The Language Teacher
August 1999
Recitation in an English Language Program
James W. Porcaro
Toyama University of International Studies
In an English language program, recitation is an activity suitable and adaptable for almost any class from elementary school to university and adults, and for all levels of language proficiency. It is a superb, stimulating way in which students can develop oral language skills, including pronunciation, articulation, intonation, rhythm, pacing, fluency, and voice projection and control. The narrative or poetic text provides students with words in context and setting so that they can actively use the language with meaning and purpose (Hines, 1995, pp. 6-7). Recitation develops important personal skills associated with presentation in any context, such as confidence, poise, self-expression, and awareness of interactive communication. The work involves the entire class in groups and readily lends itself to integrating speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills. Further, through the teacher's selection of materials, students can enhance their appreciation of a variety of literature, the universality of the art form, and the particular tradition of their own culture.
The Japanese Tradition
Oral storytelling has been a universal element of cultures for thousands of years. There is a rich tradition of Japanese recitational arts, which flourished especially during the Edo period (1600-1868). Some forms are still very much alive today in theaters and on television and recordings even as we approach the 21st century. Consider four that are prominent.
In the comic monologue of rakugo, the storyteller creates a dramatic narration using skillful vocal and facial expressions to portray various characters, all the while maintaining a vital interplay with the audience.
In the powerful, expressive, and dramatic chant of joruri, or gidayu-bushi, the reciter is accompanied by shamisen (a three-stringed instrument). It is associated with the puppet theater of bunraku and the plays of the great Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724).
Naniwa-bushi, or rokyoku, which originated in the Osaka area, is a type of narrative ballad also rhythmically accompanied by shamisen. Its repertory consists of a variety of stories, including actual historical events and traditional tales.
Kodan is a genre with a wide range of recitations that includes both historic and popular tales told by a narrator seated behind a low desk with a fan or wooden clappers. In recent years innovative adaptations to the art form have been introduced, such as recorded modern musical background.
For the English language program, these forms offer a basis on which to introduce students to the art of oral narration, to motivate their practice, and to instruct in the skills of presentation.
Setting
The recitation work outlined in this article has been done within the intensive English program of a semmon gakko (two-year vocational college) and as a part of a sogo eigo (general English) course at a university. In the former setting, a rather full treatment with three or four recitation texts was done as a 12-15-week component of a particular course, in classes meeting once a week for 100 minutes. At the university, the semester course for first-year students meets twice a week in 90-minute classes. There, I have treated each text in a more limited manner, usually taking two classes, but I have made recitation a major element of the course, doing four or five texts over the length of the course. Teachers, then, can take a couple of classes with just one piece of work, or extend that time and multiply the texts used to whatever number they are willing and able to do. In short, there is enormous flexibility in incorporating the work suggested below into almost any English language program.
Selection of Materials
The most effective length of recitation pieces has proved to be about 320 to 450 words, or within about three to five minutes of presentation. With very low proficiency classes, of course shorter texts might be used. Both literary narrative prose and poetry have been effective and enjoyed. In this program, we have most often chosen and been most successful with narrative selections that have a clear story line, characters, and some dialog. The following elements will serve to elicit from students an enthusiastic, worthy effort and a fine level of rhetorical accomplishment: the potential for a range and force of dramatic expression; opportunity for individual interpretation; demand for a variety of presentational skills, such as intonation, phrasing, and gestures; relatively ease of comprehension and manageable vocabulary; appropriate themes and images for the student group; and appeal to both reciters and audience.
Literary prose may include excerpts from short stories or novels, from the original or well-adapted versions. Short, short stories may be used in full. Some examples of the latter are "The Wisdom of Solomon;" "The Appointment," a simplified adaptation of a story by Somerset Maugham; and "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry, likewise reduced and simplified. Excerpts from novels as diverse as Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Lawrence Yep's Child of the Owl, John Steinbeck's The Red Pony, and Richard Wright's Black Boy have all worked well. The choices, indeed, are nearly limitless.
Particularly appropriate and appealing choices for Japanese students, given their cultural tradition, are the strange old tales of Japan, taken from the original English writing of Lafcadio Hearn, excerpted either from the full or simplified versions in Kwaidan. Some examples are "Oshidori," "Yuki Onna," "Mujina," and "Miminashi Hoichi."
Poetry, as well, offers a vast range of possibilities, though particular care needs to be taken to ensure relative ease of understanding for students of not only language use but also poetic structure and images, and the manner of rhythmic recitation of a lyrical poem with metre and rhyme. Some successful examples include classics, such as Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "A Psalm of Life," James Russell Lowell's "The First Snowfall;" and Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" and contemporary works, such as Shel Silverstein's uproariously delightful "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out."
Instructional Procedures
As noted recitation can be a limited exercise for a few class meetings, a full component of a year's course, or an entire course in itself. It can involve a great variety of approaches and activities. The following are some that have worked effectively over the years. The range of possibilities, however, is limited only by the imagination and willingness of the teacher and the class.
Initially I show students a video tape, taken from different television programs, of master performances of the Japanese recitation forms of rakugo, joruri, naniwa bushi, and kodan. (I make it point to include a dynamic female performer of naniwa bushi as an appropriate model for the women students.) They remind students of the Japanese tradition--which indeed is far deeper than that of native English lands, reinforce an appreciation of their own culture, and serve to establish the legitimacy of their work to follow. The performances also introduce magnificently the multiple qualities of fine recitation that they themselves will be called upon to produce with the English materials.
When the recitation text is presented, students read it, checking the meaning of any new vocabulary. A worksheet is given as a reading guide and for written work, which might include their stating the setting of the story, listing the characters, and answering comprehension questions. In class, these responses may be presented and discussed in groups. Further understanding of the story can be developed by having students, both orally and in writing, give summaries of the story; discuss distinctive traits of the characters, such as their motivations, feelings, and manner; and comment on the meaning of the story and their reactions to it. Students can be asked to sketch the characters and even particular scenes to enhance their imagination and feel for the story.
The text can be presented with an oral recitation live by the teacher, or on tape by the teacher alone or with colleagues on staff as an ensemble. (The talents of one's staff should certainly be drawn upon. For example, I use a tape of a brilliant telling by a former colleague of the ballad of "Barbara Allen" in a definitive Celtic lilt that enthralls both students and me.)
Recitation can be practiced in groups, with the dialog of the character roles taken by different students. As the narrator's part is often the lengthiest, it can be split among two or three students. Successive readings can be done with students rotating the roles again and again. They discuss, share, and critique their efforts, making recitation a collaborative exercise, while developing individual interpretations and presentations of the entire piece. The teacher circulates from group to group monitoring, modeling, advising, encouraging, and supporting their efforts. Students can tape their work in class and for homework practice and make tapes for the teacher to assess each individual's progress and plan further practice for richer development.
It is recommended that with extracts from novels in particular, if possible, good films of the work be shown to the class. With Arthur Conan Doyle's short story, The Hound of the Baskervilles, for example, the climactic scene set in the marshes of Dartmoor that I use for the recitation text is taken from the Oxford Bookworms Graded Reader. The professional reading on the available tape is marvelously done and serves as a model for students. In addition, there is a wonderful film production of the story, which visually depicts for students the landscape setting, the characters, and the social and cultural milieu of the period with its dress, dwellings, and other surroundings. It enables students to have a much greater feel for the whole story, along with the particular scene for oral narration.
Whether any of the recitation text is memorized by students depends on particular instructional circumstances. The culmination of the work is a final presentation by each student before the class. (If the text is to be read, it is important to use an inclined podium for the script, so that the speakers can look up at times for eye contact with the audience and have their hands free for gestures.) The students listening can use evaluation sheets prepared by the teacher to evaluate each speaker. By this time, they can sit as a perceptive and understanding audience, whose assessment should be as valued as that of the teacher. With more limited class time or larger classes, individuals can present portions of the text in sequence, or in an appropriately large room, in several groups simultaneously, or omitted entirely if necessary. Video taping the entire class's work is recommended if it can be done. Playback afterwards is very instructive and a lot of fun.
Conclusion
By exploring the storytelling traditions of the cultures of their students, teachers of English can bring elements of those recitational arts to bear directly on the advancement of students' oral English language skills in a unique way. Recitation, oral presentation, in an English language program offers an opportunity for integrated, multi-skills language work that is both engaging and effective. It also develops presentational proficiencies that can be beneficial in students' lives beyond English language use. Recitation can involve a special sharing between teachers and students with acknowledgement and appreciation of cultures in a rewarding foreign language learning experience.
References
The Appointment. (1983) In B. Hartley & P. Viney , American Streamline Connections, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Doyle, A.C. (1989) The Hound of the Baskervilles. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The Gift of the Magi. (1994) In D. Warshawsky. Spectrum: A Communicative Course in English, 4, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.
Hearn, L. (1971). Kwaidan. Tokyo: Tuttle.
Hearn, L. (1983). Stories from Lafcadio Hearn. Tokyo: Oxford University Press.
Hines, M. (1995). Story Theater. English Teaching Forum, 33, (1), 6-9.
The Hound of the Baskervilles, (video). 1988. Granada Television.
The Wisdom of Solomon. (1981) In A. T. Janssen, International
Stories: Conversation-Reader to Improve Your English, Englewood Cliffs,
NJ : Prentice-Hall.
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