Masaryk University

Faculty of Education

The Department of English Language and Literature

Graded Readers: Bridging the Gap between Teaching Reading Skills and

Teaching Values

Master thesis

Brno 2017

Author: Supervisor:

Bc. Jiří Kovář Mgr. Jana Chocholatá

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only sources listed in the

bibliography.

I agree with the thesis being stored in the library of the Faculty of Education at Masaryk

University and being accessible for study purposes to the students of the Faculty of Education.

Brno 15. February 201 .............................................

Bc. Jiří Kovář

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Jana Chocholatá for her notes, helpful

advice and guidance through the process of writing my master thesis and to Jana Opálková for

the correction of the reader included in Appendices. Also, I owe my thanks to my family for

their constant support.

Annotation:

This thesis deals with the issue of graded readers. Its purpose is to create a graded reader

which can be used as a reading material for the learners on the A1 level and as a tool

promoting the discussion about moral values. In the practical part of the thesis, we

investigated, whether the reader can be used to promote reading skills and to discuss moral

values.

Anotace:

Práce se zabývá tématem zjednodušené četby. Jejím cílem je vytvořit zjednodušené četby,

která by sloužila jako studijní materiál pro žáky a student angličtiny na úrovni A2. V

praktické části, je testováno, zda tato četba je vhodná pro výše zmíněné účely.

Klíčová slova: zjednodušená četba, čtenářská gramotnost, mravní hodnoty,

Content

Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1

1 Developing reading skills ............................................................................... 2

1.1 Requirements for reading development ....................................................................... 2

1.2 Reading techniques ...................................................................................................... 3

1.3 Reading for pleasure .................................................................................................... 5

1.4 Extensive reading ........................................................................................................ 7

1.4.1 Extensive reading phenomenon in EFR/ESL learning and teaching ................... 8

1.4.2 Literature in a foreign language classroom ........................................................ 10

1.4.3 Lesson plan based on a literary text ................................................................... 11

1.4.4 Leading a discussion .......................................................................................... 13

2 Graded readers .............................................................................................. 15

2.1 Creating a graded reader ............................................................................................ 16

2.1.1 CEFR general information ................................................................................. 16

2.1.2 Reading skills: the A1 and A2 Levels in CEFR ................................................. 17

2.1.3 English Vocabulary Profile ................................................................................ 18

2.1.4 English Grammar Profile ................................................................................... 19

2.1.5 Graded reader´s syllabi ....................................................................................... 20

2.2 Professionally designed graded readers ..................................................................... 21

3 The process of simplification ....................................................................... 23

3.1 Syntax and grammar .................................................................................................. 23

3.2 Glossary ..................................................................................................................... 26

3.3 Vocabulary selection ................................................................................................. 27

3.4 Vocabulary exercise and reading comprehension ..................................................... 31

3.5 Discussing morality as part of the reader .................................................................. 32

3.5.1 Secondary sources: Chronicles of Narnia .......................................................... 32

3.5.2 Good against evil ................................................................................................ 33

4 Cognitive and moral development ............................................................... 35

4.1 Puberty ....................................................................................................................... 35

4.2 Moral development .................................................................................................... 36

4.2.1 Children and teens interpreting moral issues ..................................................... 37

4.2.2 Encouraging moral development ....................................................................... 39

5 The Purpose .................................................................................................. 43

6 The profile of the interviewed teacher ......................................................... 43

7 Participants ................................................................................................... 43

8 The Methods ................................................................................................. 44

9 Results of the discussions ............................................................................. 45

10 Reflection on the task ................................................................................ 47

11 Conclusion and discussion ......................................................................... 52

Sources: ............................................................................................................... 54

1

Introduction

I decided to create a graded reader because I have always wanted to be a writer and writing a

graded reader was a challenge for me. I also intended to incorporate morality into the reader

since I believe that this topic is frequently underestimated. I decided to simplify Chronicles of

Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe primarily because there are a number of

motives, which can be used when discussing moral values. In addition, I like the film version.

The existence of the film also plays an important role in the process of simplification itself as

I was able to use the photographs taken from the film and use them the reader.

The aim of this thesis is to create a graded reader which can be used as a tool for the

improvement of reading skills as well as for initiating discussion about moral values. In the

practical part, I examined if the exercises integrated into the reader were appropriate and

could, therefore, be used when teaching reading. Furthermore, it was investigated if the reader

can be used to discuss moral values and initiate abstract thinking.

To introduce the structure of the thesis, the reader is divided into two parts, namely practical

and theoretical. The first one consists of theory of reading development, where the aspects

necessary to develop proficiency reading skills are discussed. There is also a classification of

several reading techniques and a number of recommendations concerning the use of literature

in the classroom. The thesis also includes practical pieces of advice on how to create a lesson

plan based on literature and how to lead a discussion.

Graded readers are discussed in the second chapter, including references to The Common

European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR).

It offers information about tools available when creating a graded reader, namely CEFR that

was already mentioned, including The English Vocabulary Profile and The English Grammar

Profile. The chapter also includes available guidelines for graded readers. Also, there is a

section dealing with professionally designed graded readers published by Oxford University

Press and Cambridge University Press.

The third chapter focuses on the actual process of simplification, where the process of

creating a reader (available in Appendices) is discussed, demonstrated and justified. The

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chapter consists of a number of parts, where syntax, grammar, vocabulary, glossary, reading

comprehension tasks and vocabulary exercises are discussed. As the thesis focuses also on

moral values, the chapter also integrates secondary sources with regards to The Chronicles of

Narnia, where these issues are tackled.

Chapter 4 concentrates on the group, for which the reader is intended. Thus, it describes a

number of psychological, cognitive and moral aspects with regards to teenagers since the

insight into this area is highly relevant to the concept of the reader.

Chapters 5-11 create empirical or practical part of the thesis aiming at testing whether the

reader can be used for the purposes to which it was designed and intended. In the theoretical

part of the thesis, the aims of the reading project were stated. It offers a short biography of the

interviewed teacher and describes the participants of the project. It also describes the methods

that were used, namely recording the class discussion and an interview with the teacher which

were further analysed and the results were presented. Finally, there is the reflection

concerning the reader and final conclusion.

1 Developing reading skills

As the main aim of the thesis is to create a graded reader which can be used as a reading

material in EFL classroom, it is essential to start with a short introduction into the area of

reading development.

1.1 Requirements for reading development

Grellet (1981) argues that we need to focus on the so-called sensitising in order to develop

good reading skills. The process of sensitising includes several strategies and skills. Firstly,

students should be able to guess the meaning of an unknown vocabulary item rather than

using a dictionary. Secondly, students should be aware of the fact that the text does not

consist only of individual words conveying a meaning. It is a complex unit, where the

sentences are related to one another. Thus, pupils should be taught to recognise linking words

in the sentence. Also, they should be able to recognise several kinds of references within the

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text, namely anaphoric and cataphoric reference. The learners should also be able to identify

synonyms in the text. Moreover, the author claims that learners should be aware of word

formation processes. According to Grellet, it is essential to teach the learners to analyse the

sentence so that they could find the subject and the verb, the most prominent sentence

elements (pp. 14-16).

Grellet (1981) mentions that reading speed plays an important role in the development of

reading skills. It is obvious that slow readers have a low motivation to read (p.16).

As for the reading speed, Grabe (2009, pp. 289-290) comments that in comparison to the

native speaker, ESL/EFL students and even those with an advanced level of English, read far

more slowly. The reading speed of a native speaker is between 250-300 wpm. compared to

80-120 wpm. which is the reading speed of a non-native reader at the university level.

Taguchi et all. (2004 pp. 46-51) proposes that an advanced learner of English still has several

areas to improve. As for those areas, reading rate is the one which can be increased by

rereading the text. He suggests that the text could be read four times to “gain the most” from

the activity; however, he mentions that there are two aspects that one has to take into

consideration, namely the readers’ language level and their motivation.

To conclude, the learners need to understand the relationships within the language in order to

become more confident readers. Additionally, it is useful for them to work on their reading

speed.

1.2 Reading techniques

The skills motioned in the previous chapter are not sufficient. When we read a text, we

usually have in mind a particular aim. When we search for entertainment, we can take a novel

or we can search for a joke on the Internet. If we plan to prepare a meal, we may read a

recipe. If we need to go to Prague, we may have a look at the timetable. To put it another way,

different pieces of text are approached differently. In our mother tongue, we use different

strategies to deal with them spontaneously and automatically, however, we frequently forget

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to transfer them into the foreign language. As these strategies are an important part of a

language development, we will have a look at them in this chapter.

Scrivener (2011, pp.164-165) distinguishes three basic reading strategies, namely reading for

detail, skimming and scanning.

Reading for detail is aimed at understanding details. It is connected with returning to the

already read passages, making sure that they were correctly interpreted.

Skimming is a reading strategy where we focus on getting a general idea of what the text is

about. We are interested in key themes not in specific details. Thus, reading pace is fast.

Scanning is a reading strategy where the attention is drawn to the specific pieces of

information. The eyes move quickly over the text in order to locate specific information, e.g.

names, prices.

Similarly, Grellet (1981) distinguishes between skimming and scanning. He suggests that the

learners need to practise previewing and predicting in order to teach scanning and skimming.

To define the terms, previewing is the ability to predict, where the relevant information can be

found. Thus, the learners must learn to work with the table of contents, the preface and other

sources of the relevant clues. Predicting is more generally the ability to guess what is to come

next in the text. When making a prediction, an advanced reader relies on their knowledge of

the grammar, background cultural, previous knowledge of the subject and other relevant clues

(p. 19).

This corresponds with the top-down processing of language, where the emphasis is put on the

previous knowledge of the subject. With respect to the previous knowledge; readers can

develop expectations about the text. By contrast, bottom-up processing happens when the

reader tries to understand language by looking at its individual meanings and grammatical

characteristics (“Top-down,” 2006)

Both strategies previously mentioned are important. Whereas bottom-up processing ensures

that the reader is sensitive to the new information or to the facts that do not fit their outgoing

hypothesis about the concept, top-down processing assists the reader with resolving

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ambiguities and with the selection of the correct interpretation concerning incoming data.

(Carrell and Eisterhold 1983, p. 557)

The above-suggested strategies are very useful, and the learner can learn them in an English

language classroom. Nevertheless, the pupils are supposed to do primarily extensive reading

which includes reading of small quantities of text in the instructional reading level, more

precisely the level where the learners need instruction and support from the teacher and the

course book in order to be able to comprehend the text (Jacobs and Farrell, 2012, p. 2). They,

however, very often lack the experience of dealing with the text of their own choice and

interest. We need to highlight that reading for pleasure plays an important role in the reading

development, both in the first and second language. Therefore, we will focus on this issue in

the following chapter.

1.3 Reading for pleasure

To define the term, “Reading for pleasure (further only RFP) refers to reading that we to do of

our own free will, anticipating the satisfaction that we will get from the act of reading. It also refers

to reading that having begun at someone else’s request we continue because we are interested in it”(

Clark and Rumbold, 2006, p. 5)

Also, Krashen (2004) promotes the idea of voluntary reading as an effective way to develop

reading skills suggesting that it should be a preferable option, as it is equally or even more

effective than traditional extensive reading. (pp.1-3)

Firstly, we will define the term free voluntary reading (FVR). It is a kind of reading, where

the learners read because they want to. There are neither questions at the end of the chapter,

nor exercises concerning vocabulary. Students are encouraged to stop reading the book and

choose another one if the book is no longer attractive for them (Krashen, 2004, p. 1).

The results of the research comparing FVR with the traditional approach based on instructive

learning shows that 94% of students involved in free a reading program scored equally or

better than students educated traditionally (Krashen, 2004, p. 2).

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Moreover, the results of the longer lasting studies propose that FR programs are constantly

effective (Krashen 2004, p. 3). Also, the evidence can be found that free reading programs

have a positive impact on vocabulary development, grammar test performances, writing and

speaking (Greaney, 1970).

Based on the findings Krashen (2004) concludes that free reading programs are not only

effective but also motivating for the learners. Therefore, they should become a preferable tool

in EFL classrooms.

Csikszentmihalyi (1991) found the evidence that reading can bring a satisfaction and pleasure.

The author claimed that reading was the most often flow bringing activity. Speaking of flow,

it is a state when a person concentrates fully on the activity that they are doing. They do not

perceive time, for they are concerned with the activity only. The state of flow is claimed to

have positive and, what is more, highly regenerative impact on people (p. 68).

Although the source is not very recent, it can still show us one very important fact. Reading

can be very motivating.

On the subject of pleasure, Wilhelm (2016) searched for the reasons, why middle and

secondary school children read genres typically marginalised at school e.g. vampire stories,

horrors and fantasy fiction. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The

participants were all passionate readers, who reported on their reading life, in the first phase,

on their favourite genre in the second and on their favourite book, except for those from their

favourite genre in the third. The final phase focused on the links between their reading life

and other interests. The results propose that the readers experience several kinds of pleasure

regarding reading their preferred books, namely immersive play pleasure, social pleasure,

intellectual pleasure, the pleasure of work and the pleasure of inner work.1

As for the other benefits that reading for pleasure can bring the research carried out by the

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2002) proposes that

reading enjoyment is more important than their socio-economic status. To put it another way,

even the children from the poor families can reach a good qualification if they are keen

readers.

1 For more information see: http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=966e202f-d104-43f1-8a60-

9bf02790b0f9%40sessionmgr102&vid=2&hid=127

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What is more, a great deal of research in which children participated demonstrates that

reading for pleasure is positively linked with academic skills.

Firstly, we can master reading only through reading. Reading for pleasure provides the learner

with language input. A long period of reading combined with strong motivation surely

contributes to the development of reading skills. Krashen is convinced that pleasure reading

is one of the most important tools to master the proficiency in a foreign language. Secondly,

there is strong evidence that reading for pleasure is connected with improving a writing style

since the pleasure reading increases vocabulary. It also helps to implicitly learn grammar and

correct spelling (Krashen, 2004). According to Bruner (1996) reading for pleasure also offers

a greater insight into human nature. It is also connected with gaining a general knowledge

(Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998) as well as with a better understanding of other cultures

(Meek, 1994).

Due to the fact, that pleasure reading is usually associated with reading a longer piece of text

rather than a single article; the next chapter focuses on the issue of extensive reading. As the

terms reading for pleasure and extensive reading are very closely linked, what is mentioned in

this chapter is mostly relevant also for the following chapter and vice versa.

1.4 Extensive reading

Starting with the definition, “Extensive reading in ESL/EFL context is an approach

to teaching English, whose goal is to get students reading in a foreign and in our

case in English language and enjoy it.”

(Day et. al., 2016)

Besides, Day et al. (2016) state that students should be encouraged to read a book voluntarily,

which includes the fact that they should stop reading if they are not interested in reading that

particular book or if the book is too difficult. He also emphasises that students should choose

their own materials. Furthermore, Day stresses the reading for pleasure and the fact that the

materials must be simple enough for the reader to comprehend easily.

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Moreover, Day and Bamford (1998) mentions a number of characteristics found in successful

extensive reading programs:

1) Students read as much as possible out of the classroom and when possible also in the

class.

2) A variety of materials for different reading styles and different purposes is available.

3) Students can choose what to read and they can even decide to stop reading which they are

not interested in.

4) The purposes of reading are related to reading for pleasure and information seeking. The

emphasis is put on general understanding. The purposes are determined by the nature of

materials as well as the interests of students.

5) Reading for its own sake (few follow-up activities possible)

6) Reading materials includes the grammatical structures and vocabulary items correspond to

the students´ language level. Dictionaries are rarely used.

7) Reading is silent and individual, offering the students to read at their own pace and done

outside the class.

8) Since the students works with easily understandable materials, reading tempo is rather

faster than slower (compared to intensive reading usually done in the lessons)

9) The teacher helps students to understand the goals of the reading programs, providing

them with useful methodology and guiding them in getting most out of the program.

10) The teacher is a role model of a reader for students, participating actively in reading

community showing the students what it means to be a reader (pp. 7-8).

The above-mentioned features can be applied for both the first and the second language

acquisition. However, we will concentrate on the second language and on the foreign

language acquisition, as it is more relevant to the aims of the thesis.

1.4.1 Extensive reading phenomenon in EFR/ESL learning and teaching

The effectiveness of extensive reading programs was proved by a great deal of research. To

provide a number of examples the research Reading Strategies and Extensive Reading in EFL

Classes gives evidence that extensive reading is a more important feature in terms of reading

comprehension than learning to use appropriate reading strategies. Hayashi (1999) also come

to conclusion that more experienced readers in the first language are more likely to become

9

the better readers in a foreign language. Needless to say that the reading competence is largely

transferable into a foreign language and thus this result is expectable.

Similarly, Krashen (2004, p. 149) puts emphasis on reading in the first language, arguing that

reading in the first language provides you with knowledge of the world. As a result, readers

are able to read the texts concerning a similar topic in second or foreign language, since they

are familiar with the topic.

Sheu (2003) carried out a research called Extensive Reading: Revised to Include a Case Study

of Read On! Its purpose was to compare the effectiveness of traditional instructive method

with the extensive reading approach. The targeted group were thirteen- and fourteen-year-old

learners of English, at the beginner level. They had learned English for one year before the

experiment started. It is worth mentioning that their mother tongue was Chinese which is a

completely different language. The learners were divided into three groups. Two experimental

classes and one thought traditionally. Each group were thought similarly, however, they

received one class per week, which was special.

In the traditionally thought group, which was called the controlled group in the paper, the

learners revised the lesson, memorised vocabulary and learnt grammar rules. In the first

experimental group, the learners were exposed to graded readers at the beginner level. As for

the second experimental group, the students were encouraged to read the original English

stories and fairy tales, suitable for the beginner level. (Sheu, 2003)

The results suggest that graded readers can be effectively used to extend the range of

vocabulary. The group reading graded readers received the highest score on the vocabulary

test. By contrast, the group working with the original fairy tales obtained the highest score on

the grammar tests. As the vocabulary items appear repeatedly in the graded readers, it is not

surprising that the learners were able to recall them. Also, the grammar in original fairy tales

for native speakers is very complex compared to the simplified grammar presented in

textbooks and graded readers for beginners. (Sheu 2003, p. 13)

Another scholar Bell (2011) conducted a research Extensive Reading: Speed and

Comprehension. The results suggest that extensive reading program is highly effective both in

terms of reading pace and reading comprehension. Silva (2009) investigated the benefits and

10

obstacles connected with the use of the internet for extensive reading. Among the benefits

discovered are:

1) Good access to various materials

2) Learner´s independence on teachers

3) Learning flexibility

4) Faster speed, easily to read and more practical compared to reading from book

5) Frequent access to the teacher

6) Vocabulary extension

7) Faster reading speed

8) Focus on the main idea

9) Motivation (p. 91).

Suffice it to say that in order to receive all these benefits, we need to explore a pedagogical

approach to the literature.

1.4.2 Literature in a foreign language classroom

There are several reasons why literature should be included in foreign language learning and

teaching.

Firstly, literary works offer a beautiful and varied body of authentic pieces of text.

Incorporating authentic texts e.g.travel timetables, city plans and advertisement is a present

trend that should increase learners’ motivation. Thus, it is estimated that reading simple but

authentic literary text, that even native speakers would enjoy reading, stimulates students

more. (Collie and Slater, 1987, pp. 3-4)

The second reason is the extension of the vocabulary range, especially in terms of metaphors

and metonymy, which are figures of speech not so frequently represented in non-literary texts.

It can also contribute to the learners´ ability to stylistically analyse the text. In addition,

learners can develop, extend and fix their grammatical system as they meet with a large

number of grammatical structures they have previously learnt at school (Janíková, 2010, p.

113).

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Furthermore, it is very probable that they will meet a number of grammatical structures,

which they did not cover. Nevertheless, missing knowledge does not prevent them from

understanding the text in many cases. In that way, the learner extends their passive knowledge

of grammar.

What is more, different types of literary texts enable the learner to explore a targeted culture

using a targeted language. When learning the second language, we rely on our knowledge of

the real world. The problem is that a number of concepts differ from culture to culture

(Janíková, 2010, p. 113). To provide some examples, English culture differs from the Czech

in the use of the politeness strategies. It seems that English people tend to be politer than

Czech. E.g. English people use the word please more often than Czech people. Also the

phrases as for example “I would like…,” “Would you mind...,” “Would you be so kind…,”

refer to the described phenomenon.

Books also represent cultural values and lifestyle, which the learner can explore through

reading. The learners may discover history when dealing with reading as there is always same

particular cultural and historical background presented within a story (Janíková, 2010, p.

113). Similarly, Collie and Slater (1987, p. 4) suggest that a number of students did not study

the language in order to be able to communicate. Their main aim is simply to explore a new

culture using a new language.

On the top, literature can support personal involvement. It is the state, in which students are

mainly concerned with the story. They think about characters, they may identify with them;

they are part of the story. (Collie and Slater, 1987, pp. 5-6)

1.4.3 Lesson plan based on a literary text

As discussed above literature can be very useful when used in an EFL Classroom.

Nevertheless, we need to mention that the preparation of the lesson plan based on the literary

text is more complicated than preparing a lesson plan on a topic in the textbook or on a graded

reader as both textbooks and graded readers are provided with additional materials for

teachers.

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Generally, it is recommended to include a number of pre-reading, while-reading and post-

reading activities when dealing with a piece of text.

Regarding pre-reading activities, it is proposed that the learners should work with the cover

page. The activities are useful when working with authentic literary text as well as when

dealing with a graded reader. In order to increase learner’s motivation and curiosity, it is

recommended asking the learners to guess what the story is about. The teacher can also let the

learner read a short introduction to the book or the very first page and then ask the student to

make a prediction. Alternatively, students can browse through the text and guess what will be

happening in the particular chapter (Brumfit and Carter, 1986, pp. 111). Logically, dealing

with the original text could be difficult in terms of vocabulary. Therefore, it can be useful to

prepare the list of words, appearing in the text that are supposed to be difficult. At the

beginning, we can ask the learners to guess or to find the words in a dictionary. To make the

process quicker and also enjoyable, we can divide the class to work in groups. (Lazar, 1993,

pp. 77-83)

On the subject of while reading activities, we can provide the learners with a part of the text in

which a number of words are missing, or are made illegible. Obviously, the students will be

asked to fill in the missing words, based on the context. (Brumfit and Carter, 1986, p. 113). In

this phase or even at the end of the project we may include a writing activity. For example,

the teacher may suggest that the learners should read the half of the story and try to finish it

themselves. As for the writing, students can be given a short summary of chapters, they have

covered so far containing approximately 50 words and, after they finish reading it, the teacher

may propose that they should write their own summary with the length of 100 words. The

teacher has to bear in mind that the learners might need a help with the vocabulary. The

easiest solution is to provide them with dictionaries and multiple-choice tastes relevant to the

chosen text. In order to ensure that the learners understood the characters, one can ask the

learners to rank the characters e.g. good or evil, handsome or ugly on a five-point scale. Also,

one can suggest a number of adjectives which they should attribute to the concrete character.

Students can also be supposed to write references for the different a character as if they were

applying for a job. (Lazar, 1993, pp. 85-86)

After the reading is finished, the learners could be offered to work on the post-reading

activities. For example, they can be encouraged to write a summary of the plot. It is also

13

useful to initiate the discussion about the message of the book. (Brumfit and Carter 113) Also,

pupils can try to rewrite the text from another narrative perspective or they can create an

alternative ending of the story. We can also use drama and propose that the students should

pretend they are actors and they should perform a short play with the screenplay based on the

previous reading. (Lazar, 1993, p. 86)

We discussed lesson plan in this chapter. However, it is also essential to plan the structure of

the lesson, especially when you intend to work with literature since it is not activity

commonly done in class. As a result, neither the teacher nor their students will probably feel

comfortable about it.

Now we turn to another skill which is needed for the success of our project. We will have a

look at aspect one has to take into account when leading or organising a discussion.

1.4.4 Leading a discussion

Hale (2006) advocated students-centred discussions concerning a literary text, stating that the

learners acquire important skills while practising debates and class discussions. For example,

the participants of the discussion learn to think analytically about the text, they will improve

their oral language, they learn to think critically and to express disagreement in an appropriate

way. In this way, democratic principles are promoted (pp. 3-4).

Brookfield and Preskill (2012) mention a number of mistakes, which need to be avoided when

leading a discussion. Firstly, it is recommended not to start lecturing as the discussion is about

expressing an opinion. The learners should learn to think. When a teacher offers immediately

their own solution, learners are likely to lose motivation to participate in the discussion. When

leading a discussion, one has to be aware of the fact that a period of silence does not mean

that everything is wrong. On the contrary, a silent period can be a sign of concentration.

Logically, if one should discuss a topic, it is necessary to give them some time to think it

through. Secondly, it is important not to concentrate on one particular person or a particular

group. There are smart pupils and every teacher is “tempted” to communicate with them while

ignoring the rest of the class. Also, we need to point out that a number of learners are

naturally shy. However, the teacher is obligated to encourage them.

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Speaking of questions, they should be clear and opened. In other words, there should not be

just one correct answer. It is essential that the learners should think about the questions.

Important point is that the questions should not be too easy or primitive. In the contrary, they

should stimulate learners´ intellectual development. In addition, the questions can be linked to

the text. It means that the learners will need to search in the text, to find the answer (Hale,

2006, p. 7-8). Although the learners can find clues or evidence in the text, it is still important

that the learners deal with open questions. Strictly speaking, the learner can work on “pure”

comprehension questions on their own using the key in comparison to open questions where

there is always a space for new ideas. Therefore, it can be highly motivating not only for the

learners but also for their teacher. In addition, Galbraith and Jones (as cited in Vacek, 2008, p.

35) suggest that the teacher should not interfere in the discussion if it is not necessary. The

teacher can help learners to discover a new view of the topic by asking questions leading to

deeper understanding of the issue.

In relation to a successful discussion, Brookfield and Preskill (2016) mention several types of

questions which a facilitator should use when leading a discussion. The first type is clarifying

questions e.g.”What do you mean by that? Can you put it another way?”, Also, the teacher

should use questions, which would link the text either with the topic mentioned previously in

the text, or a with the real life experience. As already mentioned, the questions should be

open-ended e.g. “What interest you here?.” The questions can focus on the understanding of

the issue. The teacher can ask questions as for instance: “Why do you think, he did it? Why

do you think it happened? How do you explain the situation?” Important are also the

questions aiming at the justification of a particular statement or situation. We may ask: “How

did you come to know this?” and “What experience leads you to this conclusion?” (p. 66).

In this chapter, we discussed what mistakes need to be avoided when leading a discussion and

we classified several types of useful questions. Nevertheless, leading a discussion is a broad

topic. Therefore, if you need to understand this area deeper, see the references.

Furthermore, we dealt with literature and we demonstrated how it can be used in an EFL

classroom. Now we turn to specific kind of literature used for the learning and teaching

purposes, namely to graded readers.

15

2 Graded readers

“Graded reader is one of a series of books of increasing levels of difficulty, used for teaching people

to read, or to help them learn a foreign language by reading.” (Cambridge Dictionary Online)

“A graded reader is a story which has been adapted for people learning to read or learning a foreign

language. Graded readers avoid using difficult grammar and vocabulary.” (Collins Dictionary)

“A Graded reader is a textbook which forms part of a series of books of varying levels of difficulty,

intended to be used by students learning to read or learning a foreign language.”(Collins

Dictionary).

All the definitions suggest that graded readers are used for the learning and teaching purposes.

They all state that graded readers vary in different levels. This is obviously the key feature.

There are enormous differences between the learners within the same class or grade. As a

result, graded readers are divided into several stages in order to offer suitable and enjoyable

reading for as many learners as possible.

The Definition taken from Collins Dictionary proposes that graded readers are adopted so that

the learners of a foreign language can comprehend them. This is not always the case, because

there are a great number of graded readers intended for the native speakers. Logically, those

readers have to be changed neither in terms of grammar nor lexis. Nevertheless, they have to

be carefully chosen to suit the targeted group of readers. Since we discuss graded readers used

in ESL, the definition is perfectly suitable for us.

The third definition describes a graded reader as a textbook. Interestingly, graded readers can

be considered a textbook, as it usually contains a glossary and the number of tasks focused on

reading comprehension. On one hand, it is a great help to the learners because they can realise

if they understand the text or not. On the other hand, the comprehension tasks can contradict

the primary aim of the readers. We have to take into account that graded readers belong to the

extensive reading and to the reading for pleasure category. Therefore, the comprehension

tasks should focus on general understanding, which is not always the case.

16

2.1 Creating a graded reader

2.1.1 CEFR general information

Stages into which graded readers are divided differ from publisher to publisher. In order to

make it easier for the user to decide which reader is suitable for them, the publishers usually

refer to Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching,

Assessment (CEFR).

In the CEFR three language users are distinguished:

1) Basic user

2) Independent user

3) Proficient user

All the categories are further divided into lower and higher stage of this level. Below you can

find a general description of the particular levels taken from Common European Framework

of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment."(2011, p. 33)

Table 1 Reading

Basic user

A1 “Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases

aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. Can introduce him/herself and

others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she

lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. Can interact in a simple way

provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.”

A2 “Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most

immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping,

local geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routine tasks

requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine

matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate

environment and matters in areas of immediate Basic need.”

Independent

user

B1 “Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters

regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations

likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce

simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can

describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give

17

Independent

user

reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.”

B2 “Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics,

including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation. Can interact with a

degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers

quite possible without strain for either party. Can produce clear, detailed text on a

wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the

advantages and Independent disadvantages of various options.”

Proficient

user

C1 “Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit

meaning. Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious

searching for expressions. Can use language flexibly and effectively for social,

academic and professional purposes. Can produce clear, well-structured, detailed

text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organisational patterns,

connectors and cohesive devices.”

C2 “Can understand with ease virtually everything heard or read. Can summarise

information from different spoken and written sources, reconstructing arguments and

accounts in a coherent presentation. Can express him/herself spontaneously, very

fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of Proficient meaning even in more

complex situations.”

Furthermore, this document contains descriptions of abilities of the learners reaching a

particular level of a foreign language. There are the so-called can-do statements describing

the learners´ skills in the particular language area, namely reading, writing, listening, spoken

production and spoken interaction. As we deal with graded readers, we will concentrate on

reading skill presented in CEFR, more precisely on reading on the A1 and A2 levels since the

reader is supposed to be at the A2 level.

2.1.2 Reading skills: the A1 and A2 Levels in CEFR

As for understanding, the A2 level learners are supposed to be able to comprehend very short

and simple texts. They can find specific information in simple everyday materials e.g. in a

menu, timetable or advertisement. More importantly, they are able to understand short simple

personal letters. (CEFR 2001, p. 35)

When compared to the A2 level, the an A1 level learner is only able to recognise words

familiar to them and they are able to comprehend very simple sentences. (CEFR 2001 p. 35)

18

We can see that the A1 learner should not theoretically be able to read longer texts. However,

there are numerous graded readers created for the A1 learner. A Penguin reader designed for

beginners (A1) contains 300 headwords. The book The Adventure of Tom Sawyer retold by

Jacqueline Kehl contains more than 4000 words. Thus, we can see that even the A1 learner

can read longer texts. However, it is important to mention that although the graded readers for

the A1 level contain over thirty pages, they are very often filled with pictures and some parts

can also be in the form of comics.2

“A2 level learner can identify specific information in simpler written material

he/she encounters such as letters, brochures and short newspaper articles

describing events.” (CEFR, 2001, p. 70)

“A1 level learner can get an idea of the content of simpler informational material

and short simple descriptions, especially if there is visual support.”

(CEFR, 2001, p. 70)

In other words, on the A2 level, you are able to understand both general idea and also give

specific details when the reading contains familiar and frequently used expressions.

2.1.3 English Vocabulary Profile

As the official guidelines of publishers creating graded readers are not commonly accessible

and the description of the learner at the particular level is too general, we need to work with

other sources of information in order to be able to create a graded reader. Useful tools are

English Vocabulary Profile and English Grammar Profile. (“English Grammar Profile”) and

(“English Vocabulary Profile”).

In the Vocabulary Profile Database, vocabulary items are divided into appropriate levels. For

example, there are 779 vocabulary items in the A1 section. Nevertheless, as a different

2 Compare: Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Harlow: Pearson Education, 2000. Print. Penguin

Readers. Level 1.

Strange, Derek, and Bob Harvey. Girl meets boy. Pearson education, 2008.

19

vocabulary item in the profile is considered even the same word with a different function or

meaning. Thus, one can find here the word “a“ three times. Firstly, as a determiner meaning

not particular, secondly a determiner meaning any/every, thirdly a determiner meaning one.

The word about is here twice; as a preposition and as an adverb. When the A1 and A1 are put

together, we get a list of 1974 items (“English Vocabulary Profile”).

The English Vocabulary Profile is a great help when you need to get into the targeted range

of vocabulary. When you, however, need to search for a particular word in order to decide

whether the word is appropriate or not, it is better to use a dictionary. Cambridge Advanced

Learner´s Dictionary provides English definition of the term and very often also the reference

to the CEFR level.3

2.1.4 English Grammar Profile

The tool enables the reader to explore grammatical categories linked with the level at which

the grammatical phenomenon should be mastered and to what extent. Similarly to the English

Vocabulary Profile, one needs to choose the level they are searching for, namely A1, A2, B1,

B2, C1, and C2. It is also possible to choose more categories. In addition, one can select the

so-called SuperCategory and SubCategory. In the SuperCategory, one can choose to search

for verbs, reported speech, questions, pronouns, present, and prepositions, past, passive,

nouns, negation, modality and other grammatical categories. There are a number of items to

select in the SubCategory section. For example, when choosing verbs as a SuperCategory,

level A1 and A2, one can select Subcategories such as linking, patterns with that clauses,

patterns with to and -ing, there is, there are and other similar categories (“English Grammar

Profile”).

A number of aspects concerning grammar suitable for a concrete stage can be found in the

document The Oxford Bookworms Syllabuses used by writers working for Oxford University

Press. I used selected grammatical structures suitable for the starter level, for the stage 1,

stage 2 and 3, since stage 3 should be approximately equal to the A2 level defined in CEFR.

3 See http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/learner-english/

20

2.1.5 Graded reader´s syllabi

Based on the syllabus for the starter level, one may use present simple and continuous,

imperative, can, cannot, must, going to (with the reference to the future) and simple gerund.

The range of vocabulary should be 250 headwords. “Headwords are the words that form

headings in the dictionary under which the meaning is explained.” e.g. go, includes

expressions such as went, going, goes, gone. Luck includes expressions as for example lucky,

unlucky, luckily. All the plural forms are part of it as well e.g. books, cats, dogs.

(“Oxford Bookworms Language Syllabus”).

At stage 1, graded readers contain past simple, simple coordination with and, or, but, time

clauses connected with the prepositions when, after and before as well as clauses expressing

reasons and result using because and so. At this stage, the infinitive of purpose as well as

gerunds and infinitives with to should be distinguished. The number of headwords increases

to 400 items. (“Oxford Bookworms Language Syllabus”)

Stage 2 enables the writer to use 700 headwords and the grammatical features are extended to

present perfect, past continuous, will referring to the future, must not, don´t have to, could, It

is also possible to use the comparison of adjectives, tag questions or simple if clauses. The

learners should be able to understand the constructions with ask and tell followed by to-

infinitive. (“Oxford Bookworms Language Syllabus”)

Nevertheless, it is important to mention that these rules do not have to be followed so strictly.

Obviously, the learner should not be overloaded with unknown expressions and grammatical

structures, however, a few unknown words or grammatical features should not disturb the

reader, especially when we take into consideration the fact that they can frequently rely on the

context and thus understand even unknown vocabulary items and structures.

Similarly to the Oxford bookworm Syllabuses, Penguin Readers are divided into six levels.

Nevertheless, they differ in the number of headwords attributed to the particular level. Thus,

one can start reading a penguin reader defined as an Easy Starter with 200 headwords only,

compared to 250 in the Oxford Bookworm Syllabuses. Generally speaking, we can say that

you need to know fewer vocabulary items in order to be able to read a Penguin reader level:

21

Easy starts, Beginner and Elementary then you need to understand graded readers level:

Starter, Stage 1 and Stage 2 published by Oxford University Press. By contrast, starting with

level 3, Penguin readers become more complicated in terms of vocabulary. One needs 1200

headwords in order to read an upper-intermediate level graded reader in comparison to 1000

items in Bookworm´s readers. The different in the higher stages/levels is even bigger.

Compare: (Deborah, 2008) (“Oxford Bookworms Language Syllabus”)4

In conclusion, when choosing a graded reader, we had to bear in mind that there are big

differences among publishers.

2.2 Professionally designed graded readers

Previously we discussed the changes which need to be made in terms of grammar and

vocabulary when we intend to create a graded reader. Now we will have a look closely at

publishers creating professionally designed graded readers.

There are four main institutions publishing English graded readers recognised in the Czech

Republic, namely Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Macmillan

Heinemann ELT, Penguin Longman Publishing.

We can distinguish several different types of graded readers offered presently by Oxford

University Press.

There are the so-called Dominoes; varied, full-colour graded readers in four levels from

starter to B1 level. Many books at the starter level are in comic-stripes which make them

especially suitable for young learners. Dominoes include different types of stories, namely TV

and Film Adventure, World Literature, Mystery and Horror, Human Interest, Story

Collections and True Tales. They are provided with pre-reading, while-reading and after-

reading activities. Additionally, there are pages aimed at grammar and recordings of the text

are available at different speeds as well. Interestingly, these readers are written not only in

4 available from:

http://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/elt/teachers/bookworms/introductions/21695201/obw_00_cc_languagesyll

abus.pdf

22

British but also in American and British English. (“Dominoes New Edition: Building your

Skills through Reading”)

Similarly, there is a series of graded readers called Oxford Read and Imagine designed for

pre-school and elementary English Language courses. It is suitable for the children at the age

of four and older. The readers are divided into 6 levels. The syllabus for the early starter level

contains only 30 headwords e.g. colours, animals, and other expressions connected with

everyday life. The story contains 60 words at this level. As for the grammar, the reader for

the easy starter level include only present simple, positive imperatives, can expressing ability

and pronouns I, you and it. There are a great number of additional sources connected with the

readers. For example, Activity books, Teacher´s Handbook with Photocopiable Templates.

Also, there are Audio Pockets and e-book version of some readers. (Fish, pp.1-18)

We need to point out that graded readers cannot be restricted to the fiction only. Specific non-

fictional series of graded readers is called Oxford Read and Discover. It is divided into six

levels starting with 300 headwords and finishing with 1050, however, level 1 and 2 with 300

and 450 headwords have not been available yet. The reader can choose from three main areas

namely Science and Technology, The Natural World and The World of Art and Social

Studies.5 The topics about which the learner can read in the “science-focused” readers are

sounds of music, human body, water, life in the rainforest, festivals around the world,

wonders of the past and other phenomena. (“Oxford Read and Discover Introduction Level

1-2”).

Another key type of readers is Classic Tales. They are graded readers which story comes from

an original literary work. They are not restricted to the English literary canon. Thus, the

learner can read books originated from a number of different countries in simple English.

Oxford University Press has currently been publishing the second edition of Classic Tales.

The readers are divided into 5 levels from 1000 to 4000 headwords with the length of the

story from approximately 540 to 2670 words. This type of reader offers a large number of

titles e.g. The Princess and the Pie, The Magic Cooking Pot, The Ugly Duckling, Cinderella

5 See: http://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/elt/teachers/readanddiscover/intro/ord3_6teachershandbookintro.pdf

23

and other great pieces. The series is useful to promote reading and other language skills, but

also to teach the learner moral values.6 (“Teacher´s Handbook: Level 1-5 (Classic Tales”)

Another publisher; Cambridge University Press offers graded readers which are divided into

seven levels from Starter to Advanced. A number of different types of readers are provided.

For example, Readers for Teens, Cambridge Storybooks and Cambridge Experience Radars.

If you are interested, see: http://www.cambridge.org/us/cambridgeenglish/catalog/readers/

If you are interested in Penguin Reader Series, see: http://www.penguinreaders.com/

For information about Macmillan Readers, see: http://www.macmillanreaders.com/

3 The process of simplification

The very first thing, one needs to bear in mind, is that the readers should be significantly

shorter than the original book. As mentioned in the previous chapters, ESL learners read

slowly compared to native speakers. As a result, they need a huge amount of time to deal with

a text of the original length. Shortening the text should motivate the learner to continue

reading and to choose another book when they finish reading the first one.

However, there are other changes, which need to be done, namely the simplification of

grammatical structures, lexical units and syntax.

In order to analyse the changes, we will go through a number of parts of the original work as

well as the simplified version. Both parts will be examined and discussed below.

3.1 Syntax and grammar

Once there were four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. They lived in London with their

parents but they had to go to a professor to the countryside because London was bombarded.

(simplified version p.1)

ONCE there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This story is

about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war

6 For more information see:

http://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/elt/teachers/classictales2nded/teachershandbook/teachershandbooklevels1

5.pdf

24

because of the air-raids. They were sent to the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart of the

country, ten miles from the nearest railway station and two miles from the nearest post office.

(original version p. 1)

As you can see, the personal pronoun “whose” in the very first sentence is omitted. The

second sentence in the original version is very complex. I decided to paraphrase the second

sentence bearing in mind these keywords: change of place and war. I used the word “have to

go to,” instead “of were send to” because I wanted to avoid using passive voice. The passive

voice was used at the very end of the sentence. ”…because London was bombarded.” As the

use of the passive might cause some problems with understanding, I decided to put a picture

here. The word “bombard” itself should be easy for the Czech learners since the same word is

used in the Czech language as well. In addition, basic conjunctions were used to connect the

sentences and particular sentence elements, namely but and because.

Lucy was walking through the wood when she saw some light. She wanted to know what it is, so she

went there. It was a lamp-post. ´Lamp in the middle of the wood? It is strange.´ thought Lucy.

(simplified version p. 4)

She began to walk forward, crunch-crunch over the snow and through the wood towards the other

light. In about ten minutes she reached it and found it was a lamp-post. As she stood looking at it,

wondering why there was a lamp-post in the middle of a wood and wondering what to do next,…

(original version p. 5)

I used the preposition “when” as you can see in this extract. I also used the preposition “after”

a few times (p. 1, 3, 5, 12,…) As for the coordinators, I very often used “and, or, but, so, and

then,” The example above (simplified version p. 4) demonstrate one prominent feature of the

simplified reader. In comparison to the original, simplified reader relies more on direct speech

acts. The reason is obvious. When using a direct speech act, one can easily express the ideas,

which otherwise need to be expressed by more complex structures. As a result, there are nine

examples of direct thoughts and a great number of direct speeches.

I was also thinking about the use of capital letters. The creatures e.g. the faun, the witch,

dryads are all written with the capital letter in the original work. Also, the professor referring

to the book character is written with the capital letter. I was not sure if I should make a

change, taking into the consideration that a number of students learn German as the second

25

foreign language, where all the nouns are written with capital letters. I was afraid to confuse

them. Nevertheless, Czech learners study English from the third grade. Thus, their experience

with the language is long enough to know that common nouns are normally written with a

small initial letter in English.

In the original version, the phrase “to explore in the house” is used. I decided to include the

phrase, which is more frequent “to explore the house”

Also, I had to decide whether to change the phrase “What are you? said the Queen? “

(simplified version p. 7, 10) On one hand, the pupils and maybe even teachers could consider

it a grammatical mistake, however, it is used in the original version on purpose. It suggests

that the creatures were just subjects for the Witch/Queen. By contrast, the faun is written with

the capital letter, which underlines his importance. This particular detail demonstrates

Queen’s character. Additionally, I believe that the irregularities can help learners to

understand that a language is not similar to maths, where the rules are taken for grounded. To

put it another way, language is a tool, with which one can experiment or play.

Interestingly, an author of the graded reader does not have to focus on simplifying the text

only. Some changes can speed the action, or to create livelier and more dramatic atmosphere

by writing extremely short and possibly also unfinished sentences. Compare:

Her eyes were full of anger. She raised her wand7… She wanted to do something terrible to him.

Edmund was sure8 . But he didn´t move. He wasn´t able to. (Simplified version p. 11)

As she spoke these words she rose from her seat and looked Edmund full in the face, her eyes

flaming; at the same moment, she raised her wand. Edmund felt sure that she was going to do

something dreadful but he seemed unable to move. Then, just as he gave himself up for lost, she

appeared to change her mind. (original version p. 14)

7 wand /wɒnd/ – the thing a witch can do magic with.

8 sure /ʃɔːr/100%

26

3.2 Glossary

As written in the introduction to the reader, some words are written in bold and some in

italics. The learners are supposed to either guess the meaning of the words written in bold or

to find the meaning using a dictionary. Those items appear a few times within the reader so

that the learner was able to recall them and actively or at least passively use them.

By, numerous vocabulary items are explained through pictures integrated into the reader.

There are numerous pictures above which a text box is inserted. In the box, you can find the

expression illustrated by the picture as well as the pronunciation. Also, it was occasionally

possible to refer to more than one lexical item within one picture. For this purpose, the

callouts inserted around the picture were used. The pictures are integrated within the text.

Thus, they serve both as a picture dictionary and as illustrations.

Picture 2

Picture 1

Picture 3

Picture 4

27

As you can see, some of the expressions were difficult, which is why the pictures were added.

The pupils are unlikely to understand the word sledge, reindeer or suit of armour. I also

decided to include pictures which serve more as a book illustration than a dictionary e.g.

Picture 3.

I found the inspiration in German Easy Readers. As they are old, there is no reference to

CEFR. As a result, they are relatively complicated in terms of grammar. Nevertheless, they

use the pictures very effectively. First, their pictures are complex. Thus, a number of

vocabulary items can be explained through them. 9

Generally, there are several possible ways to help the learner with an unknown word. As

mentioned above it is possible to use pictures. Another option is to use synonyms. Among the

synonyms used in the reader are: to rush into meaning to go quickly, go fast; to reply meaning

to answer, a tale meaning a story; to shut (the door)meaning to close the door.

It is also possible to use symbols e.g. surely=100= probably=75%. Giving a definition or

description is a frequently used method. The easiest way to find a definition is to use a

dictionary. I personally worked primarily with Oxford Online Dictionaries and with

Cambridge Online Dictionaries.

3.3 Vocabulary selection

The selection of the vocabulary items, which need to be explained through the pictures or

footnotes, were based partly on the reference to CEFR and partly on my intuitive sense, for it

is impossible to search for every individual word in the dictionary to find out the appropriate

level. I also asked one eight-grader to read the text and to report on, what had been too

difficult for her. With this in mind, I made some additional changes.

9 See: K stner, Erich. Mein Onkel Franz: Auszug aus dem Erinnerungsbuch "Als ich ein kleiner Junge war". and

Emil und die Detektive retold by: H.E. Jensen

28

Regarding italicised item, table 2 refers to vocabulary items used in the reader. It includes the

paraphrases which were used in the reader and the level of the explained or paraphrased

expressions.

Table 2: Vocabulary Cues

Level Lexical item Paraphrase/demonstration

B1 silly not very clever

A2 sure 100%

B2 to rush go quickly, go fast

B1 frightened afraid

B1 to reply to answer

B2 a tale a story

B2 to hand over sth. or to hand over sb. to take sb. to someone

A2 to shout to speak very loudly

B2 to make up a story to tell a story. But the story is not true or

real

A2 to shut (the door) to close

Not

defined

Your Majesty the title used when you talk to a queen

B2 to ruin to destroy, everything can go wrong.

(“English Vocabulary Profile and Cambridge Advanced Learner´s Dictionary Online”)

I used footnotes to refer to synonyms symbols, and paraphrases. The use of footnotes has one

big advantage. When you are reading the text from the screen, you do not need to go to the

bottom of the page to find the reference. You just need to stay with the mouse pointer at the

place where expressions with the script number appear and you will see the textbox with the

definition or paraphrase above.

Similarly, the lexical items represented by pictures or referred to in the picture contain variety

of different expressions e.g. nouns connected with everyday life, (a chair, snow, wood, a

sledge, and other things) animals, (goose, badger, goat) nouns specifically used in the story (a

faun, a witch, a wand, a dwarf, dryad) expressions connected with emotions (angry,

embarrassing, to cry, to laugh) and other vocabulary items.

29

The above-mentioned examples appear in the original text, and the role of the clues is to make

it clear what the terms mean. Nevertheless, it is difficult to create a graded reader for Czech

primary schools, since the language level defers from pupil to pupil. There are nine-graders

who are not able to write a simple sentence in English. On the other hand, some pupils

attending a primary school could take a maturity exam.

Let us turn to the vocabulary items which defers from the original version, in other words,

which were simplified or changed for the learning and teaching purposes.

These changes can be demonstrated through changing the titles of the chapters. Chapter two is

called: What Lucy Found There. In the retold version it is named: Meet Mr. Tumnus.

Obviously, even the original title is simple and understandable; however, since the title of the

chapter is the first thing, which draws the learner´s attention, I decided to put there the phrase

above, as it is a very practical and commonly used one. Similarly, chapter four was renamed

to Magic Chocolate. There were two possibilities to deal with the title. I could have inserted

the footnotes explaining that Turkish Delight (the original title) is a special kind of sweet, or I

could have changed the expression. I decided for the second options, as I believe that it is

better when the reader has a very concrete image of what the title means.

Talking of the fifth chapter, it was renamed because the title I created is in my opinion, more

“striking” and it should immediately draw the attention of the reader.

I passed below two extracts containing both original and retold version. The purpose is to

illustrate the changes in terms of vocabulary choice.

It was a clean cave with a carpet on the floor and with two little chairs. Lucy has never been in a

nicer place. There were also a table, a bookshelf with many books and other things. (Simplified

version p. 5)

Lucy thought she had never been in a nicer place. It was a little, dry, clean cave of reddish stone with

a carpet on the floor and two little chairs ("one for me and one for a friend," said Mr Tumnus) and a

table and a dresser and a mantelpiece over the fire and above that a picture of an old Faun with a grey

beard. In one corner there was a door which Lucy thought must lead to Mr Tumnus's bedroom, and

on one wall was a shelf full of books. Lucy looked at these while he was setting out the tea things.

They had titles like The Life and Letters of Silenus or Nymphs and Their Ways or Men, Monks and

Gamekeepers; a Study in Popular Legend or Is Man a Myth? (original version p. 6)

30

You may notice that the original description is very extensive compared to the retold one.

The items which appear in the text are commonly used in everyday life. Most of the original

passage is omitted in order to shorten the text. There are expressions, which would probably

cause problems to learners. For example, a dresser, a mantelpiece, a monk, nevertheless most

of the lexis can be easily recognised by an A2 learner.

And who is more reliable? Edmund or Lucy? I mean, who is more truthful? Lucy or Edmund?´ asked

the professor (simplified version p. 15)

"That is a point," said the Professor, "which certainly deserves consideration; very careful

consideration. For instance—if you will excuse me for asking the question—does your experience

lead you to regard your brother or your sister as the more reliable? I mean, which is the more

truthful?"(original version chapter 5 p.20.)

The very complex and complicated passage were reduced to two simple sentences. The way

the professor speaks in the books suggests that he is well-educated and thus, uses different

expressions and structures than we would expect from a common conversation. However, this

feature is not presented in the retold version, as it was reduced for the educational purposes.

“…Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tumnus." "I am very pleased to meet you, Mr

Tumnus," said Lucy. (original version chapter 2 p.5.

Oh, nice to meet you Lucy´ said the faun. My name is Tumnus.´

´Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Tumnus.´ said Lucy. (simplified version p.4)

The phrase “allow me to introduce myself” sounds elevated. The learners at the A 2 level are

hardly capable of recognising such language differences as “let me introduce myself” and

“allow me to introduce myself”. To make it easier and even more useful for them, I used a

commonly used phrase nice to meet you, which is repeated by Susan as well, so that the

learners can learn it. I added the phrase “See you soon!” to the reader (p.13) since it is in my

opinion more useful lexical item expressing greeting for A2 learners than waving which

appears in the original version.

31

As for the other simplified vocabulary, I decided to use very sorry instead of I apologize, in

the situation when Edmund was talking to the Queen. The expression “sorry” is very common

one and combined with “very” added intensity and formality to the expression. In the chapter

one the expression “air rides” was substituted for bombarded and other changes in terms of

vocabulary were made.

3.4 Vocabulary exercise and reading comprehension

The vocabulary test in the reader consists of four matching exercises. The first three are

connected with feelings, animals and things. Learners should match the word with the correct

pictures. Since reading is connected rather with the passive vocabulary I decided to test the

passive vocabulary items. The third matching exercise contains verbs and the learners should

find the Czech equivalent to an English expression. There are also two pictures with the

callouts. The learners are supposed either to fill in the callouts with word from the box or to

add appropriate letters to create an appropriate vocabulary item. (Read, 2006) See below

If you are interested in another vocabulary types see the reader in Appendices.

Reading comprehension tasks are based on a number of types of exercises. Firstly, there are

multiple choice questions with one or more possible answers. Secondly, the true-false

statements are used. In order to support their decision, the pupils are asked to copy the

relevant part of the text, where the answer can be found. In the third type of exercises, the

learners have to decide, for whom the statement is true (Charles 2005).

Picture 6

Picture 5

32

For the illustration, one multiple choice question and two true x false statements are passed

below.

Choose the correct answer. More correct answers possible.

In the Professor´s house and in the surroundings there is /are

a. a radio

b. a musical instrument

c. a lot of animals

d. a magical piece of furniture

e. things made of iron, wood and gold

Chapter 2: Meet Mr. Tumnus

Decide whether the statements are true or false. Copy the sentence from the text that supports your

choice.

Lucy was the only Child that Mr. Tumnus has met so far T x F ............................................

.......................................................................................................................................................

(simplified version p. 19)

All reading comprehension parts can be found in the reader under the title Reading

Comprehension.

3.5 Discussing morality as part of the reader

3.5.1 Secondary sources: Chronicles of Narnia

Contemporary literature and even fiction for children stress moral ambiguity and the difficulty

of distinguishing between good and evil. On the contrary, C. S. Lewis believes that there is a

broad consensus among religious traditions about basic good and bad deeds, about the value

of courage, honesty and compassion. He states that morality is not based on understanding

what is right and wrong, but the actual choices that a person takes. The character of a person

is proved especially in situations when the right decision is the difficult or the dangerous one.

In the world of Narnia, all the heroes are faced with such choices and the reader can learn

along with them. (Downing, 2008, p. 91)

33

Xinjie (2010, p. 1) argues that the characters of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the

Witch and the Wardrobe represent several different values. Lucy and Peter embody

forgiveness, Mr. Beaver, Peter and Edmund are great warriors symbolising courage, while

Aslan, Edmund and Lucy promulgate the spirit of self-sacrifice.

Mr. Tumnus is a kind, light-hearted creature. However, he is on the side of the White Witch at

the very beginning. In other words, he joined the wrong side. Firstly, he intended to hand

Lucy over to the White Witch as he was supposed to. Getting to know Lucy, he decided to do

a complete opposite. He helped Lucy to escape. The book depicted the dilemma. The Faun

said Lucy that she couldn´t go. In the original version the expression “it´s no good now”

suggests the very similar point. At first, he really intended to do the wrong thing. Suddenly,

he started crying and Lucy tried to comfort him, putting his arms round him and giving him

her handkerchief. We can clearly see how regretful he was. The book also suggests that Mr.

Tumnus may have worked for the witch because he was afraid of her. It is clearly stated in the

book that helping Lucy was risky. (The original version gives a more detailed description of

his possible punishment, however, even in the simplified version it is clearly stated that he

could be turned into stone. Despite the risk, he decided to help Lucy. He also asked Lucy to

forgive him. Lucy not only forgave him, but also allowed him to have her handkerchief; the

symbol of friendship. (Bell et al., 2005 p. 21)

In our project, we were interested in the view of the learners of Mr Tumnus, namely whether

they consider him good or evil and why. We examined what aspect had been taken into

account by learners when judging the case.

3.5.2 Good against evil

Nietzsche (1907) argues that there is no universal morality. He claims that moral systems

were created by philosophers who wanted to justify their own actions and prejudices.

According to Nietzsche, there is no universal morality since morality always depends on a

cultural background. He distinguishes between the morality of masters or those who has

power and the morality of slaves or simply the weak. Power, strength, achievements and

freedom are valued by “masters” and sympathy, charity, forgiveness, and humility are

attributed to the weak. He also stresses that every person is driven by the will to power.

34

Although Nietzsche´s philosophy is in a strong contradiction to the beliefs or philosophy of C.

S. Lewis, we can see that the will to power plays an important role in The Chronicles of

Narnia. Not only the White Witch but also Edmund desires to have power over the others. It

is also one of the reasons why Edmund betrayed the others and joined the White Witch.

As for the evil, Gaita (as cited in Svendsen and Pierce, 2010, pp. 82-84) distinguishes between

evil done and the evil suffered. He claims that evil can be caused by nature or accident. An

example can be a car accident or a man hit by a lightning. By contrast, human beings are

capable of doing good or evil intentionally. To put it another way, they are able to make

themselves and others happy or unhappy on purpose. Similarly, Leibniz differentiates

physical, metaphysical and moral evil. To give examples, metaphysical evil is caused by

world’s imperfection, physical or natural evil is suffering and moral evil is a sin. David

Griffin (1991) suggests that the main difference between natural and moral evil is in the fact

that moral evil is done deliberately whereas natural evil is done by accident.

In our project, we try to investigate how teenagers understand the term good and evil. They

were supposed to judge the fictional characters and talk about reasons for their actions. In

some cases there is evidence in the text providing them with possible reasons; however, in

some cases, they had to speculate. Doing this, we intended to explore if it is useful and

effective to combine teaching reading in a second language with the discussion about moral

values.

Before carrying out the project, it is essential to understand the targeted group. Therefore, the

next chapter focuses on psychological aspects of puberty, since the participants of the project

were teenagers attending either eighth or ninth form. Thus, their age is likely to be from 13 to

16.

35

4 Cognitive and moral development

4.1 Puberty

“Puberty or adolescence is a term used to cover the unique human period that falls between

childhood and adulthood. Biologically, this encompasses the timing of the growth spurt, sexual

maturation, and the completion of physical development.” (Lewis at al., 2016 p. 82)

It can be also defined as the process of transformation from a dependent child into an independent

adult (Bancroft and Reinisch, 1990, p. 8).

The term adolescence is used to describe complex and very often “stormy” period of life from

the age of 11 to the late teens. In comparison to other societies, there is usually no ceremony

to separate the childhood between adulthood in the Euro-American culture (Lindzey et. al.,

1988, pp. 480-481). It may cause problems as teens may feel confused about who they

actually are and what they are supposed to do.

The period brings significant changes. Firstly, the child is physically changed into an adult.

Boys and girls become heavier and grow taller. Secondly, the sexual behaviour of an

adolescent can now be observed due to hormones. They start to be attracted to the opposite

gender and begin to date. Sexuality is an interesting topic for teenagers, however, one needs

to be sensitive when discussing it, taking into account possible misinterpretations and

problems which one can cause (Lindzey et al., 1988, p. 485).

Regarding cognitive development, the ability to think abstractly and to create hypothesis is

developed. The teenagers are not satisfied with simple solutions. They are able to consider

multiple dimensions of a problem. (Lindzey et al., 1988, p. 472)

Biological and cognitive changes often lead the adolescents to search for their identity (Eccles

et al. 2004). Also, Lindzey et al. (1988) stress the importance of finding one´s identity in

puberty (pp. 485-486). According to the Ericson, the t teenager should deal with the question

at the age of 12-18. At this stage, the young should ask themselves questions as for instance:

Who am I? Who I want to be? What do I want to do? To answer these question, they need to

36

realise in which values they believe (in Linzdzey et al., 1988, pp. 485-486) and (in Sdorow,

1998, pp. 132-133).

We need to point out that the pubescent does not only change in terms of physical and mental

capacity. They are supposed to play new roles and are often given tasks that they did not have

to do before. Furthermore, they become less dependent on their parents and what is more,

they often have an argument with them. As a result, they turn their attention to their peers.

However, we cannot say that the fact that teenagers spend more time with friends of their own

age is a consequence of a bad relationship with their parents. The role of puberty and later

adolescence is to transform the child into an adult, which results naturally in the desire to

become more independent. With regards to their peers, the teens tend to be less critical of

them. In a number of cases, they are involved in dangerous actions because the other do so as

well, or because they are afraid to lose a good position in the peer-group. Compare: (Sdorow

1998, pp. 133-134) and (Shaffer, 1998, pp.185-189),

4.2 Moral development

There are a number of theories concerning moral development. Thus, there is also a number

of approaches in relation to education, or more precisely upbringing.

Hoffman (1970) suggests that there are three main approaches related to education: The first

one is based on an assumption of inherited goodness. In other words since the child is born

good, there is no need of upbringing. The second theory proposes that children´s mind is a

tabula rasa. Thus, they are neither good nor evil. The third theory is based on a doctrine of

original sin stressing that children are born egocentric and can acquire the sense of moral

obligation through socialisationo only (pp. 261-262).

The advocate of the first approach is Rousseau (1910) claiming that adults´ intervention is not

necessary stating that a child is naturally good and its character is negatively influenced by

adults and by the society in general (p. 49).

37

4.2.1 Children and teens interpreting moral issues

Also, Piaget (1997) examined morality in children stating that moral development is closely

related to given rules. The scholar observed children while they were playing. He interviewed

the players on the subject of rules and discovered that the two-year-old children and the

younger ones did not consider any rules. By contrast, the children between two and six were

able to recognise the rules of the game and what is more, the roles were taken for grounded.

However, children of this age were not really able to join the others in a game. To put it

another way, they played on their own rather than cooperating with others. According to

Piaget game is seen as a social activity at the age of 6-10. Young players do not understand

the rules in detail but they want to know them and they observe the others closely in order to

learn them. If there is a problem of interpretation of a rule, they tend to make a compromise.

Eleven-to-twelve-year-old children spend a long time creating the list of rules, in order to

cover all the possible options. As the children are now able to think abstractly they are almost

obsessed with rules and their knowledge of the rules is excellent (pp. 13-100).

Furthermore, Piaget (1977) found that at the age of six or seven the child defines a lie as a

naughty word. Thus, the expressions as for instance “Fool!” or “Fire out!” are considered a

lie by the six- and seven-your- old boys and girls (p. 37).

During an experiment, Peugeot guessed that a student was thirty-nine. Then he asked the

student, how old he is. The student was only thirt-six. Then the scholar turned to a child and

asked him if he had said a lie. The answer was: yes. However, the boy did not consider it a

naughty lie, because no naughty word was used. Similarly, the assumption that two and two

are five was evaluated as a lie by the six-year-old boy (pp. 136-137) Piaget also argues that

although the children are able to distinguish clearly between intentional and unintentional

false answers, they refer to them equally as a lie. In addition, he points out that a chilled can

clearly interpret a lie as an intentionally false statement at the age of ten. (p. 142)

Another interesting area of understanding morality is group punishment. Younger children

believe that if someone did something deserving a punishment, someone has to receive it. If

punishing the concert person is impossible, it is logical to punish the whole class. The older

ones think about the issue more deeply. They take into consideration the fact whether the

group know the child who broke the rules and thus deserves punishment or not. If the group

38

know him or her but decide to protect the guilty one, then they feel that the teacher has the

right to do it, because the group had a choice to decide. However, if the guilty one is unknown

to the group, suffering a whole class punishment is considered unfair (Piaget pp. 225-226).

Regarding punishments, the older children proposed that the punishment should be based on

the “committed crime. Thus, it should serve as compensation. Younger one suggested that the

punishment should be severe in order to be effective. (Vacek, 2008, pp. 14-15)

To sum up, the attitude to moral values and their understanding is related to the age. There are

obviously personal differences in the moral judgment of children; however, we need to bear in

mind that the children and teens see the issue of morality differently than adults. What is

more, every person has been creating a unique set of values during their life. Thus, the role of

the teacher is to initiate the discussion about moral values, helping learners to think about it,

rather than promoting his or her own opinion.

The research concerning the moral development of children was also carried out in the Czech

schools. The aim of the research was to explore whether the morality of children is

“autonomous” or “heteronomous”. To put it another way, the research examined whether the

rules are taken for grounded (HM) or if pupils are able to think about them, about possible

exceptions and about the purpose of the rules. (AM). Similarly, it investigated whether the

rules are unchangeable (HM) or changeable after the previous agreement (AM).10

The

children were given short stories, similar to those used by Piaget. The researched proved a

strong correlation between age and the stage of moral development. There were 55% pupils

whose answerers were put into the category homogenous morality, in comparison to fifth-

grade children with 20% of heterogeneous morality. As for the gender, autonomous answers

appeared in the products written by the boys in 25% of the test compared with 7% of the girls.

The reason can be that girls are usually encouraged to be well-behaved and to obey the adults.

By contrast, boys who rebel against rules are more likely to be tolerated (Vacek, 2008, p. 18).

10

For more characteristics see: Vacek, 2008, p17

39

4.2.2 Encouraging moral development

Kohlberg (1963) is a prominent psychologist well-known for his theory of stages of moral

development. He distinguishes three main stages of moral development, namely pre-

conventional, conventional, and post-conventional. However, the stages previously mentioned

can be further divided into two sub- categories (pp. 11-33)

The first phase is oriented towards obedience and punishment. The reason, why to follow the

rules is to avoid the punishment. The individuals are egocentric. Thus they concentrate on the

direct consequences of their actions on themselves. The more they are punished, the worse the

deed is. Applying this logic, we can say that even a person who did nothing wrong but was

punished is evil. (Kohlberg, 1963, pp. 11-33) and (Vacek, 2008, p. 27)

The second stage is self-interest driven. At the second stage, the person clearly recognises that

there is more than one interest. In comparison to the previous phase, the individuals try to

fulfil their own needs and follow their own interests. They are able to help others, however,

they always think about what they can gain if they do it. (Kohlberg pp. 11-33) and (Vacek,

2008 p. 27)

Conventional phase is typical of adolescent and adult. Thus, it is most relevant for our project;

however, the development can stop at any stage. (Vacek, 2008, p. 27)

In stage three (good intentions as determined by social consensus) the emphasis is put on the

confrontation with the social standards. The people now desire to gain the respect of others

and they are sensitive to approval or disapproval from others. In other words, people try to

meet the expectation of others or of the society. (Kohlberg pp. 11-33) and (Vacek, 2008, p.

28)

Stage four ((authority and social order obedience driven) can be characterised by following

the rules and social conventions. There is an assumption that the law must be obeyed as it

brings the order to the society. Moral rezoning is beyond the level of individual needs and

interests. (Kohlberg pp. 11-33) and (Vacek p.28)

40

Post-conceptional level work with the thesis that the low do not have to be always good and

frequently cannot cover all the possible situations. Thus, there are situations, when a person

has the right to break it. It is based on the argument that a number of principles (e.g. freedom,

human rights and right to live) are more important than low and social values (Kohlberg pp.

11-33) and (Vacek p.29)

In stage five (social contract driven) people are aware of the fact that rules are changeable and

should be designed to meet the greatest good of the greatest number of the people. Low is

seen as a social construct. As for the people who did not promote general welfare they need to

be changed for the good of the society (Kohlberg pp. 11-33) and (Vacek p.29).

In Stage six (universal ethical principles driven) people stress the value of universal ethic

principles stating that the law must be grounded in justice in order to be valid. Furthermore,

the person has a duty to disobey an unjust law, if it did not respect those universal ethic

principles (Kohlberg pp. 11-33) and (Vacek p.29).

Regarding the targeted group of the research, the boys and girls at the age of thirteen and

fourteen usually reached the stage three or four on the Kohlberg´s test. (Vacek p. 31)

Kohlberg used short stories, presenting moral dilemmas in order to investigate the stage of

moral development. As this linked to the purpose of the our project and more importantly to

the reader created as a main task of the thesis, a number of text will be passed below.

Dilemma I

“Joe is a fourteen-year-old boy who wanted to go to camp very much. His father promised him he

could go if he saved up the money for it himself. So Joe worked hard at his paper route and saved up

the forty dollars it cost to go to camp, and a little more besides. But just before camp was going to

start, his father changed his mind. Some of his friends decided to go on a special fishing trip, and

Joe's father was short of the money it would cost. So he told Joe to give him the money he had saved

from the paper route. Joe didn't want to give up going to camp, so he thinks of refusing to give his

father the money.

1. Should Joe refuse to give his father the money? Why or why not?

2. Does the father have the right to tell Joe to give him the money? Why or why not?

3. Does giving the money have anything to do with being a good son? Why or why not?

4. Is the fact that Joe earned the money himself important in this situation? Why or why not?

41

5. The father promised Joe he could go to camp if he earned the money. Is the fact that the father

promised the most important thing in the situation? 5a. Why or why not?...” (“Kohlberg

Dilemmas”)

The text above deals with relationships within a family. The important question is if the

father has the right to ask his son for money. Similar question is also in the retold

version. The learners should discuss who has the right to give them orders. There is a

question: “Did Susan have the right to tell him what to do”? in the reader. This question

should lead to the discussion about the authority. The question is highly relevant to the

teenagers as they frequently challenge adults and their authority. The pupils also

explored the concepts of good and evil which is tackled in the first dilemma as well. Are

you good if you do what you are supposed to? What does it mean to be good or evil? The

questions appear in the dilemma above as well as in the reader.

Dilemma II

“In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one

drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist

in the same town had recently discovered. the drug was expensive to make, but the

druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $400 for

the radium and charged $4,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's

husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money and tried every

legal means, but he could only get together about $2,000, which is half of what it

cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying, and asked him to sell it cheaper or

let him pay later. But the druggist said, "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to

make money from if." So, having tried every legal means, Heinz gets desperate and

considers breaking into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife.

1. Should Heinz steal the drug? Why or why not?

2. Is it actually right or wrong for him to steal the drug? Why is it right or wrong?

3. Does Heinz have a duty or obligation to steal the drug? Why or why not?

4. If Heinz doesn't love his wife, should he steal the drug for her? Does it make a

difference in what Heinz should do whether or not he loves his wife? Why or why

not?

5. Suppose the person dying is not his wife but a stranger. Should Heinz steal the

drug for the stranger? Why or why not?...“ (“Kohlberg Dilemmas”)

Mr. Tumnus also has to face the dilemma whether to take Lucy to the Witch or take risk

that he might be punished. Similarly, the man appearing in the dilemma II. has to decide

42

if he should steal the drug and face a risk of being arrested. The fear is a dominant

aspects of both dilemmas. In the project we investigate if the pupils are able to consider

fear as one of the aspects why Mr Tumnus worked for the Witch.

Vacek (2008) suggests that regular participation on the discussions concerning moral

values leads to moral development. The participated students and pupils reach a higher

level of moral development. Thus, the rule of pedagogy in developing pupils´ and

students´ moral development can be significant (p. 33). With this in mind, we turn to our

project, which deals with similar issues.

43

Experimental Part

5 The Purpose

The aim of the project is to investigate, whether the reader can be used to initiate the

discussion about moral values. In addition, it examines learners´ ability to find a connection

between fictional reality described in the reader and the real life experiences and events. It

explores the reading skills of the learners in terms of deeper text analysis and text

interpretation.

6 The profile of the interviewed teacher

The teacher who participated in the project and who was interviewed does not have a long

teaching experience. She has been teaching English for one year and she has been studying a

Master Degree program at the Faculty of Education at the same time. She spent some time in

a Christian Community, which aim is to help people from any kind of addiction. Also, she is a

Christian, which is highly relevant to the simplified book as the book offers several parallels

and allusions to the Bible, which she was able to explain or help the learners to find. Also, she

seemed to be enthusiastic about discussing moral values and about promoting critical

thinking.

As for the other teacher, who worked with a smaller group, she has a long teaching experience

(approximately 10 years). Nevertheless, she did not work with graded readers in the

classroom before she was asked to work with the reader and to lead a discussion. (see The

methods)

7 Participants

The reader was designed for A2 learners based on CEFR, more precisely for pupils attending

Czech primary schools. The book is suitable for young pupils from ten to sixteen.

Nevertheless, as suggested above, they have to reach a certain level of English proficiency.

44

As for the learners who participated in the project, we need to point out that they were of a

different form. First group consisted of five eighth-graders chosen by the teacher.

Second group was significantly larger. There are 15 pupils in the class; 12 girls and 3 boys.

Girls are rather talkative, boys are totally reticent. The class is lively. A number of pupils are

very skilful but there are several weak pupils, too. (Based on the interview with the teacher)

8 The Methods

The reader Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe retold by Jiří Kovář

was created to teach reading comprehension and to initiate or stimulate the discussion about

moral values. Therefore, it includes the part called Discussion where moral values are tackled.

There are also questions testing reading comprehension and passive knowledge of vocabulary.

The purpose of the vocabulary practice is to extend passive knowledge of vocabulary. The

comprehension questions should show if the learners understand the text. It is the feedback for

the learners as well as for me as a writer of the reader. Checking the detailed understanding of

the text is important, as it is hard to interpret and think about the text that you did not

understand or in which you were not able to find the relevant part.

Two professional teachers were asked to work with the reader in their lessons. They were

instructed to let the learners read the text and do the tasks in the reader. As for the discussion

part, they were told that the aim of the discussion is to initiate discussion about moral values.

They were told that they can include other questions and topics concerning moral values and

relationships if they like. It was also suggested that the learners should be allowed to speak in

Czech during the discussion if using English had caused difficulties for them.

The teachers were supposed to record the discussion parts, which were later analysed. Due to

technical problems, however, it was impossible to analyse one of the recordings. Therefore,

the teacher was interviewed instead (Patton, 1990).

Furthermore, a number of worksheets regarding vocabulary practice and reading

comprehension were collected and put under analysis (Patton, 1990).

45

With reference to the tasks used, the reader contained a cloze test with multiple choice

questions, with one or more possible answers, true-false statements, where the reader should

quote the test to justify their choice. Also, a matching exercise was included, where the

learners should decide for what characters the statement is true (Alderson, 2005).

Regarding scoring, one point was attributed to a correct answer regarding questions with one

possible answer only. Zero points were given when the answer was incorrect. One question

contradicted of four correct options. Thus the learner gained 0, 25 points for each item. There

was one incorrect answers, which when chosen meant the loss of 0,5 point.

Speaking of the matching exercise, the learners received a point for each correct answer and

zero points when choosing a wrong one or when they did not respond.

When the learners should decide for which character the statement is true, they were given a

point, when they answered correctly if there were two or three option, they gained 0,5 or 0,3

point.

As for the true-false statements, one received a point for the correct answer and one for the

text reference. False response meant zero points.

9 Results of the discussions

During the analysis of the interview, it was discovered that in the discussion the importance of

forgiveness was stressed. It is important that the learners noticed that the life is not black-and-

white and that one has to be cautious when judging others.

We also talked about problems that happened after the communist regime fell. Now the people

can find out who informed on him or her and it still causes heater among people. We agreed

that this need to be stopped, forgiven but not forgotten. (The interview with the teacher)

Also, the pupils mentioned never ending winter as a metaphor for a totalitarian regime. The

pupils together with their teacher discussed a number of addictions e.g. drugs, gambling,

cigarettes and alcohol and their bad effects on the human life. At the same time, the teacher

46

claimed that alcohol and cigarettes did not have to be necessarily harmful. Therefore she did

not tell strictly to the pupils that for instance alcohol was bad. Interestingly, the peers were in

this respect stricter to one another than the teacher.

One boy said he had some experience with alcohol and others told him: “You sometimes drink alcohol? You

should stop it. (The interview with the teacher)

Another topic was the relationships among siblings. The learners thought about what it meant

to be an older or a younger brother or sister. They realized that the strictness could be a sign

of love and care and not only the demonstration of power.

We came to the conclusion that older siblings are often strict with their younger brothers or sisters because they

want to protect them from being embarrassed. (The interview with the teacher)

As for the parallels between the book and real life experience s and events, with the great

support from the teacher the learners discovered the links between bible and the story. After

they found the connection, some of them were able to find similarities between the Lion from

the story and Jesus Christ. ( Aslan is not included in the reader, because he appears later in the

story, however, a number of pupils may have known him from the film based on the book.

In addition, learners suggested that the behaviour of addicted people was very similar to what

Edmund did, when he betrayed his family and joined the White Witch. They associated the

situation in the reader with the historical invest, namely with the situation before Velvet

Revolution. The class came to the conclusion that the life without freedom is similar to life in

prison and that such a life is not life in the true sense of the word. In other words they

promoted the value of freedom. Thus we can see that they are able to think abstractly about

the text.

The value of cooperation was also tackled when the teacher compared the Witch with Satan

claiming that he longed for power and wanted to role instead of serving others.

47

10 Reflection on the task

Table 1 shows that questions in the chapter one were not successfully solved. As a result, I

decided to make a change in the task instructions, in order to make the tasks easier. I added

the instruction saying that there is just one correct answer possible in questions 1-4 and I

stressed that there can be more than one correct answer in the fifth question. (See Reading

comprehension Tasks: Chapter 1 in the reader) The statement in chapter 2 Mr. Tumnus has

met just one child so far T x F was changed into Lucy was the only child that Mr. Tumnus

has met so far. Table 2 demonstrates that the learners identifies the relevant part of the text,

where Mr. Tumnus claims, that he has never met any human. However, they did not consider

the fact that he has met Lucy. See Table 2, question 1)

Also, it was surprising that the learners answered correctly that it was Edmund who changed

his decision; however, they did not know that also the Witch changed her decision, not to kill

or harm Edmund. (See Table 3, question 8)

Taking into consideration that this is one of the most dramatic parts of the reader, I expected

that they would know that the answer would be the witch and just the ones who had reread the

text and paid a really close attention to it, would discover that even Edmund changed his

decision. However, the answers were a complete opposite of what I had expected.

As for the vocabulary exercises, they were easy for the learners. They did the tasks without a

mistake. That is why I copied just one handout into the Appendices. I also found that I did not

include a word referring to the picture of the carpet. Therefore I added it later.

Thinking about the discussion section, there could be more questions and the concept could be

more sophisticated, however, the process of simplification is very demanding and it took me a

long period of time. Furthermore, the work spent on the picture dictionary was difficult, as

well. Also, creating comprehension tasks was completely new for me. Strictly speaking, the

task was very complex and it required quite a long research into many areas, which prevented

me from creating a more complex and sophisticated discussion part.

48

As for the concept of reading comprehension tasks, I had to admit that they focused on

detailed reading. In other words, I did not follow principles described by Krashen (2004, p.2)

and Bamford (1998, pp. 7-8) The authors proposes that you should avoid using

comprehension questions and especially the one focused on reading for detail. Nevertheless, I

need to know that the readers really understand the text, because a number of questions in the

discussion section require proper understanding of the text.

49

Reading Comprehension Tasks

Table 1: Reading Comprehension - Chapter 1

There are four statistics. Table one refers to the comprehension tasks in chapter one. As you can

see, there were three questions. Only the first question was successfully solved by all five

participants. The second question was solved by one pupil out of five. In the third questions there

was more than one correct answer; however, almost all pupils fail to identify the right objects.

Questions:

1. Why did the children leave London?

2. What was Edmund trying to hide?

3. In the Professor´s house, there is /are

Table 2: Reading Comprehension - Chapter 2

Learner

Chapter 2

stat. 1 ref 1 stat. 2 ref 2 stat. 3 ref 3 stat. 4 ref 4 stat. 5 ref 5 stat. 6 ref 6 stat. 7 ref 7 stat. 8 ref 8

learner 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1

learner 2 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1

learner 3 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

learner 4 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1

learner 5 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1

average 0 1 1 1 1 1 0,8 1 0 1 1 1 0,6 0,2 1 1

Learner

Chapter 1

question 1 question 2 question 3

learner 1 1 0 0

learner 2 1 0 0

learner 3 1 1 0

learner 4 1 0 0,5

learner 5 1 0 0

average 1 0,2 0,1

50

Table 2 shows the results of the true-false statements. The pupils were given the task to decide whether the statement is true or not and copy a

part of the relevant sentence as evidence. Stat 1 refers to the statement and ref.1means whether the pupil was able to find the relevant part of the

sentence proving that the statement is right or wrong. The table refers to the following statements:

1. Mr. Tumnus has met just one child so far

2. Mr. Tumnus was not wearing any piece of clothes

3. Lucy got plenty of food. T x F

4. Lucy liked Mr. Tumnus´ cave a lot. T x F

5. Because Mr Tumnus played a very boring music, Lucy wanted to sleep. T x F

6. You cannot celebrate Christmas in Narnia T x F

7. The faun took a lot of children to the White Witch T x F

8. The faun helped Lucy to get home. T x F

You can see that the pupils did not have problems with giving the evidence except for the statement 7. The problem was that the evidence was in

the different chapter than the statements should refer. As you can see, there are two statements with zero points, namely Statement 1 and 5. It is

clear that other statements causing problems were statement 7 and 8. Other statements seemed to be easy for the pupils.

Table 3: Reading Comprehension - Chapter 3 and 4

Learner

Chapter 3 and 4

question 1 question 2 question 3 question 4 question 5 question 6 question 7 question 8

learner 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0,5

learner 2 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0,5

learner 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0,5

learner 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0,5

learner 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0,5

average 1 1 0,6 1 1 1 1 0,5

51

As for the table 3 above, there were just two questions that were not answered correctly by all the pupils, namely question 3 with two incorrect

responses and question eight where the pupils usually found just one character, for whom the statement was true and therefore received just 0,5

points. The rest of the questions seem to be very easy as each pupil solved them without any difficulty. Thus, problematic questions were:

1. “Who was unhappy? .......,” and “Who has changed his or her decision? ......., .......,”

Table 4: Reading Comprehension - Chapter 5

Learner

Chapter 5

stat.1 ref. 1 stat.2 ref. 2 stat.3 ref. 3

learner 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

learner 2 1 1 1 1 1 1

learner 3 1 1 1 1 1 0

learner 4 1 1 1 1 1 1

learner 5 1 1 1 0 1 1

average 1 1 1 0,8 1 0,8

Questions in chapter 5 seem to be extremely easy as there were two incorrect responses out of 30. Table 4 refers to questions:

1. Edmund can be very cruel T x F........................................................

2. Lucy was very sad and angry at the others T x F........................................................

3. The professor thinks Lucy is telling the true. T x F ........................................................

52

11 Conclusion and discussion

The project shows that graded readers can be used to discuss moral issues with the learners.

The learners are also able to work with a literary text, making assumptions and linking the

text with their experience. However, it is essential to point out that dealing with literature is

not easy. Two teachers were given the task to discuss moral values based on the reader and

one of them failed completely in spite of the fact that she has a long teaching experience. It

can lead us to the conclusion that morality is not a topic commonly discussed in schools,

although its importance is stressed by a number of Czech authorities. Střelec (2002), Horká

(1996), Říčan (1995) and other scholars put emphasis on moral education.

The second teacher managed to discuss a number issues with the class, including drug

addiction, tolerance, forgiveness and freedom. Nevertheless, she reported that she discussed

the book with her class two times. The first attempt was not very successful as the pupils were

reluctant to share their ideas. Indeed, discussing moral values can be very difficult since we

deal with personal matters. On the other hand, discussing it can improve the relationship

between the class and their teacher, because it helps them to get to know each other as well as

the relationships within a class. Furthermore, as a number of questions are based on pure

assumptions, it can help weaker students to increase self-confidence. These questions do not

require a deep understanding of the text and the learners do not necessarily speak English,

which could be difficult for a number of them.

On the other hand, a number of tasks require the deep understanding of the text and mastery

of several reading techniques, which can be motivating for the learners who are good at

English.

The project shows that graded readers could be a useful tool, when teaching the so-called

cross-curricular topics concerning self-esteem, self-actualization, cooperation and

competition, moral values, problem-solving and communication. (Červený, 2010)

As for the learners, it was suggested that teenagers need to find their identity ( Lindzey et al.

1988, pp. 485-486). In chapter 4 we also discussed that a pubescent is able to think abstractly

and critically (Lindzey et. al., 1988, pp. 480-481). The participants were supposed to think

critically and they were also asked to think about abstract concepts e.g. good, evil, a symbol

53

of winter. Although a number of learners did not seem to be satisfied with the discussion,

other pupils liked it. (based on the interview with the teacher) Nevertheless, it is important to

stimulate their abstract and critical thinking. I believe that reading and interpreting a graded

reader is a good way to teach critical thinking.

Modern English textbooks usually include tasks in which learners are asked to express their

opinion; however, as graded readers offer more complex text with the sophisticated characters

and more complex plot, they offer more space for the teacher to use them when discussing a

chosen topic.

We also mentioned that one of the teenager´s tasks is to become independent. (Sdorow, 1998,

p. 133). I suggest that using a graded reader can help learners to become less dependent on

their teachers. Firstly, they can learn to choose a graded reader which they would like to read.

Secondly, when they read for pleasure, they learn to use a number of reading strategies

spontaneously and naturally. Furthermore, I created a reader, where vocabulary items are

explained either through the pictures or paraphrased, which can also contribute to learners

independence, because learners may realise that they do not need a teacher, who would

explain them the content.

54

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1

Appendices

Content

Introduction to the reader ...................................................................................... 1

In the Wardrobe ..................................................................................................... 2

Meet Mr. Tumnus .................................................................................................. 5

Edmund in the Wardrobe ...................................................................................... 8

Magic Chocolate .................................................................................................. 11

Is She Crazy? ....................................................................................................... 15

Vocabulary Practice ............................................................................................ 17

Reading Comprehension ..................................................................................... 19

Discussion............................................................................................................ 21

1 Discussion with the class .............................................................................. 25

2 Interview with the teacher ............................................................................. 26

1

Introduction to the reader

This reader is a simplified version of five chapters from the book Chronicles

of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe originally written by C. S.

Lewis. It is intended for the pre-intermediate learners, who should be able to

enjoy reading the text. There are some words written in bold in the reader.

Pupils should either guess the meaning of those words or look them up using

a dictionary. The words written in italics are explained through the images

or through the footnotes. The reader also contains a vocabulary practice section,

reading comprehension tasks and discussion about relationships, good and evil

both in the fictional world of Narnia and in the real one.

2

In the Wardrobe

Once there were four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund

and Lucy. They lived in London with their parents but

they had to go to a Professor to the countryside because

London was bombarded.

The Professor was an old man with

untidy white hair and the children

liked him almost at once. Only in the first evening, when he

met them at the front door, Lucy; the youngest, was a bit afraid

of him. The second youngest Edmund wanted to laugh and he

started blowing his nose to hide it. After they said goodbye to

the Professor, they all went to the girl´s room and they were

chatting a bit.

´This is going to be perfect. That old man let us do anything we like ´said Peter.

´Yeah1, he is very nice´ said Susan.

´Stop talking like that´, Edmund said, because he was tired and he tried to hide

it. (And always when he tried to hide that he was tired he got

angry.)

´Stop talking like what? ´Susan said,´ and anyway, it's time

you were in bed.´

´Don´t try to speak like a mother! You are not. Go to bed

yourself!´ replied Edmund angrily.

´We should all go to bed. The Professor can hear us talking and he will be angry

with us.´ said Lucy

´He can´t hear us´ said Peter, ´it's about ten minutes' walk from here down to the

dining-room. And a lot of doors and stairs in between so nobody can hear us!´

Lucy felt anxious a bit. You know, her house in London was far smaller and this

large house was a big change for her. ˇWhat is it?´ she said suddenly a bit afraid.

1 Yeah /jeə/ yes informal

3

´It´s a bird, silly2.´ said Edmund.

ˇIt´s an owl.´ said Peter. ´This is a

wonderful place for birds. I should go

to bed now. We will explore the

house tomorrow. Did you see the

mountains as we came along? And

the woods? There will be eagles and

hawks.

´

´Badgers!´ said Lucy.

´Foxes!´ said Edmund.

´Rabbits!´ said Susan.

But when next morning

came, it was raining so much that when you looked

out of the window, you could see no mountains and no

woods. The children finished their breakfast with the

Professor and went upstairs to their room.

´Of course it is raining´ said Edmund.

´Stop complaining Ed.´ said Susan. ´I will surely3

clear up in an hour or so. And we can read books or

we can listen to the radio now.´

´It´s boring.´ said Edmund. ´I am going to explore in

the house.´ Everyone liked that idea so they did it.

First, they went into a few bedrooms. It wasn´t very

interesting, but then they came to some more

interesting places. In one room they found a suit of

armour. There were also a lot of old pictures.

They saw an old golden harp, a lot of old big books and a lot of other things in

the next rooms. 2 silly /ˈsɪl.i/ not very clever

3 surelyˈʃɔːli/ 100%

4

Then they looked into a large room. ´Nothing there.´ said

Peter. Really, there

was just one wooden

wardrobe at the back

of the room. All

children rushed into 4another room. All

except Lucy. She

wanted to look inside

the wardrobe.´ It ´s

probably5 locked.´ she

thought. To her surprise, it opened easily so she could

look into the wardrobe. There were long fur coats and there

was nothing Lucy liked more than smell and

feel of fur.

She walked into the wardrobe and left the door

open. She was touching one coat after another

and went further and further into the wardrobe.

Suddenly, she felt something extremely cold.

It was snow. She went further. ´Are those branches of the tree?´

said Lucy surprised. She went through. Then she found out, she was standing in

the middle of the wood at the night-time. It was cold and the snowflakes were

falling on her. She was a bit frightened6 but she was also excited. She looked

back and saw the open door of the wardrobe behind the trees. ´I can always go

back.´ she thought…

4 to rush into / rʌʃ ˈɪntə/ go quickly, go fast

5 probably /prɒb.ə.bli/ 75%

6 frightened /ˈfraɪtnd/ afraid

5

Meet Mr. Tumnus

Lucy was walking through the wood when she saw

some light. She wanted to know what it is, so she

went there. It was a lamp-

post. ´Lamp in the middle

of the wood? It is strange.´

thought Lucy. Then she

saw someone coming to

her. He was only a little

taller than Lucy. Because

it was snowing he carried an umbrella. He looked

like a man but he had legs like a goat and he had a

tail. His hair was black and he was wearing a red scarf round his neck.

´Good evening´ said Lucy.

´Good evening´ replied7 Faun. ´May I ask you a question? Are you a Daughter

of Eve? ´

Lucy didn´t understand the question. ´My name

is Lucy´ she said.

´Excuse me but are you a girl? ´ asked the Faun

again.

´I have never seen any Son of Adam or

Daughter of Eve, any man or woman, boy or

girl.

´Of course I am a girl´ said Lucy

Oh, nice to meet you Lucy´ said the Faun. My

name is Tumnus.´

´Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Tumnus.´ said

Lucy.

´It is very cold here.´ said the Faun. ´May I

7 to reply- /rɪˈplaɪ/ to answer

6

invite you to my house? You can have a tea with me.´

ˇI think I should go home´ said Lucy.

´ It´s near here.´ said the Faun. ´And you can have a toast

and a cake if you like.´

It´s kind of you, but I can´t

stay very long´ said Lucy.

So Lucy and Mr. Tumnus

went hand in hand to the Mr.

Tumnus’s cave. It was a clean

cave with a carpet on the floor

and with two little chairs. Lucy

has never been in a nicer place.

There were also a table, a

bookshelf with many books and other things.

Lucy got a cup of tea, three or four toasts and two pieces of cake. Then the Faun

started to tell her stories about the life in the wood. After he finished the last

tale8, he started playing the flute. When Lucy heard the music, she wanted to cry

and laugh, dance and sleep. Lucy was a long, long time at Mr. Tumnus´.

´I am sorry to stop you Mr. Tumnus, but it is late. I must go home.´ said Lucy.

´You can´t go now.´ said the Faun and put the flute on the table.

´Can´t go? Mr. Tumnus, I have to go home at once. Peter,

Susan and Edmund will be searching for me.´ said Lucy.

Suddenly the Faun started to cry.

´Why are you crying? ´ asked Lucy. Please, don´t cry and

tell me what´s wrong.´

But Mr. Tumnus was crying and crying so Lucy gave him

her handkerchief and put his arms round him.

8 a tale /teɪl/ - story

7

´I am a very bad Faun.´ said Mr. Tumnus

´I don´t think that you´re a bad Faun. I think that you are a very good Faun´ said

Lucy.

´No, no, no! I am the worst9 Faun in the world.´ said Mr. Tumnus

´But what have you done? ´ asked Lucy.

´I have worked for the White Witch.´ said the Faun.

´Who is she? ´ asked Lucy.

She is the queen of all Narnia. Because of her there is

always winter in Narnia. Always winter and never

Christmas.´ said the Faun.

´It´s terrible.´ said Lucy, ´but what have you done for

her?´

´I am a kidnapper for her.´ said the Faun ´When I meet

a child, I will invite it home to my cave, I make it asleep

and take it to the White Which´s castle.´ said the Faun.

´That is very bad, but you are so sorry now that you will never do it again.´ said

Lucy.

´Daughter of Eve, don´t you understand?´ said the Faun.´ It is not something I

´ve done, it is something I am doing right now. You are the child! I´ve

pretended to be a friend; I´ve invited you to my home and gave you tea and

some meal. I wanted you to fall asleep and then I wanted to take you to the

White Witch.´ said the unhappy Faun.

´Oh, but you won´t do it Mr. Tumnus. You mustn’t! ´ said Lucy.

The Faun started to cry again, ´But

the White Witch can find it out. And

then she will turn me into stone. She

has turned many animals into

stones.´

9 1 bad 2 worse 3 the worst

8

´I am sorry, Mr. Tumnus´ said Lucy. ´ But please, let me go home.´

´ I will. I can´t hand you over to10

the White Witch now, when I know you. I will

take you back to the Lamp-post. Can you find a way home from here?´

´I am sure I can.´ said Lucy. They were running as fast as they could. They

didn´t want anyone to see them. At the lamp-post, the Faun asked:

´Can you ever forgive me for what I wanted to do to you?´

´Of course I can.´ said Lucy.

´And can I keep you handkerchief11

?´ said the Found.

´Yes, you can.´ said Lucy.

Then they shook their hands and Lucy ran quickly through the branches. She

saw some light from the open wardrobe, so she went through and she was at

home...

Edmund in the Wardrobe

Lucy ran quickly from the empty room to find her brothers and sister. ‘I am

here. I´ve come back. It´s all right´ shouted 12

Lucy.

´What are you talking about?´ asked Susan.

´Haven´t you been searching for me?´ said Lucy surprised.

´So you have been hiding? said Peter. ´Haven´t you? Poor Lu has been hiding

and nobody cared. Next time you will have to hide longer and we will surely 13

start searching for you.

´But I have been out for hours and hours.´ said Lucy

10

to hand Lucy over the White Witch / tə ˈhænd ˈluːsi ˈəʊvə ðə waɪt wɪʧ / – to take her to the White Witch 11

page 6 12

to shout /ʃaʊt/ to speak very loudly 13

surely- 100%

9

´Don't be stupid, Lucy´ said Susan. ´We've just come out of that room a moment

ago, and you were there then.´

She´s not stupid, she is just making up a story 14

for fun, aren´t you Lu?

´No, Peter I am not.´ It´s a magic wardrobe.

There is a wood, a Faun and a Witch inside.

Come and see!´ Nobody believed that it was

true, but they followed Lucy to the room with

the Wardrobe. Lucy opened the door and

shouted15

. ´Now go and see yourself.´

´Why you goose?´ replied Susan. She looked

inside. It´s a normal wardrobe!´. Then

everybody came in. There was nothing Lucy

was talking about.

´Perfect joke´ said Peter. We half believed you.

´It wasn´t a joke. It was all different a moment ago.´ said Lucy.

Next few days were terrible for Lucy. Her brothers and sister thought she was

lying and they made her very unhappy, especially Edmund. He often laughed at

her and asked:

´Have you found any new country in the cupboard16

?

The days were very nice and they went fishing and bathing. They also climbed

the trees but Lucy didn´t enjoy it because she knew, she was telling the true but

everybody else thought she was a liar.

One day it started to rain again. The children didn´t know what to do.

´What about playing hide-and-seek17

?´ said Lucy.

´Good idea.´ said the others.

14

to make up a story- to tell a story. But the story is not true or real. 15

to shout /ʃaʊt/ to speak very loudly 16

a cupboard /ˈkʌb.əd/ similar to wardrobe but you put things into it not clothes. 17

the game, one have to search for the rest of the group

10

Susan started to count and the other tried to find

the best place to hide. Lucy went to the room with

the wardrobe. No, she didn´t want to hide there. She

just wanted to have a look into it once again. But

then, she heard someone coming so she came in and

closed the door. It was Edmund. He saw Lucy

coming into the wardrobe and he decided to hide

there. He wanted to provoke Lucy by talking about

her unreal country. He came in and shut 18

the door behind himself. He wanted to

find Lucy but she wasn´t inside. Edmund was searching and searching. He

started to shout19

´ Lucy, Lu!´ but nobody answered. Then he saw a light and he

thought it was the light from the room. He wanted to get out of the wardrobe so

he went towards the light. To his surprise, he didn’t come into the room but

stayed in the middle of the wood.

Edmund was cold. He didn´t know where he was and he didn´t like it. Now he

remembered Lucy and how he provoked her with her unreal country. He could

see that the country was totally real. He didn´t want to admit it, but he didn´t

want to stay alone in an unknown country. So he started shouting: ´Lucy, Lu, I

am sorry, you were right.

´She is angry with me.´ he thought.

Edmund didn´t like the place, he almost

decided to return. Suddenly, he heard

small bells far, far away in the wood. He

listened and the sound came nearer and

nearer. Finally, a sledge drawn by two

reindeer came and stopped in front of

Edmund.

There was a fat dwarf 20

on the sledge. He was driving the reindeer. He was

wearing a polar bear´s fur21

and a red hat on his head. Behind him in the middle

of the sledge, a great lady was sitting. She was taller than any woman. She was

also wearing a white fur coat and had a gold crown on her head. She held a gold

18

shut /ʃʌt/ - to close 19

to shout /ʃaʊt/ to speak very loudly 20

Dwarf- /dwɔːf/very small man or woman in fairy tales 21

fur - hair of some animals e.g. a bear a goat… ( see fur coat page 3)

11

wand 22

in her hand. She had a very pretty face white like a snow or paper. But

she was proud 23

and cold.

´What are you?´ asked the Queen.

´I´m, I´m, I´m Edmund.´

´You don´t know how to talk to the Queen?´ she

asked proudly.

´I am very sorry. I didn´t know.´ said Edmund.

´You don´t know the Queen of Narnia?´ she

shouted. ´Very interesting, but I repeat- what are

you?´

´Please, your majesty24

, I don´t know what you

mean. I am at school and it´s holiday now and,

and…´

Magic Chocolate

´BUT what are you? Are you a very tall dwarf25

? Did you cut off your beard?´

´I never had a beard. I am a boy.´ said Edmund.

´A boy! Do you mean, you are a Son of Edam?´

Edmund didn´t say a word.

´I see you are an idiot, so again, are you a human?´

´Yes, Your Majesty´ said Edmund.

22

wand /wɒnd/ – the thing a witch can do magic with. 23

proud /praʊd – to think you are better than other people 24

Your Majesty /jɔː ˈmæʤɪsti/ title used when you talk to a queen 25

Dwarf- /dwɔːf/very small man or woman in fairy tales

12

´And how did you get here?´ asked the Queen again.

´Through the wardrobe.´ said Edmund.

´Wardrobe? What do you mean by that? ´asked the Queen?

´I opened the door and I was here.´ said Edmund frightened.

´Ha, a door to the world of men. I understand. It can ruin 26

everything. But he is

only one. He is not very dangerous for me.´ The Queen was speaking more to

herself than to Edmund. She looked Edmund straight in the eyes. Her eyes were

full of anger. She raised her wand27

… She wanted to do something terrible to

him. Edmund was sure28

. But he didn´t move. He wasn´t able to.

Then she decided not to do that and she started speaking nicely 29

to Edmund:

´My poor child´, said the Queen, come and sit with me on the sledge 30

We will

talk.´

Edmund didn´t like that idea but he was very frightened. He had to. He sat on

the sledge with her and she put her coat round him.

´Would you like a hot drink?´ asked the Queen.

´Yes, please.´ said Edmund.

The Queen took a small bottle and let one drop fall

from it on the snow. There was an explosion and the

snow turned into 31

a cup of tea. The Dwarf 32

gave it to

Edmund with not a very nice smile.

´Would you like something to eat, too? ´ the Queen asked.

´Some chocolate.´ answered Edmund.

26

to ruin /ˈruː.ɪn/ to destroy, everything can go wrong. 27

wand /wɒnd/ – the thing a witch can do magic with. 28

sure /ʃɔːr/100% 29

Nicely /ˈnaɪs.li/ from nice 30

Sledge- page 9 31

See page 7 32

Dwarf- /dwɔːf/ very small man or woman in fairy tales

13

The Queen let one more drop fall on the snow and it turned into a big box full of

chocolate bonbons. The dwarf handed it over 33

to Edmund again and he started

to eat. It was delicious. Edmund has never tasted anything better than this.

While he was eating, the witch asked him many questions. He told her that he

had got one brother and two sisters.

´Lucy has already been to Narnia, ´ he told her while he was eating one piece of

chocolate after another. ´She´s met a Faun.´

´Interesting´, said the Queen. ´You are four, two Sons of Adam and two Sons of

Eve. Is that right? Do you really have just three siblings?

´I told you, just three.´ said Edmund with his mouth full of chocolate. He was

eating and eating and finally, the box was empty. It was magical chocolate. Who

has tasted it, wanted always more and more. Edmond looked hard at the empty

box.

´Ask me: Would you like more chocolate, ask me, ask me, ask!´ He thought. But

she didn´t offer him any more.

´I would like to meet your brother and sisters. Will you bring them to me?´

asked the Queen.

´I will try.´ said Edmund (he was still looking at the empty box)

´My house is a nice place, ´ she said. ´There are rooms full of chocolate. Now I

cannot give you any more bonbons because the magic works only once. In my

house it is different. There I can give you as much as you want. I don´t have my

own children. And you are so clever and handsome34

. I think, I will make you a

prince and later the king of Narnia. But first, you must bring your lovely

siblings to me.´

´Why can´t we go to your house now?´ asked Edmund.

In my house, you can easily forget about your brothers and sisters because there

are so many things to do. And as a king, you will need some help. I will make

your brother a duke and your sisters duchesses. Remember, you have to bring

them to me!

´And where is your house?´ asked Edmund

33

to hand sth. over to sb. /hænd ˈsʌmθɪŋ ˈəʊvə tuː ˈsʌmbədi/ - to gave sth. to sb. 34

handsome /ˈhæn.səm/ attractive about a man; handsome man x pretty woman

14

´It´s easy. Can you see the two hills on the left? Between them, there is my

castle. You can´t miss it. And Edmund you don´t have to tell your siblings about

me. The Faun probably 35

told your sister some terrible stories about me and she

can be afraid of me. But come with your siblings, not alone or I will be angry

with you. Then she asked Edmund to get out of the sledge.

´Can I have one more bonbon?´ asked Edmund.

´Next time,´ said the Queen with a laugh. See you soon!´ said the Queen to

Edmund. Then she turned to the Dwarf and said: ´Drive on!

Edmund was still looking after the sledge when he heard someone calling his

name. Lucy was coming from the other part of the wood.

´Oh Edmund, you are here too. Isn´t it

wonderful and now….´

´Ok´ said Edmund,´ you were right. It is

a magic wardrobe. I am sorry. But

where have you been all the time?

´I had a dinner with Mr. Tumnus, the

Faun a few minutes ago. The White

Witch didn´t do anything to him.´

´The White Witch? Who is she?´

´She is a terrible person. She calls

herself the Queen of Narnia. She can

turn people into stone and other terrible

things. All the good Dwarfs, Dryads and

Animals hate 36

her. And she drives

around on a sledge with her wand 37

in her hand and the crown on her head.´

Edmund was feeling bad. He ate too many sweets and now he found out, his

new friend was probably a dangerous witch. But he still wanted to taste the

magical bonbons again more than anything else.

´We can´t stay here. It´s too cold. Let´s go home.´ said Edmund.

35

probably /prɒb.ə.bli/ 75% 36

hate /heɪt/ x love or like similar to black x white, day x night 37

wand /wɒnd/ – the thing a witch can do magic with.

15

´OK, let´s go!´ said Lucy

Five or six minutes later they were home…

Is She Crazy?

´Come on, said Lucy, let´s find the others. We will tell Peter and Lucy

everything. We can get in all four. It will be a great adventure. Because the

game of hide-and-seek38

was still going, it took Edmund and Lucy some time to

find them. They all met each other in the room with the suit of armour39

.

Lucy was excited: ´Peter Susan. It´s all true. Edmund has seen it too. There is a

country in the wardrobe. We met one another in there. Tell them Edmund! Tell

them!´

´What is that all about Ed. Tell us.´ said Peter.

´ She is right.´ Edmund thought, ´but I can´t admit it. It´s

embarrassing. My little sister is so annoying 40

with her

truth. And, and… Peter, Susan and Lucy will probably be

all on the side of the Fauns, dryads and animals but I am

more on the Queen´s side. It is decided. ´

´Oh, yes, Lucy and I were playing. We ´ve pretended that

all her story about a country was true. Just for fun, of

course.

Poor Lucy gave Edmund just one look and rushed41

out of the room.

Edmund enjoyed all this and went on42

: ´What is wrong with her? She is running

out again. That´s the worst of young children, they are always….´

´Shut up Edmund. You have been making fun of Lucy since she started to talk

about that “magic wardrobe” and now you are playing games about it. You are

hurting her again and again.´ said Peter angrily and went on:

38

38

the game, one have to search for the rest of the group 39

See page 2 40

Annoying /əˈnɔɪɪŋ/ - irritating, making sb. angry a bit 41

to rush / rʌʃ / go quickly, go fast 42

Go on, went on – continue, continued

16

´You like bullying 43

younger and smaller than yourself. We´ve seen that at

school.´

´Stop it at once! We need to find Lucy.´ said Susan

When they found her, she was crying and nothing they said didn´t really help.

I was in Narnia. I had dinner with a Faun. You can tell the Professor or you can

write to mum or anything. You are all beasts44

, beasts, beasts!!!´

Maybe she is mad45

. Said Peter to Susan when Lucy went to bed. We have to tell

the Professor.

Next morning they went to the Professor to talk

to him. They told him the whole story.

´ How do you know´ it´s not all true?´ asked the

Professor seriously.

´It can´t be!´ began Susan. And, and, Edmund

said: ´We were just pretending.´ it can´t be

true.´

´And who is more reliable? Edmund or Lucy? I

mean, who is more truthful? Lucy or Edmund?´ asked the Professor.

´Lucy! Lucy has always been more truthful but…´ Peter and Susan said.

´So she is truthful! Then to call her a liar is a very serious thing.´ said the

Professor.

´We are afraid, she is not lying, We are afraid Lucy is….´ Susan said.

´Mad?´ asked the Professor. She is not mad. She is Ok.´ and went on:

So she can be a liar or she can be mad or she told the true. We know, she is not

mad and doesn´t tell lies. So she probably told you the true. The children

thanked the Professor and left the room.

43

Bully ˈbʊli/ to frighten someone weaker or to make him to give you money or other things 44

Beast /biːst/ large wild animal e.g. wolf, bear, 45

Mad /mæd/ crazy or mentally ill

17

Vocabulary Practice

Match togather (spoj dohromady)

Feelings

afraid/frightened

sad

angry

Animals:

An owl

An eagle

A goat

A badger

A hawk

Name……….

Things:

A wardrobe

A Suit of armour

A carpet

A coat

A chair

18

Match together eg. 1A, 2B, Use capital letters!

1. To hide sth./sb. ….. A. předstírat

2. To explore sth. ….. B. Hledat někoho/něco

3. To pretend sth. ….. C. Zkoumat, prozkoumat, probádat něco.

4. To search for sb. or sth. ….. D. Skrývat

5. To forgive ….. E. smát se

6. To laugh ….. F. dotknout se

7. To kidnap ….. G. odpustit někomu něco

8. To touch ….. H. unést někoho

19

Reading Comprehension

Chapter 1: In the Wardrobe

Choose the correct answer. Once correct answer!

1. Why did the children leave London?

a. They wanted to visit the Professor.

b. They wanted to go to the countryside.

c. It was dangerous and they could be easily killed here.

2. What was Edmund trying to hide?

a. That he was ill and he needed to blow his nose.

b. That he was angry.

c. That he was tired.

Choose the correct answer. More correct answers possible.

3. In the Professor´s house and in the surroundings there is /are

a. a radio

b. a musical instrument

c. a lot of animals

d. a magical piece of furniture

e. things made of iron, wood and gold

Chapter 2: Meet Mr. Tumnus

Decide whether the statements are true or false. Copy the sentence from the text that supports

your choice.

1. Lucy was the only Child that Mr. Tumnus has met so far T x ............................................

.................................................................................................................................................

2. Mr. Tumnus was not wearing any piece of clothes T x F ………………………………….

.................................................................................................................................................

3. Lucy got plenty of food. T x F ……………………………………………………………

.................................................................................................................................................

4. Lucy liked Mr. Tumnus´ cave a lot. T x F ...........................................................................

5. When Mr Tumnus was playing music, Lucy wanted to sleep. T x F ………………………

.......................................................................................................................................................

6. You cannot celebrate Christmas in Narnia T x F ..................................................

20

...............................................................................................................................

7. The Faun took a lot of children to the White Witch T x F .............................

.................................................................................................................................

8. The Faun helped Lucy to get home. T x F .............................................................

.................................................................................................................................

Chapter 3 and 4: Edmund in the Wardrobe and Magic Chocolate

Fill in the gaps with the letters from the box.

1. Who didn´t believe Lucy? ......., ......., .......,

2. Who did some sports? ......., ......., ......., .......,

3. Who was unhappy? .......,

4. Who makes fun of Lucy? .......,

5. Who was sitting on the sledge? ......., ......., .......,

6. Who was wearing something on his or her head? ......., .......,

7. Who has eaten something in Narnia? ......., .......,

8. Who has changed his or her decision? ......., .......,

Chapter 5: Is She Mad?

Decide whether the statements are true or false. Copy the sentence from the text that supports

your choice

1. Edmund can be very cruel T x F

………………………………………………..

2. Lucy was very sad and angry with the others T x F

………………………………..

……………………………………………………………………………

……….

3. The Professor thinks Lucy is telling the true. T x F ……………………….

.................................................................................................................................

Peter, (P) Susan, (S); Edmund, (E); Lucy, (L); White Witch, (W); Dwarf, (D);

21

Discussion

Chapter 1: In the Wardrobe

´Don´t try to speak like a mother! You are not. Go to bed yourself!´ replied Edmund angrily. (p.1)

1. Why was Edmund angry?

2. Did Susan have the right to tell him what to do?

3. What can make you angry?

Chapter 2: Meet Mr. Tumnus

1. Would you describe Mr. Tumnus as good or evil?

2. Why did he work for the White Witch?

3. White Witch made never ending winter and no Christmas. Why endless winter? Why

no Christmas?

Chapter 3-5

1. Describe the White Witch.

2. Why did she turn evil?

3. Why did Edmund want to join her side?

4. What is the rule of magical bonbons in the story?

5. Is there something similar in the real world?

6. Why are some people good?

7. What does it mean to be good?

22

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q3m3o1_500.jpg>.

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23

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24

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Feb. 2017. <http://narnia.wikia.com/wiki/Digory_Kirke>. (p.15)

Design Carpet 8. Digital image. Floor and Carpet. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2017.

<http://www.solib.org/how-to-choose-the-appropriate-design-carpet/>. (p.16)

Links to the online dictionaries and websites used for checking the right

pronunciation:

http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

http://lingorado.com/ipa/

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1 Discussion with the class

Chapter 1: In the Wardrobe

´Don´t try to speak like a mother! You are not. Go to bed yourself!´ replied Edmund angrily.

(p.1)

Why was Edmund angry? He (Edmund) wants to go searching the house but Susan didn´t

want to let him go.

Did Susan have the right to tell him what to do? Lucy was older than Edmund. He should

listen to her

What can make you angry? If we write the test.

Chapter 2: Meet Mr. Tumnus

Would you describe Mr. Tumnus as good or evil?

Mr. Tumnus was good because he helped Lucy.

Why did he work for the White Witch? (Because )White Witch said if you see a man bring

him or her to me.

White Witch made never ending winter and no Christmas. Why endless winter? Why no

Christmas? She likes winter so she made winter everywhere. She likes winter but she not likes

Christmas.

Chapter 3-5

Describe the White Witch. Why did she turn evil? She was bad because she wanted to kill

them.

Why did Edmund want to join her side? She promises to give him sweets

What is the rule of magical bonbons in the story? The queen let one more drop fall on the

snow and it turned into a big box full of chocolate bonbons.

Is there something similar in the real world? No it isn´t .

Why are some people good? They have good parents and feel safe at home.

What does it mean to be good? It means to help to the other people and don´t fight.

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2 Interview with the teacher

Could you describe the class you work with?

I worked with nine-graders. There are 15 pupils in the class; 12 girls and 3 boys. Girls are

rather talkative, boys are totally reticent. The class is lively. A number of pupils are very

skilful but there are several weak pupils, too. So you can find a wide spectrum of people here.

Was the text difficult for the learners in terms of vocabulary or grammar?

It was quite ok. The kids had a problem to guess the vocabulary from the context, so they

often asked me to help them. When a pupil asked me, what the word “hide” meant, another

pupil replied. Schovat se to je přece jasný ( it is clear as a daylight). So they actually helped

each other.

The text itself was interesting for the pupils. They even wanted to watch it. One girl had

already read it and she told me that this version was too easy.

Did she read the original version?

I am not sure if she read the original version, but she read it in English and your text seemed

easy to her. I didn´t ask her if she read the original version, but she is quite good at English,

so she might have been able to do it.

Did the learners struggle with vocabulary and comprehension exercises?

Probably not. They worked together and helped each other. It is, however, true that they

might not have put too much effort into it because it wasn´t marked. Furthermore, they sat

next to each other, so it was difficult to prevent them from cheating.

It was intended to practice rather than test, so it doesn´t matter. Now, we turn to the

discussion. What was the main problem?

When I led a discussion for the second time, I didn´t tell them, they were recorded, because if

they had known it, they would have acted unnaturally and they wouldn´t have been willing to

discuss anything. The pupils are used to working differently. Commonly, they are lectured by

the teacher and then the teacher asks questions and they have to find the concert answer.

“There is no: “What would you do if?” Think about it. You have two minutes for that”. They

27

are used to dealing with close questions, but they are not used to thinking about abstract

issues.

I divided the reading into two parts. Firstly, we worked on the first and the second chapter and

then on the third, fourth and fifth.

At the beginning, the problem was that I didn´t know how they would react. In addition, they

were not willing to speak too much at first. That is why the discussion was rather general. I

asked questions like: What does it remind you? Do you have any idea? And sometimes they

had, and sometimes didn't. And then I asked the pupils if they could find a concrete example

in the text or if they had experienced something similar.

In the second part, concerning third fourth and fifth chapter I gave them more time so that

they could think it through. Then, they were supposed to talk about the questions in pairs. I

thought it would be better to share their ideas with a peer. I supposed that they would have got

more ideas if they had been able to share them with someone else. Furthermore, it is less

stressful to talk to one person than to talk in front of the whole class. After that, there was the

whole class discussion. The pupils expressed their ideas and I wrote them to the white board

and if necessary, I asked additional questions. The points, the pupils made, lead us to the

next questions. The pupils found thinking about life quite interesting. However, some pupils

complained about the questions being too philosophical. They are in puberty and they are too

shy to speak about certain things.

Thinking about puberty I thought that the question of obedience would be interesting

for them as they are now in the “resistance phase”. How would they answer the question

“Does Susan have the right to tell him what to do?”

Referring to ´Stop talking like what? ´Susan said,´ and anyway, it's time you were in bed.´

´Don´t try to speak like a mother! You are not. Go to bed yourself!´ replied Edmund angrily. (p.1)

The pupils said that it depended on who was older. If Edmund was younger he was

dissatisfied with being bossed by Susan.

We came to the conclusion that older siblings are often strict with their younger brothers or

sisters because they want to protect them from being embarrassed. For instance, one girl have

a sister in the seventh form and she sometimes says about her sister that she is stupid, but in

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the lesson, she said that her sister was nice and that she loved her, although she was

sometimes ashamed of her behaviour.

And what about never ending winter and no Christmas?

She is the queen of all Narnia. Because of her there is always winter in Narnia. Always winter and never

Christmas.´ said the Faun (p.6).

We realised that it is the longest night and therefore there is more light. We connected it with

the hope in better future. We concluded that if there were no feast of joy, then there would be

just very long winter and nothing else.

The kids compared it with the totality regime, which is also a long period, during which

common sense and good were “repressed ” and freedom were missing. One girl

mentioned that her family didn´t celebrate Christmas. It´s not because the children don´t want

to, but there was an accident in her family and her parents don´t want to celebrate it.

Talking about Tumnus, you have mentioned that you had discussed the totality as well...

referring the question: Would you describe Mr. Tumnus as good or evil? Why did he work for the White Witch?

a clue: ´But the White Witch can find it out. And then she will turn me into stone. She has turned many animals

into stones.´(p. 7)

It was probably because we spoke about it in connection with the winter. And they

compared the totality with life in prison. The person is still alive but not free. We

discussed that if you have a choice either to inform on your neighbour or your children

will not be able to study and you will lose the job, not everybody is such a hero to deny

it.

We also talked about problems that happened after the communist regime fell. Now the

people can find out who informed on him or her and it still causes heater among people.

We agreed that this needs to be stopped, forgiven but not forgotten.

Did the pupils work independently or was it necessary to lead them?

I helped them a lot. I gave them clues and then they were able to reply. But I didn´t manage

to organise a pure pupil-to-pupil discussion. They were also not very pleased that I wanted to

make a second discussion. They are not used to thinking independently. When one ask them

what they want, they don´t know it. They know that they want a change, but what kind of

change they don´t know. They want me to tell them what exactly will be in the test. But I am

29

not going to do that! They have course books and their notes and I am not willing to dictate

them everything once again. They learnt to memorise the facts, but thinking about a text is the

ability they miss.

In Project ( a course book ) there are tasks that you need to think about more deeply, but

pupils don´t like them.

You have also mentioned that you used the information about the author.

It concerns the questions related to the fourth and fifth chapter. There was a question: How

did the Witch turn evil? And the pupils said, it was not in the text, they didn´t know. So I

asked them to figure it out. And the pupils replied: ´How should we know that?´

Finally, I told them to think about the author, that he was Christian and that there are a lot of

motives taken from the bible. Thus, the Witch could represent Lucifer, who was also beautiful

and full of light but didn´t want to serve others. He wanted to get all the power for himself

wanted to harm others... But it is just an option. You need to think about it Then they realised

why Edmund is called the Son of Adam and came to the conclusion that there was probably

an allusion since the White Witch wanted to kill Edmund immediately after she realised that

he was a human. However, she found out that he has other siblings and she pushed Edmund to

bring them to her. Then they asked if Aslan should represent God. And some of them figure

out that there are similarities between Aslan, who sacrificed for Edmund with Jesus

Christ.

Did they suggest what the magic bonbons could stand for?

We have written points on the board. I compared it with the fruit of knowledge, which looked

beautifully but brought bitterness and expulsion from Eden. Then they came up with the

drugs, starting with the light ones as for instance cigarettes, alcohol saying that they are good

but they can destroy you. Similarly, women, they are pretty but promiscuity leads to

family destruction and ruins the relationships with children. Then we came to drugs and I

asked if they know someone addicted to drugs. Luckily, they don´t. One boy said he had

some experience with alcohol and others told him: “You sometimes drink alcohol? You

should stop it. It is clear that they are afraid of it”. Perhaps even too much. Like saying:” You

shouldn´t drink any alcohol! You should stop it.” It is fine that they see it that way. They are

under eighteen, they shouldn´t drink, but for me, alcohol as such is not bad. Even though I

don´t drink myself. I think that it is important to set the limits. That is why I didn´t want to

tell them that drinking alcohol is wrong, don´ t drink it.

30

They contributed to the discussion quite a lot. They said, they know someone smoking

weed. But the girls fancies sport, they are determined and it was clear they have nothing to

do with it. If I talked about it with another class, it might be a different story. The point is that

there is a majority of girls, those things appearing in the classes, with rebellious boys don´t

appear.

Then I told them that I have a friend, who was able to betray their families due to drugs. But

they didn´t intend to do it. They regretted it, but because for instance, a guy played the

slot machines, he needed money and he wasn´t able to resist it. Finally, he must have

taken a loan, because the temptation was stronger than him. We found a parallel with

Edmund who also betrayed his family and we realised that it normally happens. People are the

slaves of the “bonbons” (drugs)

Is that something you would improve in the reader?

Sometimes the vocabulary explained trough pictures were too simple, and the pupils should

know them. Also, the recording of the text would be great in terms of pronunciation. It would

also be fine to include some more questions.

Ok, that´s it Thank you very much.

31

Discussion Group B (five members)

Chapter 1: In the Wardrobe

´Don´t try to speak like a mother! You are not. Go to bed yourself!´ replied Edmund angrily. (p.1)

Why was Edmund angry? Learner 1: He (Edmund) wants to go searching the house but

Susan didn´t want to let him go.

Does Susan have right to tell him what to do? Learner 2: Lucy was older than Edmund. He

should listen to her

What can make you angry? Learner 3: If we write the test.

Chapter 2: Meet Mr. Tumnus

Would you describe Mr. Tumnus as good or evil? Learner 3: Mr. Tumnus was good

because he helped Lucy.

Why did he work for the White Witch? Learner 5: Because)White Witch said if you see a

man bring him or her to me.

White Witch made never ending winter and no Christmas. Why endless winter? Why no

Christmas? Learner 1: She likes winter so she made winter everywhere. She likes winter but

she not likes Christmas.

Chapter 3-5

Describe the White Witch. Why did she turn evil? She was bad because she wanted to kill

them.

Why did Edmund want to join her side? Learner 2: She promises to give him sweets

What is the rule of magical bonbons in the story? Learner 3: The queen let one more

drop fall on the snow and it turned into a big box full of chocolate bonbons.-----

Is there something similar in the real world? Learner 4: No it isn´t .

Why are some people good? Learner 5: They have good parents and feel safe at home.

What does it mean to be good? Learner 1: It means to help to the other people and don´t

fight.