The Value Of Tales & How It Can Be Cooperated In The Language Classroom

Tales are stories that being told to students that really give pleasure to them. Tales normally did not burden the students’ mind because the way the tales were written is much more relax than other academic stuff.

Normally, tales contain a lot of moral values. These moral values were important in order to educate the readers about something good to be done in life. It educates readers through the experience being told in the tales. Tales can make the readers to think about the characters in tales and choose to follow the characters or not. If the tales gives positive moral value, it will somehow help the readers to try to follow the good things from tales. It happened otherwise for those who know about the negative characters which tend to criticize and hate the negative characters. It helps readers to expose more with moral values that can be learn through tales.

Besides, tales can prevent students from doing such negative things in life like what had they learn in tales.

From my opinion, tales can be cooperated in language classroom by adding more tales in English syllabus. I do not think this kind of additional can increase the students’ burden. It was really helpful for them to learn tales in order to gain some lesson from it.

Besides, teachers can play their roles by using tales in their lesson. It will make teaching become more interesting. Teachers also can be story teller for student and for sure students like that way because they love to hear it instead of reading it from books.

Teacher also can make tales as reading texts in class. It is important to use it as reading texts because it much more exciting to read.

School also can play their roles by making some competition about tales. School can be the promoter for tales. School can create the culture to love tales or at least be familiar with tales. Good kind of rewards for winners will create better atmosphere for students to participate.

Teaching Idea

I feel teaching should be done in a creative way. Studying can never be boring if it is taught in a playful manner. One must understand that while introducing a new concept to children, some could have a hard time grasping it. These new concepts can be simplified by relating them with things that we do in our everyday life. Through role play a child can identify with the concept by being part of the making of that concept.

Here I will like to share a teaching idea that I obtain for the net. I had tried it out with my pupils and I found it interesting and meaningful to my pupils. They enjoyed the lesson and are able to understand well.

I introduced the concept of conjunctions to my pupils through an interesting activity that I had learned. I informed my pupils that conjunctions are words which join two sentences together. I divided my class into groups of three. One pupil had to make a sentence, the next pupil had to add on an entirely new sentence and the last pupil had to use a conjunction to combine the two sentences. The pupil who represents a conjunction has to join hands with the pupils representing the sentences by standing between them. While the other two stand on either side of him in a single chain.

Through this activity pupils had fun learning in a very enjoyable way. Try this idea with your pupils and look at their feedback. You will find that teaching is easy and fun.

A Ghost Story - "A Rose For Emily" by William Faulkner

I really like “A Rose for Emily” so I’m going to post again. After reading the story again and again,  and last night I started thinking of this story as a southern ghost story, given all of its eerie qualities and its focal position in the past. I think that the story is utterly haunted; reappearing words like “once been” emphasize the importance of the past from the very beginning to the end of this story which circulates in a sporadic time frame around a funeral and death. If we look in to the characters names, as we always do with Faulkner, we will notice that Emily’s last name, Grierson, almost contains the word eerie. Mentions of shadows, dust, and “a close, dank smell” are suggestive of life after death or an open coffin. Emily is described as submerged, perhaps like a ghost that lingers on earth unable to enter heaven. This could be one way I would support that the conflict of God and Satan, as I mentioned in my previous post, is present here because Emily is so much like a ghost trapped between these realms. One example of her being stuck in the middle is that she knows and is taught that every woman must marry yet she is unable to do so because her father denies her this opportunity.

I think all of the allusions to death and the afterlife have one very important objective here. Perhaps Faulkner, in his attempt to tell a story about the human experience, is demonstrating the inevitability of Miss Emily’s fate. She is predestined to be lonely, has been submerged by her father her whole life, and remains steadfast in her traditional ways, which no longer are valid in present Jefferson (exemplified by her refusal to pay taxes).

Faulkner wants us to recognize that Miss Emily is different and unusual. He describes her as “what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her.” We have to interpret this as Faulkners way of alluding to the uniqueness of Miss Emily’s existence. I believe this uniqueness forces the reader to relate Miss Emily to that of a ghost.

In every way Emily is a ghost. This story is of that ghost, that stranger, whose would have never been told nor know. Moreover, it’s as if the story itself is a ghost, one that is “on a paper of archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink,” at least I could have imagined it to be. In telling it, Faulkner is demonstrating his respect and offering tribute to Miss Emily’s experience. I think it symbolizes something quite simple actually, I think it’s like Faulkner communicating to this character via letter and on that letter it says,


Here is a rose for you Emily.
Love,
Faulkner.

Interesting right.

Try reading "A Rose For Emily" again as a ghost story, seeing how that changes things.

Have fun reading....

Local Twist To Shakespeare

The Star, Sunday 30 January 2011 stated that a school is showcasing its adaptation of old English plays with the objective of promoting an appreciation of literature. This news interest me where I as a TESL student will have to put myself interested in it in order to get my students to do so.

We know that literature was initially read and valued only by those enthusiasts and elites who excel in the areas of arts and language studies has gradually paved its way to become a more dynamic resource in other areas such as in second or foreign language teaching and learning, Mathematic and Geography to name a few. In the case of second and foreign language teaching and learning, for example, literature has been widely accepted as motivating materials, an access to other cultural background, a resource for language acquisitions and a medium to expand learners’ language awareness. At the same time, literature has also gained reputation to have a wider educational function that may trigger critical abilities increase emotional awareness that would assist in educating a person as a whole ( Lazar, 1999 ).

In relations to this, students from Ipoh International School’s (IIS) A-Level programme are on a mission: to share their love for Shakespeare with others. The 52 members of the school’s Shakespearean Theatre Club have been visiting schools around Ipoh, Perak to showcase their adaptation of Shakespearean plays, including Macbeth, The Tempest and Julius Caesar. This is a very good programmed to me where it can help to reawaken interest in the classics and to promote an appreciation of literature in English.

So why wait! Give them a call and help your students to get interested in Shakespearean text that had been remolded into a modern context language.  

7 Must-Read Malaysian Books

Conventional wisdom says that we Malaysians do not read.  I do agreed with it. It is just so difficult to get our kids to read. Oopps.... Not just our kids but even to said ourselves. But why not go further? Dive head first into the world of letters with our guide to must-read Malaysian literature! Here are the seven Malaysian literature that one must read.

Sajak-sajak Saleh: Poems Sacred and Profane
Salleh Ben Joned 

The cartoonist Lat famously remarked that meeting quirky poet, Salleh Ben Joned, was "like meeting Hang Jebat on his day off". Ever a black sheep, Salleh never gained a place among Malay-language literary circles, possibly because he was staunchly bilingual. This collection of poetry, now in its third edition, is serious, funny, and scatological - sometimes all three at once!

I Am Muslim
Dina Zaman 

This collection of essays was drawn from column veteran Dina Zaman's old space in Malaysiakini. As the title suggests, it is about Malaysian Muslims - specifically, it dwells in the left-of-centre, middle-class, Muslim women's sphere of experience. That alone makes it a worthy read. Dina Zaman is a riveting storyteller: watch out for "Doubling Gods", an account of her visiting a master bomoh.

Sejarah Melayu
Tun Sri Lanang 

If the classical Malay is too heavy-going for you, try C C Brown or John Leyden's translations. Both are adequate - although academics will quibble over the details - and allow you entry into an epic tale of supernatural swashbuckling, that begins with Alexander the Great and ends with the arrival those insidious, fair-skinned Feringgi: the Portuguese.

Where Monsoons Meet: A People's History of Malaya
Musimgrafik 

This comic-book history of Malaya was conceived and written by members of FUEMSSO (Federation of United Kingdom & Eire Malaysian & Singaporean Student Organizations), back in 1979, in the heydays of student activism and grandiloquent acronyms. Designed to help "young citizens to comprehend the issues ... that led to the formation of the Malaysian union", it is wry, progressive, and passionate, touching on areas - like communism and the Malayan Left - that history books today still fear to tread. And it's snarky. Sejarah is rarely this fun.

Kathakali
Uthaya Sankar SB 

The volume of 16 short stories for young adults is merely the latest in the long bibliography of the prolific, self-aggrandising Uthaya Sankar. He writes fiction exclusively in Bahasa - and, being ethnically Indian, that's weird for some people. In the 1990s, for example, Uthaya's insistence that the Malay language be known as an inclusive "Bahasa Malaysia" led to tussles with Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. He's an excellent tale-weaver; Amir Muhammad ranks him "among the finest writers in this country" .

Tangerin & Nikotin
Mimi Morticia 

This diminutive pocketbook of poetry comes to us courtesy of Sang Freud Press, a small publishing house that - along with several others - is pioneering a new, urban Malay-language idiom: uninhibited (whether in terms of subject matter or linguistic convention), syncretic (it borrows from English liberally), surreal and mischievous. Mimi Morticia's debut is all these things (Also try Sufian Abas's Kasut Biru Rubina).

Rojak
Amir Muhammad 

Amir Muhammad is one of the most interesting figures in Malaysian literature: a filmmaker, columnist, artist, publisher - it goes on. His latest fiction endeavour is the fruit of Amir's exploration of the British Council Malaysia's City of Shared Stories KL web project: it allows anyone to write a short story (1,600 characters or less) and affix this tale, via virtual pin, to anyway on a map of the Klang Valley. This collection of stories varies dramatically in terms of form and tone, and never feels repetitive or quotidian.

Hope that by reading this post, we will get one of this books and start reading.

Try reading it. It trully will be interesting!

" Potato People"

There are many lesson that can be learned from the novel, Potato People. Perhaps the most important is that we should never give up hope.

Patrick Flynne was a young orphan in Ireland during the time of great famine. He had to fend for himself. All around him were people suffering from the effects of the famine. Some of this people were nasty and took advantage of weaker people, but others were good. Patrick, like many other people, ate whatever he could find. Once he had to eat the rotten meat of a dead dog. Patrick saw his home in his village destroyed and burn down. He saw his best friend, Sean, being arrested. He dream of escaping to Amerika. We should never give up hope and must strive for a better life.

I have enjoyed reading the novel, ‘Potato People’. The story is interesting, and it has an important message. The story tells about the food famines during the Irish potato blight in 1840s. Its message is that we must control our destiny and work hard towards achieving a better life, like Patrick and Marie. They persevered and never gave up hope for a better life. In the end they settle down in California and became cattle ranchers. I am inspired by the story of their success.

The story is interesting and tells about the food famines during the Irish potato blight in 1840s. Many Irish wanted to migrate to the new world. Its message for it readers is that we must work hard towards achieving a better life, like Patrick and Marie. In the end, they settled down in California and became cattle ranchers. I am inspired by the story of their determination and success.

Potato People highlights the message of love. Sean showed his love for Patrick by turning up with the money for the ship tickets after having gone to great lengths to obtain the money. Patrick and Marie struggle together in a new country. Love blossomed between them for they shared difficult as well as happy times. Patrick showed his love for the poor and hungry when he welcomed them at his home in California. These characters portray the value of selfless love.

The character in ‘Potato People’ who is brave is Patrick. He showed a great courage by leaving Ireland for a new life in Amerika. Life was full of hardship. He endured the struggle and even joined the Union Army to fight against slavery. His courage paid off when he was promoted to the rank of Captain and had the respect of the people. After the war, he travelled a lot, experiences many dangers and finally, settled down in California.

Patrick and Marie show perseverance and determination to achieve a better life in America. Life in the new country was tough. Often, they had to go hungry. However, they persevered for they never gave up hope for a better future. After so much hardship, they settled down in California. Patrick married Marie and became a wealthy cattle rancher.

I have learnt an important lesson from ‘Potato People’. It is the effort taken in working towards a better future. During their early years in America, Patrick and Marie had to endure many years of hardship. However, the hope or a better life in a new country made them persevere. Their perseverance paid off for life become much better many years later. I have learnt that if one is determined to struggle, one can achieve one’s dreams for a better future.

The character I like most in ‘Potato People’ is Marie. She is intelligent, cheerful and determined. She remained cheerful despite the widespread hunger an uncertainty. Her intelligence save her and Patrick when she stopped him from revealing their identity to the soldiers. In New York, she was determined to make a better life for herself. Her struggle finally paid off when she married Patrick and they both settled down in California.

I like the character Sean. I think that he was very loyal to his village and he love the people very much. Although he stole from Mr Greystone, he did it because he felt that Mr Greystone was greedy and unfair by burning the village down. The money that he stole, he gave to Patrick and Marie so that they could go to America to lead a better life, a live that he could not live. He was punished for stealing the money, but he did it because he could not bear injustice.

The novel ‘Potato People’ has the message of loyalty for its readers. Sean and Patrick were loyal in their friendship with one another. Sean did not reveal the identity of Patrick and Marie to the soldiers. This was to save their lives. When Patrick saw Sean being led away in chains, he wanted to approach Sean, showing his loyalty. Fortunately, Marie saved his life by stopping him from doing so. Like them, we too, must be loyal to our friends.

The novel ‘Potato People’ brings attention to the value of love. Sean showed his love for Patrick by turning up with the money for the ship fare. Patrick and Marie struggled in the new country, sharing the hope for a better future. Love blossomed between them as they shared their hardships with one another. Patrick showed his love for the poor and hungry when he welcomed them at his ranch in California.

The title ‘Potato People’ is relevant to the novel. The story is about the ‘potato blight’ in Ireland in the 1840’s. the people who were victims of this famine were called the ‘Potato People’. They fed on whatever they could find, even decayed meat of dead animals. These people, like Patrick and Marie, saw emigration to the New World as an escape from the starvation and national chaos.

In the novel ‘Potato People’ I especially find the incident in the chapter ‘The Feast’ somewhat intriguing. When Patrick following Marie into the house full of food on the table, it seemed like they had wandered into a dream. This experience was somewhat exciting, yet was dangerous. Had they been caught, the story would have surely ended differently. Strangely, they found humour in narrowly escaping danger. This was both exciting and thrilling to me. It has taught me to strive hard to achieve my dreams.

"A Rose For Emily"

I absolutely LOVE this story. I had the chance to read A Rose for Emily during my TESL course in UPM. This story is written by William Faulkner. This is one of his best pieces. Faulkner's usage of symbolism in such a short piece was very well done. In third person narrative he clearly described a southern belle, named Miss Emily, and what it means to grow up with an image to uphold. However, the prestige that comes with the image can cause damage to one's life as seen in Miss Emily.


Life, love, and normality was left void in Miss Emily's life. As a member of the elite Grierson family, Miss Emily was isolated from the outside world and deprived of having an ordinary life. The same luxurious home that all the people in Miss Emily's neighborhood envied is symbolized as the torture chamber in which Miss Emily lived in for all her days. The home grew an identity to represent Miss Emily. The house is described as "an eyesore among eyesores" and Miss Emily is described in a much more detailed and grotesque image as being "bloated like a body long submeged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue." She is nearly described as a walking corpse. This also sheds light on how everyone in the community grew to view Miss Emily. Even though Miss Emily came from the reknowned Grierson family which symbolized the Southern romantic persona, Miss Emily became a burden on the town because she refused to tidy her home and pay her taxes.


In addition to life and normality, Miss Emily also forfeited love in her quest to uphold her family's name and prestige. When Miss Emily noticed the wandering personality of the only man she ever loved besides her father, Homer Barron, she bought arsenic and killed him. She kept his corpse in her bed where she slept laying next to him every night. This is the part of the story that always stuck with me. I always found it strangely interesting that she was comfortable and secure with a corpse laying next to her every night. I also wondered why Miss Emily felt that true love stopped with Homer Barron. This made me feel as though Miss Emily's only purpose in life was death, so that she could go back to the lifestyle that she knew best, one involving the warmth and comfort of her deceased love ones and deceased husband.


The third person narrative to explain the events surrounding Miss Emily gave a more interesting account of why Miss Emily lived the way she did and the absurdity of her actions. It also gives the feel of being on the outside looking in the way everyone in Miss Emily's town were positioned in viewing the actions that went on inside her home. From this point of view, the story is more shocking and mind-blowing. Faulkner did a superb job with offering the surprise through this person's perspective.


This is definitely a great read and I would recommend it to anyone. I'm happy I read it again.