John Fawsitt

195

吉備国際大学研究紀要（人文・社会科学系）
増刊号，195－202，2017

Learner Response to Raymond Carver’s “The Bath”& “A Small Good Thing”
John Fawsitt
Abstract
Literary Works are often simplified for consumption by language learners, due to fears that they will beover-taxed by longer more elaborate texts. It can also be said however that we are denying students accessto the richness and authenticity of the originals by doing this. In this paper I would like to propose that we
do not need to choose between one or the other, but that by comparison and contrast, students can learn
more about the language itself and the ways it can be used. In this research students were presented withtwo different texts in sequence. Both were written by the American author Raymond Carver, and are very
different versions of essentially the same story. The content language used in the second story being far
more challenging and dense, and the story itself being much longer. The hypothesis that after having thebasic story and its characters introduced in the shorter simpler story, the students would be able to read andenjoy the second story to a greater degree, was supported by the results in this limited case. I feel that thishypothesis might be further tested with graded readers serving as introductory texts or templates to original
works and serve as equivalent and contrasting texts to illustrate various aspects of language.
Key words ：Raymond Carver, English Literature, Textual Comparison

吉備国際大学外国語学部〒700-0931 岡山県岡山市北区奥田西町5-5
Kibi International University
5 -5, Okuda-Nishimachi,Kita-ku,Okayama, Japan (700-0931)

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Learner Response to Raymond Carver’s“The Bath”&“A Small Good Thing”

Introductionactivities. I will report on my research in using “The Bath ” andLanguages serve many purposes including utilitarian, aesthetic,“ A Small Good Thing ” by Raymond Carver, in an English

religious, and emotional. Language learners also come in all

literature class with multi-level learners and present student-

shapes and sizes. No one facet of a language will appeal to, orfindings as to which of the texts were more difficult and more

prove relevant to every learner. Therefore if we are to provide

satisfying.

a comprehensive range of avenues of learning we should takeaccount when we are formulating our curricula of the variety

Backgroundof forms in which languages exist and the multiple purposes to

It is recognised that reading has a large role to play in language

which they are put and seek to provide materials that appeal toacquisition. In fact for the majority of the history of language

these learners in across as wide a spectrum as possible.

teaching it was almost the only way people could experience aforeign language.

Many universities have decided to cut back on resources

In the world of TESOL the church of extensive reading has

devoted to teaching literature as it is seen as an intellectual

numerous apostles. The belief being that learners should read

luxury with little connection to providing students with theextensively without the pressures of evaluation at a levelskills they need to survive in the marketplace. This trend iswell within their powers of comprehension. This activity isreinforced by the field of EFL's growing emphasis on direct

expected to improve their grasp of the language in many areas

communication, and quantifying students' language acquisition

from grammar to fluency. Few, if any, would argue with thevia commercial tests.

premise that such activity is beneficial for language acquisitioneven if it is difficult to be exact as to the nature or extent of

Literature is now more commonly experienced by the majority

its influence on particular areas. However the next question isof language students through graded readers, provided"What should they read?"with a view to ease of reading and increased speed andcomprehension. There is very little space for appreciation

Answering this question has provided publishers with greatand expression. Original texts are seen as too difficult andopportunities. Over the past decade numerous series of gradeddisheartening for most students.

readers have been issued. Often they are original stories,
created specifically for learners. They are also often simplified

I hope to present an alternative point of view, that suchversions of famous or popular works that the copyright

simplified texts need not only be used as alternatives to thehas expired on. They show varying degrees of success inoriginal but as a framework or entry point to the real thing andreplicating the originals' on various levels. The quality of theat the same time heightening student awareness of what thework is of great importance in that the more attractive andreal literature can furnish both intellectually, emotionally andinspiring the story, the more likely the student is to continue

linguistically.

reading it. Consequently we arrive at considerations as to whatmakes a text attractive. Thus language learning arrives in theLiterature can provide a springboard as a vital and interesting
stimulus for a wide range of student oriented communicative

field of literature.

John Fawsitt

However there is an opposite impetus from the side from197

understanding of more challenging literary texts.

literature towards that of language learning
Alan Maley posited four benefits of, or reasons for, the"Authentic" as it is used in foreign language teaching is that

adoption of literature in the EFL classroom

material which matches most closely language most used ineveryday life. It is relatively rare to find authentic material in• authenticity (shorthand for actually what is out there)

most mass produced textbooks. Literature is authentic in two• personal growth or involvement

ways in the EFL classroom in a way that other materials are• cultural enrichment

not. Firstly, it actually is in use in the target society, whether• language enrichment

in the printed or spoken form, and secondly, in that it usuallyseeks to reflect the authentic terms of life as it is lived.

That it contains or provides at least one of these elements isperhaps a test as to whether a text should be called literature.

The Texts(Perhaps we can alter the word to a verb in that we can extract

Teaching an English literature class of about 23 with a steep

these things from almost any text. Perhaps this is is the ability

gradient of abilities and interest and an average TOEIC scorethat we are providing our students with.)of about 370. I was puzzled as to how to present real literature
that, while interesting and accessible, would cater for all of theHowever the barrier remains as to how to bridge the gap

class members

between what the student is capable of, and what is necessary
to experience the literature. The use of the L1 in many EFL

Having come across Raymond Carver's works in a previous life

classes is simply an attempt to overcome that deficiency by

I thought that they would be suitable for at least some of mysupplying a form of support to the students. Such support whilestudents as they are written in a very sparse style. In my search

doubtless of immediate benefit, can be questioned as to how it

I was lucky to find some of his works that might be uniquely

effects students’ ability to function solely in the target language

suited to teaching English literature in an EFL context.

over a longer period. Communicative Language Teachingsuggests that we prioritize helping the student acquire the target

Raymond Carver is widely regarded as the preeminent

language through the target language.

American short story writer of the late 20th century. Besides
his own personal issues his works deal generally with ordinary

In theory the doctrine of extensive reading sees the learnerworking class people in the United States.

following a steady and rising path as they progress through thecurriculum and ideally, in the end, they transition to authentic

His writes in a mostly unadorned and plain style. It is this very

materials.

plainness which can create a tension and concentration thatmaintains the atmosphere of the story.

The great task in a language class is to bring everyone withyou. While literature can, in one text, help to engage students

As a more contemporary and mundane writer than Ernest

on several levels, we will probably fail to do maintain their

Hemingway his works can provide English language learners

interest if we expect our students to come rapidly to a deep

with insight into how English is spoken in ordinary intimate

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Learner Response to Raymond Carver’s“The Bath”&“A Small Good Thing”

circumstances. Conversations take place in kitchens, telephoneenjoyed the longer, seemingly more complex, A small goodboxes, pickup trucks, on sofas, patios and buses. They takething more. This leads me to speculate whether we might beplace between people one critic labelled as "too dumb to give

both missing an opportunity both to provide an experienceup." All of them feel there is something more to life but areof genuine foreign literature, an expansion student language

without the tools to know what it is.

awareness.

The two short stories A small good thing and The Bath are very

Methodsimilar and fall within the Carvers’ normal milieu. They bothare about people struggling to deal with sudden tragedy in their

The students were informed about Raymond Carver via:

lives and have the same basic plot events,and characters ”TheComments about him made by Murakami Haruki whenBath” is much shorter than ”A small good thing” and is written

he included him in his anthology “Birthday Stories” (2011in a terse unadorned style that creates a sense of unreality andRandom House), which was a collection of short stories linked

non-comprehension almost as if certain of the senses have beenby the theme of birthdays, photographs, a brief biography, andstunned or numbed. A small good thing is written with far moreaccess to the relevant page on Wikipedia and comments abountdetail and discursion; the events are lived rather than observed,

his style and place in American Literature.

characters more minutely drawn and emotions more clearly
expressed .

The shorter text "the bath" was presented in class and read andstudied in groups of 4 students in several stages. Each stage

These two stories provides an opportunity to meet the challenge

consisting of group reading and study and then a teacher-leadof teaching students who are interested in English literature but

read-through with explanations, followed by questions fromhave not yet acquired the skills to read it unaided and at thethe students and then another group reading session.

same time without depriving them of a communicative English

Students were free to annotate and discuss the text in their own

environment. I myself have found myself in the catch-22

language.

situation of not being proficient enough in Japanese to readIn the third class students were asked to write a page dealing

anything interesting, but not reading anything because there iswith their reactions to the text and story and also their ideas as

nothing interesting to read.

to what happened next in the story after the story ended.
They were also asked to write about their favorite parts andUsing these stories also provided me with an insight into

the parts they found most difficult, could not follow, or could

what constitutes 'difficulty' to the student and obstacles tonot see the point of. After this the students were surveyed as totheir enjoyment of foreign literature. I had thought that thetheir opinions of the story and how its level of difficulty suited

more unadorned the language the easier it would be for them.

them.

However a questionnaire distributed among the studentsbrought this assumption into question. The bulk of the students

About three weeks later after reading several other pieces

found that the lack of detail in the Bath prevented them fully

I presented the next story which was part of Nan 'undos

understanding the progression in the story and from becoming

tandem collection published in 1984 “Two delightful stories”

engaged with the characters. Consequently they said theyby Raymond Carver &Fletcher Flora: ; edited with notes byJohn Fawsitt

Kazuhiko Yoshida & Kaneaki Inazumi.

199

until the few students who had brought their copies of “TheBath” with them and I had pointed out differences in the text

The reading process was the same except for the first few

did they settle down to begin. It took four and a half classes tominutes of the class students were convinced that I had made afinish “A small good thing”

mistake and was giving them the same story again. It was notResults

Discussiondiffiiculty of the text or familiarity with the plot is difficult to

Noticeable is the result in the question “What do you think

determine. However In post-reading surveys student answersof SGT’s language level?” in that both the categories ofshowed that they were appreciative of the changes in the plot,“very hard” and “very easy” have disappeared” with noadditional depth and nuance to characters, and a change from

respondents choosing those options even though “The Bath”

an ending that left the characters fates indeterminate to one

has a much simpler vocabulary and shorter sentences. This

where matters are resolved more definitely. This is is indicatedleads me to think that students find a preparatory text aids

by eleven out of seventeen interviewed students showing atheir comprehension of difficult texts.. However no respondent

preference for “A small good thing”. Many of the answers

replied that they enjoyed “A small good thing” “very much”.

citing the ending and the development of characters for their

However “Yes I did” and “I did a little” both increased theirchoice.

scores considerably. Whether this reflects the increased

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Learner Response to Raymond Carver’s“The Bath”&“A Small Good Thing”

Did you enjoy
The Bath?

Why?

Yes I didBecause, the story is easy to understand, and the character's feelings are written clarity.

No I did not

Because I don't like the ending

I did a little

Because it's quit difficult for me.

I did a little

I dont interesting story. but I can know vocablury.

I did a little

I reading understand word

Yes I did
I did a little

Way of the calling is loose.

Yes I did

I can understand the story.

I did a little

I don't know the result of this story.

I did a little

It was not interesting

Yes I didI think this story is fun.

Yes I didBecause, we had many group work

Yes very much.

Because I could image of this story.

Yes I did

The story is interesting. I can learn new
Vocabulary and sentence

Yes I didYes very much.

Because it was very interesting!

Yes very much.

The story was very fun and interesting.

Yes very much.

I like reading books.

Yes I didBecause, I read a book with together.

I did a little

I was sadYes I did

I found unknow thing.

Did you enjoy
SGT?

Why?

Yes I didI could know what Scotty was going,
And this story has more information than The bath.

Yes I didBecause I felt warm what last page of this story.
On the way, Scotty died, so I felt sad but last page is good for me.

I did a little

Story is a very long so I'm very tired.

Yes I didBecause, this story is very sad story but, I know Bakery's man have a big hart and good baker.
His mother helped him.

Yes I didBecause before I read The bath, I can read more clear than the bath.

Yes I did

Occasionally, I understand this sentence.
Then I thought i want to know about this story.

I did a little

This story practice my skills but It is sad story.
I am feel sad…

No I did not

Deffcult and long story.

I did a little

Because Scotty die. But, this story is interesting.

I did a little
I did a little

The story is interesting to read

I did a littleBecause story is a little difficult.

Yes I didScotty had an accident, but he is recover.

John Fawsitt

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Student Answers

Conclusions

The data is questionable as several students did not participate

Overall it seemed that students preferred the richer text, thein the final survey and interview, and several preferences

extent to which this was aided by the plainer version is unclear.

expressed in the interviews did not show up in the surveys.

What is clear was that students remained engaged with theWhile a greater preference was shown for “A small good thing”

longer story.

this might have been somewhat influenced by more engaged
students forming a greater proportion of interviewees.

While I limited my use of the texts to simply finding thedifferences in style and in content. They could also be used

One surprising part of the student response was that they

to teach the students about vocabulary, grammar, and usage

craved more detail in “The bath.” “Simpler” did not mean

through comparisons of paragraphs and sentences.

“easier” for them.
While literature is not seen as an immediate need for many
third level students, I believe that unless we want our students
to fall prey to dubious or fatuous narratives in later life wemust introduce them to higher level texts.
Bibliography
Carver Raymond: A small good thing in Two delightful stories味のある話Raymond Carver, Fletcher Flora ; edited with notes by
Kazuhiko Yoshida,Kaneaki Inazumi Nan'un-do,1984
Carver Raymond: The Bath in Birthday Stories: Selected and Introduced by Haruki Murakami 2004 Harvill