Fairy tales and teaching language in multicultural schools
Submitted by:
Smaragda Papadopoulou
Abstract:
For a long time, fairy tales were connected with the younger ages. Today’s young adults seem to continue to relate with fairy tales through new narratives which incorporate fairy tale elements into the modern world. In today’s young adult literature, these elements include the truly diachronic and archetypal such as the hero’s journey as well as remnants of a mindset that has long been discarded yet remains strong through societal conditioning, Fairy tales are a creative teaching tool in multilingual and a multi cultural classroom A study through the most acclaimed of the young adult titles that are dominated by fairy tales, would allow us to examine the options that teachers choose in order to teach language, face diversity and focus on students’ global identity Such a literary situation would approach both the books and the teaching methods of using fairy tales in multicultural settings. Bibliotherapy, role play, dialogues and creative storytelling are examined in teaching and learning strategies. This study would allow us to discern the fairy tale patterns that are most relevant to teaching literature and uncover the heterogeneous fairy tale components that remain diachronic to today’s social and personal problems of the students.