Hiberno-English and The Teaching of Modern and Contemporary Irish Literature in An EFL Context
Hiberno-English and The Teaching of Modern and Contemporary Irish Literature in An EFL Context
Hiberno-English and The Teaching of Modern and Contemporary Irish Literature in An EFL Context
October 1997
Abstract
In this paper, we provide a brief historical, linguistic, and literary guide to Hiberno-Eng-
lish, or Irish English, for teachers of English as a Foreign Language who use literature in
their classes. We discuss the historical and social development of this dialect and relate it
to the works of such authors as Joyce, Synge and Kennelly. Then we describe certain lin-
guistic and cultural features of it which appear in literary texts and could lead to misinter-
pretations if they are not taken into account. Finally, we discuss how to use works written
in non-standard varieties of English, like Hiberno-English, in the classroom, basing our
discussion on an early twentieth century play, The Tinker’s Wedding by Synge, and a cur-
rent novel and film, The Snapper, by Doyle.
Key words: Hiberno-English, Irish Literature, Language and Literature, Literary Dialect,
Teaching Literature in EFL.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 4. HE in the EFL classroom:
2. Hiberno-English: context and history some pedagogical considerations
3. Features of Hiberno-English 5. Conclusion
in Irish literature References
(*) We would like to thank David Prendergast for his help on this article. He gave us sound
advice from beginning to end, and suffered through the reading of several previous ver-
sions. The positive aspects of the article are most likely due to us following his guidance,
while the negative aspects can probably be adduced to our failing to heed one or more of
his suggestions.
We would also like to thank Bruce Stewart and Richard Wall for answering our ques-
tions on Hiberno-English, Gaelic, Irish literature and Irish culture. Again, any misrepre-
sentations of the facts are strictly due to us.
38 Links & Letters 5, 1998 Anna Asián; James McCullough
1. Introduction
In our education and training as teachers of English, we become quite
familiar with the best-known and most influential varieties of English, such
as British and American English, along with the variety (or varieties) of
English we speak in our home country if it is also one in which English is
used as a lingua franca. However, we get little exposure to other lesser
known varieties of English. Because of this, we may feel comfortable teach-
ing British and American literature as well as our own national literature,
but when we face the task of teaching works from countries and regions
where a different variety of English is used, we might feel intimidated by
the language and pass over it, to concentrate solely on the literary aspects of
the works. Obviously, by doing so we are not getting all the meaning we
can out of the texts.
The reader of Irish literature1 will eventually encounter literary works
written in Hiberno-English (hereafter HE), which is the variety of English
most widely spoken in the Republic of Ireland and the one we will deal
with in this paper. In order to fully understand these works, s/he needs to
be aware of the fact that HE is characterized not only by a set of linguistic
features but also by the cultural and historical associations deeply embed-
ded in them. In addition, it is also characterized by irony and ambivalence,
which are fundamental aspects of discourse, both spoken and literary, in
HE. This is brought to the fore by the frequent use of the expression
«moryah» in colloquial discourse, meaning «if you believe that». It is an
expression based on the Gaelic «mar dheat», which means «like double»
(Bruce Stewart, personal communication), a hint to look for at least two
meanings in what has been said.
In this paper we place HE within the context of the other dialects of Eng-
lish spoken in Ireland and give an overview of the historical and sociolinguis-
tic factors which gave rise to it. Then we discuss some of the linguistic
features which characterize it and which find their way into Irish literature.
This means that not all the typical features of HE will be discussed in depth,
since many of them are difficult to represent in print and therefore do not
appear in literature. Finally, we discuss why texts with HE and other varieties
of English should be included in EFL classes in which literature is an impor-
tant component. We also offer suggestions for classroom activities which
would promote students' awareness and understanding of the linguistic and
cultural features found in such texts, using an excerpt from an early twentieth
century play and a recent Irish novel and film as examples.
1. There has been a continuing controversy over the past two hundred years as to how to
term literature produced by Irish writers in English. It has been called «Anglo-Irish litera-
ture», «Irish literature written in English», and simply «Irish literature». All three terms
have certain drawbacks. We chose the last one for the sake of simplicity. For an in-depth
discussion of the controversy, see Croghan (1988) and Stewart (1993).
Hiberno-English and the teaching of modern and contemporary Irish… Links & Letters 5, 1998 39
One can […] make a good case in support of the thesis that Gaelic was not so
much replaced by English in rural areas in Northern Ireland, as that Gaelic
was probably relexified towards English while the phonology, idioms and
sentence patterns of the native people remained Gaelic.
40 Links & Letters 5, 1998 Anna Asián; James McCullough
Lee (1993) argues that the way in which the language shift took place has
left the Irish with a sense of lack of dignity and self-respect. As Bernstein
(1994) explains, by being forced to speak English, the Irish population inter-
nalized the colonizer's values, according to which they were an inferior race.
In this way, the association between the Gaelic language and inferiority
referred not only to their economic and social situation but also to something
inherent in them, the «mere Irish», as the British called them (Leerssen,
1996).
Thus the language shift left the Irish in a very ambivalent position: on the
one hand they were ashamed to use Gaelic, since it was associated with pov-
erty and defeat, but on the other hand, their English was not «proper» and
they felt insecure with it, a fact that may also have contributed to maintain-
ing their sense of inferiority. As Edwards (1989) points out, in spite of the
warmth and nostalgia that Gaelic was supposed to have inspired among the
Irish population, the general ambivalence felt towards it is illustrated by the
lack of official support given to the Gaelic League in its efforts to revive this
language at the end of the 19th century.
Likewise, the Irish also have an ambivalent attitude towards the English
language. As Lee (1993: 669) points out, in spite of their bitter resentment
towards all things English including the language, they also show admiration
and envy. He quotes Douglas Hyde's famous remark that «The English are
the people we love to hate but never cease to imitate». In A Portrait of the Art-
ist as a Young Man, Joyce (1983: 172) illustrates the uneasiness that Stephen
Dedalus feels when speaking his own language, that is, English: «The lan-
guage in which we are speaking is his before it is mine… I cannot speak or
write these words without unrest of spirit. His language, so familiar and so
foreign, will always be for me an acquired speech».
A number of different strategies have been adopted by Irish writers over
the last century to deal with the English language. Synge and other writers in
the Literary Revival of the late 19th and early 20th centuries attempted to
appropriate the English language and adapt it to the culture of the Irish peo-
ple, incorporating Gaelic words and expressions into the language (either
through direct borrowings or through calques and loan translations) and
42 Links & Letters 5, 1998 Anna Asián; James McCullough
3.1. Phonology
In HE, the voiced and voiceless dental fricatives, [ð] and [θ], have merged
with the stops [d] and [t], respectively. Although native speakers of this var-
iety still make some distinction between the two sound classes, it is so slight
that outsiders may not notice it. This phonemic merger is captured in litera-
ture in <t> and <d> spellings instead of standard <th> spellings. This can be
seen in the following lines from the poem «madmanalive» (Kenelly, 1991:
39), written phonetically to reflect how Dubliners talk.
2. This movement was one of the first cases of extra-metropolitan acculturation of the Eng-
lish language, and would be followed later in this century by similar processes in Nigeria,
South Africa, India, Jamaica and many other former British colonies (see Kachru (1986,
1990) for an interesting in-depth description of this facet of the on-going evolution of the
English language). Our thanks to David Prendergast for pointing this out and encourag-
ing us to look into this issue in other cultures.
3. Sullivan (1980) finds many accurate representations throughout the history of Irish thea-
ter, for example.
Hiberno-English and the teaching of modern and contemporary Irish… Links & Letters 5, 1998 43
(2) Irish Nannie. […] Th' prison docthor told me th' oul' heart was crocked,
an' that I'd dhrop any minute. […] (O'Casey, 1984: 508-509)
Another distinctive feature of HE involves the sibilants /s/ and /ʃ/. These
were considered to correspond with similar Gaelic consonants, and therefore
Gaelic rules were applied to the pronunciation of words in English. The
main result is the use of [ʃ] where other varieties would use [s], specifically in
consonant clusters in which the final consonant is palatal, and in many words
with initial <si-> spellings. This is reflected in the following extract:
In terms of vowels, HE did not raise /e:/ to /i:/ in words that had previ-
ously had an [ε:] pronunciation, most notably those with an <ea> spelling,
like tea, meat, and easy. They are pronounced with an [e] diphthong. Other
words are also marked by this phenomenon, like Jesus, which is often
spelled <Jaysis> to reflect everyday speech. This feature is represented in
the title of the O'Casey play, «Juno and the Paycock». It is also used to set
up a pun in the title «Finnegans Wake», as wake and weak sound the same
in HE.
3.2. Morphology
In the area of morphology, it would appear that few features have been trans-
ferred from Gaelic to Hiberno-English. Todd (1989), Kiberd (1979), and
Gramley and Pätzold (1992) only mention the diminutive ending, -een.
Words ending with this suffix generally refer to unimportant things and usu-
ally convey a tone of contempt:
(4) Widow Quin: «It isn't fitting», says the preisteen, «to have his likeness lodg-
ing with an orphaned girl». (Synge, 1988: 190)
3.3. Lexicon
Most words and expressions in HE have the same meaning and usage as in
other varieties of English. However there are also important divergences.
There are archaisms from Middle English and Early Modern English, loans
and calques from the Gaelic substratum, and a wide range of neologisms,
44 Links & Letters 5, 1998 Anna Asián; James McCullough
Also, the word «end» can mean the back part of a building, rather than any
lateral extreme of it:
(10) If this pig is not put out of the house at once, said she feebly from the bed in
the end of the house, I'll set these rushes on fire and then an end will be put
to the hard life in this house of ours […] (O'Brien, 1988: 24)
(12) I never did hear that anyone's shadow was effective as a shelter against the
hunger. (O'Brien, 1988: 62)
(13) Martin, isn't it the bad sign that the ducks are in the nettles? (O'Brien,
1988: 13)
46 Links & Letters 5, 1998 Anna Asián; James McCullough
(15) Shawn Keogh (a fat and fair man, comes in as she signs, looks around awk-
wardly, when he sees she is alone): Where’s himself ? [i.e., your father?]
(Synge, 1988: 176)
(16) —But only for ten minutes, Molly, said Mrs Conroy. That won’t delay you.
—To take a pick itself, said Mary Jane, after all your dancing. [i.e., to take a
little pick at the meal only] (J. Joyce, 1973: 223)
(19) Saint: Men who are dark a long while and thinking over queer thoughts in
their heads, aren’t the like of simple men, who do be working every day, and
praying, and living like ourselves. (Synge, 1988: 169)
This feature is also due to the influence of Gaelic, which marks habitual
aspect through the use of different forms of the verb tá («be»), attached mor-
phologically to the main verb.
Another feature of HE is that it uses nominal structures with a greater
frequency than in standard English. Todd (1989: 40) attributes this ten-
dency to the fact that Gaelic is a «noun-centered language», and this has
48 Links & Letters 5, 1998 Anna Asián; James McCullough
3.4.3. Subordination
In the area of subordination, HE has three ways of forming relative clauses:
using a relative pronoun while also leaving a trace of the pronoun's referent
(«… the man who I saw him in Dublin»); omitting the relative pronoun com-
pletely; or forming a «quasi-relative» clause using and. The following excerpt
gives examples of these latter two constructions:
(22) Pegeen (with scorn): As good is it? Where now will you meet the like of
Daneen Sullivan knocked the eye from a peeler; or Marcus Quin, God rest
him, got six months for maiming ewes, and he a great warrant to tell stories
of holy Ireland till he’d have the old women shedding down tears about
their feet. (Synge, 1988: 177)
The first two examples are of instances in which the relative pronoun who has
been omitted, while the last one shows the use of and in a context in which a
speaker of standard English probably would have used «and who was…».
The last one is also an example of a widely used HE pattern consisting of and
plus a verbless clause. The and usually acts as a temporal subordinator and in
most cases indicates simultaneity, like ‘as’, ‘while’, or ‘with’ in standard Eng-
lish, as seen in (23).
(23) Shawn (uneasily): I didn’t see him on the road.
Pegeen: How would you see him and it dark night this half hour gone by?
[i.e., … with it being dark for the last half hour?] (Synge, 1988: 176)
romping lifetime from this hour to the dawning of the Judgment Day.
(Synge, 1988: 229)
(26) Shawn (turning towards the door again): I stood outside wondering would I
have a right to pass on or to walk in and see you, Pegeen Mike, […][i.e., … if
I should pass on or walk in and see you …] (Synge, 1988: 176)
(27) And isn’t it a shameful, bad and improper state that ye’re in here tonight?
‘Tis true for you, I replied to the gentleman, but sure we can’t help the bad
state you’ve mentioned. The weather is bitter and everyone of us must be
inside from it, whether he has two legs or four under him.
If that’s the way it is, says the gentleman, wouldn’t it be easy for you to
put up a little hut at the side of the yard and it a bit out from the house?
Sure and ‘twould be easy, says I. I was full of wonder at all he said […]
(O’Brien, 1988: 20)
to be due to influence from Gaelic. The two most common methods are left-
dislocation and it-clefting. In left-dislocation, a sentence constituent is placed at
the beginning of the sentence, as occurs in this example:
(28) Irish Nannie: […] They're not bringin' a chiselur to school when they're
bringin' Nannie to the Polis Station. Five o' them it took, an' she sthrapped
on a stretcher, th' last time to bring her in! (O'Casey, 1984: 509)
(29) Pegeen: […] It's above at the crossroads he is, meeting Philly Cullen […]
(Synge, 1988: 176)
(30) dis jesus fella sez ozzie who was he / how de fuck do I know sez I / you went
ta skool forra bit sez ozzie / didn’t learn much dayre sez I / […] / but every-
wun sez jesus dis and jesus dat / pay de jesus rent by us a jesus pint / till i get
de jesus dole / but who de jesus hell was he sez ozzie / […]
Dubliners don't just speak English, their own brand of it, they wear it […]
They show off in it, preen and strut in it, […] wave it like a football flag. […]
This is all fair enough. Language shouldn't just be an instrument of so-called
rational and/or irrational communication. It should be aired, steered through
pollution, allowed to swallow pubsmoke, trawl through Internet, […]
Hiberno-English and the teaching of modern and contemporary Irish… Links & Letters 5, 1998 51
Today probably only the Irishman, especially the Southern Irishman, and
some Welshmen, work in the Elizabethan linguistic, mastering the language,
where the rest of us, with pusillanimous notions of correctness and good taste
hammered into us at school, let the language master us.
(31) Lizzie: Don't I know it! Th' Blesseds has to keep on their toes to get
noticed, if they wants to be hoisted up into higher places.
Angela: Yis, among th' cymbals an' th' dhrums.
Beoman (with a snort of scorn): Th' harps an' th' hoboes —a' Phil th'
Fluther's Ball! (O'Casey, 1984: 257)
defined opposed and mutually exclusive identities and, in doing so, decon-
structs them:
(32) […] / Sorth and Nouth, territories occupied / in his wordscape by / Protho-
lics and Catestants / as they live and die / in the shat-on beauty of their
island. / Noyalists and Lashionalists picnic together / in all kinds of weather,
/ chewing tarpition [partition] sandwiches with sugto [gusto] / […]
Over the past two decades there has been a steadily growing interest in the
use of literary texts in the foreign language classroom, as can be seen from the
number of courses and workshops offered on this subject and from the wide
variety of books published in this field (Carter and Long, 1987; Collie and
Slater, 1987; Maley and Duff, 1989; McRae, 1991; Lazar, 1993; inter alia).
For a more complete bibliography on the subject, see Trenchs (1997: 52).
Most texts which make their way into the EFL classroom are written in a
standard variety of language. However, the use of texts written in non-stand-
ard language could provide a worthwhile complement to course content.
From a linguistic point of view, the exposure of students to different types of
expression can give them new insights into uses of literary and colloquial lan-
guage as well as into standard and dialectal forms of expression. Also, a wider
Hiberno-English and the teaching of modern and contemporary Irish… Links & Letters 5, 1998 53
variety of literary texts is likely to arouse students' interest in language and its
multiple uses and shades of meaning, since they help them realize that lan-
guage is not transparent. At the same time, from a cultural point of view,
texts written in non-standard language may present new insights into the cul-
tures of a country or region, which students might enjoy comparing with
those offered in linguistically more standard texts.
Before introducing literary works written in non-standard varieties of
English, teachers should sensitize students to the fact that non-standard ver-
naculars, which are generally perceived as low, easy, often comical kinds of
language, are in fact as complex and systematic as standard languages (Harris,
1993: 181). Furthermore, vernacular languages are also symbols of local
identity and, therefore, their use involves cultural and political implications.
In the case of «other Englishes», it is necessary to sensitize students to the
complexities faced by authors in writing in the language of the former colo-
nial power. As seen in the case of Ireland, the complexity of attitudes
involved in the use of English led many writers to adopt special measures.
The issue of language loyalty is deeply felt by writers in lands in which Eng-
lish is in tough competition with the local language or languages. In addi-
tion, the weight of at least two cultural traditions is felt by such writers. They
must mould the English language to the task of expressing meanings impor-
tant to them or their culture.
We have chosen the opening scenes from J.M. Synge's play, The Tinker's
Wedding (written in 1902, but first performed in 1909), and Roddy Doyle's
novel The Snapper (1990), to develop a lesson plan and suggest guidelines
and activities for helping students get into non-standard literature by devel-
oping their awareness of the presence of HE, its stylistic uses and cultural
associations.
At the end of the nineteenth century, a time when Ireland was struggling
for its political independence from England, Synge created a new literary dia-
lect in HE which was very much inspired by Gaelic linguistic and poetic pat-
terns and which displaced the simplistic, derogatory «brogue» that had
characterised the stage-Irishman from the seventeenth century. However,
Synge's plays caused riots in the streets on account of his unflattering por-
trayals of Irish rural life and the language of his characters. Until then, the
Irish had internalized and identified with the seemingly flattering colonial
stereotype of the «Celtic soul», according to which the Gaels were a pure,
sentimental, feminine race, but, at the same time, were incapable of govern-
ing themselves. Synge's plays broke away from this paternalistic, disempow-
ering vision of the Gaels. In The Tinker's Wedding he satirizes the policies of
parochial clergymen in performing marriage ceremonies and in dealing with
an outcast group in Ireland, the tinkers.
Doyle is the author of a popular trilogy (The Commitments, 1978, The
Snapper, 1990, and The Van, shortlisted for the 1991 Booker Prize) about
the lives of the Rabbittes, a typically large, working-class family in Barry-
town, a fictional neighbourhood in Northern Dublin. The set formed by this
54 Links & Letters 5, 1998 Anna Asián; James McCullough
trilogy and its three respective film versions (also written by Doyle and very
faithful to the texts) is an especially suitable tool for introducing students to
contemporary Irish literature, both in its written and audio-visual forms.
They are funny, entertaining, interesting, and up-to-date. They address
many hard issues in the lives of modern working-class Dubliners without try-
ing to soften or sugar-coat anything, especially the language.
Doyle's use of HE responds to his desire to portray his characters as viv-
idly as possible in terms of speech and also in accordance with their ideologi-
cal, social, cultural and historical determinants. Like Synge, he also shows
that HE is as valid a literary dialect as the standard. Moreover, by using HE
rather than a more standard English, he aligns himself with the values
embedded in the sociolect of the working classes and undercuts and subverts
official ideology and the ideas and mores on which it is sustained. As Doyle
overtly claims, in his novels
[…] the attachment to the Church isn't there, neither is the attachment to
the State and certainly the attachment to the language isn't there, although I
think that's an awful pity. […] I think also because we had a language before
having another superimposed on us, we actually ended up with a language
and a half. There's a healthy contempt for grammar that makes talking that
little bit more interesting. (McArdle, 1995: 116)
4. We leave it to the reader to test his/her skill at identifying the HE features in these texts.
Many of them appear in section 3.
Hiberno-English and the teaching of modern and contemporary Irish… Links & Letters 5, 1998 55
SARAH CASEY coming in on right, eagerly: We'll see his reverence this place,
Michael Byrne, and he passing backward to his house to-night.
MICHAEL grimly: That'll be a sacred and a sainted joy!
SHARA sharply: It'll be small joy for yourself if you aren't ready with my wedding
ring. She goes over to him. Is it near done this time, or what way is it at all?
MICHAEL: A poor way only, Sarah Casey, for it's the divil's job making a ring,
and you'll be having my hands destroyed in a short while the way I'll not be
able to make a tin can at all maybe at the dawn of day.
SHARAH sitting down beside him and throwing sticks on the fire. If it's the divil's
joy, let you mind it, and leave your speeches that would choke a fool.
MICHAEL slowly and glumly: And it's you'll go talking of fools, Sarah Casey, when
no man did ever hear a lying story even of your like unto this mortal day. You
to be going beside me a great while, and rearing a lot of them, and then to be
setting off with your talk of getting married, and your driving me to it, and I
not asking it at all.
Sarah turns her back to him and arranges something in the ditch.
Angrily: Can't you speak a word when I'm asking what is it ails you since the
moon did change?
SARAH musingly: I'm thinking there isn't anything ails me, Michael Byrne; but
the springtime is a queer time, and it's queer thoughts maybe I do think at
whiles.
MICHAEL: It's hard set you'd be to think queerer than welcome, Sarah Casey; but
what will you gain dragging me to the priest this night, I'm saying, when it's
new thoughts you'll be thinking at the dawn of day?
***
— You're wha'? Said Jimmy Rabbitte Sr.
He said it loudly.
— You heard me, said Sharon.
Jimmy Jr was upstairs in the boys' room doing his D.J. practice. Darren was
in the front room watching Police Academy II on the video. Les was out.
Tracy and Linda, the twins, were in the front room annoying Darren.
Veronica, Mrs Rabbitte, was sitting opposite Jimmy Sr at the kitchen table.
Sharon was pregnant and she'd just told her father that she thought she was.
She'd told her mother earlier, before the dinner.
— Oh my Jaysis, said Jimmy Sr.
He looked at Veronica. She looked tired. He looked at Sharon again.
— That's shockin', he said.
Sharon said nothing.
— Are yeh sure? said Jimmy Sr.
— Yeah. Sort of.
***
— You should've come to us earlier — before, yeh know — an' said you were
goin' to get pregnant.
The three of them tried to laugh.
— Then we could've done somethin' abou' it. — My God, though.
No one said anything. Then Jimmy Sr spoke to Sharon again.
— You're absolutely sure now? Positive?
56 Links & Letters 5, 1998 Anna Asián; James McCullough
***
Jimmy Sr looked at the two women. The crying had stopped.
— Will he marry you? Jimmy Sr asked her.
— No. I don't think so.
— The louser. That's cheatin', tha' is.
— It's not a game! said Veronica.
— I know, I know tha', Veronica. But it's his fault as much as Sharon's. Who-
ever he is. — It was his flute tha'
— Daddy!
***
Jimmy Sr now said something he'd heard a good few times on the telly.
— D'yeh want to keep it?
— Wha' d'yeh mean?
— D'yeh — d'you want to keep it, like?
— He wants to know if you want to have an abortion, said Veronica. — The eejit.
— I do not! said Jimmy Sr.
This was true. He was sorry now he'd said it.
— There's no way I'd have an abortion, said Sharon.
— Good. You're right.
— Abortion's murder.
— It is o'course.
Teachers may work with longer or shorter extracts depending on the stu-
dents’ linguistic competence.
The lesson plan we propose is divided into three stages: pre-reading,
while-reading and post-reading. In the first stage, a point of entry into the
texts could be a discussion of how ideas about marriage, sexual relationships,
pregnancy, and other related issues have changed over the past one hundred
years. This should be followed by cultural and historical background infor-
mation relevant to the texts. For example, teachers should inform students of
the socio-economic, political and religious factors that impeded young cou-
ples from marrying in mid-nineteenth century Ireland (familism, emigration,
poverty). Similarly, students should be familiar with twentieth century facts
about the country, such as the traditional ideas concerning marriage and the
popular rejection of abortion. As far as language is concerned, teachers could
select a number of words or sentences from the texts and present them to the
students out of context in order to discuss how «acceptable» they are in Eng-
lish. Similarly, they could choose words from the text and ask students to
guess what they mean.
In the while-reading stage, students should try to deduce the meanings of
any expressions or words they do not know from the context. Teachers could
help them cope with difficult vocabulary by means of various sorts of exer-
Hiberno-English and the teaching of modern and contemporary Irish… Links & Letters 5, 1998 57
cises, such as multiple choice or matching definitions with lexical items. Stu-
dents could also underline non-standard features of speech and discuss
whether or not they are exclusively HE. Classifying HE features according to
the areas that have been dealt with in this paper could help them consolidate
an overview of the linguistic characteristics of HE. From a literary point of
view, teachers should make sure that students perceive the humour and irony
which pervade the scenes, and which are recurrent in Irish literature.
Finally, in the post-reading stage, teachers could help students to inter-
pret the texts by emphasizing especially significant uses of language or stylis-
tic features, and students could summarize the theme and plot of the extracts,
or write extensions of them, detailing what will happen next. As language
work, choosing non-standard uses of syntactic structures from the texts and
having students rewrite them in a standard linguistic form, or having them
write a reported-speech version of the dialogues, could help them with gram-
mar and style. Finally, we suggest a comparison between the written and film
version of The Snapper5 as a further post-reading activity, since the film pro-
vides contextual information not given in the book. For instance, the open-
ing scene captures the family atmosphere that pervades the novel. According
to Thompson (1993: 65):
The smallness of the Curleys’ [as they are called in the film] house is integral
to their chaotic sense of community —the constant distractions of warring
family members furnish vital perspective as well as extra stress in moments of
crisis, but Frears [the director] does well not to overplay the closeness of their
domestic environment.
That's the way the characters talk, it's plain and simple, what more can I say?
Not all the characters use bad language. Pound for pound, The Van has more
bad language than the rest, because it's largely Jimmy Sr's story, and he's a
man who laces his language continually with four-letter words of various
shapes and sizes, and I don't make any apology for that. I have no problem
justifying the bad language. There's very little violence in it and it's not there
5. We have not been able to ascertain whether or not The Tinker’s Wedding has ever been
made into a film.
58 Links & Letters 5, 1998 Anna Asián; James McCullough
for shock value. In a culture where many films are created purely to shock
people, trying to shock people by a choice of words doesn't work anymore.
(McArdle, 1995: 113)
One of the main problems with today's TV drama is that it doesn't have
enough swearing in it. Doyle's ‘bad’ language —the musical 'feck's and 'bol-
lix's which score his characters' every move— is transparently good language,
and credit is due to whoever decided it shouldn't be toned down.
After reading and commenting on both texts and the film, students could
be asked to compare and contrast the positions taken on a number of social
issues, such as sexual relationships, marriage, the Church, poverty, and drink-
ing, in nineteenth-century and present-day Ireland. As a final post-reading
activity, the class could debate what constitutes a literary dialect. What types
of language are valid for literary expression and what types, if any, could not
be used in literature?
5. Conclusion
This paper presents a description of HE through literary texts, which is of
special interest to EFL teachers who make use of literary texts in the class-
room. Using HE texts would be best for upper intermediate or advanced stu-
dents, as they have enough command of the standard language to appreciate
the novelties and nuances presented by the non-standard forms. The incor-
poration of non-standard literatures into the curriculum exposes students to
new ideas and new uses of language and also broadens their cultural horizons.
They gain new cultural referents and perspectives as they come to fully
understand the text they are reading. One final benefit offered by this
approach is that it promotes students' reading strategies and listening skills.
As they are exposed to more and more non-standard varieties of English, they
become better able to understand them. This is an increasingly important
skill in an age of international English, in which more people speak non-
standard varieties of English worldwide than standard varieties.
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