4. Introducing The Oxford Bookworms Library.pdf

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INTROD U CI NG T HE O xFO R D
B OOkWORms L IBR A RY
THE FICTION LIBRARY
FACTFILES
Series Editor: Jennifer Bassett
What makes a good Bookworm story?
Good storytelling. Of course, graded language
(using language accessible to the learner) is
both necessary and important; but equally
necessary and important is good storytelling.
The rules of good writing apply just as much to
graded readers as to any other kind of literature
– achieving a balance between narrative and
dialogue, using light and shade in the narrative
structure, working in unobtrusive cultural
glosses. Bookworms take great care with
• continuity, pace, and balance (no loose ends,
clear plot signals)
• density of information (the right amount of
detail, not too much, not too little)
• characterisation (characters you can like,
sympathize with – or hate!)
• suspense and curiosity (what happens next?)
‘Try to leave out the part that readers tend to
skip,’ wrote Elmore Leonard, a famous crime
novelist, in his
Ten Rules of Writing.
And that’s what Bookworms do. They use
language economically, within well- constructed
narrative frameworks, to tell good stories, which
will keep the reader turning the pages.
What’s in the Fiction Library?
FACTFILES
FACTFILES
The new edition of the Fiction Library retains
the story texts unchanged, and offers a wide
choice of fiction:
FACTFILES
• over 190 titles, in seven genres
• adaptations of classic and modern fiction
FACTFILES
• stories written especially for the series
• collections of short stories at all Stages
FACTFILES
• graded at seven language Stages
• many titles suitable for younger learners
FACTFILES
What’s in a fiction Bookworm?
Every Bookworm is designed to help the reader
get the most out of the reading experience.
The story introduction
This short text on the first page is designed to
draw the reader into the story. It sets the context,
introduces the characters, hints at the plot, and
leaves the reader wanting more.
The glossary
Definitions of any vocabulary outside the
language syllabus for the level of the story.
Before, While, After Reading Activities
See page 12 for a description and examples.
About the Author
A description of the author’s life and works.
The route to success in reading
Enjoyment is the key to success in extensive
reading. Once a student has read, understood,
and enjoyed one story, they are much more
likely to want to go on and read another. Success
and enjoyment are strong motivators. Nothing
succeeds like success!
§§§
How does fiction help learning?
A story creates a new world, an alternative
reality, and this in turn creates a rich context for
language activities to draw on. Every narrative
has hidden texts, for example:
• conversations that were not recorded (What
was said behind those closed doors?)
• the viewpoint of a character who is not the
narrator (What
was she thinking when her
son returned after twenty years?)
• the dramatic event that took place in the past
and is not described (What
did Aunt Ada see
in the woodshed that day?)
Stories provide an infinite resource for meaningful
language work, and the more students read, the
more they will have to talk and write about.
The Oxford Bookworms Collection
© Oxford University Press
For advanced students able to read ungraded
texts, Bookworms offers
The Collection,
volumes of short stories by well-known authors,
both classic and modern. Texts are not abridged
or adapted in any way, but have been selected
to be accessible for language and content. Each
volume has notes and questions to help students
in their understanding and appreciation.
For full details of this series see the
Oxford
Bookworms Library Catalogue.
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WORLD
sTORIEs
Series Editor: Jennifer Bassett
FACTFILES
The language of World stories
English is now a global language, known as
• EIL (English
as an International Language),
or
• ELF (English
as a Lingua Franca).
There are also many varieties of English in use,
and native-speaker models of standard British
or American English are often irrelevant. One
aim of Bookworms World Stories is to introduce
students to different World Englishes, giving
them within a graded text a gentle exposure
to some elements of variation. For example,
in dialogue sometimes non-standard forms are
used: leaving out auxiliary verbs such as
am, are,
is, do, will;
using
isn’t it?
as a universal tag, and
so on. There are also words that are only found
in a particular variety of English, for example,
kraal
(South African English), or
fullas
(New
Zealand English).
What are World stories?
They are collections of adapted short stories
by writers from around the world, wherever
English is used as a first language, for example, in
Australia, New Zealand, or a second language,
for example, in countries in Asia and Africa.
World Stories are the latest addition to the
Bookworms Library. Their aim is to bring the
best of the world’s stories to the English language
learner, and to celebrate the use of English for
storytelling all around the world.
The cultures of World stories
One of the pleasures of reading fiction is the
cross-cultural dimension – meeting people and
places, contexts and cultures outside one’s own
world. A new feature in World Stories is that
each story has an introduction, which anticipates
questions like these in the reader’s mind:
• Where are we? (Which
country are we in? In
this century? The last century?)
• Who is the narrator? (Is
the person telling the
story female, male, a child, an adult?)
• What is the context? (Poverty,
marriage, war,
jealousy, gratitude, baldness . . .)
These introductions help students to orientate
themselves to the text before they start reading.
The illustrations of World stories
Whenever
possible,
these are drawn by
artists from the same
continent or culture as
the stories themselves.
In a volume of African
stories,
Dancing with
Strangers,
for example,
the artists are from
Kenya, Uganda, and
Ghana.
Illustration by Meshack Asare for
The Rubbish Dump
BOOkWORms CLUB
Reading Circles
Editor: Mark Furr
The students’ books are at three levels:
•
Bookworms Club Bronze
(Stages 1 & 2)
•
Bookworms Club silver
(Stages 2 & 3)
•
Bookworms Club Gold
(Stages 3 & 4)
Each contains seven short stories specially chosen
for Reading Circles from other Bookworms.
They have different themes, and proven success
in generating discussion. In Reading Circles,
everyone’s ideas are valued: there are no ‘right’
or ‘wrong’ answers when talking about stories.
The
Teacher’s Handbook
contains the Role
Sheets and all the necessary information for the
teacher. It is also available as a download from
<www.oup.com/elt/bookworms>.
Reading Circles are magic – they really do get
students talking in the classroom!
What are Reading Circles?
Reading Circles are small groups of students
who meet in the classroom to talk about
stories. Students read the story out of class and
prepare their Reading Circle role for classroom
discussion. There are usually six roles:
© Oxford University Press
“
Discussion Leader
Passage Person
Culture Collector
W
Word master
S
summarizer
C
Connector
Role Sheets with notes and questions help
students prepare for their discussions.
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FACTFILES
FACTFILEs
What’s new in Factfiles?
Factfiles have been rewritten for the 2008
edition. Why? Because of reasons like these:
• London now has the London Eye.
• Martin Luther King’s wife has died.
• The Asian tsunami joined the list of the
world’s disasters in 2004.
Times change, and Factfiles need updating with
new facts and new photos. These editions also
follow the format of the Fiction Library, with
• the same length of text for each Stage
• an introduction, to lead into the topic
• a full glossary
• new Before, While, After Reading activities
specially designed for non-fiction topics
(see left)
• author information
New Factfiles have audio recordings, and the
full range of support material – answers to the
activities in the books, activity worksheets,
comprehension tests, and multiple-choice tests.
Series Editor: Christine Lindop
What are Factfiles?
They are original readers on a range of non-
fiction topics, and follow the Stages of the
Bookworms syllabus. With high-quality colour
photographs and lively texts, Factfiles are ideal
for students who enjoy reading non-fiction.
FACTFILES
PLAYsCRIPTs
Series Editor: Clare West
What do Playscripts offer?
• an introduction, with background to the play
• performance notes, describing scenes, and
props and furniture needed
• a cast list of characters
• the playscript, with stage directions
• new Before, While, After Reading activities
• a glossary
• information about the playwright
• audio recordings for every title
What are Playscripts?
These graded texts of stage plays, both original
plays and adaptations of classics, are designed
for reading and performance. At Stages 1 or 2
of the Bookworms syllabus, they offer low-level
learners the chance to read or perform dramatic
works, but can also be used very effectively with
higher-level students. They are different from
other graded readers in that they
• use only direct speech
• are written to be read aloud or performed
• are good for kinaesthetic learners
• encourage physical activity in the classroom.
By providing an opportunity to focus on spoken
language, Playscripts help with many aspects
of speaking: stress, intonation, pronunciation,
elision, contraction, and fluency. Speeches in
the plays are kept as short as possible, to enable
memorization. This will also improve reading
strategies, helping students to process language
in chunks, rather than word by word.
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© Oxford University Press
I N T R O D U C I N G T H E O x F O R D B O O k W O R m s L I B R A RY
The Bookworms Activities
At the back of every Bookworm are language
activities, in three sections:
Before Reading,
While Reading,
and
After Reading.
They can be
used in class, or as homework or holiday tasks
by students reading alone. The activities are
graded for vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, to
the same language level as the story text.
Why have activities?
Some experts say that extensive reading is best
practised without follow-up work, as that can
take away students’ enjoyment of the reading.
Others say that follow-up work encourages
students’ interaction with the text and helps to
consolidate the subconscious learning that takes
place during extensive reading.
Bookworms Activities are intended to help the
student adopt a normal reader role – to engage
with the story, to interpret and to criticize, and to
make the text their own. Bookworms activities
aim to
• encourage prediction, both before and while
reading
• check understanding after reading
• elicit reader responses (oral and written) to
the content and themes of the story
• provide language work, within the context of
the story, on lexis, structure, and discourse
features of extended text.
What are the aims of the Activities?
Answers for the activities
Focus on language as text
In coursebook work, students get a lot of input
and practice at word, sentence, and paragraph
level, but much less exposure to extended texts.
Bookworms Activities often focus on language
as text – linking, reference, ellipsis, the many
ways sentences combine to form longer texts.
Answers for all activities, except open-ended
discussions, are in the
Teacher’s Handbooks.
Bookworms Activities are not tests, and often
there are no clear-cut ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers.
Many of the answers given are suggested or
model ones only, designed to give guidance to
the teacher when evaluating students’ work.
© Oxford University Press
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