CHAPTER:03 TEACHING OF PROSE

CHAPTER:03

Teaching of Prose

This Chapter Deals with

Introduction

Meaning of Definition of Prose

Types of Prose

Subject matter of Prose

Characteristics of Prose

Objectives of Teaching Prose

General Objectives of Teaching Prose

Specific Objectives of Teaching Prose

Procedure of Teaching Prose

Conclusion

Introduction: The word prose is derived from the Latin word “proversa oratio” which means straight forward discourse. English prose came into existence in the 14^th century. Elizabethan age is considered is very rich in prose writing. Bacon wrote essay in the 16^th century, which becomes the landmark in the development of prose. Prose and poetry are the two forms of literature. Teaching of prose is an easy affair because it is to be translated into mother tongue. In India classrooms graded text books are followed to develop linguistic competence in English as a second language. There are two type of text books which are available for this purpose. English reader is used for intensive reading and supplementary reader for extensive reading. These books are written according to the structural approach, graded with each lesson illustrating one or two teaching items – vocabulary and structure. The teaching of prose should be intensive as well as extensive for gaining knowledge, giving information, communicate ideas, relate events and for the development of aesthetic sense.

Meaning of Definition of Prose: Prose is an important aspect of literature. It includes essay, drama, novel, composition, and biographies etc. It enriches the vocabulary of the students and develops language skills such as reading, writing, speaking and listening. Prose is for more information and gaining knowledge. It helps the students to grasp the ideas of the writer. The meaning of prose will be clearer by the given following definitions.

“Prose is words in their best order”                                                                             By Colerdge

Prose as “a loose sally of the mind, a irregular indigestion piece, not a regular and orderly performance”             

                                     By Johnson

Prose is “written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure”

                                                             By Oxford American Dictionary

“Prose is a literary medium distinguished from poetry by its greater irregularity and variety of rhythm, its closer correspondence to the pattern of everybody speech, and it’s more detailed and factual definition of idea, object or situation”.                                                    By Webster Dictionary

Types of Prose: Teaching of prose includes two types of lessons -:

·         Detailed prose lesson

·         Non-detailed prose lesson

Detailed prose lesson: Detailed prose lesson is also called intensive reading lesson. In this the text book is read thoroughly, word by word and difficult words, idioms or phrase is explained to the students by which they can able to grasp them firmly.

Non-detailed lesson: Non-detailed prose lesson is also called extensive reading lesson. The main aim of this kind of lesson is giving information and pleasure to the students. In this lesson the teacher need not explain the meaning of each and every word. The students grasp the meaning of the words in the context to the situation in which they are used. This lesson is also considered as rapid reading lesson because it develops rapid reading habits in the students.

Subject matter of Prose

Essay:  Essay may be philosophical, historical, personal or critical. It may be length or short in size. According Oxford English Dictionary, “Prose is a composition of moderate length or any particular subject, or branch of a subject; original implying want of finish but now said of a composition more or less elaborate in style through limited in range”. In the word of Hugh Walker,” there are no subjects, from the stars to the dust heap and from the ameba to man, which may not be dealt in an essay”.

Story:  A story has a plot, character and setting as a novel due to its concise form.

Novel: The term “Novel” is originally meant a “fresh story” but gradually come to signify a story in prose as distinguished form a story in verse, which continued to be called a romance. According to W E. William, a novel is, “a long narration in prose detailing the actions of fictitious people”.

Biography: The biography is an art form which has developed recently. Dryden first used the term biography. He defined it as, ‘the history of particular men’s lives”. The biography is a truthful record of an individual composed as work of art.

Autobiography: It consist the life history of an individual or truthful record of an individual lives which is written by himself/herself.

Composition: Compositions is the expression of thoughts, ideas, feelings, and observations. It is an art of self expression and also considered as the expressive aspect of language. According to Bhatia and Bhatia, “It is the expression of child’s thoughts, his own ideas, feelings and observations. It includes both the process and product of composing. The product may take the shape of a letter, an application, a paragraph, a story, an essay, a description of narration, a poem etc.

Play and Drama; Drama presents fictions or facts in a form that could be acted before an audience but play has a plot, dialogue and an outlook on life as a novel has. It is also performed before an audience.  

Characteristics of Prose: The following are the main characteristics of prose -:

v  Prose is the soul of literature, thoughts on a topic, drama, story, novels, biography, autobiography, narration and explanation of concepts, essay and compositions are the major aspects of prose.

v  Prose is words in their best descriptive order.

v  Prose consist philosophical ideas, social problems, and historical descriptions of events, geographical concepts, and economical conditions of the society.

v  Prose is the best means to preserve human knowledge.

v  Prose is used to develop the cognitive and affective aspects of the students.

v  It develops language skills reading, writing, speaking and listening.

v  It develops the imagination power of the students.

v  The purpose of the literature is best served by teaching of prose.

v  It develops the expressional ability of the students.

v  It enriches the vocabulary of the students.

v  It develops the ability of explaining and helps the students to grasp the ideas of the writer.

v  It helps the students to develop communication skill.

Objectives of Teaching Prose:  The objectives of teaching prose can be divided into two parts -:

·         General objectives.

·         Specific objectives.

General Objectives of Teaching Prose

v  To develop students understandings and comprehension as regards passage.

v  To develop the ability of loud reading of the passage with correct pronunciation, stress, intonation, pause and articulation of voice.

v  To enable the students to understand the passage by silent reading.

v  To enrich learner’s active and passive vocabulary.

v  To make the students interested in enjoying reading and writing.

v  To enables the students to express fluently their ideas, feelings, or thoughts orally as well as in writing.

v  To develop the power of imagination and explanation.

v  To enable them to perceive the knowledge contained in the passage.

v  To develop critical thinking in the students.

v  To develop moral values through teaching of prose.

v  Last but not least, to prepare the students for world citizenship.

Specific Objectives of Teaching Prose: Specific objectives of teaching prose are subject to verification according to the subject matter of the prose lesson, as it may be an essay, story, biography, play, drama, Novel, composition etc. Broadly, the specific objectives of teaching prose are given details -:

Descriptive prose

v  To develop the imagination and fancy of the students.

v  To acquaints the students with the style of the writer.

v  To develop their love for natural objects.

v  To develop their aesthetic sense.

v  To develop the habit of thinking among the students.

Story

v  To impart knowledge of the facts as mentioned in the story.

v  To give moral lesson through the story.

v  To train the students character.

v  To acquaint the students with the style of the story writing.

v  To develop the power of imagination.

v  To develop among the students a habit of story reading.

v  To enable them to compose interesting stories.

v  To provide a suitable channel for the use of surplus energies of the youths.

Essay

v  To make them receive knowledge.

v  To arouse curiosity of the students about the subject of the essay.

v  To acquaint the students with the style of the essay writer.

v  To enable them to arrange ideas in a systematic way.

v  To enable the students to think freely.

v  To enrich the students intellect.

v  To develop the mental capacity of the students

Composition

v  To enable the students to write correct English with reasonable speed.

v  To develop the power of imagination of the students.

v  To enable the students to express their ideas in a logical way.

v  To acquaints the students with the different style of writing composition.

v  To enrich the vocabulary of the students.

v  To develops the knowledge of punctuation marks and their use.

v  To enable the students to recall appropriate words for their appropriate use.

Biography

v  To acquaint the students with the life and deeds of great man.

v  To show them a path of character building.

v  To increase their love of aspiration.

v  To develop the test of the students for reading biographies of famous persons of the world.

v  To inculcate desirable sentiments among the students.

v  To train the students character through the life history of great personality.

v  To develop taste of the students for reading biographies of famous person of their own country and the world.

Play and Drama

v  To teach the students with play way method.

v  To provide them opportunity for self expression.

v  To develop conversational ability of the students.

v  To enable them to play different roles.

v  To build their character.

v  To develop their self confidence.

v  To utilize leisure time.

Procedure of Teaching Prose: The whole teaching learning process is divided into three stages. The first stage is pre-active, second one is inter-active and the third stage is post-active. The pre-active is considered as for preparation, interactive is for presentation and explanation and post active is for application. Different scholars have suggested different procedure and steps for teaching prose lesson. It is absolutely necessary for the teacher to acquaint himself about the correct methodology and procedures for teaching prose lesson. This should be preplanned for making the teaching effective. The following are the steps / procedures/ methodology of teaching prose -:  

                    Step-1: Determining the objectives.

                    Step-2: Preparation.

                    Step-3: presentation.

                    Step-4: Black board writing.

                    Step-5: Recapitulation.

                    Step-6: Assignment & homework.

Step-1: Determining the objectives: The first step for teaching prose is, a teacher has to be clear about the general and specific objectives of teaching prose lesson, which are discussed earlier. After determining the general and specific objectives of teaching prose lesson, then the teacher has to prepare himself for teaching.

Step-2: Preparation: The teacher must be careful and well prepared before hand while presenting the prose lesson. The Indian students find it difficult because it is a foreign language. So, the teachers try to motivate the students to study the lesson. Therefore a teacher has to do something by which he attracts the students to learn. Under this the following steps to be followed -:

Teaching aids: Without using aids not only a teacher can never truly teach but also he unable to make his teaching interesting and effective. Therefore, the teacher should use various material aids like charts, models, map, T.V, radio, chalk, duster, pointer etc in accordance with the kind of the lesson he is going to teach. By using such aids a teacher can easily arouse interest and curiosity of the students.

Previous Knowledge: the new knowledge should be a supplementary part of previous knowledge, what a teacher is going to impart to the students. So, a teacher before imparting new knowledge to the students, he should know and access that how much knowledge students have gained. Previous knowledge testing (PKT) is a process by which a teacher can easily facilitate the teaching learning process.

Introduction: Introduction should be very interesting and it should be based on the previous knowledge of the learners. So the teacher should first ask some questions to test the previous knowledge of the students and then link that to the subject to be taught. The introduction has two purposes -:   

a)      To bring past knowledge into consciousness.

b)      To attract students attention to the new subject.

Statement of Aim: A teacher should be clear in his mind what aim he is going to achieve and at the same time he should acquaint the students about it so that they pay attention to what is expected of them. After asking introductory question, he should declare what he intends to teach. He should ask students to open their book at appropriate page.                    

Step-3: Presentation: Presentation is the main part of a lesson plan. The teacher can divide the lesson into a number of units, so that the students may easily understand the topic. If the lesson is very short, only one unit should be made. The following sub steps should be followed for effective presentation.

Model reading /loud reading by the teacher:

In this step, the teacher should read out his selected passage loudly. Ha should be very much careful about the pronunciation, words, phrases and intonations. His reading must be a model reading as the pupils learn to read through imitation. At the time of reading, the teacher should hold the book in his/her left hand and the students should instruct to listen the passage carefully. While reading, the teacher should not completely absorb himself in the book.  

Pronunciation drill by the students:

Before loud reading there should be pronunciation drill. Selection of words for pronunciation drill should be on the basis of general pronunciation of students. Those words should be selected in which the students feel difficult to pronounce or pronounced wrongly by the students. The words should be written on the blackboard one by one and get drilled. This drill can be done or after the model reading by the teacher.

Loud reading by the students:

After pronunciation drill, the teacher should ask some students to read out the passage loudly. This loud reading is very much helpful to them for clear pronunciation. It helps the students to develop reading ability. The students should be advised the correct posture of reading in which they hold the book one foot away from the eyes in the left hand while keeping their right hand free. They should also be asked to pay attention to fluency, stress, pause, intonation etc.

Exposition and Explanation by the teacher:

Exposition and explanation is the vital part of teaching on which the effectiveness of teaching depends. The objectives of exposition and explanation is (I) to clear the meaning of difficult words, phrases, and idioms (ii) to make the comprehension of the passage easy and (iii) to pave way for intensive reading. For effective exposition the teacher should follow the following methods-:

v  Direct methods in which he uses pictures, objects, and actions to explain.

v  The teacher should use the mother tongue for explanation.

v  The teacher should expose the new words and structures properly.

v  The meaning of words should be clarified by using synonyms and anatomy.

v  Etymology of the word is an important source of explaining word.

v  Reference method too proves good for acquainting the students with the social or cultural meaning of a word.

                                    At last the teacher exposes the whole text as a single unit clarifying the difficult portions and references in the passage.

Silent reading by the students:

The purpose of silent reading by the students is to enable them to read silently and to pave way for extensive reading. The student should able to follow the text in silent reading. According to P. Gurrey,” rapid silent readings enables our pupils to seize the gist of a passage, to find out what some experts have said on the subjects, and to read quickly”. It is helpful for the students to grasp the meaning of the passage. At the time of silent reading by the students the teacher should move around the students and he has to pay attention the whole class.

Comprehension test by the teacher:

The teacher asks some questions from the present passage to test the comprehension of students the meaning of the passage. Generally known as comprehension test questions, these questions should not be made from outside, they should be based on very passage taught by the teacher. The question should be direct and objective based. The main purpose of asking comprehension questions is to obtain a general understanding of the passage quickly. The following type of comprehension questions may be asked-:

                    a) Question asking meaning.

                    b) Question on the main portion of the passage.

                    c) Question asking the gist of the passage.

                    d) Question asking the students to describe the passage in      their own words.

                    e) Question asking figure of speech, phrases, and idioms of the passage.

Recapitulation (application test) by the teacher:

Recapitulation is similar to comprehension questions but the objective is different. The objective of recapitulation test is to know that how much the students captured the lesson or what extent the objective of a lesson has been achieved. While short questions are asked in the comprehension questions, long questions pertaining to the whole text or story are asked in recapitulation. At the end of each lesson the teacher should put on some application questions to evaluate student’s success in achieving the predetermined objectives. These questions may be oral or written type with the followings characteristics -: (I) the answer should be long (II) question should be from all the passages taught in different unit and (III) these should demands the logical thinking on the part of the pupils. The examples of recapitulation questions are -: a) Describe the main incident of the story. b) Translate the passage in your mother tongue. c) Explain the passage. d) Fill in the blanks and what lesson do you derive from the play etc.

Black board work:

Black board is one of the most important tools in the hand of a teacher is for communication of his ideas clearly and explicitly. A teacher can make its use in writing words, drawing figures and comparing two things. The assignment for lower classes can also be written on the black board and at the time of asking comprehension and recapitulation questions a teacher can also use black board for effective communication.

Assignment for the students:

The students must be given assignment which may complete in the classroom or at home. The questions should be-:         

·         Meaning and spelling of words.

·         Use of words and sentences

·         Fill the blanks.

·         Translate the passage into mother tongue.

·         Writing summary of the passage.

·         Explaining words, phrases, idioms,

·         Giving the synonyms and antonyms of the new words.

·         Answering long, short and one word questions on the passage.

·         To point out grammatical features of a sentence or passage.

Conclusion: The main purpose of the prose lesson is to develop speech and writing habits of the students. Therefore every lesson in English should be taught through the medium of English. The teacher must remember that vocabulary, structure and grammar are the most important things in prose lesson. For this it is necessary that the teacher exposes new words and structures properly. The exposition should be made in such a way that the students are able to understand the ideas inherent in the passage. For exposition of new words and structures, teacher may use object, model, picture, gesture, facial expression, hand movements etc. In this way, the teacher can teach the prose lesson effectively and his teaching will be more interesting.   

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CHAPTER:04 TEACHING OF POETRY