ELTWeekly Vol. 3 Issue#107 | December 11 | ISSN 0975-3036
English through Folktales: A Self- Study Book. ByAnandMahanand andLalitaGoswami.
New Delhi: Viva Books. 2011. Pp. 97. Rs. 160. ISBN 978-81-309-1472-5.
Reviewed by
MianMd.NaushaadKabir, Doctoral Researcher, The English and ForeignLanguagesUniversity,Hyderabad
The recent literature in the field of materials development suggests the use of culture specific and locally available resources in teaching foreign or second language to the learners, young or adult. Such recommendations strongly pave the way for bringing in folk resources in the classroom as they are by their own nature unique representative of specific cultures, and highly familiar to the people adhering to those cultures. The thematic familiarity with the resources replete with various types of genres scaffolds learners’ learning of the ‘unknown’ through the ‘known’. Without much effort and with more ease, they can know about equivalent expressions in the target language, and word equivalents for culturally specific terms generally not seen in traditional materials. Learners can chant musical rhymes or funny doggerels, act out the characters through role plays and enhance their knowledge in other cultures retaining their own cultures, which are, otherwise, on the verge of extinction for the rapid globalization of popular western cultures. A cursory look at the book under review is most likely to lead any reader to think in similar fashion detailed so far.
The self-explanatory title itself along with its subtitle says everything about the book that it is an attempt to teach English through folktales – that it also belongs to mixed genres of self instructional materials, supplementary materials, authentic materials, translated works, folk literature, children literature, and also work book of a kind. The appropriate use of color in the cover page with a scene generates interest in the mind of any onlookers irrespective of age. The book has 16 stories taken from different regions ofIndia. Each of stories includes at least one illustrated page, in some cases two, presented in a very simple manner in black and white where the readers can see the faces of the characters and the settings. Usually, each of the stories is followed by 4 sections titled Notes, Comprehension, Language Study and Communication Skills. ‘Notes’ glosses unknown words including the types of the words, their meaning in an elaborate manner not by providing synonyms only, and their use in sentences whereas ‘Comprehension’ includes MCQs, true/ false questions, matching, open-ended question through which learners can self-check their ability to comprehend (critically). ‘Language Study’ chiefly focuses on grammatical items introduced in the story and finally ‘Communication Skills’ highlights different types of collaborative activities like pair/ group work, making a conversation, which learners can do at will.
Though many of the stories of the book are taken from history, mythology, chronicle, not essentially from the field of folklore literature, their reproduction definitely follows the folk tradition where knowledge on moral values are imparted through allegory, fable and parable, and other media. Simple translation suitable for the target readers, the middle schoolers, deserves appreciation for being age sensitive and context specific. Retention of the nouns like Kolmo Saag, Sambhar, Jija, names of ancient cities and professions in the translated work also brings the foreign language closer to learners and break the barriers, creating a kind of ownership. The black and white illustrated pages both reduce the cost of the book and leave scopes for the young readers to color them, providing them with a platform to cultivate their creativity. That key answers are not given, especially for the open-ended questions, also creates opportunities for them to let their imagination go wild, to let them go for better understanding and negotiation through interactive activities like dialogue making, debating etc. The size and type of the eye-soothing font definitely makes the reading of the book a pleasant experience.
While talking about the features of the folktales in the ‘Introduction’, the authors mention how folktales offer a ‘sense of achievement’ after the perusal of a story in a relaxed and pleasant way. On the other hand, successful learning of language also requires a stress-free atmosphere where learners feel unperturbed and comfortable, and where language learning becomes an experience to cherish and to relish. The book presents a unique and wonderful combination of the features of folktales with the requirements of language learning in a complementary way, fitting the resources of the earlier to the latter, which needs them, and suiting the latter to the earlier, which naturally include many forceful and actual instances of language needed for conversation. Hence, the strong claims that the authors make are justified.
Despite maximum care and attention, very few instances of printing mistakes are found. They can be corrected with a soft tap on the key board in the upcoming reprints or editions. An attempt has been made to create a template for the exercises under 4 sections at the end of the each story though, in some cases, especially, towards the latter part of the book, this template was found to be loosely followed. In one case or two, some of the items are found not-so-appropriately placed under the specific section e.g., activities for comprehension check are put under ‘Language Study’. They can also be easily rectified.
One major change can be incorporated into grading and sequencing the exercises following the simple to complex principle. The more the readers advance through the stories, the more cognitively and linguistically challenging items can be offered to them. More variety could be introduced in designing tasks and activities and repetitions could be avoided. Pronunciation of the words could well enrich the glossing. If the name of the grammatical items were mentioned explicitly, learners could be more benefitted in finding them out as per their necessities. Suggestions made here might need a careful perusal of the book to redesign and restructure the already existing resources in the book. Hence, it might not result in the increase of page numbers and the cost of the book.
The multipurpose book contributes to different fields of knowledge, the two most important of them being the field of folk literature and that of language education. When the local cultures are threatened by the western popular cultures, the authors not only courageously use the folk resources, present them before the wider audience in English and retain them but use these resources for language learning, use them to bridge the cultural gaps through establishing firm attachment to the roots as well. The authors, indeed, deserve ovation for such noble endeavor and for their exceptional contribution to the multiple fields. The book marks the beginning of such project that needs to be replicated and continued in the days to come. The publisher is also expected to continue to pocket rounds of applauses in like manner.
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