena
Intermediate to advanced collocate with living things
poems
and/or non-living things
Pre-intermediate to To practise capability and

4.1 Can / can’t
intermediate incapability
Pre-intermediate to To be exposed to different
4.2 Question forms
intermediate question forms
To practise conversational
4.3 Conversation poems Elementary to advanced exclamations such as “bye-bye”
4. Sentence pattern poems
and “OK”
To practise sentence patterns
4.4 Orders and commands Pre-intermediate to advanced used in rules and regulations
such as “Do not...”
To practise relative clauses
Pre-intermediate to with and without relative
4.5 Relative clauses
intermediate pronouns reduced forms and
the like
Elementary to upper- To practise simple and
4.6 “I know” poems
intermediate complex sentence structures.
To try new syntactic forms
by manipulating on word
4.7 Mashed sentence poems Intermediate to advanced
order and observing meaning
changes
To work on gerunds preceding
5.1 “Being + old/young/
Pre-intermediate to advanced an adjective that describes
late...” poem
time
To recognise grammatical
5. Time poems
Pre-intermediate to
5.2 Memory poems structures comparing past and
intermediate
present
5.3 “I remember/ I forgot” Elementary to upper- To compare the infinitive with
poems intermediate “to” and gerund forms
To be able to use unreal
Pre-intermediate to upper-
5.4 Feelings unreal conditionals with words on
intermediate
feelings
To practise modals on
6.1 Guessing poems Elementary to advanced
predictions
6. Modal verb poems
Pre-intermediate to upper- To practise modals of certainty

6.2 Ideal world poems
intermediate and relative clauses
Pre-intermediate to upper- To practise modals of
6.3 Values poem
intermediate possibility on personal values
To practise conditionals and
6.4 Giving advice Pre-intermediate to advanced
modals on giving advice
To practise modals of necessity
6.5 Permissions and duties Pre-intermediate to advanced
and their time variations
To revise the language of

7.1 Poems about finding the
Intermediate to advanced asking and giving directions
way
7. Language function poems
and studying the prepositions

To practise the language of
7.2 A letter of complaint Intermediate to advanced
complaints
To revise sentence patterns and
7.3 Celebrating an
Intermediate to advanced vocabulary on special days and
anniversary
events
7.4 Poems comparing likes To practise ways of expressing
Elementary to advanced
and preferences preferences
7.5 Praise-songs Intermediate to advanced To notice strong adjectives
To practise the language of
8.1 Recipe poems Intermediate to advanced
instructions and process.
8. Genre poems
Pre-intermediate to upper- To be able to enlist or sort

8.2 Shopping list poems
intermediate things out
8.3 Diary poems Elementary to intermediate To practise simple past
Pre-intermediate to To practise informal greetings
8.4 Postcard poems
intermediate and sending short messages
To work on adverbs and
9.1 Mini-sagas Pre-intermediate to advanced adverbial phrases of time in
narration
To collaborate with others on
composing poems by building
9.2 Chain poems Pre-intermediate to advanced
meaningful lines with the
given words
9. Poetry games
To practise complex and

compound sentences by
9.3 Expanding poems Pre-intermediate to advanced expanding simple sentences
through conjunctions, clauses
and so on
To associate the letters of the
9.4 Alphabet poems Elementary to intermediate alphabet in the same line with
words that alliterate
To activate new words by
9.5 Riddle poems Elementary to intermediate composing riddle poems on
them
To practise describing people
through using past continuous,
10.1 First times and last times Pre-intermediate to advanced
used to and other related
aspects of time
10. Poems as stories
To compare past situations to

10.2 “When..., but now/then”
Intermediate to advanced that of a more recent time or
poems
present
To think about family
10.3 Family members Pre-intermediate to advanced members and their belongings
and describe them
To activate imperatives with
10.4 “Go and ... if you” poems Pre-intermediate to advanced
conditionals for suggestion
2.1.2 SAMPLE LESSON PLANS

Poems make good resources for language education at any level since it is not
only a written form of literature, but also an oral tradition. They can be used only
as a part of our lesson plans, or in a more comprehensive sense as the whole body
of task. Ellis (2003) regards a pedagogical task as a lesson plan; not a part of it that
we call exercise or an activity, which has dimensions as a goal, input, conditions,
procedures, and predicted outcomes. The following three sample lesson plans then
are prepared in the same vein.
2.1.2.1 Alliterative poems

Goal: To draw attention to the opening sounds of words and the concept of
alliteration.
Input: Photos or videos of the following characters.
Column A Column B Character type

Moby Duck white whale
Daffy Bunny cartoon character
Pink Dick big black bird
Bugs Panther ratty rabbit
Conditions: 40 minutes, in classroom setting, with the help of dictionaries or

other extensive materials.
Procedures:
- Students are required to talk on the photos or videos; if they know the
characters, what they know about the characters, their favourite character...
- They define the characters briefly.
- They are asked to match the items in Column A with Column B.
- Then they are asked to match the collocated names with suitable character
types given.
- Students are asked to compose a quatrain individually or in pairs to define
each of these characters and to pay attention to the rhyming.
Predicted outcomes: Open outcomes are expected as the task depends on the
creativity of the students.
5.1.2.2 “Know how” poems

Goal: To revise the family members and relatives, to practise the sentence
pattern “know how”
Input:A chart to be written on the board as:
My mother
My father
My brother
My sister
My uncle
My aunt knows how ...
My grandmother
My grandfather
My nephew
My niece
My cousin
Conditions: 40 minutes, in classroom setting, using related reference books

on syntactic structures.
Procedures:
- Students are asked to think of what their family members and relatives know
and are capable of doing.
- Meanwhile, teacher first produces the chart above on the table.
- (S)he gives some examples over the syntactic structures.
e.g.
I love cake
My aunt knows how to bake it
My uncle knows how to taste it
My cousin knows how to waste it
I know that I have to wait
- Students are asked to compose a poem using the enlisted qualities of their
family members and relatives.
- They should consider meter and rhyming as much as possible.
2.1.2.3 Metaphor poems

Goal: To develop unusual; non-literal and figurative comparisons and
analogies.
Input:A chart of abstract concepts is given as the subject of a sentence:
Abstract concept Verb be + article A tool, hardware or device (as metaphor)
Time
Life
Sincerity
Intelligence
is a
Loyalty
Friendship
Parenthood
Childhood
Conditions: 40 minutes, in classroom setting, using a dictionary

Procedures:
- Students are asked to enlist the tools that they see in their immediate
environment.
- The teacher assists them if they cannot realize as many items as possible.
- They are asked to attribute the qualities of one of these tools to one of the
abstract concepts given in the list.
-Once they are done with matching, they are asked why their matching is
so; that is to say, why a specific tool is matched with a certain concept but not the
other.
- A poem in which the even-numbered lines include the metaphor and the
odd numbered lines are to express the reason of the comparison is composed by
this way.
e.g.
Childhood is a nail
You always fail
Parenthood is a hammer
Hits you ever,
Fixes almost never
REFERENCES
Aydınoğlu, N. (2013). Poetry and Language Teaching. (B. İnan, & D. Yüksel, Eds.) Ankara:
Pegem Akademi.
Baldick, C. (2001). Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Crystal, D. (Director). (2011). Original pronunciation [Motion Picture].
Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gross, H. S. (2018). Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com.
Hirsch, E. (2017). The Essential Poet’s Glossary. New York: Mariner Books Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt.
Lazar, G. (1993). Literature and Language Teaching. Edinburgh: Cambridge University Press.
Spiro, J. (2004). Creative Poetry Writing. (A. Maley, Ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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The Use of

THE USE OF LITERATURE FOR LANGUAGE TEACHING

Kitap içeriğinin tüm sorumluluğu yazarlarına aittir.

© 2018, PEGEM AKADEMİ

1. Baskı: Ekim 2018, Ankara

Yayın-Proje: Ayşe Açıkgöz

Baskı: Salmat Basım Yayıncılık Ambalaj Sanayi Tic. Ltd. Şti.

Yayıncı Sertifika No: 36306

Chapter 4 focuses on plays as course materials which might serve many

Compare and contrast the following texts in terms of their language.

THE STUDY OF LITERATURE VS THE USE OF LITERATURE AS A

Literature as a Resource for Language Teaching

APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF LITERATURE

2) Literature as Content: This is the most traditional approach, frequently

3) Literature for Personal Enrichment: Literature is a useful tool for

Think about the learning/teaching situations in your country, which

SAMPLE ACTIVITIES BASED ON LANGUAGE-BASED APPROACH

SAMPLE ACTIVITIES BASED ON LITERATURE AS CONTENT

SAMPLE ACTIVITIES BASED ON LITERATURE AS PERSONAL

TOM: I’m getting a cigarette.

6 Are there resources available to help you exploit the text,

IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF SHORT STORIES

C) SETTING: Setting of a story includes the elements of time and place. It

E) STYLE: It refers to how a particular authorwrites about events: his word

ADVANTAGES OF USING SHORT STORIES IN THE LANGUAGE

Since the first appearance of The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT),

A SAMPLE LESSON PLAN BASED ON “THE LANDLADY” BY ROALD

Characters and setting Description

The street on which the B&B place

2. Answer the following questions

Plot Structure Events

APPENDIX1: THE LANDLADY by Roald DAHL

On the second-floor landing she said to him, “This floor is mine.”

In addition to the benefits mentioned above, what other advantages

CHOOSING NOVELS FOR CLASSROOM USE

If you were required to choose 2 novels to use in your own teaching

In addition to the criteria listed above, the following questions should be

magical realism or novels with different narrative techniques such as letters,

Providing a menu of choices: Bring the Students providing possible choices:

In your opinion, what is the best approach to teach novels in the

HOW TO USE NOVELS

SKILLS & COMPONENTS ACTIVITIES

interaction and collaboration and choosing instructional materials, textbooks,

A SAMPLE INTEGRATED-SKILLS LESSON PLAN BASED ON THE NOVEL

WHILE- Read the excerpt below from Paolo Coelho’s

USING NOVELS AND FILM ADAPTATIONS TOGETHER

POSSIBLE ACTIVITIES TO USE IN THE CLASSROOM

Consider the activities related to the use of film adaptations suggested

A SAMPLE LESSON PLAN FOR 1984 by GEORGE ORWELL

‘Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported

Greek drama; it consists of a group of actors acting as a single character. Today

A CHRONOLOGY OF WESTERN DRAMA

• Restoration and 18th Century Drama (1660-1800): Restoration period

respond to the illogicality and purposelessness of human life after the

Figure 3 Look Back in Anger original 1956 production

• Identifying the story, characters, plot (achievable at beginner level)

TASK 1 • They are highly valued and have high status

SAMPLE LESSON PLANS