Classroom experience can have a profound effect on learners' views of themselves, their place in the world and their role as global citizens. Instructional materials and methods play an important role in shaping that experience. Since language teaching is not bound by specific, fixed content, language teachers can select materials that cultivate the skills and attitudes of global citizenship, and good literature is one of the best options. The sustained human interest in a story is evident in the epics, myths, legends and folk tales that have preserved human heritage, sparked the imagination of the young and old and entertained and thrilled humankind for thousands of years. Throughout human history, stories and parables have also been used to transmit the values and mores of society (Reardon, 1997) and stories are valuable tools we can use to transmit the culture of peace in the language classroom. While literature can be used with learners of all ages, the main focus in this article is children and adolescents. The described activities, however, can be adapted to suit older learners and adult literature.
Socially Responsible Language Teaching (SRLT), as it is understood here, is based on peace education pedagogy, which respects and is sensitive to learners' culture, personalities and life situation. It involves learners in shaping the lessons by allowing them to explore what is of interest and concern to them in the stories. It is not a subversive means to impose new values or beliefs on the learners, and it is never coercive or sensationalist. Rather it aims at raising learners' awareness of issues that are of global concern while helping them develop the skills they need to examine the issues and make decisions about them. Most importantly, its main focus is always language teaching.
Good literature is an excellent medium for language learning, as it is full of examples of real-life language in different situations. Thus it avails vocabulary, language structures and registers second language learners might not have otherwise encountered and assists them in their own communication efforts. For example, Butterworth's (1989) delightful story, One Snowy Night provides the following useful models in meaningful, easy to understand contexts: Could you face the other way? / Can I come in, too? / Well, if you promise to behave.../ I'm sorry to burst in like this....
Meek (1995) has aptly pointed out that "Stories teach children the verb tenses of the past and the future when they are intensely preoccupied with the present" (p. 6). A good example of this is Viorst's (1995) Alexander, Who's Not (Do you hear me? I mean it!) Going to Move. This is how Alexander uses the future tense to express his feeling about the family's move:
I'll never have a best friend like Paul again. I'll never have a great sitter like Rachel again. I'll never have my soccer team or my car pool again.... My mom and my dad say that after a while I'll get used to living a thousand miles from everything....
Having learners act out parts of the story and inviting them to use the language in their own stories and role-plays will provide a meaningful context for practicing the forms. For example, learners can be invited to think what they would really miss if they had to move and then express their ideas using the forms in the story. The discussion will also provide the teacher with an excellent opportunity to model new language, such as "If you had to move...what would you miss?"
The positive influence of stories on development of second language learners' vocabulary and reading and writing skills is well documented. In my classroom-based research I have also found literature to generate more interactive discourse than the traditional language practice activities. The following episode around the classic Wizard of Oz in a grade four class helps illustrate this:
S1: The good witch gave to Dorothy the slippers.
T: Uhhuh. Slippers.
S1: Yes
T: What kind of slippers?
S1: Uh, red magic slippers.
T: Why did she give slippers to Dorothy?
S1: Because it can help her when she is in trouble.
T: They were very special slippers?
S2: Teacher, why they say "slippers" and not shoes? (Unpublished transcript data.)
Literature can also help children develop aspects of emotional intelligence identified by Goleman (1995). Empathy, an aspect of emotional intelligence-- and a pre-requisite skill to tolerance--develops as a result of experience and interaction with others. Recent brain research suggests that "...repeated emotional lessons of the child's life literally shape the brain circuits for that response" (Goleman quoted in O'Neill, 1996, p. 3). It has been argued elsewhere that stories can contribute to development of empathy by providing vicarious emotional experiences, which, like direct experiences, have the potential to shape brain circuits (Ghosn, 2001). In contrast, lack of exposure to stories may actually limit the development of empathy in children, as Pinsent (1996) has argued.
The highest mode of empathic arousal is role-taking, the ability to imagine how one would feel in a situation of others (Hoffman, 1984). For example, children everywhere can empathize with Alexander's miserable day in Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day (Viorst, 1972) and relate to Ahmed's joy of learning to write his name in The day of Ahmed's secret (Heide & Gilliland, 1990). Teachers can help develop learners' role-taking ability while introducing or reinforcing grammatical structures as shown in the following classroom episode:
T: If you were in Alexander's place, how would you feel?
S1: If me, if I am Alexander I will be very sad when I see all my friends eat cookies.
T: Uh-huh, so you would be sad if you had no cookies for dessert.
S2: Miss, me, me! I be angry because my mother she did not put any cookies.
T: Oh, so if you were left without dessert, you would be angry. Uhuh. (Unpublished transcript data.)
These stories, like many others that describe children's experiences in other cultures, also help develop intercultural awareness. Alexander's stories give readers an idea about the life of a little American boy, while Ahmed's day provides some insight into the life of a child in Egypt. At the same time, these stories illustrate some of the shared, universal aspects of the human condition.
One of the basic skills in the development of intercultural awareness (and conflict resolution) is the ability to engage in objective, non-prejudiced observation. Many children's storybooks have excellent detailed illustrations and the following are some ways that a teacher can use well-illustrated storybooks to teach the skill of observation.
Caution needs to be exercised, however, when selecting multicultural stories. Stories that portray the exotic or the quaint minimize the shared universal human experience (Derman-Sparks, 1993/94) and stories that fail to show diversity within groups build stereotyped images of other cultures.
Stories can also teach about poverty, prejudice and discrimination. For example, The Hundred Dresses (Estes, 1944), although nearly sixty years old, is still very relevant today. The story, which tells about prejudice, discrimination and bullying, lends itself well to discussion and follow-up activities that promote language learning and get children to reflect on the issue of prejudice and individual responsibility. The following suggestions can be adapted to many different stories.
Perspective-taking, whether historical, cultural, or gendered, is an important academic and real world skill that is fostered by talking about literature (Raphael, Gavelek, & Daniels, 1998). When students have opportunities to talk about and reflect on characters' situations and actions, they begin to understand different perspectives. Written tasks that require students to take on different roles further reinforce the skill. As Bearne (1996) notes, literature helps sharpen critical thinking skills and enables children to "read their own and others' representation of the world sharply and analytically" (p. 318). For example, the familiar literary journals and letters to story characters, when used with stories of substance, make valuable contributions to the SRLT classroom, as do invented dialogues between characters. The following are just a few possibilities.
Stories offer many examples of how prejudice and intolerance can lead not only to discrimination but also to violence, as in The Island of the Skog (Kellogg, 1973) and Two Monsters (McKee, 1985). The story about the two monsters vividly demonstrates how conflict and violence can result from the refusal to attempt to understand others' viewpoints. Although the story is controversial in that it actually teaches new expressions for insulting others (e.g. "numskull" and "peabrain"), it provides a valuable lesson about the power of words. When students try to transform the insults into positive comments, they will realize that something interesting happens to the conflict – it dissipates! Appendix C shows how the story was transformed by a group of 5th graders. First, students tried to change only the insulting comments, but realized quickly that each negative comment, when replaced by a positive one, changed the consequent reaction. So, they re-wrote the story.
The above are just some examples of how stories foster the culture of peace in a language classroom. When linked to relevant non-fiction readings in books and newspapers, stories can often be linked to both the local context and the global community. Student-generated texts provide further material for reading and the traditional language teaching activities (jumbled sentences, re-writes with additions and changes, etc.) and for revising and editing practice. For more titles and suggestions for use, see Ghosn (2002).
Bearne, E. (1996). Mind the gap. In M. Styles, E. Bearne, & V. Watson (Eds.), Voices off (pp. 310-329). London: Cassell.
Butterworth, N. (1989). One snowy night. London: William Collins Sons & Co.
Derman-Sparks, L. (1993/94). Empowering children to create a caring culture in a world of differences. Childhood Education, 70(2), 66-71.
Estes, E. (1944). The hundred dresses. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Ghosn, I. (2001). Nurturing emotional intelligence through literature. English Teaching FORUM, 39(1). Retrieved from exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol39/index.htm.
Ghosn, I. (2002). Four good reasons to use literature in primary school ELT. ELT Journal, 56(2), 172-179.
Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam.
Heide, F. P., & Gilliland, J. H. (1990). The day of Ahmed's secret. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard.
Hoffman, M. (1984). Interaction of affect and cognition in empathy. In C. Izard, J. Kagan, & R. Zajonc (Eds.), Emotions, cognition, and behavior (pp. 103-131). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kellogg, S. (1973). The island of the Skog. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers.
Levin, E. (1992). I hate English! New York: Scholastic.
McKee, D. (1985). Two monsters. London: Random House.
Meek, M. (1995). The critical challenge of the world in books for children. Children's Literature in Education, 26(1), 5-23.
O'Neill, J. (1996). On emotional intelligence: A conversation with David Goleman. Educational Leadership, 54(1), 6-11.
Pinsent, P. (1996). Children's literature and the politics of equality. London: David Fulton.
Raphael, T., Gavelek, J., & Daniels, V. (1998). Developing students' talk about text. National Reading Conference Yearbook, 47, 116-128.
Reardon, B. (1997). Tolerance--The threshold of peace. Paris: UNESCO.
Seuss, Dr. (1989). The Sneetches and other stories. New York: Random House.
Surat, M. (1989). Child, dragon child. New York: Scholastic.
Viorst, J. (1972). Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. New York: Aladdin.
Viorst, J. (1995). Alexander, who's not (Do you hear me? I mean it!) going to move. New York: Aladdin.
Yashima, T. (1965). The crow boy. New York: Viking Press.
Transforming Conflict through Caring Communication
The Friendly Monsters
Adapted from the story by David McKee
Miss Manal's Grade 5
Once upon a time there were two monsters who lived on a mountain. One lived on the west side and the other one lived on the east side. Sometimes they talked together through a small hole in the mountain. One evening the first monster called through the hole, "Hi neighbor! You should see the sunset. It is very beautiful!"
"What do you mean sunset?" called the second monster through the hole. "You mean the moonrise, my good neighbor."
The two monsters did not sleep very well. They were thinking about what the other monster had said. The next morning, the first monster shouted through the hole, "Wake up, my clever neighbor, the moon is leaving."
"What do you mean, my intelligent friend? Do you mean that the sun is rising?"
"No, no, my friend. I mean the moon is leaving. Look through the hole, please."
So, the second monster became curious. It tried to see through the hole but it was too small.
"My dear neighbor, I can only see your shirt. It is very nice and colorful. But I do not see anything else. But I see the sun coming."
"Oh dear!" said the first monster. "We must make the hole bigger. I want to see what you mean."
So the two monsters started to dig with their big claws. They dug and dug all day and till the evening. They threw the rocks behind them. They hurled them far back. Soon the hole was as big as a door.
"Hello, my hardworking neighbor!" said the first monster. "Come to my side and see the sunset."
"Thank you my nice friend," said the second monster. "You can come to my side and see the moon coming up."
So the two monsters went through the hole to the other monster's side.
"Incredible," said the first monster. "Amazing!" shouted the second monster.
They lived happily ever after and visited each other almost every day.
The End