Victoria Tuzlukova, Christine Eltayeb
Sultan Qaboos University
Oman

 Current significance of English as a language of world communication and demand of its meaningful teaching
 Importance of classroom materials in achieving excellence in foreign language pedagogy and practice
 Educational values of fairy tales in English language classroom

 Supplement to core textbooks
 Learning support
 Source of more linguistic and socio-cultural models to overcome difficulties related to students’ background knowledge and meaning construction (Smith, 1988)
 Source of local and target culture interactions
 Students’ progress aid

 Source of linguistic, content, cultural and formal knowledge (Day, 1994; Al-Brashdi, 2002; Al-Ajmi,
2006; Al-Mahrooqi, 2007)
 Tool for aiding students with their progress and creating meaningful learning environment (Smith,
1988)
 Tool for bridging the language with the context in which it is used (Byram, 1988)

 Instrument for personalizing the educational process
(Kay and Jones, 2000) and giving students additional opportunities to deal with a foreign language
 Instrument for exposing students to new vocabulary, style, structures and experiences, and relating them to their own cultural and social context

 Tool for effectively engaging students in new contexts and practices
 Sufficient support for the students who have a limited language learning experience and have little opportunity to practice their English language skills outside the classroom

 Not widely used as a supplement to core text-books
 Limited use as a learning support for many social, cultural, linguistic and even logistic reasons: a.
Traditional language teaching and learning practices b.
c.
d.
Students’ interests and motivations
Teachers’ own language learning experiences and perceived images, aims and objectives of the courses they teach
Local culture and traditions

 Population: about 3 million
 Nationality: Omani
 Ethnic groups: Arab,
Baluchi, South Asian
(Indian, Pakistani, Sri
Lankan, Bangladeshi),
African
 Languages: Arabic
(official), English, Baluchi,
Urdu, Indian dialects,
Swahili

 Opened its doors in 1986
 Comprises 9 colleges and a number of centres
 Number of students enrolled is about 15,000

 Medium of Education:
Arabic
 Academic Staff: multicultural and multilingual
 Both Arabic and English are used outside the classroom

 Content “suitability”
 Personal, academic and professional interest on the part of the student (Day, 1994)
 Contributing to language learners’ experience and effective involvement in real life practices
 Relating to the course objectives and structure

 Sensitivity to integrated skills teaching paradigm and individual learning styles
 Matching with educational environment
 Social and cultural sensitivity (Tuzlukova, V., Eltayeb
C., 2007)
 Promotion of local culture and cultural heritage and getting acquainted with other world cultures

The Emperor’s New Suit
By Hans Christian Anderson
1805-1875
Many years ago lived an emperor, who thought all the time about new clothes and spent all his money in order to
obtain them; his only ambition was to be always well dressed. He did not care for his soldiers, and the theatre did not amuse him; the only thing, in fact, he thought anything of was to drive out and show a new suit of clothes. He had a coat for every hour of the day; and as one would say of a king “He is in his
cabinet,” so one could say of him, “The emperor is in his dressing-room.”
HCA.Gilead.org.il

•
•
•
To motivate the students, most of whom are struggling with English
To arouse students’ interest and enthusiasm by the themes of the stories, which can be appreciated by all readers whatever their age and level of English
To appeal to the students' intellect

 Lesson 1
 Arrange the students into groups of four, five or six according to the class size.
 Introduce the students to the story by telling them they are going to read and listen to a story about an emperor who always liked to wear new clothes.
 Show students real objects that illustrate some of the items in the story: patterned cloth, plain cloth, scissors, needles, thread, picture of weaver. Write these words on board along with sew, weave, swindler.

 Indicate the theme by writing the words hypocrite, hypocrisy, hypocritical on the board. Ask the students if they know what any of these words mean.
 Allow the students 10 minutes to skim the story and ask any questions.
 Play the tape with the story and allow the students to listen and read.

 After listening once the students do the True/False questions in their groups.
 Check the answers to the True /False questions.
Discuss reasons for answers. Discuss any ambiguities or anything they disagree on.
 Allow students to listen and read again to reassure them of the answers.
 Homework: Comprehension Questions B and
Vocabulary C

 Lesson 2
 Check homework
 Students do D (Vocabulary in sentences) and F (Did
you understand the story?) in class.

If you have time, put the sentences from the story in order, e.g.
 The emperor realizes how stupid they have all been.
 A child says he cannot see anything.
 The emperor sends his ministers to check on the work. They report favorably to the emperor.
 Everybody says how nice the clothes are.
 The emperor gets ready for a procession and puts on the new clothes.
 The swindlers pretend to weave gold and silk into cloth.

 Students do E (More than one meaning) and G
(Find out about the author, Hans Christian
Andersen) for homework.
 Students are advised to use the following websites:
 http://en.wikipedia.org
 http://google.com

 Lesson 3
 Check homework
 Students complete the summary chart.











TITLE
AUTHOR
DATE
STORY TYPE
STORY ABOUT
SETTING
TIME
CHARACTERS
EVENTS
MORAL










7
8
5
6
9
10
3
4
1
2

 Students can do the first eight tasks on the chart individually and then check with the teacher.
 In groups students arrange the sentences on pieces of paper in the correct order according to the order the events happened in the story.
 Students can then complete the events section of the chart.
 They write what they think is the moral of the story.
 This can be discussed first as their answers might be different.

 Using their completed chart the students write a summary of the story.
 Students can add any other details to the events that they think are needed. The summary should include all the items on the chart.

 A set of questions in English to find out students’ views on reading stories in English
 Some students answered in English and some in
Arabic
 Some students were interviewed in English with
Arabic if needed
 Likert Scale not used. Students encouraged to describe their feelings/opinions/thoughts

•
•
•
•
•
•
Q: Do you like reading stories in English?
Yes, it makes me able to structure sentences
Yes, it helps me to broaden my knowledge
No, there is difficulty in some words which hinders me in reading
Yes, there is acquisition of information related to the curriculum which might benefit us in exams
I like reading difficult things because it challenges me
It is motivating to read because I love to read

•
•
•
Q: Do you like reading stories from other cultures in
English?
Yes. English nowadays is the global language
Yes. It helps me understand and know about other cultures
No I don’t because my English is bad
•
Q: Do you like reading stories from your culture in
English?
Yes I do because I use from that many vocabularies

Fairy Tales Project: What do our students think?
•
•
No, because I know all the Omani stories and I want to see another stories
Yes, because I want to try to know some words in
English
•
•
Q: Does it help to read a story from your culture in
English before you read stories from other cultures in
English?
Yes, because it opens the mind
Another culture first because I learn new words and more difficult words

Fairy Tales Project: What do our students think?
•
•
•
Understand my culture and learn about new and difficult words
First my culture because the vocabulary is easy
Another culture first because there are more stories about other cultures in English
•
•
•
Q: What do you think are the benefits of reading stories in English in general?
To development your culture
It gets me used to reading
To understand how people get along with one another

Fairy Tales Project: What do our students think?
 To translate some words from English to Arabic to improve knowledge of English
 I learn new words and can practise spelling and writing the new words. Pictures are also important.
They help me to understand
 For speaking and I can study another culture
 It gives me new words and I learn a moral
 To change your personality in English

Fairy Tales Project: What do our students think?
Q: What do you think are the benefits of reading stories from your culture in English?
 To keep the stories alive and let them spread to other people from different cultures. They help me to read and write English
•
Q: What do you think are the benefits of reading stories from other cultures in English?
To get to know the differences and similarities between cultures

Fairy Tales Project: What do our students think?
•
•
•
•
•
Q: Do you like to listen to the story first before you read it?
Yes, I like it because it is good to try to read like the person who read before
No, because I want to understand the stories myself and after that listen to it
Yes, because the listening helps me for understand the story
Listening will encourage me to read the story
Yes, to be strong in listening and speaking

Fairy Tales Project: What do our students think?
 No, I prefer to listen and read or read then listen, because you have more time to understand when you read
 Read first to check what I know, then listen
 Listen first because many words are difficult to pronounce
 Listen first because we can understand the story before reading
 Read first so you quickly understand
 Listen and read to understand the words

If we want to achieve excellence in English language teaching, we should utilize the educational value of fairy tales which can be a learning support for our students as well as a source of linguistic, cultural and social models and also a source of local and target culture interaction.