The short story has its origins in traditional oral storytelling. Many of the world’s greatest literary classics such as El Cid, La Chanson de Roland, Beowulf or the Odyssey were originally orally transmitted. In most cases, the story has undergone many modifications in the course of the telling processes; still they are today’s primary testimonies for language, history, culture and people of the past. They were told in rhyming and therefore functioned as a mnemonic device for easier recall . In Europe, the short story began to evolve from oral storytelling in the early 14th century with Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Boccacio’s Decamerone, books consisting of individual short stories within a larger frame story. Only in the 19th century, modern short stories began to be considered a proper genre. Print magazines represented a strong market for short fiction, theories related to this began to surge, as for example, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Philosophy of Composition. Nowadays, the number of commercial magazines publishing short stories has decreased but they appear to have found their place in online publications.
Today, reading has become a minor activity in people’s lives with globalisation, technological progress and a fast-growing media industry. In schools, pupil’s interest is increasingly difficult to stimulate , especially when it comes to literature in the English Second Language classroom. Students are used to fast information input without necessarily having to become active themselves, they lose concentration easily when the learning process takes too long or they lose patience when they do not understand right away. The use of short stories in the English Foreign Language classroom is one possibility to respond to this problem teachers of foreign languages have to face.
Therefore, this paper is going to define the genre of the short story as such to create a basis for the following presentation of the benefits of short stories for the North Rhine-Westphalian English Language Classroom. In the next step, the curricula and guidelines are taken into consideration in order to develop some ideas on how to implement The Machine that Won the War by Isaac Asimov in class. These will be integrated into a lesson plan with several activities around the story.
There are several theoretical works dealing with the lecture of short stories, starting with Poe’s work mentioned above, Allen Walter’s The Short Story in English, Charles E. May’s The Short Story – The Reality Artifice or Frank Myszor’s The Modern Short Story. Some articles have been written e.g., by Rüdiger Ahrens Die bisherige Rolle der Short Story im Englischunterricht der Sekundarstufe II, dealing with the use of short stories as a way of teaching literature. Most has certainly been written about didactics of English in German classrooms such as Wolfgang Gehring’s Englische Fachdidaktik Eine Einführung, Englisch lernen und lehren, Didaktik des Englischunterrichts by Johannes – P. Timm or Egon Werlich’s Praktische Methodik des Fremsprachenunterrichts mit authentischen Texten.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- The Short Story: Characteristics and Definition
- The Importance of the Short Story for Teaching Literature today
- Guidelines and Curricula for North Rhine-Westphalia
- Reasons for Using Short Stories in the EFL-Classroom
- Isaac Asimov's The Machine that Won the War- an Example of a Short Story in English Language Teaching
- Topic Analysis
- Didactic Objectives
- Language
- Methods: Pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading activities
- Conclusion
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This paper explores the potential of short stories in EFL classrooms, particularly within the context of North Rhine-Westphalia's curriculum. It aims to define the genre of the short story and outline its pedagogical benefits. The paper then uses Isaac Asimov's "The Machine that Won the War" as an example to illustrate how to implement short stories effectively in class, through a detailed lesson plan with various activities.
- Characteristics and definition of the short story
- The role of short stories in literature teaching today
- The use of short stories in EFL classrooms
- Effective strategies for implementing short stories in teaching
- A detailed analysis of "The Machine that Won the War" by Isaac Asimov
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
- Introduction: The paper begins by tracing the origins of the short story from oral storytelling to modern print publications. It acknowledges the challenges in engaging students with literature in the EFL classroom due to factors like fast-paced information intake and short attention spans. The paper proposes using short stories as a solution to these challenges.
- The Short Story: Characteristics and Definition: This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the short story genre, highlighting its historical development and defining characteristics. It emphasizes the importance of the short story's brevity, its focus on a single effect or situation, and its inherent complexity as a carefully constructed piece of fiction. Various theoretical perspectives on the genre are discussed, including those of Edgar Allan Poe, Brander Matthews, and Washington Irving.
- The Importance of the Short Story for Teaching Literature Today: This section explores the relevance of the short story in today's classroom. It examines the curriculum guidelines for English language teaching in North Rhine-Westphalia, emphasizing the need for engaging teaching methods and materials. The chapter argues that short stories offer a valuable tool for stimulating student interest and facilitating comprehension.
- Isaac Asimov's The Machine that Won the War - an Example of a Short Story in English Language Teaching: This chapter presents a detailed analysis of Asimov's short story as an example of a suitable text for EFL classrooms. It focuses on various aspects of the story, including its topic, didactic objectives, language features, and potential for pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading activities. The chapter aims to guide teachers on how to effectively implement "The Machine that Won the War" in their lessons.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
This work focuses on the use of short stories in EFL classrooms, particularly within the context of North Rhine-Westphalia's curriculum. Key concepts explored include the genre of the short story, its characteristics, pedagogical benefits, and effective implementation strategies using examples like Isaac Asimov's "The Machine that Won the War." The paper highlights the challenges of engaging students with literature in a fast-paced information environment and presents the short story as a viable solution.
- Quote paper
- Berenice Walther (Author), 2007, Teaching short stories in the EFL-Classroom, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/85671
