Bachelor Thesis

Masaryk University Brno
Faculty of Education
Department of English Language and Literature

An English Fairy-Tale in the Process of Teaching
English in a Czech Classroom
(The Little Red Riding Hood)
Bachelor Thesis

Brno 2007

Written by: Hana Skřivánková
Supervisor: Mgr. Gabriela Oaklandová

Affirmation:
I declare that I have worked on my thesis by myself and that all the sources of
information I have used are listed in the bibliography.
I agree to have the work put in the library of the Pedagogical Faculty of the
Masaryk University and using it for study purposes.
………….. ………..…………………….
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I would like to take the opportunity to thank Mgr. Gabriela Oaklandová for her
helpful guidance and comments on my work.

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CONTENT
I. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………...6
II. THEORETICAL PART……………………………………………………………8
1 Children and fairy-tales………………………………………………………………..8
1.1 Value of fairy-tales………………………………………………………………8
1.2 Characteristics of 7-11 years old children……………………………………….9
1.2.1 Teaching younger school aged children………………………………...…9
1.2.2 Language development…………………………………………..………..10
2 Story-telling and primary skills……………………………………………………….12
2.1 Story-telling in the classroom…………………………………………………...12
2.2 Listening………………………………………………………………………...12
2.2.1 Listening to stories at home……………………………………………….13
2.2.2 Listening to stories at school………………………………………………13
2.3 Speaking…………………………………………………………………………16
2.3.1 Dialogue and role play…………………………………………………….16
2.3.2 Paraphrasing and repetition………………………………………………..17
2.3.3 Vocabulary and grammar………………………………………………….18
2.3.4 Pronunciation……………………………………………………………...18
2.4 Fluency in speaking and listening……………………………………………….19
3 Grouping the children…………………………………………………………………21
3.1 Groupwork and pairwork ……………………………………………………….21
3.2 Whole class…………………………………………………………………… 22
4 Motivation through story-telling………………………………………………………24
4.1 Young learners and motivation………………………………………………….24
5 Classroom management and the atmosphere in the class……………………………..26
5.1 Secure atmosphere………………………………………………………………26
5.2 Variety in the classroom……………………………………………………….. 26
5.3 Choose of activities……………………………………………………………..27
III. PRACTICAL PART………………………………………………………………28
1 THE TEACHER´S BOOK………………………………………………………........28
1.1 UNIT 1…………………………………………………………………………..29
1.2 UNIT 2…………………………………………………………………………..31
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1.3 UNIT 3………………………………………………………………………..…34
1.4 UNIT 4………………………………………………………………………….36
1.5 UNIT 5………………………………………………………………………….38
1.6 UNIT 6……………………………………………………………………….…40
2 ENGLISH – CZECH WORDLIST…………………………………………………...42
3 LIST OF IRREGULAR VERBS…………………………………………………..…46
IV. CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………....47
V. RESUMÉ……………………………………………………………………………48
VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………49
VII. APPENDICES……………………………………………………………………51
1 APPENDIX 1……………………………………………………………………..51
2 APPENDIX 2……………………………………………………………………..52
3 APPENDIX 3……………………………………………………………………..53
4 APPENDIX 4……………………………………………………………………..54
5 APPENDIX 5……………………………………………………………………..55

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I. INTRODUCTION
The subject of this bachelor thesis is to present ideas and possibilities how to use
original English fairy-tale for teaching Czech pupils at Czech schools. It is based on
one of the well-known fairy-tale “The Little Red Riding Hood”.
The aim is to prove that fairy-tales are not for babies and little children, but for
children of all age as well as for adults. There is an effort to show students that learning
English does not mean only to work with student’s book, to fill exercises and drill
vocabulary. The usage of English fairy-tale can work as a medium how to make the
pupils interested in learning foreign language by presenting it in a motivating, creative,
pleasurable and communicative way. The teacher can make pupils through using a
fairy-tale that language provides a lot of possibilities for entertaining learning.
This bachelor thesis should present a teaching method using traditional fairy-tale
during English lessons for motivating children, making them participate without a fear
or stress.
The theoretical part deals with and discuss the basis of theory teacher should be
aware of when teaching children. Skills that they acquire at basic schools are described
here with the emphasis to primary skills (listening and speaking). The development of
these two skills during listening fairy-tales is one of the most important themes of this
bachelor thesis. It deals with the psychology of children for whom the fairy-tale is
addressed as well as with motivation of children and explains why the fairy-tale could
be beneficial for motivation as well as a good opportunity to explain grammatical
structures. Atmosphere and peaceful environment in the class has the importance within
the process of learning, so they have the important role in this work too and are
discussed here.
The practical part is conceived as a teacher’s book and it can be used as a teaching
plan. It has been divided into 6 units and every unit is dealing with an adequately long
part of the text of the fairy-tale, usually two or three pages. There are several
methodological principles used in every unit with the focus on listening, speaking,
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pronunciation, grammar, but also reading, writing and translating.
The activities are organised for the work in pairs or in small groups. The methods
and suggestions for the work with “Little Red Riding Hood” are general and they can
be adapted for working with any other fairy-tale, or the level of activities can be
optimised to fit various ages, levels, and other factors like the number of students in the
class, their discipline, or organisation of the class.
This thesis can serve as an additional teaching material for teachers of English.
Using of this didactic work may work as one of many ways how to enrich English
lessons, the guide how to motivate children, how to bring fun into English lessons and
how to use the fairy-tales within the process of teaching.
The choice of the “Little Red Riding Hood” is not causeless as it is suitable for
Czech learners of English. All of them should know it very well from their childhood.
They heard it many times, so they know the text in their mother tongue and it helps
them to understand what is being told.

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II. THEORETICAL PART
1. Children and fairy-tales
1.1 Value of fairy-tales
Fairy-tales are told to children almost all over the world and children love them.
Why do they like listening to the unreal stories full of strange, mystic characters that
often have supernatural abilities?
Fairy-tales incite humans’ fantasy and they can partly form the personality of the
child, his or her values and give him or her good pattern.. There is a collective rule in
overwhelming majority of fairy-tales, that the evil is defeated by good and all the people
who make good will be repaid by amour, felicity or glory. The usual theme of fairy-tales
is enchantment where there is mostly the conflict between the good and bad, so the fairytales can help children to distinguish what is fair and unfair. In most of the fairy-tales the
characters are “black and white”, each figure mostly represents only one character (e.g.
parents stands for parent love, prince stands for bravery, old man stands for wisdom).
Children meet with various types of characters, e.g. with those who personate justness,
but also evil, malice and envy. Thus the children can recognize that not all the people are
kind, there is also some kind of effort to prevent them from being hurt by wicked people.
It may be the first moment for the child to realize that they should be careful and obey
their parents who tell them/know what is good for them.
In fairy-tales there are various kinds of relationship demonstrated e.g. the
relationship between the father, his children and their step-mother, between the king and
the queen (representing parents), prince and princess (representing partnership), among
parents and their children and among people in general. Fairy-tales deal with the
communication and emotions within families and within the society show the ideal
relationship and what is important for the relationship to work, and what should be
avoided as well.

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1.2 Characteristics of 7-11 years old children
This period of childrens´ lives is often called “younger school age”, so it will be
used in the following text.
Scott and Ytreberg say that “children of this age are still children and they are
relatively mature with an adult side and some abilities similar to adults”(3). It means that
they still have a childish side with childish characters and interest in playing. They may
enjoy reading encyclopaedias, short fables, historical and geographical books;
nevertheless, they still love fairy-tales.
Piaget called the age between 7 and 11 as “the concrete operation stage”. What
arises from this presumption is the fact that children of this age are “limited to think
concretely – in tangible, definite, exact, and uni-directional terms – based on real and
concrete experiences rather than on abstractions” (www.cliffsnotes.com).
Čáp and Mareš speak about these childrens´ like the people who are able to think
logically but this logical presuming concerns only the concrete things and processes that
can be imagined vividly, manipulated with, or verified practically (231). Scott and
Ytreberg (3) say that “children from eight to ten have formed their basic concepts,
opinions, views about the world”. Among others it can mean that they are able to tell
what they do like and do not like doing.
1.2.1 Teaching younger school aged children
At the beginning of this stage, children may be dependent on information told by
parents, teacher, and they usually do not doubt about their truthfulness. Later on, they
start verify the pieces of knowledge by their own investigation and comparing of
information. They are interested in the reality, how the reality works, and they want to
know it in details and objectively. (Čáp, Mareš, 231)
Children of younger school age should be taught differently from very young
children and adults. When using an inappropriate method they could be bored, because
of low degree of motivation. On the other hand they can not be burdened with
exaggerated demands and things that need to use abstract thinking. They should be
confident in what they are doing and also they should know they are able to achieve the
goal with some effort.

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Young children are usually very active, especially physically, thus it can be very
difficult for some to keep sitting in the class and paying attention. Their degree and
length of attention may be increased when the teacher “manipulates” with their feelings,
e.g. by provoking surprise, astonishment. The life of the children covers up school work
(school, writing homework, out-of-school activities) and playing (hobbies, games).
Learning becomes gradually the main activity. When the teacher links or combines it
with playing, their learning process can be more effective.
Children can work separately and rely only on their own abilities, but they are able
to cooperate with others, work in pairs or in small groups. They can learn from each
other. In the cases of working in groups they should be supervised, controlled and
corrected by the teacher if necessary. They are mature enough to distinguish between
fairness and unfairness, make some decisions about teacher’s acting, evaluating, and also
about their learning process. (Scott, Ytreberg, 4, 15 )
The conceptions are not constant, but they are specified with other learning. They
know what is considered to be good and bad and the school helps them to create their
moral consciousness. They are often cheerful, they easily enthuse with something and
they need to convey their new pieces of knowledge to others. They pick up experiences,
search for more information than they heard at school, and try to fulfil their desire for
knowledge. (Čáp, Mareš, 229, 230)
1.2.2 Language development
Scott, Ytreberg characterise the language development of eight to ten years old
children by stating that these children are competent users of their mother tongue and
they know the basic rules of grammar and syntax in their own language. But they do not
analyze the language; therefore it is not essential to teach them grammar rules. By the
age of ten children can understand abstracts and symbols. The ability of generalising and
systematising begins to develop. This refers to children’s general language development
and most of eight to ten years old children have some kind of language awareness and
readiness which they bring with them into the foreign language classroom. There are
many similarities between learning one’s mother tongue and learning a foreign language,
despite there are differences in age of children in which they start with learning language
and the time available for learning, because they are only few our a week available to
them. (Scott, Ytreberg, 4, 6)
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Dramatic changes occur in thinking and language development of younger school
aged children. They start to understand to the world of adults, things that have not been
yet comprehensible begin to make sense, although they still see it by childish eyes.
“Think about young children telling jokes. Five year olds
laugh because everybody else does, but they do not always
understand the joke. If they are asked to re-tell the joke it will be
nonsense. Seven year olds think jokes are funny and they learn
them off by heart. This means that they often get the punch line
wrong or have to be prompted. Ten and eleven year olds remember
jokes and can work out the punch line from the situation. The
system of language.” and the understanding of it seems to fall into
place for many children in the same way.” (Scott, Ytreberg, 4, 5)
It means that children about 7 use memorising to remember new information but they do
not analyse it. Later, at the age of about 10, children begin with logical organisation of
knowledge, remembering the main ideas and with using of a deduction.

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2. Story-telling and primary skills
2.1 Story-telling in the classroom
Havovi Kolsawalla says (18-21) that story-telling is unthreatening way for children
how to produce language. Children “join in” at an early stage, and the consequent choral
distribution becomes a satisfying way for the class to participate. At first they produce
words and phrases from the story mechanically, but then as they listen to the story over
and over again, they associate the words and they are included in the children’s
vocabulary:
“By listening to stories children are introduced to a number
of words in context. Very often repeated use of words in the same
context, or in varying contexts, helps them to infer the meanings of
words and gradually assimilate them into their growing lexicon.”
(Kolsawala, 19)
It imply the fact that children are exposed to listen to the stories and during this
time they absorb new words. At first they do not know their exact meaning but they
know the context and when the word can be used. When they hear the story for several
times, they link the word with its meaning.
Children should have an interesting topic, the one they all know and they are
confident with. They are able to understand anything then. They were used to listen to
the stories from their parents or grandparents so they do not feel that they are learning
but playing. Children do not feel stressed or depressed but they are motivated and feel
satisfied. Too much boredom or demands could be demotivating, slow down the progress
and make learning difficult.
From the childrens´ point of view the story-telling can mean just listening to the
teacher telling a story. But it is a far more complex process.

2.2 Listening
It is quite clear that listening is the first skill that children acquire, especially if they
have not learnt to read yet. When the children start to learn a foreign language, it
happens mainly through their ears and so their main source of the language is what they

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hear. That is why they can easily forget what has been said. If we speak about telling
stories, the teacher can either tell the story or read the story from the book. When the
children are listening to their teacher, who has now important role, because all the pupils
should understand the text, he has to tell/read clearly, and some parts have to be repeated.
Children have to concentrate very hard. Young children have a very short attention span,
but with increasing age they can sit still and listen for longer periods. Some listening
activities may cover some movement, children can move and/or create a noise. Other
activities can calm them down, make them concentrate, and create a peaceful
atmosphere. (Scott, Ytreberg, 22)
2.2.1 Listening to stories at home
Listening to stories is recommended by educationalists and psychologists as a part
of growing up for every child. Stories play a vital role in the child´s development, and
the development of language as well. Using stories helps to create a friendly and secure
atmosphere. Story-telling may be established as a routine (e.g. teacher can include it into
his/her lesson plan ones a week, once a fortnight); the children then will get used to it
and it will be considered as natural and they will like it.
Listening to stories helps children to form their views about the world, people,
humans’ behaviour, human characters whether good or bad, and various life situations.
Children realize that not all the people are kind, there is also some kind of warning that
there exist vicious, cunning, grudging and malicious people who can hurt them, forsake
them or do them some harm if they are not careful enough or if they do not obey their
parents (The Little Red Riding Hood, Babes in the Wood and other fairy-tales). Children
are usually protected by their family and the people who love them, so reading fairy-tales
teaches them how to act in real life in order not to be hurt by wicked people.
2.2.2 Listening to stories at school
Listening to interesting and well-told stories is popular among most of people,
especially among younger learners. Short stories can be retold by the teacher in class in
her own words, which is probably the most natural story-telling situation. But sometimes
the spontaneous retelling does not need to be very useful and practical. When the story is
too long or too complex, then it is better to read it. In this case the story lacks some
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spontaneity, but gains on other counts: it may be more carefully constructed and better
expressed and the narrative may be more fluent and longer. The teacher can concentrate
on other aspects of the story, especially on some kind of drama. He/she can change the
tone and volume of the voice, add vocal and facial expressions and pauses. (Ur, 63)
Penny Ur further says that “a little drama or humour can do a great deal towards arousing
interest” (64).
Telling stories
Telling stories means to tell the story without a book in front of you. This has some
advantages e.g. that the teacher can adapt the language to children of all the levels,
he/she can go back and repeat some parts, and he/she can keep eye contact with pupils
most of the time. (Scott, Ytreberg, 29)
Ur sees the eye contact of the teacher with the class very important as well. to
know how they react and he/she should be constantly conscious of the probable response
of the students; he/she can add, omit or alter some information to suit to students’ level
of understanding, sense of humour, and so on. (Ur, 64)
Telling the story may be sometimes demanding work for the teacher, especially
when the story is more complicated, has many plots and more than one storyline.
Generally, divining the story into the sections may help to make it easier for the teacher
to remember the whole story. The example of a sequence:
Setting:

In a wood. Her grandmother’s cottage.

Episodes:

Little Red Riding Hood makes a lunch basket.
She says goodbye to her mother.
She skips and sings on the way.
She meets a wolf.
etc.

(Scott, Ytreberg, 29)

The traditional fairy tales are great for story-telling. They have a clear structure, so
it should not be the problem for the teacher to create a logical structure of the events
within the fairy-tale. Furthermore they are well known for the students in their mother
tongue, so everybody should understand, because they know the plot. Even if there is a
new vocabulary, children will not be lost, they can sometimes guess the meaning of
unknown words.
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Reading stories
Reading a story differs from telling a story in some aspects. When the teacher reads
the story, he/she should not change it at all. Reading a story is different from any other
activities, that need changes and varieties. The children, who listen to the same story for
several times, want it to be read word by word, they do not like changes. (Scott,
Ytreberg, 29)
“Children of all ages love to be read to, and you should try to
spend as much time as possible reading to the eight to ten year olds
as well as to the younger group. For the older group it is often
good to have a continuing story so that you read a bit of the book
every time you see them.” (Scott, Ytreberg, 30)
Scott and Ytreberg add that it is worth sometimes to let the children listen for the sake of
listening. Music and poetry or a short anecdote or story all have a role to play in the
classroom too, because they introduce new voices into the class, new varieties of
language, various situations when people communicate, different dialects and fields.
They conclude that the more children hear, the better they will be able to speak and
write.
When the teacher is reading a story he/she should not only read but make children
participate as much as possible and join many of their senses (Slattery, Willis, 96-101):
▪ It is good to use the book with pictures or when telling the story use the whole body,
pantomime gestures and pictures.
▪ Teacher can show them the real things that are mentioned in the story, he/she can use
puppets but it needs larger preparation before the lesson.
▪ Producing sounds as things in the story is amusing. Children can imitate e.g. animals,
trains. Teacher can change the voice for indicating of figures.
▪ Children can guess how the story will continue; the teacher can tell only one half of the
story and make them suggest their own continuing.
▪ It is useful for remembering to repeat the key words and phrases or to write them on the
board. It will help children when they are asked to reconstruct some parts of the story.
▪ After reading or telling the story teacher can ask the questions concerning the story: e.g.
which character do they like, why was somebody the hero, what would they do if they
were … (some character from the story) etc.

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This type of activity may be very effective and children will like it. They will learn
from situations by acquisition and they can take some moral lessons from the stories,
especially from animal fables. This activity is also supporting for those who are shy. It
gives a lot of opportunities to participate.

2.3 Speaking
Speaking is most common and most often used mean of communication. It can be
the most demanding skill for the teacher to teach. Children are able to use their mother
tongue at high level, they can express their feelings and intentions, they can explore the
rules of their first language.
Story-telling can be useful when the teacher wants encouraged children in order to
speak. The story, they were listened to, may be the good source of various topic for
creating the conversation and other speaking activities. Story-telling can be possibility
for children to acquire some grammar rules used within the speaking.
There are many techniques and kinds of activities for improving speaking abilities
and communication in foreign language. Some of them are relating to story-telling.
Dialogues, role-plays, paraphrasing, repetition, practising vocabulary, and pronunciation
rang among them.
2.3.1 Dialogue and role play
By dialogue and role play the children learn how to communicate in various
situations. In role play especially, children are trying various roles and situations e.g. a
doctor, a shop assistant, a film star, a parent, or some fairytale character. The children
should improvise, not just reproduce the text, in order to develop communicational
abilities. It should be the aim to make children use their creativity and imagination. They
learn to speak everyday language in an entertaining way.
According to Byrne (91), a role play is excellent way that teaches children to use
language in a meaningful way and shows them that language is not just something said
but that it is accompanied by facial expressions, gestures and body movement of various
kinds.

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Scott and Ytreberg (40, 41) say that in real role play, the language used comes from
the pupils themselves, so they have to be acquainted with the language needed before.
They have more arguments why role play should be used as a routine or common
practice in the lessons; they say that pupils learn to ask as well as answer, use all the
other parts of speaking a language – tone of voice, stress, intonation, etc. not just words.
Pupils can be encouraged to natural “chat” in the classroom, to making up dialogues
about the little things which have happened and which occupy them at that moment.
2.3.2 Paraphrasing and repetition
Paraphrasing is quite different from repetition which is a repeating of spoken or
written material in the same words as original and it can be used when the teacher is not
testing the real comprehension of some phrases or short text. Repetition may be very
time-consuming if the teacher wants to listen to each students answer separately, so it is
helpful in this situation to ask the students to write down what they have heard. The
teacher can check the written answer later.
Ur define paraphrasing as follows:
“Paraphrase is reproduction of such a material in a
different form – that is, using different words of the same
language to express the same ideas. Obviously, there is no
possibility here of mindless mimicry: on the contrary, the
teacher should be aware that paraphrase is a relatively difficult
exercise even for native speakers, and only intelligent and
fairly proficient students may be expected to do it successfully
and get useful practice thereby.” (Ur, 129)
Paraphrasing has an important function in the process of teaching children. Ur points that
it is not the aim to make children create an accurate and elegant rewording, but the proof
that students have grasped the sense of what was said and they are able to repeat it in
other words without the changing of meaning. She continued that teachers in the
classrooms should not be always looking for the best paraphrasing. There is a distinction
between literary paraphrase which is done for the purpose of academic writing, and the
paraphrasing of the spoken word that is more useful for needs of the students of basic
schools and that is also done to check their general ability of comprehension (129-131).

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2.3.3 Vocabulary and grammar
Story telling can be great opportunity for the teacher and for the learner how to
teach/learn and practise new words. The students are exposed to listen to the words,
phrases, sentences that are often repeated. It may have the positive effect on them to
remember the words and their meanings, they can remember the context in which the
particular word was used, and they can get acquainted with some grammar rules without
learning them intentionally.
“Children have an amazing ability to absorb language
through play and other activities which they find enjoyable. How
good they are in a foreign language is not dependent on whether
they have learnt the grammar ruler or not. Very few of your pupils
will be able to cope with grammar as such, even at the age of ten or
eleven. They may be very aware and clear about the foreign
language, but they are not usually mature enough to talk about it.”
(Scott and Ytreberg, 6)
According to Phillips (74) vocabulary should be taught in context and it is best
learned when the word is supplied with some material, e.g. with a picture, an action, or a
real object. The children link the meaning with the concrete situation and then they
should know when the word is used.
2.3.4 Pronunciation
Generally, in teaching foreign language, the learners can acquire the right
pronunciation in that way they repeat and imitate the sounds after their trainer.
Students are exposed to hear what their teacher or some model like tape recorder is
saying, their ears become to be familiar with the whole system of sounds of the language
and its characteristics rhythm, stress, intonation, and juncture. All the students should be
led up to the right pronunciation only, but the teacher should not insist on young students
producing the perfect pronunciation. They may be discouraged if doing so at the early
stage. (Rivers, Temperley, 169, 170)
There are some instructions recommended by Rivers and Temperley useful when
some problems with pronunciation occur:

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1)

the problem sounds can be singled out and practiced; it means that the teacher can

pick up short phrases from current work, isolate single words, practice a specific sound,
and then return to the practising of words and phrases altogether e.g. from suddenly she
saw a huge dog, to she saw a huge dog, to saw a huge dog, to a huge dog, to dog, then
rebuilding to a huge dog, to saw a huge dog, to she saw a huge dog, and finally suddenly
she saw a huge dog.
2)

the sounds can be practiced in several different positions in the phrase, so that the

students can recognize the effect of phrase stress on sounds, and of weak stress on
certain classes of words.
3)

the teacher can reduce some pronunciation problems by intensive practice which

means to move from identification of the sound (associated with aural discrimination of
similar sounds) to imitative production and autonomous production which should be
succeeded by a correct model. It means that children can produce the sound by
themselves, without hearing it first, and than they should listen to the desired
pronunciation. They need to be sensitized to the differences between their own
production and the right production.

2.4 Fluency in speaking and listening
Whenever a pupil is trying to produce some speech, it should be accepted even if it
does not take much sense. The teacher does not need to correct each mistake; it may
damage the good class atmosphere. Correction has its place when working on language
exercises whose purpose is grammatically correct sentences. (Scott, Ytreberg, 10)
So it is not the main point to insist on students to speak according to the all grammatical
rules. They may have a lot of thing to say, especially when retelling some event from the
story, or a part of a fairy-tale, and correcting them every time they make a mistake could
reduce their effort.
Harmer states that the teacher should allow students to use all and any language
they are able to produce. He gives three basic reasons for that:
1.

Rehearsal: means that the teacher should organise kinds of activities in which

students can rehearse some real-life events. It could be performing of a situation in a
shop, at a doctor, and so on. Students can practice a lot of communicational situations in

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the safety of the classroom, thereby they gain some level of confidence about their
conversational skill, and awareness of the function of English in reality.
2.

Feedback: the tasks where students are trying to use all and any language they can

function as a feedback for both students and teacher. Teachers need to know how their
classes are doing, if there are any problems, so that it is appropriate to use this method.
As for students, it is good way how to find out their deficiency, failures, and what they
should improve. If the teacher does this kind of job sensitively, it means he/she use
encouraging evaluation, then the speaking activities can contribute to acquisition and
fixation of speaking skill.
3.

Engagement: children should be highly motivated by speaking activities, if it is so,

then the activity is good. More factors take a share in childrens´ satisfaction from
speaking; it is their own participating, the ability of teacher to set up the activity properly
and give them sympathetic and useful comments. (Harmer, 88)
Brumfit says that when the teacher tells a story, or present any extended speech to
the class, it is fluency activity. Also every time students are expected to read a long text
for its content, they are engaged in fluency.(Brumfit, 83)

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3 Grouping the children
Making groups of children can be useful within the story-telling. Whenever the
teacher wants children to do some speaking activity, dividing them into pairs or small
groups is good resolution. It allows them to speak without being stress and under the
pressure as they are if the teacher ask them to speak in front of the class. (Harmer, 131)
Cooperation in pairs or groups is something that has to be learnt, but this may not
be a problem, because most of the children can quickly get accustomed to be a part of the
team.
A group is well defined in the work of Brumfit (72). Here he says that group is “a
number of people who interact with one another, who are psychologically aware of one
another, and who perceive themselves to be a group”. He claims that by using group
work teacher can increase the likelihood of students to produce and receive language. It
means that children like cooperate with their classmates more than work individually or
compete with others in the lessons. According to him (75-77) working in groups can be
affective in the tendency to reduce anxiety and increase attachment to learning.
Generally, working in small groups can greaten the volume of students´
concernment on the activities done in the classroom, so that the quality of practising
language is increased, the teacher has the opportunity to give feedback to what they are
doing, to scan easier what happens in the class, and organise the process of
teaching/learning. It may be convenient for children who are shy, because they gain more
privacy, so that the stress which goes hand in hand with performance in from of the
classroom should be reduced.

3.1 Groupwork and pairwork
Groupwork and pairwork are very popular, because they seem to have many
advantages. They give students more space for realisation and independence. They can
work without a pressure of the whole class listening and watching them and without a
teacher’s control. They have chance to make their own decisions about their learning,
they can use what language to use and they share a responsibility for the tasks. The other
advantage of groupwork especially is that the teacher can now work with the pupils
individually. If the students are divided into the groups A, B, C, the teacher then can

21

spend some time with the group C that needs a special attention, while the two other
groups work on the task without being supervised. (Harmer, 21)
Scott and Ytreberg (43-45)give advise to teacher that he/she should establish some
kind of a habit for pairwork, so that what the teacher says “Work in pairs”, all the
students know what to do. Pupils who are sitting next to each other or near should work
together. The teacher should first explain the task to the whole class before he/she put
them into pairs.
Some problems may occur when children are divided into the groups. They may
not like some of the pupils in the group/pair, if there are some students who are on the
higher level than the others, he/she may speak more or mostly and the rest is silent. Scott
and Ytreberg claim that the teacher can group the children according to their abilities; it
means that the more efficient students will work separately from the less efficient, and
teacher can apply to the weaker pupils.
The other problem may occur with students who normally disrupt in the lessons.
They may be encouraged even more because they do not feel the presence of the teacher.
Another insufficiency of groupwork is that students may use their first language instead
of speaking English when the teacher can not hear them. (Harmer, 21)

3.2 Whole class
There are many occasions and activities that need working with the whole class,
e.g.when the teacher explains grammar, use the board, when the children are watching a
video, whenever the teacher needs control over the whole class, make sure that
everybody is involved, and when he/she wants to focus students´ attention to
himself/herself.
Harmer (18, 19) speaks about various kinds of arrangement in the class. The
seating arrangement do not have to be the classical orderly rows which are the most
common, but the desks in a classroom may be set together in the shape of the circle, or a
horseshoe.
Another alternative to whole-class teaching is solowork. It enables students to set
their own suitable pace, they rely only on their own knowledge and adhere the time
necessary for working out the task. (Harmer, 21)

22

Brumfit considers the pair and group work to be medium which can increase the
quantity and intensity of practice during oral work. It works on the basis of naturalistic
behaviour.
“The use of groups may help to create an appropriate
atmosphere for independent work, but it cannot substitute for the
necessary training of students to operate entirely on their own in
reading or writing. Consequently, the prime value of group work
lies in its ability to stimulate natural language activity in discussion
and conversation.” (Brumfit, 87)

23

4 Motivation through story-telling
A good way how to motivate children and make them participate in the process of
learning can be using their fantasy and imagination which is concerned with telling them
stories. They make distinction between reality or fact and fiction and they love fiction
very much.
“According to the research carried out in the second half of
the twentieth century by Gardner and Lambert who suggested
that pupils who wanted to integrate into the culture of its
speakers were more highly motivated and also were successful in
learning than those who were only learning language because it
was their compulsory subject and they wanted to pass it. In other
words the integrative motivation was more powerful than
instrumental motivation.” (Harmer, 8)
Teachers can not be sure that all the children in the class will be highly motivated.
They can only encourage and hold up pupils by word and deed (which is probably one of
the most important roles that teacher has). Harmer says that “the teacher’s task is to
provoke interest and involvement in the subject even when students are not initially
interested in it.” (Harmer, 8)
The teacher can make the children enthusiastic and interested in the subject only if
he/she is really enthusiastic and interested in it. The good knowledge of the subject is a
matter of fact and necessity. (Harmer, 8)

4.1 Young learners and motivation
At the beginning of learning English children are motivated because it is something
new for them, something they have not met before. “They are usually full of enthusiasm
an energy” say Scott and Ytreberg (97). Their curiousness pushes them forward. That is
why they are highly motivated and the progress can proceed very quickly.
Younger learners are often unselfconscious, immediate and they need a leader all
the time, the teacher who is able to maintain a high degree of their attention.

24

It may depend a lot on teacher’s choice of topic, activity and linguistic content that
they may be able to turn a class around. They can also inspire the students by their own
behaviour, consciousness, their attitude to class participation, their humour and
seriousness as well. The teacher can also use body language, gestures, mimics and
physical activities. All these conditions take part on the whole class atmosphere.
Children usually like and enjoy the activities the teacher has prepared for them
because it is motivating for them. These factors mean that it is easy to make the English
class an enjoyable, stimulating experience for them. (Phillips, 7)
Sarrah Phillips points out some instructions to bear in mind:
● The activities should be simple enough for the children to understand
● The task should be within their abilities. It must be possible for them to do it
successfully but at the same time sufficiently stimulating for them to feel satisfied with
their work
● The teacher should change activities to keep children’s attention
● The activities should be largely orally based
● Written activities should be used sparingly with younger children

Characteristics of good classroom learners (according to Harmer)
-

a willingness to listen – a good learner listen to what is going on in the terms of

really listening to the English that is being used (not just in the sense of paying attention)
-

a willingness to experiment – many good learners are prepared to take risks, to try

things out and see how it works.
-

a willingness to ask questions – good teacher frequently invites students to ask if

they do not understand something. Good learners use this opportunity to ask when they
are not sure if they understand or when they want to clarify some information
-

a willingness to think about how to learn – good learners invent their own study

skills when they come to a lesson, they think about the best way to write vocabulary in
their wordbooks; the best method of drafting and re-drafting a piece of writing
-

a willingness to accept correction – good learners are prepared to be corrected if it

helps them. They are glad to have some feedback and act upon what they were told.
Giving feedback means praising students for the thing they do well, and offering them
the ability to do things better if they were less successful.

25

5 Classroom management and the atmosphere in the class
The teacher is supposed to be the most important person in the classroom who
cares about overall organisation of the classroom and who works up all the activities the
students will do in the lesson which is called lesson planning. The children´s learning is
affected by the atmosphere of the classroom, the attitude of the teacher and the
organisation of the lesson. (Phillips, 141)
To get maximum benefit for children from story-telling, it is useful to rearrange the
seating so that the teacher has an eye-contact. The good way how to make children feel
comfortable is to let them sit on the floor. If they are relaxed and comfortable, they are
more open to all the things they hear and they can better absorb it. The teacher can sit
among the pupils either on the floor or on a little chair. If lights are on in the classroom,
some of them can be turned off. (Scott, Ytreberg, 28)

5.1 Secure atmosphere
The attitude of the teacher to the pupils can influence a process of learning a lot.
The teacher´s approach should be similar to all students, so that they feel he/she likes
them, despite there may be some children who need a special care, there should be only
the slight distinction. Although the teacher may sometimes need an ability to act, his/her
students should not be aware of it. Scott and Ytreberg (claim that “children are very
sensitive and they expect a high degree of fairness.” (Scott, Ytreberg, 9)
Children should feel secure in the environment of the classroom. It encourages
them to become independent, fearless in the learning of the language. “Security is not an
attitude or an ability, but it is essential if we want our pupils to get the maximum out of
the language lessons.” (Scott, Ytreberg, 10)

5.2 Variety in the classroom
Čáp, Mareš say that “at the beginning of the school age, it is difficult for children to
keep their attention for a long time”. Later on, their attention span is naturally being
prolonged but the teacher himself/herself can contribute to prolong and sustain their
attention and variety is one of them. “Variety covers the variety of activity, variety of
26

pace, variety of organisation, variety of voice. Although the older pupils can concentrate
for longer period, they still need lots of variety.”
On the other hand “children benefit from being familiar with the situation”. It is
useful to have some systems, routines and organised lesson, using familiar situations and
activities e.g. repeating stories, rhymes. (Scott, Ytreberg, 6)
The teacher should use as many sources of language material as possible and not
concentrate on the textbook only because there are usually many useful sources available
for teaching language:
● The most important is the teacher as a person and the way, he/she uses English, stories
he/she tells, how he/she acts and reacts
● Books with stories, copyright material, tapes, CDs, video, computer
● Posters, masks, puppets, small exhibitions of children’s work in the classroom
● Real things – teacher can use e.g. real set when practising the words like knife, fork,
spoon, or real ruler, pen, pencil, a pair of compasses, fruit, vegetable etc. (Slattery, Willis,
127)

5.3 Choose of activities
It is widely known that children love to play. The one of the most effective ways
how to teach them is to give them an impression they are playing. That means to make
all the activities or as much as possible enjoyable because then it will be memorable.
Children need to listen to something that is meaningful for them. Then they are able to
pay a high degree and quality of attention. Stories are good media because children’s
interest in stories is strong and powerful. (Kolsawala, 19)
Stories provoke children’s attention which is very important factor affecting the
learning process. Story-telling can be “natural approach” to the secondary language. If
the learning is fun and joy it is not a problem to keep their attention and effort to be
taught. They are “open” to listen what the teacher is saying.

27

III. PRACTICAL PART
1 TEACHER´S BOOK

28

UNIT 1
Preparation
Prepare pictures of Little Red Riding Hood, her grandmother and the red cape and hood.
Before the beginning of the lesson write the new words from UNIT 1 on the board, you
can add the pronunciation (see the wordlist). Prepare handouts with the text, one handout
for a pair (students should get handouts with the particular part of a text within each
unit).
Activity 1: presentation
Write “Little Red Riding Hood” on the board and tell your pupils that you are going to
start reading this fairy-tale. Ask questions about it. Then read them the first part of the
story.
e.g. Do you know this fairy-tale? (Yes, I do. No, I don’t)
What is the Czech name for Little Red Riding Hood? (Červená Karkulka)
What characters are there in the story? (Little Red Riding Hood, grandmother,
mother, father, the wolf)
Activity 2: vocabulary
Tell your pupils to write down the new words. Before you give them the meaning of
every word, ask them. Maybe they will know some of the words. If they do, tell the pupil
who knows the Czech meaning to write it on the board. If nobody knows the meaning,
say it and write it on the board. Ask: “What does ´once´ mean?” “What does ´time´
mean?” When they know these words, then ask: “All right, so what does ´once upon a
time´ mean?” and so on. Make sure all pupils had enough time to write all the words.
Then go through the new words again saying every word loudly. Let the pupils repeat it.
It is good to establish a kind of ritual here, to repeat the words in a rhythm, for example
like this: first the teacher says the word loudly for the whole class, the class repeats the
word. Then the teacher points at one pupil who repeats it alone, then he/she points at
another pupil who will again repeat it alone. If they pronounce it correctly, the teacher let
the whole class say it together once again. This way the teacher can make sure
everybody is able to pronounce the word correctly and that everybody heard it clearly

29

several times. This activity can be done the same way with every page of the fairy-tale
taught. Verbs marked with “*” are irregular verbs and their irregular forms are written
our in appendix.
Little Red Riding Hood

deep

once upon a time

scatty

edge

sewing machine

woodcutter

cape

to hack down

hood

sort

to wear*

axe

to puff along

to enjoy

behind

chance

hole

to have* a smoke

root

to be closed

in the traffic

Activity 3: listening
The pupils should have the text (at least one for a pair). Start reading the story, try to
not to be monotonous and give some kind of action into your performance. You can
read it once, or twice, it depends on your students´ needs.
Activity 4: translation
Now give them about eight minutes to go through it and try to translate it. They can
work in pairs. After they have managed to go through it, they should read every
sentence and try to translate it correctly with help of the teacher, if necessary.
Revision
Discuss the part you have finished with the pupils, ask questions about the text, ask
what will happen next in the fairy-tale, try to make them talk, use their own vocabulary
and imagination to retell the story.

30

UNIT 2
Activity 1: vocabulary
Present the new vocabulary and structures useful for this part of the text.
Suggested vocabulary:
to pack

huge

homemade

asleep

tart

to pluck

pickle

a piece of grass

stout

to tickle

to set* off

beady

bottom of the field

to rush

to hurry straight

warm

to wave

oily

daydreams

sensible

to skip

log

whistling

daisy chain

silly

to sneak away

suddenly

pudding

Activity 2: listening
Read this part of the fairy-tale, the pupils listen quietly. Then read it again sentence by
sentence, the whole class will repeat and one of the pupils can be called out to translate
the sentence they have just heard.
Activity 3: teaching grammar
Past simple should be explained and taught in this lesson. Before working with the text,
the teacher should explain past simple and show how verbs change, and practise
pronunciation of the past forms of verbs. Prepare cards with some regular verbs and
cards with the –ED suffixes. Show the pupils what happens with the verb when we are

31

using past simple tense by showing them the card with verb in infinitive form, then join
the –ED card. The last two verbs are in this part of the text of the fairy-tale.
Cards:

WORK

ED

PLAY

ED

CALL

ED

ARRIVE

ED

Tell the pupils this is how past tense works in English with all regular verbs. Then write
a few more regular verbs on the board and ask pupils to come and write their past
simple form. Stress the fact, that the –ED suffix is always added to an infinitive.
Prepare a few simple sentences in present and ask the pupils to transfer them into the
past tense. Explain that verbs in the past are the same for all persons. As an example
you can use these sentences:
She plays the piano.

(She played the piano.)

He works in a factory.

(He worked in a factory.)

I like ice-cream.

(I liked ice-cream.)

She loves Jim.

(She loved Jim.)

They arrive at 6 o’clock.

(They arrived at 6 o’clock.)

My mother calls me every week.

(My mother called my yesterday.)

When the pupils say the sentence in the past, practise pronunciation with the whole
class. Explain the pupils not all verbs in English are regular. Write some irregular verbs
that appear in the fairy-tale on the board and tell them to learn them for the next lesson.
Practise their pronunciation.
Activity 4: work with the text
Tell the learners to underline all verbs in the text (APPENDIX 1) that are in the past
tense. After they have done so ask them to read these verbs aloud and write them on the
board, adding the present form.

32

Homework:
Tell the students to rewrite the sentences in the past tense into present.
Revision:
Let the pupils think about what they have learnt in this lesson. Ask someone to explain
in his/her own words the past simple and to give an example. Thus you can check
whether they understand it properly. If not, you should come back to those particular
points.

33

UNIT 3
Activity 1: vocabulary
Write new words on the board before the lesson starts and teach them to your learners
as described in UNIT 1.
Suggested vocabulary:
to ring*

hiccup

doorbell

gently

to settle down

put* into action

to mutter

put* on

to squeeze

to spring*

letterbox

to feel* silly

to pounce

to leap* out of bed

to swallow

to switch off

gulp
Activity 2: listening and gap-filling
Prepare handouts (APPENDIX 2) for every student where there are some missing verbs
both in present and past forms. Read the text ones and give the handouts to the students
and let them fill in the gaps. It may be difficult for them to complete the sentences, so
you should let them read the text on the handouts and then read it loudly again. You
may read it third times so that they can check and correct their answers and then go
through the text with them. You can practise the verb tenses. In order to do that, let
some pupil write the base form of the verb on the board and add the past tense and past
participle. E.g. ring – rang – rung.
Activity 3: grammar (past perfect)
Explain the students the function of in a sentence. Tell them that if there are two past
tenses in a sentences and one action precedes the other, past perfect must be used in the
action that happened first. Or when we want to show that something was completely
finished, we may use past perfect. Write the following sentences that appear in the text
34

on a board and let the pupils focus on them. Explain their meaning. You can give more
examples of past perfect.
The wolf rang Grandma’s doorbell.
Grandma had just settled down to watch the news.
Other examples:
When he had painted the kitchen and bathroom, he decided to have a rest.
After I had finished the report, I realised that it was too late to post it.
Activity 4: speaking
Use the picture (APPENDIX 3) to let pupils speak, ask questions about the picture.
Using a picture is an advantage and you can use it for teaching your pupils new words
from the picture, making them talk, ask and answer questions, all that in an enjoyable
and creative way.
Suggested questions:
What do you see in the picture? (you can use these words: wolf, bed, pillow, featherbed, candle, artificial teeth, bottles, portrait)
What is the character in the picture doing? (he is laying in the Grandma’s bed,
pretending to be a grandma)
What is he wearing? (he is wearing a pink night-gown and pink night-cap)
What has he done before? (he ate/swallowed Grandma and put on her clothes)
Who is he waiting for? (he is waiting for Little Red Riding Hood in Grandma’s bed)
A what does he want to do? (he wants to eat her)
This activity offers a lot of possibilities how to develop conversation among pupils
themselves or among pupils and teacher. You can ask pupils about their grandmothers,
ask where does she live, how old is she, if she still works, what are her hobbies, how
often do they visit her, what is her house like and so on. Thus you can make students
talk and it is also a good opportunity to show an interest in their own lives. The pupils
can be expected to be much more active and inspired when talking about their own
lives and their families, because it is not something theoretical or distant from reality.

35

UNIT 4
Revision:
Start the lesson with asking about the previous lesson in order to check if they catch
some information and to remind them about the last lesson’s topic.
Suggested questions:
Who were we talking about in the last lesson?
Can somebody remember some information about someone else’s grandma?
Ask questions about the picture.
Ask someone to retell the whole story (or ask one pupil to start with and the other one
to continue etc.) to the point where you had finished the last lesson. Check the
vocabulary from the last lesson and present new words for this lesson.
Activity 1: vocabulary and listening
Present the vocabulary as in previous lessons and read the text once with the emphasis
on performance (you should change the tone of your voice to indicate different
characters speaking).
Suggested vocabulary:
dusk

to hug

to knock

to rumble

to creep

faint

to hide*

to flash

to notice

to stammer

to mumble

swirl

closely

to snatch

to eyelash

to feel* full

hairy

to be* pleased

paw
Activity 2: a puzzle (pair-work)
36

Divide the class into pairs. Each pair will be given stripes with sentences (APPENDIX
4). The students´ task is to put the sentences into the right order so that it makes sense.
The teacher should walk around the classroom and check how successful they are, if
necessary give them a small hint. When the students are ready, ask a few pairs to read
what they have created, the class can discuss which version seems to be more probable
and why. Then read the text so that they can check their work. Give them a few minutes
to correct their work and finally read the correct version sentence after sentence aloud.
Activity 3: a role-play
Give pupils 5 minutes for reading the text again in pairs. One pupil is supposed to be
“Little Red Riding Hood” and the other one “Wolf”. They should retell the story in
present tense (simple and continuous) and use their own words. Let them practice the
dialog in pairs. You should control how they are doing and help them, if necessary.
When they are ready to retell the story, ask one or more pairs to perform the dialog
loudly. You should help them again; their own ideas and creativity should be accepted
and appreciated. It is good to give them feedback, tell them why you like their dialog,
what you appreciate the most, and also about their possible mistakes.
Homework:
Students in pairs or small groups should prepare a scene (maximal length 5 min) for the
next lesson. If you see the students would not have enough time to get ready, give them
few days to rehearse the scene. They can chose whichever scene they want, use their
fantasy and also some masks, costumes, objects, audiotapes, sceneries to make it funny
as much as possible. They will be evaluated for their language skills, originality and
effort).

37

UNIT 5
Revision:
At the beginning of the lesson each group will perform their scene and the teacher will
give them a feedback and possibly an evaluation. It may take about 20 minutes, that is
why the activities of this unit are not so time consuming.
Activity 1: vocabulary
Present the new vocabulary, teach new words and phrases.
Suggested vocabulary:
meanwhile

huge

absence

tummy

to search

to leap*

to light*

blow

torch

to grab

nasty

to bounce up and down

to spy

to tumble out

to sneer*

angry

to see*

sticky

Activity 2: listening
Read the text to the pupils. Then ask them to read and translate the text, each student
one sentence. Make sure they understand everything without any problems.
Activity 3: word classes
Prepare handouts (APPENDIX 5) and tell the students to right down all the words from
the text to the right columns. Start with the example: meanwhile – adverbial. If you don
´t want them to work with all the words from the text, you can highlight just the useful
words. Give them time to do the task, then check it together, and add the Czech
equivalent for each word.
Activity 4: speaking
38

Ask some pupils to retell that part of the story in their own words. This can also be a
written homework (you can order the length they should be aware of). When writing
the story at home, they should make it more creative and make out the possible followups. You can also tell them to write it from somebody’s point of view e.g. from
woodcutter’s point of view.

39

UNIT 6
Activity 1: vocabulary
Present and practise new vocabulary.
Suggested vocabulary:
to wake up*

to give up*

to run*

to grow*

to join in

instead

supper

although

to move

either

district
Activity 2: listening, pronunciation
Read the text once or twice; let the pupils translate the text. Then practise the
pronunciation of words below. Say it first, the pupils will repeat it several times, let
them focus on the emphasised sounds.
woodcutter [w]
wolf [u]

vegetable [v]
move [u:]

Grandma [æ]

mother [a]

everything [ө]

that [ð]

animals [s]

friends [z]

Activity 3: an interview, practising questions
Tell the pupils they are going to work in pairs from which one will be a radio reporter,
the other will be The Little Red Riding Hood. They are supposed to make an interview
for a radio. The reporter should prepare a set of questions concerning the whole story,
not just this unit.. Little Red Riding Hood will answer his/her question, pretending she
is really shocked by the previous events. Give them few minutes for fulfilment the task.

40

During this time you can go round the class and check how they are doing. The pupils
can exaggerate, use their fantasy and make fun of the story. Finally, some pairs should
perform it, or it can be also their homework for the next lesson. It can be evaluated.
Tip: pupils may be asked to record their dialogues at home on a tape, bring it to school
and there play. That would sound as a real radio interview.

41

2 ENGLISH – CZECH WORDLIST
absence [æbsəns] nepřítomnost
although [o:lðəu] ačkoli, přestože, ikdyž
angry [æŋgri] rozzlobený
asleep [əsli:p] spící
axe [æks] sekyra
be closed [bi: kləuzd] být si blízký
be pleased [bi: pli:zd] být spokojený
beady [bi:di] malinký, korálkovitý
behind [bihaind] za, vzadu, pozadu
blow [bləu] rána, úder
bottom of the field [botm əv ðə fi:ld] okraj pole
bounce up and down [bauns ap ən dəun] třást nahoru a dolů
cape [keip] pláštěnka
chance [ča:ns] šance, možnost
closely [kləusli] podrobně, důkladně
creep* [kri:p] plížit se
daisy chain [deizi čein] věneček ze sedmikrásek
daydreams [deidri:mz] snění, zamyšlení se
deep [di:p] hluboký
district [distrikt] kraj, oblast
doorbell [do:bel] domovní zvonek
dusk [dask] soumrak, šero
edge [edž] kraj, okraj, roh
either [aiðə] také ne
enjoy [indžoi] mít rád
eyelash [ailæš] řasa
faint [feint] slabý
feel* full [fi:l ful] cítit se nacpaný
feel* silly [fi:l sili]
flash [flæš] zablesknutí
gently [džently] jemně, mírně
give up*[givap] zanechat (něčeho), vzdát se
42

grab [græb] popadnout, chňapnout
grow* [grəu] pěstovat
gulp [galp] lok, sousto
hack down [hæk daun] kácet
hairy [heəri] chlupatý
have* a smoke [hæv ə sməuk] zapálit si (cigaretu)
hiccup [hikap] škytnutí, škytavka
hide* [haid] schovat
hole [həul] díra, dírka
homemade [həumeid] domácí (doma vyrobený)
hood [hud] kapuce, čepeček
hug [hag] obejmout
huge [hju:dž] obrovský
hurry [hæri] pospíchat
in the traffic [in ðə træfik] v dopravním provozu
instead [insted] místo toho
join in [džoinin] připojit se, přidat se k někomu
knock [nok] klepat
leap* [li:p] vyskočit
leap* out of bed [li:p aut əv bed] vyskočit z postele
letterbox [letəboks] schránka na dopisy
light* [lait] svítit
Little Red Riding Hood [litl red raidiŋ hud] Červená Karkulka
log [log] špalek, poleno
meanwhile [mi:nwail] mezitím, zatím
move [mu:v] přesunout (se), přestěhovat (se)
mumble [mambl] zamumlat
mutter [matə] zamumlat
nasty [na:sti] odporný, velice nepříjemný
notice [nəutis] všimnout si
oily [oili] podlézavý, úlisný
once upon a time [wans əpon ə taim] kdysi
pack [pæk] sbalit, zabalit
paw [po:] tlapa, packa
43

pickle [pikl] nakládaná zelenina
piece of grass [pi:s əv gra:s] stéblo trávy
pluck [plak] utrhnout
pounce [pauns] vrhnout se na, přepadnout
pudding [pudiŋ] nákyp, pudink, moučník
puff along [paf əloŋ] funět
put* into action [put intu ækšn] uskutečnit
put* on [put on] obléct, navléct, nasadit
ring*[riŋ] zvonit, zazvonit
root [rut] kořen
rumble [ramble] zařvat, zahřmět
run* [ran] běžet, utíkat
rush [raš] spěchat
scatty [skæty] roztržitý
search [sə:č] pátrat, prohledat
see* [si:] vidět
sensible [senzibl] rozumný, vnímavý
set* off [set əv] vydat se (na cestu)
settle down [setl dəun] usadit se
sewing machine [səuiŋ məši:n] šící stroj
silly [sili] hloupý
skip [skip] poskok, skok
snatch [snæč] popadnout, chňapnout
sneak away [sni:k əwei] odplížit se, tajně se odkrást
snore [sno:] chrápat
sort [so:t] druh
spring* [spriŋ] vyskočit
spy [spai] sledovat někoho
squeeze [skwi:z] nacpat, vmáčknout
stammer [stæmə] koktat
sticky [stiki] lepivý, ulepený
stout [stəut] černé pivo
straight [streit] přímo
suddenly [sadnli] najednou, náhle
44

supper [sapə] večeře
swallow [swoləu] spolknout
swirl [swirl] vířit
switch off [swičəv] zhasnout
tart [ta:t] koláček, dortík, zákusek
tickle [tikl] polechtat
torch [to:č] baterka
tumble out [tamble əut] vypadnout
tummy [tami] břicho
wake up* [weikap] probudit se
warm [wo:m] teplý
wave [weiv] mávat
wear* [weə] nosit na sobě
whistling [wisliŋ] hvízdající
woodcutter[wudkatə] dřevorubec

3 LIST OF IRREGULAR VERBS
45

be
creep
feel
give
grow
have
hide
leap
light
put
ring
run
see
spring
wake
wear

was, were
crept
felt
gave
grew
had
hid
leapt, leaped
lit
put
rang
ran
saw
sprang
woke
wore

been
crept
felt
given
grown
had
hidden
leapt, leaped
lit
put
rung
run
seen
sprung
woken
worn

IV. CONCLUSION
This thesis was written to show a variety of possibilities of using English fairytale for purposes of making lessons of English in Czech school more interesting for its
students. It should also give pupils more space to use their fantasy and imagination
within the learning in the class. The teacher’s book suggests various ideas how to use
46

the text of the Little Red Riding Hood for explaining grammar, developing the pupils´
speaking skills and pronunciation as well as widening their active vocabulary. The
reason for using the fairy-tale in lessons of English at Czech schools may be an effort to
reach diversity in a class and to motivate the learners. Using fairy-tale should lead in a
communicative attitude that reminds them about their childhood when they were used
to listen to the fairy-tales and speak about them subsequently.
There are many alternatives of using an English text for teaching purposes and
this work can’t include all of them. The activities and instructions are general and can
be applied on whichever fairy-tale or story that corresponds with students´ abilities. The
conditions of teaching are different in every class. If the teacher will use this teacher´s
book in his/her class, he should take the reality and overall atmosphere of the class into
consideration and adapt the activities to serve his/her purposes.
The main focus is on improving speaking skills rather than extensive explaining
grammar because this study is meant to be an addition to a common work with a text
book. There is a presumption that students are aware of some grammar rules and it was
practised when working with the textbook, workbook and other materials.
The work has been divided into six units after evaluating the length of the fairytale. It is possible for the teacher who will use this work to divide every unit into
several lessons and make it appropriate to the level of the knowledge of his/her
students, their age, interest and discipline. The important parts of this work are also
English-Czech wordlist, list of irregular verbs and appendices.
For teaching a foreign language successfully, the teachers should not forget it is
not enough to have a good knowledge of the subject taught but also the attitude is very
important. A good teacher is that one who is kind, enthusiastic, understanding and fair.
Teaching children is not only passing them the knowledge, it should also mean teaching
them how to be good people. And that is possible only by being good to them.

V. RESUMÉ
Cílem této bakalářské práce bylo vytvoření didaktické příručky k textu
pohádky ,,Červená Karkulka”. Autorka v ní prezentuje možnosti využití anglického
textu pohádky pro doplnění výuky anglického jazyka na českých školách. Metody zde

47

uvedené mohou být s obměnami použity pro práci s různými věkovými skupinami,
především však pro mírně až středně pokročilé žáky ve věku 9 – 11 let.
Na základě jedné z nejznámějších pohádek - ,,Červená Karkulka” vznikla
příručka pro učitele, kde jsou popsány aktivity, které mají přispět k obohacení výuky
anglického jazyka komunikativním a tvořivým přístupem. Účelem je zaujmout a
motivovat žáky, aby se pro ně výuka cizího jazyka stala zábavou.
Tato práce je pojímána jako doplnění práce s učebnicí angličtiny, pracovním
sešitem a dalšími doplňkovými materiály, ale ne však jako samostatná učebnice
angličtiny.

The aim of this bachelor thesis was creating a didactic textbook referring to the
text of the fairy-tale. The author presents in it the possibilities of using the English text
of a fairy-tale for amendment the English language teaching at Czech schools. If
modified the methods mentioned, they can be used for working with various age
groups, mainly with students of advanced or intermediate level and age from 9 to 11.
Based on one of the most popular fairy-tales “The Little Red Riding Hood” a
didactic book was developed to be used by teachers. Activities that appear there should
contribute to enriching teaching/learning of English with communicative and creative
approach. The purpose is to make the pupils interested in and motivate, so that they
perceive the learning of foreign language as an entertainment.
This work is meant to be used as an additional material and it should be used
together with other facilities as textbook, workbook and other additional texts. This
textbook should not be used as the only source for teaching.

VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anglicko-český slovník: Školní. Havlíčkův Brod, Fragment, 1999.

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Brumfit, Ch. Communicative Methodology in Language Teaching: The Roles of
Fluency and Accuracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Čáp, J., Mareš, J. Psychologie pro učitele. Praha: Portál, 2001.
Harmer, J. How to Teach English. Harlow: Longman, 1998.
Kolsawala, H. “Teaching Vocabulary Through Rhythmic Refrains in Stories.” In
Rixon, S. Young Learners of English: Some Research Perspectives. England:
Longman, 1999, p. 18-31.
Phillips, S. Young Learners. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Řešetka, M. Anglicko-český, česko-anglický slovník. Olomouc, Fin Publishing, 2003.
Rivers, W.M., Temperley, M.S. A Practical Guide to the Teaching of English as a
Second or Foreign Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.
Ross, T. Little Red Riding Hood. London: Puffin Books, 1978.
Scott, W.A., Ytreberg, H. Teaching English to Children. New York: Longman, 1990.
Slattery, M. Oxford Basics for Children: Vocabulary Activities. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2004.
Soar, L., Soar, J. Headway Elementary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Soar, L., Soar, J. New Headway English Course. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2000.
Swan, M., Walter, C. How English Works: A Grammar Practice Book.. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2002.
Ur, P. Teaching, Listening, Comprehension. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1984.
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Internet pages:
CliffsNotes.com. Cognitive Development: Age 7–11. [on line]. Science. [quoted: 9
Aug2007].<http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/topicArticleI
d-26831,articleId-26782.html>.

VII. APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1

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Task: underline the verbs in past tense
One fine afternoon in August, the little girl’s mum packed some of Grandma’s
favourite things in a bag: some homemade tarts and pickles, a bottle of stout, and
the paper with the weekend television programmes in it. Little Red Riding Hood
set off on her weekly visit to Grandma’s house. Her parents walked down to the
bottom of the field with her.
“Hurry straight to Grandma’s,” they called, waving goodbye.
“Don’t play about on the way, and don’t lose yourself in daydreams!”
The little girl skipped along, whistling silly tunes.
Suddenly she saw a huge dog, fast asleep under a tree. The dog was really a
WOLF, although Red Riding Hood didn’t know that. Plucking a piece of grass,
she tickled the wolf on the nose. He opened one beady eye.

APPENDIX 2
The wolf __________ Grandma’s doorbell. Grandma had just settled down
to __________ the news.

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“Who’s there?” she muttered, not happy at having to ___________ again.
Squeezing his nose through the letterbox, the wolf used his squeakiest
voice, “Tis I, Little Red Riding Hood!”
Grandma’s face lit up.
“__________, dear!” she cried, throwing open the door.
The wolf pounced through the open door, and ___________ Grandma in
one gulp, for she was a very little old lady. Hiccupping gently, the wolf
__________the second part of his plan into action. He trotted upstairs to
the bedroom, ____________ Grandma’s biggest night things, and
___________ into bed to wait for Red Riding Hood.
He felt very silly ___________ like that, but he had to _____________ an
old lady.
Task: use these words to complete the text:
put
look like
sprang
dressed up
come in
swallowed
get up
put on
watch
rang

APPENDIX 3
“Picture of the Wolf”

52

APPENDIX 4
(split the sentences)
LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD KNOCKED AT GRANDMA´S DOOR.

53

THE WOLF CALLED RED RIDING HOOD FROM UPSTAIRS TO
GO TO THE BEDROOM.
RED RIDING HOOD WENT TO THE BEDROOM, AND JUMPED
ONTO THE BED.
SHE ASKED HIM: “WHY DO YOU HAVE SUCH BIG EARS?”
THE WOLF ANSWERED: “ALL THE BETTER TO HEAR YOU WITH,
MY DEAR!”
THEN SHE ASKED: “ WHY DO YOU HAVE SUCH BIG EYES?”

HE ANSWERED: “ALL THE BETTER TO SEE YOU WITH!”

RED RIDING HOOD TOUCHED HIS HUGE, HAIRY PAW, AND
ASKED: “WHY DO YOU HAVE SUCH BIG HANDS?”
“ALL THE BETTER TO HUG YOU WITH”, ANSWERED THE WOLF.

RED RIDING HOOD SAW HIS TEETH AND ASKED: “AND
GRANDMA, WHY DO YOU HAVE SUCH BIG TEETH?”
“ALL THE BETTER TO EAT YOU WITH”, HOWLED THE WOLF,
JUMPED OUT OF THE BED, AND SWALLOWED HER IN ONE
GULP.

APPENDIX 5
Task: put all the words from the text into the right columns:
Meanwhile, the woodcutter, worried by his daughter´s long absence, was
searching the woods for her.

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He lit his way with the torch he got for Christmas, and he carried his big
axe in case he met anything nasty.
Peeping through Grandma´s open door, the woodcutter spied the wolf,
snoring gently on the floor. He also saw the wolf´s huge tummy. Realising
what had happened, the woodcutter leapt forward, bringing his axe down
with a stunning blow on the wolf´s head.
Nouns
Adjectives
Pronouns
Numerals
Verbs
Adverbs

meanwhile

Prepositions
Conjunctions

55

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