Abstract:
In the past the proponents of different pedagogies were bitterly critical of methods
their opponents advocated. Bloomfield’s words: “errors should be avoided like
sin”, and Wilga Rivers’ branding of learners coached on Audio lingal lines as
“trained parrots” prove this. However the healthy orientation that came in to
existence later: eclectic approach (V.J. Cook in West) has enabled language
teachers to use combinations of different pedagogies either in original or modified
form. Present technique is a modified form of a strategy recorded in
Hithopadeshaya. It defines how story telling was used successfully to educate 3
sons of the king Amarashakthi who were found to be very low in intelligence.
Despite this weakness the princess were able to grasp the concepts relevant to the
complex items taught, because of the story element used to put those across. Thus,
in the case of the princess story telling was a strategy used to overcome a weakness
inherent in the princess, namely low intelligence. Presenter used the some device
to tide over a difficulty specific to English language. For instance, the use of
linguistic items such as “had”, “would” etc. to refer to concepts of present or future
relevance, completely disorientates L2 learners as those are normally associated
with acts or states related to pat. However, if these complex grammar patterns are
couched in stories or anecdotes the learning task becomes simple as the story
enables the learner to understand the principal characteristics of the message. This
understanding or in other words this knowledge is used later to justify the deviant
features of the complex grammar patterns. Apart from facilitating comprehension
the technique offers another advantage. Stevick’s assertion that “bringing back one
item of an image tends to bring back the other items of the same image” suggests
that ability to recall the anecdotes because of their interesting features helps recall
the language used to explain those as well. Constant recollections helplearners
grasp the meaning of the patterns firmly. This technique was tried out successfully
at universities of Kelaniya, Colombo, and Moratuwa and in language classes of
National Youth Center, Maharagama.
