Málfríður - 15.10.1989, Blaðsíða 15

1 Anna Cosser:
A READING PROFICIENCY
| EXERCISE
L il — on a Short Story
Á síðastliðnum vetri var kennslufræði erlendra mála
kennd í fyrsta sinn í kennsluréttindanáminu við Háskóla
íslands. Námskeiðið er 5 einingar og kennt á vorönn.
Þetta námskeið er gamalt baráttumál tungumálakenn-
ara og því fannst ritstjórninni tilvalið að birta sýnishorn
af verkefnum nemenda úr þessu námskeiði.
Fyrsta verkefnið sem við birtum er bókmenntaverk-
efni. Tungumálakennarar eru sennilega sammála um að
nauðsynlegt sé að lesa bókmenntir með nemendum en
oft er erfitt að finna hentug verkefni til að láta nemendur
vinna með á hinu erlenda máli. í þessu verkefni eru farn-
ar nokkuð óhefðbundnar leiðir og er vonandi að les-
endur Málfríðar hafi bæði gagn og gaman af.
Verkefnið er unnið af Önnu Cosser. Anna er íslenskur
ríkisborgari, en fædd og uppalin í London og lauk BA
prófi í frönsku og ensku frá Trinity College í Dublin. Frá
HÍ hefur hún lokið prófi í íslensku fyrir erlenda stúdenta
og á síðastliðnu vori lauk hún námi í uppeldis- og
kennslufræðum. Nú kennir hún við Flensborgarskóla í
Hafnarfirði.
INTRODUCTION
The subject of this reading profici-
ency exercise is a short story entitled
“The Ice Cream” by Elian Toona,
from the collection Loues, Hopes and
Fears (Longman, 1975). This book is
used in the English 403 áfangi (nor-
mally the fifth term of study) in the
comprehensive secondary school
system.
“The Ice Cream” describes a
Sunday-afternoon encounter between
a young boy from a residential home
(presumably an orphanage) and a
lady, “Auntie", who takes him out
once a month. Although wanting to
appear altruistic and charitable,
“Auntie” is evidently not in the least
interested in Jack, and they are both
relieved when she decides that this is
to be their last meeting.
I went through this story with two
classes of students during my teach-
ing-practice, so I will refer in this es-
say to how the exercises I prepared
were received by the students.
PREPARATORY EXEROISE
This exercise should occupy the
last 10 minutes of the class previous
to the one in which the story will be
taken. The students should not have
read the story when this exercise is
done.
This is a “setting-the-scene” ex-
ercise in which students are en-
couraged to consider the different
lifestyles of a child who lives at home
and a child who lives in a residential
home. It is desirable to prepare the
students in this way for reading the
story, since it is highly unlikely that
any of them will have any experience
of living in an orphanage. The per-
missive upbringing of Icelandic young-
sters of today is many light years
away from the restrictions and disci-
plines of an English orphanage!
A table, shown first on a transpar-
ency, lists various areas which are
likely to be different for these two
children. These include, for example,
where they sleep and eat, what clothes
they wear and what contact they
have with adults. The use of the prep-
ositions at and in to alter meaning in
“at home” and “in a Home” can be
mentioned in passing.
Students then work in pairs (with
photocopies of the table) and note
down anything they like with regard
to these areas of difference. There are
no right or wrong answers, and they
are not to refer to the story yet. If time
is short, the class can be divided into
two, with each half taking only three
of the six topics on the sheet.
When the students have finished
pair work, the transparency is shown
again and the table filled in (either by
the teacher or the students, with an
erasable marker), using suggestions
from the students.
I was pleased when I used this ex-
ercise that the differences the stu-
dents found were almost exactly what I
had anticipated.
The students are now expected to
read the story at home as preparation
for the next class. No words are gloss-
ed in advance since the level of the
vocabulary in this story is not such
that it is likely to hamper students’
understanding of the events. The
students are told, however, to look up
three to four unfamiliar words on
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