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The Cognitive Hookman: Using Contemporary Legends in the ESL/EFL Classroom

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The Cognitive Hookman: Using Contemporary Legends in the ESL/EFL Classroom DOCUMENT RESUME ED 426 611 FL 025 656 AUTHOR Layzer, Carolyn TITLE The Cognitive Hookman: Using Contemporary Legends in the ESL/EFL Classroom. PUB DATE 1993-12-00 NOTE 84p.; Master's Thesis, School for International Training, Brattleboro, VT. PUB TYPE Dissertations/Theses Masters Theses (042) Guides - Classroom Teacher (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC04 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Class Activities; Classroom Techniques; *English (Second Language); *Folk Culture; Narration; *Oral Tradition; Second Language Instruction; *Story Telling ABSTRACT This paper discusses the use of contemporary legends in the teaching of language and culture, specifically in English-as-a-second-language. Contemporary legends are a type of folk narrative, but unlike folk tales, they are believed to be true. They usually concern ordinary people who are known to the narrator, occur in familiar settings, and are generally conveyed orally. Drawing on her experience teaching in a variety of cultures, the author encourages other teachers to use contemporary legends as authentic texts for teaching both culture and communication skills. The paper presents adapted stories and accompanying questions and class activities, and offers seven sample lessons using some of the texts. Specific classroom techniques, and some caveats for the teacher, are noted. (Contains 13 references) . (MSE) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** The Cognitive Hookman: Using Contemporary Legends in the ESL/EFL Classroom Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts in Teaching degree at the School for International Training Brattleboro, Vermont by Carolyn Layzer December 1993 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS 1ilCENTER (ERIC) BEEN GRANTED BY his document has been reproducedas received from the person or organization originating it. 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. TO THE EDU ATIONAL RESOURCES Points of view or opinions stated in this INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) document do not necessarily represent 1 official OERI position or policy. °CAROLYN LAYZER 1993 EST COPY AVAILABLE 2 ABSTRACT Contemporary legends are a universal form of oral narrative that can serve as a rich and versatile resource for teachers. This paper examines their use in the teaching of language and culture. The content, style, and performance of contemporary legends are discussed, and a rationale for using them in the classroom is presented. Samples of story outlines and full texts illustrate the adaptation of contemporary legends for classroom use. Examples of ways in which legends can be used in the classroom are presented in the form of seven sample lessons and follow-up activities built around both cultural learning and communicative language learning objectives. Possible ERIC Descriptors: ENGLISH (SECOND LANGUAGE) FOLK CULTURE LEGENDS ORAL LANGUAGE SECOND LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. BACKGROUND: WHAT ARE CONTEMPORARY LEGENDS? 4 3. RATIONALE FOR USING CONTEMPORARY LEGENDS IN THE ESL/EFL CLASSROOM 9 4. STORY OUTLINES AND GUIDELINES FOR TEACHERS.. 13 5. S AMPLE LESS ONS 25 6. SAMPLES OF FULL TEXTS WITH QUESTIONS AND THEME WORDS 54 7. CAVEATS 70 8. C ONCLUSION 74 APPENDIX 77 WORKS CITED 79 iv 4 1. INTRODUCTION A few years ago, when I was teaching EFL in Taiwan, I thought it would be interesting to use folktales to get students speaking in the classroom. Folktales are so interesting and reveal so much about our culture that I thought this would be a great way for me to gain insight into the students' value systems. Of course, they would have scores of tales to tell. But when I introduced the idea to them, they claimed to know no folktales at all.They seemed bored with the folktales of other countries, and they could not relate them to their own culture.In desperation, I asked for any stories they could think of. They flooded me with stories about ghosts! One of the stories sounded very familiar, though. The students all knew it and told it cooperatively: one began, another would interject a bit and carry on, then another would pick it up. This is what they told me: A taxi driver was driving down the road late one evening when a woman standing on the side of the road flagged him down. She got in, told him the address she wanted to go to, and paid him in advance. He thought this was a bit odd, but he didn't say anything. She sat silently in the back seat. He checked his rearview mirror now and then, but she never moved. To get to the address she'd given him, they had to pass through a tunnel. After he'd driven through, he looked back and she was gone! 1 5 Mystified, he drove as quickly as he could to the address she'd told him, but when he arrived, he saw that there was just a burned-down ruin of a house. Astonished, he looked at the money she had given him only to find that it was "ghost money"![" Ghost money" is the money used in offerings to ancestors who have entered the spirit world.] Like many others, I had heard this same story as a teenager, but when I heard it, the woman was dressed in a long, white dress.She had been killed on her wedding night. In other popular versions, the elements are remarkably similar, but just enough local information is provided to make it believable-- almost! After leaving Taiwan, I began keeping my ears open for universal stories. While teaching in Ecuador, I tried for the first time to introduce the story of "The Vanishing Hitchhiker" and to elicit local versions and reactions from a group of low- intermediate students. The response was encouraging: students could easily relate to the modern, urban setting of the story and some of them had even heard that very story. One student told a similar story but with names of local places and people she knew. Other students told about their own experiences hitchhiking, and about other ghost stories they'd heard. Every student contributed in some way. Although the activity was not controlled, students had a genuine desire to communicate in any way they could, and they enjoyed it. That was the beginning of my journey down the road to using contemporary legends in the classroom. My aim in writing this paper is to make teachers aware of contemporary legends as a source of authentic texts for use in the classroom, both in the teaching of culture and in the teaching of communication skills. By showing how 2 I have adapted stories and compiled questions and activities to accompany them, I hope to encourage teachers to develop materials using stories they already know (freeing them from having to rely on books as sources). In addition, I will illustrate a variety of ways in which to use the stories by presenting sample lessons using some of the texts (in story and outline form) included in this paper. Some of the lessons are explicitly for the purpose of developing communication skills while others focus more on cultural perspectives. The purpose of each lesson is stated at the beginning of the lesson.Purposes range from encouraging creative response to reinforcing individual language skills, especially oral/aural skills.Other stated purposes are to explore cultural themes and to encourage critical examination of information in newspapers and other mass media forms. My aim in showing various types of purpose is to encourage teachers to view contemporary legends as a rich and versatile source of content in the classroom. 3 7 2. BACKGROUND: What are contemporary legends? I began collecting contemporary legends somewhat inadvertently, but gradually I've become more and more fascinated not only with the form and the variety of these legends but also with how widely known they are.I'll tell one story in a teachers' room, and suddenly the room begins to buzz as people jump in with their own versions, competing tales, authentification, or at least reactions. Contemporary legends are a type of folk narrative, but unlike folktales, contemporary legends are believed (by the teller and usually by the listener) to be true. They usually concern ordinary people in settings familiar to members of the audience. The narrator usually either knows the people about whom the story is told, or else the person is a "friend of a friend" (referred to as a FOAF in folklore circles). The legends are usually conveyed orally but are sometimes found in newspapers, magazines, and photocopied flyers on bulletin boards, among other places. One rich source of contemporary legends in print are the books by folklorist Jan Brunvand. He discusses the evolution of contemporary legends as being the process by which we transmit folklore more or less accurately... In this stream of unselfconscious oral tradition the information that acquires a clear story line is called narrative folklore, and those stories alleged to be true are legends. This, in broad summary, is the typical process of legend formation and transmission as it has existed from time immemorial and continues to 4 8 operate today.It works about the same way whether the legendary plot concerns a dragon in a cave or a mouse in a Coke bottle. (Brunvand 1981: 1) "The Mouse in the Coke Bottle" is one of the urban legends appearing in Brunvand's first collection of contemporary legends, The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings (1981). The story is that a man is drinking a bottle of Coca-Cola when he notices a strange taste. When he pours the rest of the drink out, bits of a mouse are revealed to have been in the bottle (See Chapter 5, "The Mouse in the Coke Bottle").
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