Children’s Literature in English: Fostering Language Skills and Cultural Enrichment

Posted on Jul 1, 2024 in Language

1. Introduction

One of the functions of language is the poetic function. This means that it can be used for the sheer enjoyment of language. Children’s Literature has certain features that make it more attractive and interesting for children. But listening to or reading literary texts, tales, and stories isn’t just a pleasurable activity, it’s also a communicative activity that contributes to the development of Communicative Competence in our students.

Our current educational system, ruled by LOMLOE 3/2020 (December 29th), which is developed in Royal Decree 157/2022 (March 1st) and Decree 61/2022 (July 13th) for the Madrid Autonomous Community, is based on the communicative approach, which considers language a vehicle of communication. There is no doubt that tales are a good resource to improve our students’ communicative competence and, especially, the linguistic, discourse, and socio-cultural competences. This practice also allows students to develop and integrate the four language skills, always starting with the receptive ones (listening and reading) and, later on, with the productive ones (speaking and writing).

Throughout this topic, I will deal with English and American Children’s Literature, the way it has to be taught in Primary Education, as well as its importance when teaching students listening, reading, and recognizing the poetic function of language. Finally, I will compile the main ideas in a brief conclusion, and I will enumerate the main bibliography used in order to develop this topic.

2. Children’s Literature in English

Children’s Literature emerged as an independent form in the 18th century, grew in the 19th century in England and the USA, and was fully developed in the 20th century. The reasons for this late appearance were, on the one hand, economic reasons, since books were too expensive to be used for any purpose other than instruction. On the other hand, the child was not considered a person worthy of special regard.

2.a. Definition

Taking these aspects into account, children’s literature can be defined as those books written for children. They include other categories of books:

  • Books not written for children: for example, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and some other books which influenced children’s literature such as Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
  • Picture books.
  • Children’s versions of classics: such as Walter de la Mare and his Stories from the Bible.
  • Folk material: Folktales and fairy tales such as fables, sayings, riddles…
  • Nursery rhymes: are short poems or songs for young children. They have a marked rhythm and musicality.

2.b. Characteristics of Children’s Literature

As far as the characteristics of children’s literature are concerned, we have to underline that they present a different vision of the child, they foster students’ creativity and imaginary thoughts, they present vocabulary and structures in a contextualized way, the natural repetition of words and structures helps kids’ retention of words, they are predictable so students can follow them easily, and they introduce socio-cultural elements to our classroom.

Once we have better understood the concept of Children’s Literature, I will explain how this genre was developed along the last centuries in both the United Kingdom and the U.S.A.

2.c. English Children’s Literature

Children’s literature appeared in England in the 18th century with merchants such as Thomas Boreman or John Newberry. In 1742, Boreman published his first play for children: Cajanus, the Swedish Giant.

In 1744, John Newberry published A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, which contained pictures of children’s games, jingles, and fables. It was the first novel written for children. In the last years of this century, the Romantic Period must be highlighted with authors such as:

  • W. Blake: Songs of Innocence.
  • Lord Byron: Don Juan.
  • Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility.

When dealing with the 19th century, we must point out Lewis Carroll, who published a masterpiece, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. At that moment, the Golden Age of English Children’s Literature started…

In this period, it is required to deal with two important authors: on the one hand, Lewis Carroll and, on the other hand, Robert Louis Stevenson.

Despite the importance of these two authors I have dealt with, we can also name other important writers such as Dickens with his novels Oliver Twist and David Copperfield; R. Kipling with The Jungle Book.

In the 20th century, new genres appeared: science fiction, adventure stories, animal stories, as well as stories related to social matters.

Within this period, it is essential to deal with some important authors:

  • J.R.R. Tolkien with the trilogy The Lord of the Rings (1954-55).
  • C.S. Lewis, who published seven volumes devoted to Narnia (1950-56).
  • Roald Dahl with The Gremlins, Matilda, or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
  • Nowadays, we must also mention the Harry Potter collection written by J.K. Rowling.

2.d. American Children’s Literature

After having dealt with English Children’s Literature along three centuries, let’s study how this type of literature was developed in the USA since it is the fourth part of the development of this topic.

The first aspect we must consider is that American Children’s Literature depended on the English until 1860 (19th century). From that year, Children’s Literature started to be developed in America thanks to authors such as Louisa May Alcott with Little Women or Mark Twain with Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn (1884), which is a world masterpiece. In the 20th century, the production of paperback books increased readership figures. In the U.S.A., Science Fiction was one of the most successful genres where Madeleine L’Engle with A Wrinkle in Time (1962) stands out.

It is also important to underline that text and picture books for very young children emerged, following the example of Beatrix Potter. One example of this genre is The Happy Lion (1954).

3. Learning to Listen, to Read, and to Notice the Poetic Function of Language

All of us need to have different stories in our minds in the same way that we need food for our bodies. For this reason, it can be stated that stories are important in our students’ lives since they help them to understand the world and share it with others. “Every time children enter the class, they are expecting a different story.”

However, why is it so important to use stories when teaching a foreign language? The reasons are the following:

  • Motivation: children have a constant need for stories since they are very motivating.
  • Meaning: children want to find something in a story (meaning) and they listen for that purpose.
  • Listening and Fluency when they read: when we speak with a native speaker, the most important ability is to understand as much information as possible. Therefore, children must develop the ability to look for information, predict, and guess.
  • Cultural enrichment: Literary texts include cultural aspects of the English-speaking countries.

3.a. Criteria for Selecting a Literary Text

Before studying how to work on reading and listening through stories, I will enumerate the most important criteria that teachers should bear in mind when selecting children’s books according to Albuquerque.

  1. Type of text: if it is an argumentative, expository, narrative, or descriptive text.
  2. Subject matter: the theme of the text we are working with.
  3. The characters: which must stimulate curiosity, and their actions must be meaningful to children.
  4. The use of visual backup: that is, images must be attractive and colorful.

To continue with, I will briefly explain how to work on reading and listening using literary texts.

3.b. Comprehension Techniques

When we design a listening/reading activity related to a literary text, we must consider the following aspects:

  • We must choose a suitable text in order to interest students.
  • We must design meaningful activities that foster students’ active participation and take into account their experiences.
  • We must foster students’ confidence through the use of visual aids and clear tasks.

Furthermore, it is also essential to bear in mind that the listening skill involves the development of other sub-skills (prediction, skimming, scanning, and deducing meaning from context), which will be developed in the following stages as Albuquerque and Robert Langs establish.

  1. Presentation Stage: this stage aims at calling students’ attention to the subject matter we are going to work with and providing them with the language to understand it. Activities such as describing a picture, showing flashcards with the vocabulary used, and predicting what is going to happen can be carried out.
  2. While-Listening/Reading Stage: at this stage, students must enjoy the story and try to get specific/general information or even inferring meaning from the context. We will carry out activities such as: matching pictures with sentences, answering questions, spotting mistakes.
  3. Post-Listening/Reading Stage: this stage is aimed at using the language of the spoken text for a different purpose through activities such as: writing a different end for the story, dramatization of the story, role-plays, dictations, summary of the story, etc.

3.c. Learning to Notice the Poetic Function of Language

When we introduce children’s literature in our classes, we are promoting among students the appreciation of the poetic function of language. The most important qualities of this type of language are:

  • Clarity: ideas are presented in such a way that they cannot be interpreted erroneously.
  • Propriety: words used are the ones suitable for what is being expressed.
  • Expressive vigor: the writer expresses with representative force.
  • Decorum: everything that can be considered impolite is eliminated.
  • Correction: it is respectful towards the language rules.

At this point, we have to set out a question: How should reading habits be introduced: by reading a story or by telling it? We can state that both strategies are adequate since both of them allow, on the one hand, to teach students reading habits and, on the other hand, to appreciate the poetic function of the language.

In order to work on the poetic function of language, we have to select suitable texts (short poems, prose passages with a repetitive structure, etc.) which allow us to work on aspects such as the rhyme, word order, alliteration, parallelism, etc.

4. Conclusion

As a conclusion, we can underline that Literature can be taught in an interesting and eye-opening way. By promoting the habits of reading and listening to stories in the classroom, children have access to a rich world where they can participate in an active manner. Literature arouses curiosity, develops the students’ capacity for predicting, deducing, and, what is more important, it provides our lessons and their life with an endless pastime as it is opening a book and entering its magic.

5. Bibliography

  • Ellis and Brewster: The Story Telling Handbook for Primary Teachers. Penguin.
  • Bryant, S: How to Tell Stories to Children. Ed. Hogar del Libro (1983).
  • Morgan and Rinvolucri: Once Upon a Time. Cambridge University Press.