Didactic Application of Selected English and Czech Fairy Tales

Šnobl, Vlatka. (2017). Didactic Application of Selected English and Czech Fairy Tales. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of English Language and Literature
Department of West Slavic Languages and Literature. [mentor Polak, Iva and Jajić Novogradec, Marina].

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Abstract

The thesis shows how the selected English fairy tales by George MacDonald (“The Light Princess”, “The Shadows”, “The Golden Key”) and selected Czech fairy tales by Karel Jaromír Erben (“Long, Broad and Sharp Eyes”, “The Firebird and Red Fox”, “Three Golden Hairs of Grandfather Know-All”) can be used in teaching English as a foreign language and Czech as a second language. Each selected fairy tale is analysed according to methodological principles and the analyses are presented in stages before, during and after reading activities. The analyses show possible activities that can be used with the selected fairy tales to promote language acquisition. Fairy tales can be used to practise all four language skills – speaking, listening, reading and writing. The selected fairy tales used here are only a suggestion and serve as examples on which possible activities are based. The choice of fairy tales and activities depends on the teacher, or more precisely, on the teacher's estimate of learners' language proficiency, needs and interests. Both cases presented in the thesis are applicable in the Croatian context due to English being taught as a foreign language in Croatian schools and Czech being taught in schools founded by the Czech minority. Besides numerous advantages of using fairy tales in teaching a language such as building vocabulary, practise reading and therefore pronunciation, there are also issues that can occur when using tales in the classroom. However they can be avoided or minimized by a good planning and organization. Alongside using fairy tales linguistically, they can be used for developing creativity and critical thinking when discussing about the issues that can be found in the text itself, such as patriarchy and murder/punishment. Despite the fact that the primary goal of using the fairy tales in language teaching is language acquisition and not critical analysis of the texts, these subliminal messages are worth addressing in the classroom and they make an excellent basis for a discussion, or more precisely, a speaking activity. All in all, using fairy tales in language teaching can be a good basis for fun activities which motivate learners and promote language acquisition.

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