Lit 21 - New Literary Genres in the Language Classroom

Engelbert Thaler

• Publisher: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9783823383079
• eBook ISBN: 9783823301714
• Topic: Littérature
• Subtopic: Critique littéraire Histoire et théorie

Panta rhei. The world is in motion. So is literary production. New literary genres like digi fiction, text-talk novels, fan fiction or illustrated novels, to name a few, have developed over the last 20 years. And TEFL has to reflect these new trends in literature production. These are some of the reasons why this book is dedicated to the use of post-millennial literary genres in English Language Teaching. As all edited volumes in the SELT (Studies in English Language Teaching) series, it follows a triple aim: 1. Linking TEFL with related academic disciplines, 2. Balancing TEFL research and classroom practice, 3. Combining theory, methodology and exemplary lessons. This triple aim is reflected in the three-part structure of this volume: Part A (Theory), Part B (Methodology), Part C (Classroom) with several concrete lesson plans.

C. Lessons

Drabbles

Valentina Kleinert

1 Genre

Drabbles belong to the genre of Shorties, i.e. very short narrative texts, also called flash fiction, skinny fiction, prosetry, short short story, or mini-fiction (Thaler 2016). To put it tautologically, Shorties are ideal texts for TEFL because they are short and narrative.

A drabble consists of exactly 100 words, with the words in the title not being counted. These 100 word stories usually display a certain structure: Something happens in the story, suddenly there is a turnaround, altering the story by introducing a new perspective, which surprises the reader (cf. Brookes 2013). It was the Birmingham University of Science Fiction Society taking over the word drabble from Monty Python’s Big Red Book and making the public familiar with this type of Shorties (Thaler 2016: 185).

2 Sample Texts

Science fiction writers who have written drabbles include, among others, Brian Aldiss, Gene Wolfe, and Lois McMaster Bujold. An online literary journal which regularly publishes drabbles is 100 Word Story. As the Internet has facilitated a rapid spread of the genre, you should have no problems finding suitable examples. A current paperback anthology is Grant Faulkner’s Nothing Short of: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story.org (2018).

3 Procedure

Title	Nicolas A. White: What might not Happen (M1)
Synopsis	This drabble first describes the strenuous living conditions of a certain person. Then the story gets a positive turn as the 1^st person narrator goes through a beautiful experience in nature, which makes him want to capture it.
Competences	Speaking, reading, lexical competence, heartstorming, text competence, writing
Topics	Everyday life, stress, making ends meet, nature, yearning for peace, 100 word story
Level	Intermediate
Time	45 minutes
Steps (global-to-detail approach) A. Lead-in T introduces the topic with a provocative statement: “As a student you are fine. Many holidays, a lot of free time, no stress!” S comment on this statement. T announces that the lesson will be about a text that has a similar topic. Before reading, the teacher explains a few unknown words (M2). B. First reading T reads out the text, but only the first part (M3). C. Global comprehension S describe their spontaneous thoughts, emotions and first impressions (heartstorming). T asks them to give an oral summary of the text. T explains that the story has not finished yet, and hands out two different endings (M4). S have to decide which part they like better, or which is the original text, and justify their answers. D. Second reading T hands out the second part of the text. The entire text is read aloud, first by T, then with S taking turns. E. Detailed comprehension S are given a worksheet (M5), which focuses on rhetorical devices. S search for them in the text and fill in the gaps. Results are checked in class. The functions of the devices are also elicited. T: “Count the words of the story. Do you have an idea what the story is called?” The terms “100 word story” and “drabble” are written on the board. F. Follow-up Discussion: What is relaxation for you? Where do you want “to cast a net around the moment”? Homework: S have to write their own drabble.

4 Materials

M1: Text

What might not happen

Blood-red eyes, a forearm against the light, meetings and deadlines to attend. Mouths to feed, cars to buy, doctors to pay. And politics. We built an empire around the fear of making a mistake. Life in a cubicle: A keyboard for my hands, a screen for my brain. I thought it would be different.

One time, on the lake, with the sun setting behind the mountains, and a kayak gliding over the water, I tried to cast a net around the moment, keep it from escaping, tried to live in there forever with the fish and the smell of fire.

M2: Vocabulary (for part one)

English word	English explanation
cubicle	A small space with a desk used for work in a business office.
keyboard	In this case, used with a computer to type on.

M3: Text, Part 1

Blood-red eyes, a forearm against the light, meetings and deadlines to attend. Mouths to feed, cars to buy, doctors to pay. And politics. We built an empire around the fear of making a mistake. Life in a cubicle: A keyboard for my hands, a screen for my brain. I thought it would be different.

M4: Text, Part 2

Ending 1 (original ending)

One time, on the lake, with the sun setting behind the mountains, and a kayak gliding over the water, I tried to cast a net around the moment, keep it from escaping, tried to live in there forever with the fish and the smell of fire.

Ending 2

I couldn’t stand it anymore. No changes. Every day the same, day in, day out. I didn’t know a way out. I stayed in bed. No meetings, no deadlines,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Titel
• Impressum
• Inhaltsverzeichnis
• Introduction
• A. Theory
• B. Methodology
• C. Lessons
• Contributors
• Fußnoten