Dr.N.

Nadaraja Pillai
Professor cum Deputy Director (Rtd.)
Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore,
India
Syllabus Teaching materials Teacher

 Backwash

Evaluation Achievement Learners

 Teaching Methods and Techniques

Errors Skills
Syllabus

Content
Exercises

Objectives
Language Literature and
structure culture

Language
Content Objectives
Objectives
Written works having excellence in:

Form
Expression
Ideas
Widespread and Lasting Interest
 L it e ra t u re

P ro s e P o e try D ra m a
 ‘Literacy skill’
The knowledge and skills required to understand
and use information from texts such as passages
of fiction, poem and drama.
 And development of a few more skills sthrough

activities .
 Students learn communicative competence
involving interpreting discourse in all its social
and cultural contexts. (Savvidou)
 Students show more improved literacy practices

than did students in skill-based classes. skill

instruction was embedded in the context of the
real-life materials. Stimulates students to
 go to the library on their own time
 discuss books, plots, characters
 relate these to their own personal lives
It depends on educational objectives
for primary school
for upper-primary
for high school
for higher secondary / PUC
for undergraduate
for post graduate
 Based on
1. Periods
2. Themes
3. Genres
4. Language style/ complexity
5. Secularism, etc.
1. Message
2. Content
3. Selection of words
4. Emotions
5. Imagination- symbol, imagery, etc
6. Poetics
7. Language style
 Beginning
 End

 Foregrounding

 Remembering or flashback

 Telling what is going on

 Telling what will happen

 Character speaking
 What and how do we want to teach?
 The sound patterns
 The words
 The sentence structure - Structural approach
 The theme and meaning
 The poetics, -The style
 - Stylistic approach
- Discourse Analysis
 These features vs. the language skills of the students
 Basic language Skills
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
 Higher Order skills
Cohesion
Coherence
Translation, etc.
Story Context + theme + technique+ conclusion
Context Characters + Place + Time
Theme Incidents + Objectives
Techniques Scenes
Scenes Objectives + technique-s + conclusion
Scene-techniques incidents + causes
Objectives Author’s thought
The mountain and the squirrel
Had a quarrel,
And the former called the latter “little prig”;
Bun replied,
“you are doubtless very big;
But all sorts of things and weather
Must be taken in together
To make up a year
And a sphere
And I think it no disgrace
To occupy my place
If I am not so large as you,
You are not so small as I,
And not half so spry;
I’ll not deny you make
A very pretty squirrel track
Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;
If I cannot carry forests on my back
Neither can you crack a nut.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Former- latter = the mountain – squirrel
Prig = a narrow minded person
Bun = a pet name for a squirrel or a rabbit
Sphere = globe
To occupy my place = play my part
Spry = active lively
Talents = abilities
 Basically poem is a form of communication
 This feature is not given importance in the

syllabus
 It is taken as an art form only.

 Poem in man’s instinct feature

 It is considered as a difficult-complex creation

 It is highly appreciated creative literature

Poems and songs help us to teach features of
language
Poems and songs can reinforce the learning of
levels of language
Phonology
Morphology
Syntax
Semantics and
Pragmatics
 Poems are natural
 Poems express the cultural features of the society

 Through poems we can teach not only the cultural

features but the following also:

◦ National integration
◦ Emotional integration
◦ Societal features
◦ Political thoughts, etc.
 It is true that insights and evaluative skills
cannot be taught or transferred

 Song
Goe, and catche a fallings starre,
Get with child a mandrake roote,
Tell me, where all past years are,
Or who cleft the devils foot,
Teach me to heare Mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envies stinging,
And finde
What winde ---John Donne
 Sound patterns: alliteration and assonance
 Rhythms

 Phrases

 Symbols and imagery

 Attribution of new meaning

 Description and narration

How these are different in prose and poetry?

 Poems deviate from normal linguistic rules.
 They may have dialectal forms

 Repetition of features

 Word order change

 New imagination

 Ambiguity and dissolving it

 Its last stanza.
------------------------ -

And miles to go before I sleep.

And miles to go before I sleep.

If one were to explain the last two lines saying

that they indicate tiredness - the beauty of it is
lost totally. If one can read in such a way as to
convey the mood of tiredness - it reaches one's
heart.
 But the four lines will give us the clue for the
meaning.

The woods are lonely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.
As per the theme or the situation the language
features may vary.
Gaps in the structure or incidents.
Only a commentator can explain the whole.
These express
the style, objectives and
the techniques of the author.
 DAYBREAK
 A wind came up out of the sea,
 And said: "O mists, make room for me."
 It hailed the ships, and cried: "Sail on,
 Ye Mariners, the night is gone."
 And hurried landward far away,
 Crying: "Awake! It is the day."
 It said unto the forest: "Shout!
 Hang all your leafy banners out!"
 It touched the woodbird's folded wing,
 And said: "O bird, awake and sing!"
 And Over the farms: "O Chanticleer,
 Your clarion blow: the day is near."
 It whispered to the fields of corn:
 "Bow down, and hail the coming morn."
 It shouted through the belfry tower!"
 It crossed the churchyard with a sigh,
 And said: "Net yet; in quite lie.

H.W. Longfellow.
 It is clear that language teaching methods are not
adequate for teaching poetry.

 Poetry is essentially the product of one's own

experiences and imaginations. This product is built up
with language as its medium.
 The poetic universals are exploited by the poet as
foregrounding techniques in transferring the day-
to-day language into a poetic language.

 In order to differentiate his poetic language from

the day-to-day language the poet deviates from
the norm
 It is the deviations which is highly appreciated
by the commentators as the mark of an
individual or a genre

 Imagination is the very essence of poetic

language. Imagination of an individual is
beyond the scope of study by others.
No method of teaching has given any concrete
techniques of teaching poems

Since the poems express the imagination and

the experience and exposure of the author,
teaching them is an art and it has no definite
techniques.
1. Identifying Linguistic features
◦ Expose to new vocabulary
◦ Expose to difficult syntax
◦ Expose to challenging literary features

2. Identifying similarities and differences

◦ Classification, Categorization

3. Summarizing/Notes taking

4. Insisting cooperative learning

5. Graphic organizers
6. Making the text a drama
7. Providing appropriate practice (Guided &
Independent)
8. Setting objectives and providing
Meaningful feedback
9. Reinforcing effort and providing
recognition
 There may be a lot of dimensions which are
formulated by experts in the field as per the
objectives, and the level of learning

 We may classify the educational system into

seven levels as
1. Primary
2. upper-primary
3. secondary
4. Higher secondary
5. Under-graduation
6. Post-graduation and
7. Research
 Foregrounding
 Content

 Message

 Genre

 Aesthetic technique

 Language use

 Characterization

 Cultural features
Drama

Origins of Drama
The word drama comes from the Greek verb
dran, which means “to do.”

Drama can bring in feelings, emotions,

conversational skills, etc
Can test the language use
Word meanings in context.
Like the plot of a story, the plot of a play involves
characters who face a problem or conflict.
Climax
point of highest tension;
action determines how the
conflict will be resolved
Complications
tension builds

Resolution
Exposition conflict is resolved;
characters and conflicts play ends
are introduced
Conflict is a struggle or clash between opposing
characters or forces. A conflict may develop . . .
* between characters who want different things or
the same thing
* between a character and his or her circumstances
* within a character who is torn by competing
desires
comedy is a play that ends happily.
The plot usually centers on a romantic conflict.

The protagonist of most classical tragedies is a tragic

hero.
This hero is noble and in many ways admirable has a
tragic flaw, a personal failing that leads to a tragic end
“Romeo,Romeo,
Wherefore art thou Romeo?”

Wherefore means “Why”

This means that we must know

the meaning of such archaic
words
 The theme / purpose
Cultural features expressed
Emotions

Characterization
Aesthetic
techniques
Massage
Word Meaning and
language use
Symbol/
Imaginatio
n
Structure / Genre
Literature
Read /foregrounding
 Some classroom activities suggested here lend
themselves to project works.
Projects are thematic in nature, meaningful,
learner-centered, cooperative
and
can incorporate elaborate, complex tasks which
will motivate and learn the literature with ease.
 An outline for planning and implementing projects in 10
steps.

1. Select a theme.
2. Determine outcomes.
3. Structure the project.
4. Gather information.
5. Prepare learners for language they will need.
6. Choose aesthetic techniques.
7. Analyze information.
8. Prepare learners to compile.
9. Present final project report.
10. Evaluate.
 What is going on in the field?
1. Examination/ test on Structures- mostly
objective type
2. General/ textual mostly Subjective types
3. Oral test for speaking and comprehension
 Are our dimensions sufficient for teaching and
testing ?
8 dimensions and 7 levels
 If not, What else?

dimensions and levels ?

◦ Assessing the purpose
◦ Paraphrasing important information
◦ Identifying the main idea and details
◦ Making comparisons
◦ Connecting themes or ideas
◦ Drawing conclusions
◦ Summarizing
◦ Analyzing
◦ Establishing the purpose for each part of the reading as
expressed in the text
◦ Self-Monitoring to find out the truth
◦ Visualizing
◦ Confirming, rejecting predictions
◦ Identifying and clarifying key ideas
 Word choice and language use
 New phrases

 The genre or form of the text

 Symbols, idioms, imagery, imagination

 Content

 Characters and their roles

 Describing the climax - end

Language teaching and testing programmes need
to be restructured and rejuvenated

Courses must have the option/flexibility to have

innovative ideas

Testing is the engine that drives forward the whole

Language Teaching process
Multimedia in language teaching

 It is a combination of text, graphic art, sound,

animation and video delivered to us by computer.
 It may or may not have interactivity component.

The combination of all these components electrify

the thought and reactions.
◦ Pronunciation
◦ Speaking
◦ Dictation
◦ Reading models
◦ Poetry and songs
◦ Words in contexts
◦ Language games
◦ Model speeches
◦ Intonation, stress, accent, etc.
◦ Dialectal conversations
◦ Drama and the emotion expressed
 Can you forgo this equipment?
 It is the world of
communication.
We can make
use of this for
teaching.
 Form  Can you add
 Structure some more features
 Boundary while teaching a
 Meaning language?
 Usage

 Function

 Variety

 Relation
A Development Model for teaching literature

Message

Learner Teacher

Cultural features

Characterization
Aesthetic techniques

Language Genre Content

Use

Literature
We have to suggest techniques which can

1. Transform testing procedure

2. Task-types
3. Specifications into opportunities for
teaching - learning
4. Provide opportunities for furthering teacher
development and
5. Enhancing Language teaching and testing
methodology
E-mail: nadarajapillai@rediffmail.com
Mobile: 9448576300
2 of 2 Peter Loader @ TLT

You can sharpen it

or break the point,
trap it in the door;
fasten it behind your ear
or tap it on the floor;
use it as a walking stick
(if you’re very small).
dig a hole to plant a seed,
tap it on a wall;
use it as a handy splint
for rabbit’s broken legs;
stir your coffee
stir your tea –
stir up all the dregs!
Drop it from a table top,
pop it in a case;
use it as a lollystick,
send it up in space!
Two will give you chopsticks,
one could pick a lock;
bore a hole and thread one
to darn a hole-y sock

These are just a few ideas,

there must be hundreds more –
but meantime, trap it, snap it, flap it,
TAP IT ON THE FLOOR!