Fuyuhiko Sekido
Introduction
This paper will describe a successful way to use The Great Gatsby in the language classroom. When literature is used in the language classroom in Japan, typical Japanese teachers compel learners to translate English sentences into Japanese. However, this method often is ineffective and often causes students to lose interest in English because this style of learning is uninteresting to many learners. On behalf of that, the presenter uses two textbooks, the original of The Great Gatsby and a retold version, i.e. a graded reader. This means learners read and compare both of them. Learners try to discover linguistic differences, not just to understand the story well, but also to compare the different style of language between authentic English in the original and the retold version. Through use of other materials, learners can use all four skills, reading, speaking, listening, and writing as activities. The presenter will describe the procedure in detail, show what materials and activities will be successful, and how to manage the time. This paper is a practical report about activities with The Great Gatsby he actually conducted in 2009.
Class & Course
I used The Great Gatsby at two different universities. One is Aoyama Gakuin University, SIPEC, which stands for School of International Politics, Economics and Communication. These are 2nd year students and they have four required English lessons a week. One of the four is my class, Reading, specifically, Reading IV for the fall term. This class is for students majoring in International Politics. There are 30 students in the class, 10 men and 20 women. The other one is Dokkyo University, FILA, which stands for Faculty of International Liberal Arts. Students are in their 3rd or 4th year at the university. This class is called English Seminar I for spring term, and an elective class. There are other English Seminar classes which are taught by other lecturers, and students can take them if they desire. There are 15 students in this class, 7 men and 8 women. Students who belong to both classes, Aoyama and Dokkyo, are in general good at English. They are high intermediate level learners and several of them can be considered exceptionally advanced.
The important point is that both classes are not “literature” courses, but “English” courses. Therefore I did not use Gatsby for the entire 90 minutes. If these classes were “literature” courses, I would use only Gatsby. However, the situation was different, so Gatsby was only one element of the teaching material. In these lessons students have two different parts: the first part is for 45 minutes, focusing on reading newspapers with exercises, and the other part is for 45 minutes using Gatsby.
Why Gatsby?
Why did I choose Gatsby? Aren’t there other choices? Do I have specific reasons? There are several specific reasons for using Gatsby. Briefly speaking, on a personal level, Gatsby is good literature. It has several excellent points as teaching materials for English, especially high intermediate students. When I use Gatsby, I can use two different texts, the original book and a retold book, i.e. a graded reader. The original text of Gatsby is difficult to comprehend because of numerous difficult words, so it’s a challenge for them. In addition, as the story dramatically changes after Chapter 3, it is difficult to understand the entire story in a few pages at Chapter 1. In this sense, Gatsby is categorized as a “difficult book”. Actually, it is somewhat difficult even for advanced learners. One of my friends, who is an English teacher at a university, said, “I gave up after reading just one page.” Some readers who have already read Gatsby might agree with this opinion. Therefore, if students are forced to read only the original text in class and make sentence by sentence translations into Japanese, they will definitely hate the book and the lecturer. That’s why two different types of texts, original and retold, are needed. The simplified text helps the students' understanding.
The vocabulary level for the graded reader is Level 5, which is Intermediate and the second highest of six levels. This level is easy to read for high intermediate students, but not too easy. In fact, “not too easy” is important. For example, a retold version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is Level 2. In other words, this is too easy and too much is omitted, compared to the original. In addition, the original is so long and difficult to read because it includes lots of slang or southern dialects. In that case, it might not be meaningful for students to compare both texts. In addition, it’s not suitable for my classes. From this point of view, I can say Gatsby has a suitable level, which means a retold is understandable, and the original is challenging for my students.
Gatsby has about 200 pages, 9 chapters in the original, and about seventy pages, 11 chapters in the retold. Therefore students can read 1 chapter per 1 lesson, so it’s a good pace for students. Actually, my students could finish their reading in both classes during each semester.
Furthermore, Gatsby also has a good point for students, its excellent story. In Gatsby the story goes on like a detective story. So students are motivated to discover, “What will happen next?” And it has a complicated love story like a Japanese TV drama, which means students can feel thrill and excitment when they read the book. In addition, it has its controversial ending. In the end, Gatsby was killed by George Wilson, and Tom and Daisy ran away from the situation. So these elements stimulate students’ interests. In other words, they have something to express about what they've read. Therefore reading Gatsby really creates an atmosphere that motivates students.
Text
Choosing suitable textbooks, including their prices, is an important responsibility for lecturers. The original text of Gatsby is part of the Penguin Popular Classics Series, which is just 400 yen. A retold text is published by Macmillan, and it is 1,200 yen for the book with 2 CDs or 800 yen with no CD. The prices for both texts are reasonable so students can buy both of them with no complaints and use them at the same time for the lessons. If the prices are too expensive, it will cause resentment. Owing to the good prices, students can have two texts and compare them in lessons. Therefore, comparing and contrasting the different expressions used in the same scene can be done and is one of the main activities.
Procedure
The procedures were as follows:
1) Pre-reading with the worksheet * See Appendix Students read both textbooks with the worksheet before they come to class. In a sense, this pre-reading is homework. As I’ve already said, they read both texts, which means they read the same chapter through two texts. What they do with the worksheet is to make a summary, take notes about the most memorable scene, find differences between the two books, pick up difficult words and write some comments about my questions. Especially, making a summary and finding differences are important because students will do short presentations or group discussions based on them. If they have no writing and no opinions, they will be wasting their time.
2) Small presentation: ex. Summarize the story, the most memorable scene, etc. Based on their sheet, students make small groups, basically 4 students to a group, and do presentations in English about the summary and the most memorable scene. They can compare and share their ideas through this presentation.
3) Vocabulary quiz in small groups Students also take notes about some words they felt difficult. So, like 2), they can do quizzes in small groups. Of course, “difficult” has a different meaning for each student, but they can share their ideas doing this activity.
4) Group discussion → What differences did you find when you compared the original to the retold?
Like the above activities, they can discuss differences they found between the two texts, based on their sheet. Then, I also ask questions to discuss the chapter, some scenes or expressions. For example, in Chapter 5, the question is like this: “If you choose three key words in this chapter, what would they be? Could you find them now? I’ll give you a few minutes, so please read again and try to find them.” After a few minutes, they talk about the topic in small groups. And then, I’ll give them some examples. Of course, there can be several acceptable answers. The first one is rain. In this story rain is related to important scenes, like Gatsby’s funeral. The second one is clock. Clock is related to time, and in Gatsby, the narrator, Nick says his famous phrase, “you (=Gatsby) cannot repeat the past.” So clock might represent Gatsby’s sense of time. The third one is voice, especially Daisy’s vice. In a later chapter, Gatsby says, “Her voice is full of money.” So this image already appeared in this chapter. Similar to these, I’ll explain or give them some hints or comments to understand the story.
5) Peer review
Finally, students exchange their papers and evaluate their writing.
Evaluation
After class I collect and check the worksheet and evaluate it. Students are given several points, depending on their understanding of the text. The points are counted as “Participation” points, and they are included in the total evaluation.
Final report & Final quiz
These two activities are for the end of the term. These are counted as bigger points than the usual worksheets, but their final grades are calculated with the newspaper reading.
Final Report
The students write their opinions by answering the Final Questions: “Now we’ve finished reading The Great Gatsby, so the following are our final questions.” They use A4 sized paper and write about 350 words in English. These are the questions:
1) What was the most memorable scene in this book? Why did you think so?
2) Was Gatsby really great? Why or why not?
3) What did you learn from this book, The Great Gatsby?
4) Finally, is The Great Gatsby a masterpiece? Why or why not?
5) Can you create your own questions related to the book?
They can choose one or two questions and write about them. The following response is taken from a student:
“… I think Gatsby was great and he felt happy at the last. He accomplished to stick to his ideal “Daisy”. Nobody can imitate his life. I think not only Gatsby but also all characters are lacking in something else. For example, Nick was passion, Gatsby was reality, Daisy was fixation, Tom was composure, and Jordan was honesty. However, this story becomes realistic one through these deficiencies. We cannot regard it as just a daily life about wealthy people. It may happen something such as the book “The Great Gatsby” around us, so it attracts us and be acclaimed as one of the best books in 20 century.”
Final Quiz
Students also did a Final Quiz during the last lesson. There are two types of questions. First, Yes / No questions are given to check their reading ability. A retold book includes these kinds of questions for supplemental exercises, so some of them are chosen for this quiz. They are basically to check understanding of the story and characters using true or false questions or to rearrange the sentences based on time order in the story. The other one is open ended questions for writing ability. The question is:
If you made the film The Great Gatsby in Japan (or for this class), who would be Gatsby, Nick, Daisy, Tom, Jordan, Wilson, Myrtle and some of the other characters? Where is the main location? What kind of music or songs would you use as the main theme? Write some ideas for your film.
The following is taken from one of the students:
Gatsby → Takuya Kimura
Nick → Satoshi Tsumabuki
Tom → Ebizo Ichikawa
Daisy → Kyoko Fukada
Jordan → Naomi Kawashima
George → Youichi Nukumizu
Myrtle → Sayaka Aoki
Place & Music→ Ashiya (Kobe) & Miyuki Nakajima
After answering the quiz, students really talked about their ideas and asked each other, “What’s your idea?” I’m quite sure that it’s a good chance to express themselves in English.
Further Materials & Comments
Through this paper, I showed the procedure, “An Effective Way to Use The Great Gatsby in the Language Classroom”. As I’ve already mentioned, Gatsby is an excellent material as teaching materials of English for several reasons. And there are lots of supplemental materials about Gatsby. The following items also allow us to create some more activities.
1) Audio Books
Audio Books are CDs or MP3s with passages being read aloud. They can be used as a listening activity. In some of them the whole passages are recorded, and in others a summarized story is recorded. Depending on the purpose of the activity, they can be used to compare the summary to the students’ summary.
2) YouTube
In YouTube, some videos related to Gatsby can be found. Especially, one animation is really excellent because it covers the entire story in just 5 minutes. Showing this video allows students to understand the basic story easily. The following is the URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-Q2sBrFEME
3) Two movies
There are several movies based on Gatsby. Among them, the one made in 1974, whose main actor (Gatsby) is Robert Redford, is highly regarded and its DVD is easy to obtain. In 2000 a new version for TV drama was made in England, and its DVD has been released. The actor is not Redford, but it reflects the original story better than the previous one.
4) Takarazuka DVD
In 2008, Takarazuka, Japanese musical group, which consists of only women, performed their musical, “The Great Gatsby”. The public performance was recorded and it is now available on DVD. Some scenes are omitted or changed, so it is interesting to compare it to the original story, especially after reading the book.
5) Three Japanese translations
In Japan, The Great Gatsby has been translated into Japanese seven times. Three of them, by Takashi Nozaki, Haruki Murakami and Takayoshi Ogawa, are famous and still available. Those three can also be available as paperbacks. From the language’s point of view, it might be interesting to compare each of them.
6) Readers’ guide
As the other famous literary works, there are several Readers’ guides about Gatsby. These books point out and suggest several hints and comments to study or analyze. So some of them could be useful to help students understand the text. They also have good questions for students.
Comment from a student:
The following is a comment from one of my students:
“I learned how to read novel. Before this class started, I had never read novels in English. English reports or newspapers were simple and easy to understand, but novel was different. I realized I need to think personal mind and author’s idea behind the sentences. It was hard but interesting.”
This comment confirms that The Great Gatsby can be used to encourage students to effectively further their English studies.
Worksheet for reading The Great Gatsby
Date: ＿＿ /＿＿ /＿＿ , Class:___________ Seat No.__________
Student Number ___________ Name ___________
Today’s Chapter: Chapter ___________
Summary: _____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
For you what was the most important or memorable scene? Why did you think so?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
For Evaluation:
Partner’s evaluation: English： A B C D Contents: A B C D
P’s comments: _____________________________________________________________________________
Worksheet for reading The Great Gatsby
What differences did you find when you compared the original to the retold?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Difficult words for you
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Questions and Further Comments
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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