Humanising Language Teaching
Year 4; Issue 6; November 02

by Claudette De Ville, English teacher, I.E.P.S.C.F.- Uccle, Belgium E-mail: clodeville@hotmail.com

This series of tales was broadcast on Radio Canada International in the early eighties.
When I first heard them, I found them so inspiring, magical, colourful and musical that I decided to share them with my students. I proceeded in the following way.

Level: upper-intermediate to advanced
Materials: - the recording
- optional: a copy of the transcription
Time: 2 or 3 sessions of approximately 60 minutes
Focus: - listening
- story telling/creating and drama
- vocabulary extension
Preparation: if possible, collect visual, audio and other sensory materials

Procedure

Session 1

• 1. Use some of the collected materials and/or play a relaxing music to have your students concentrate.

• The students listen to the first part of the tale twice (up to: “an old woman came along….”)

• After checking the global comprehension, ask the students to form groups, to imagine what happened from that point and to write it down. Tell them they will have to choose one of the versions (the recorded one included) and to role-play it.

• Each group makes a theatrical/dramatic reading of its creation.

• The groups prepare and perform their favourite version of the story.

Session 2

1. The students listen to the recording again and jot down specific words belonging to various semantic categories, such as:
   • animals
   • nature
   • weather
   • sounds
   • movements
   • feelings
   • etc.
2. They are given the transcription and they check their words.

Session 3

1. Without looking at the transcription, the students fill in a selected extract of the tale.
2. Ask the students if this tale evokes memories of their childhood or if it brings back some childhood memories or legends from their own cultures. Invite them to share these evocations with the group

Note:
This activity can be used in connexion with other themes, such as environment, Canada and its cultural background, myths and magic, etc…

Acknowledgments: Professor Cyrus Mac Millan - Radio Canada International

Radio Canada International presents some of the legends and folklore of ancient Canada, gathered and related anew
by Professor Cyrus Mac Milan

WONDER TALES

The cry of a loon sounds clear and plaintive across the still water of a northern lake. Mist hangs above the flat calm surface. As the shoreline blurs in the dusk, a hidden life in the forest takes on unimagined form. Only the loon is heard. But the soundless voices of the forest speak to their imagination and tell of rabbit, fox, otter, owl and raven, of changelings, giants and dwarfs, and of the people of ancient times who told to their children, stories of wonder, that were centuries old before the first white settlers learned them and taught them to their children in turn.
The loon heard them all… and now as the darkness creeps out from the forest he signals that the hour for their re-telling has come once more...

THE TALE OF ERMINE AND THE HUNTER

Far away in the Canadian North Country a hunter lived with his wife and children. They lived far from the other people, hut they were never lonely for they had much work to do. In winter the hunter and his wife and children lived on the fish and game he captured in the winter. In the springtime he gathered sap from the maple tree from which he made maple syrup and maple sugar with which to sweeten their food.

One day in summer, he found three small bears eating his stock of sugar. When he came upon them, his sugar was all gone and he was very cross. With a stout club, he killed the little bears and skinned them and dried their meat. But his wife said:

“No good can come of it. You should not have killed the three little bears for they were too young for slaughter!”

The next day the old bear came along looking for his lost children. When he saw their skins hanging up to dry he knew they had been killed by the hunter. He was very sad and angry and he called to the hunter:

"You... you have killed my little motherless cubs and in return for that wickedness, some night when you're off your guard, I will kill you and your wife and I will devour all your food! "

The hunter shot at him with his arrows but the arrows did not harm him for he was Brown Bear of the Stony Heart and he could not be killed by man. For many nights and days the hunter tried to trap him but he met with no success and each day he saw his store of food growing smaller for Bear of the Stony Heart stole it always in the night. One day in despair he resolved to look about him for someone who would tell him how to kill the bear.He went to the bank of the river and sat there in thought and smoked long at his pipe and he called to the God of the River and said:
“Oh River God! Help me to drown Bear when he comes to fish!”
The river came from the limestone country far back among the rocks and it was flowing rapidly to the sea. And the River God said:

“My water cannot tarry! There are millions of oysters down on the ocean shore waiting for shells and I am hurrying down there with lime to make them...”Then the hunter called to the spirit of the wind and he said: “Oh, Spirit of the Wind, stay here with me tonight and help me kill Bear of the Stony Heart. You can knock down great trees upon his back and crush him into the earth!”But the Wind Spirit said:

“I cannot linger, many ships rich with cargo lie silent on the ocean waiting to sail and I must hurry along with the Force to drive them”Then the hunter called to Storm Cloud, which was just then passing over his head and he said:

“Oh, Spirit of the Storm Cloud, stay here with me tonight and help me kill Bear of the Stony Heart for he seeks to destroy my children. You can send lightning and thunder to strike him dead”But the Storm Cloud said: “I cannot loiter on the way. Far from here there are millions of glades of corn and grass dying from thirst in the summer heat for I see the heat waves rising on the earth and I am hurrying there with rain to save them...”Then the poor hunter was in great sorrow for it seemed to him that no one would help him to rid the land of Bear of the Stony Heart. But as he sat wondering what he should do, an old woman came along...
“I am very hungry and tired for I have come far. Will you give me food and let me rest here a while?”“We have very little food, old woman, for Bear of the Stony Heart steals it from us nightly. But you may share with us what little we have.”And he went away and brought back to her a good fat meal. While she was eating her dinner he told her of his troubles with Bear, how no one would help him to get rid of the pest and that Bear could not be killed by man, and the old woman said:

“There is a little animal who can kill Bear of the Stony Heart. He alone can save you. You have done well to me. Here is a wand, which I will give you. Go to sleep here soon on the bank of the river. Wave this wand before you sleep and say what I shall teach you. And when you awake, call to you the first animal you see when you open your eyes. He will be the animal of which I speak, and he will rid you of the bear.”And she taught him a little rhyme and gave him a wand, which she took from the basket on her arm. Then she hobbled away.And the hunter knew that she was the weird woman of the Fairy Blue Mountain of whom he'd often heard. He marveled greatly.But he resolved to do as she had told him. After the old woman had gone, the man waved the little wand three times and cried:

“Animal, animal! Come from your lair! Help me to slaughter the old Brown Bear! Make with my magic a little white dart to pierce in the center old Bear's stony heart!”Three times he repeated the rhyme and then, he felt himself getting drowsy and sleep soon came upon him.He slept but a short time when the heat woke him up for the hot sun beat down on him. He rubbed his eyes and looked about him.Watching him from behind a tree was a little animal with a shaggy brown coat. ”Surely the weird fairy woman of the Blue Mountain has played a trick on me. That scraggy little animal with the dirty coat cannot kill the bear. But I will test her wand”
"Who are you?”
“I am Ermine”
“Are you the animal of which the fairy woman of the Blue Mountain has told me? ” “I am indeed the same. I have been sent to you to kill the Bear. And here I have the little darts made powerful because of your magic wand”
“Where are they?”
“Look here in my mouth! My sharp white teeth!”
“I see!! Then, quickly, to your task! ”
“Oh, not so fast! You must first pay me for my work!”
“What can I do for you?”
“I am ashamed of my dirty brown coat, which I have worn for a long time. You have great magic from the wand you received from the fairy woman of the Blue Hills. I want a sleek and shiny white coat, that I can wear always; for I want to be clean”
The man waved his wand again and wished what the animal had asked him...And at once the shaggy brown coat of Ermine was replaced by a sleek and shiny white coat, as spotless as the new snow in winter. “Now, will you be about your work?”

“I have one more condition to impose on you. You must promise never to kill a bear's young cub when they are still following their mother in the summertime. You must give them a chance to grow strong so they may be able to fight for their own lives.” And the man promised, placing his hand upon the wand to bind his oath.Then, when he looked again, ... the wand had disappeared from his hand. It had gone back through the air to the fairy woman of the Blue Hills...And then Ermine set out on his search for bear. The afternoon was very hot and the forest was still. And not a leaf or a blade of grass was stirring and there was not a ripple on the stream. The whole world was drowsy in the dry summer heat.But Ermine didn't feel the heat. He was in such high spirits because of his new white coat.Soon he came upon Bear, stretched out at full length on the bank of the river taking his afternoon nap, as was his custom after his fat midday meal. He was lying on his back and his mouth was wide open and he was snoring loudly like a waterfall.
“This is your last sleep, old Brown Bear, for you are a dangerous thief… You shall snore… no more! ”