Methods of teaching Mark Haddon's The curious incident of the dog in the night-time

This article considers reading fiction books with students of three specialties: Foreign Philology, Pedagogical Education (English and German) and International Relations. Although these specialties initially imply good knowledge of English, students happen to be of different language levels. Their aims also vary. These factors define a particular approach to them. At first we are going to describe general characteristics of each specialty, then you can find specific tasks offered to groups. The book we have taken as an example is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon.

The syllabus of Foreign Philology provides such courses as Extensive Reading, Text Analysis and Text Interpretation for our students to read and discuss fiction books. However, sometimes we feel short of classes to have a proper colloquium. Students of Pedagogical Education have only Text Analysis to train their abilities of book discussion. The International Relations specialty does not include any courses connected with reading.

This makes us find other possible ways to implement our ideas. For instance, Conversational ox Advanced English courses ‘turn into’ Extensive Reading as we can see better results after discussing proper literature in language. Cross-Cultural Communication course comprises such points as Cultural Identity. Reading a book in English and about Britain, students have a chance to detect peculiarities of British / English Identity. We usually spend one lesson discussing their notes. Traditionally I suggest reading Nice Work by David Lodge but the choice depends on your preferences. Country Studies course also provides us with a great opportunity to use fiction books which contain all necessary information about the region. And teacher’s task is to point at specific details that a student can take no notice of. If your students are fluent in English, you can ask them to read Ulverton by Adam Thorpe. They should choose one chapter each and, explaining the details from the chosen chapter, make a report about the given period of history.

Possessing the highest English language level among other specialties, students of Pedagogical Education are the first group to mention. Having passed a state exam in English, they can be described as quick language learners. At the same time, one can notice not only their advantages but disadvantages as well. We can outline their readiness to pay attention to new words, specific collocations, grammar structures. Usually this accuracy in language prevents them from being careful in deep layers of meanings and hints. Their awareness of stylistic devices also leaves much to be desired. As a result, classwork should comprise direct questions about literary parts of a book. Such common tasks as looking for new words, translating them or giving definitions should be done at home and checked in class quickly.

Students of Foreign Philology strive for allusions, comparing to other books and films. They perceive characters and are ready to dig for explanations on pages. It is common for them to begin a discussion of any kind and justify their opinion using quotations. They are good at stylistic devices in their native language, which makes it possible to provide them only with proper English translations of stylistic devices. It is noticeable that they are not keen on translating new words in the text, even if knowing these words is necessary for understanding and the context does not give a cue what they mean.

We read books with students of International Relations mainly to get them immersed in English and bring them into the dialogue. As there are too many new words for some of them, the pace of reading is not fast. At first they seem to have difficulties but then they start paying attention to details connected with country studies, history, etc. If students of a certain year show good results in English learning and possess enough skills to read a more profound book, we start reading novels about politics, for example. The aim is to get them acquainted with a different viewpoint and specific vocabulary.

As it usually happens, we start The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time studying the cover art. The task is the same for every group - they should make up a story based on the cover art -but with some variations. Students of Foreign Philology and Pedagogical Education can discuss it in small groups and present a kind of staging or a TV review of the book. International Relations students can start working individually and do it in a written form. The difference is explained by the speaking skills of the former and the need to train grammar by the latter. There is a piece of advice -you should not give the book to students beforehand! They are tempted to look at the back cover and read what the novel is about.

The second point we should pay attention to is chapters. ‘Where is the beginning? ’ is the first question to ask. Students can be divided into two groups so that there is a competition which group comes up with more variants. It never happens that students guess the author’s idea but this task encourages them to develop their creative skills. It is especially helpful with students of International Relations who are sometimes afraid to make a mistake but while brainstorming they are ready to speak their mind without hesitation.

There is one more good way to quicken imagination. We can look through the novel and find different illustrations. Asking students to explain some of them, you can give them an opportunity to feel as if they are co-authors. For instance, in Chapter 3 we can meet seven smileys. There are three possible ways to work with these pictures:

• 1)    you can draw unusual smileys on the board and ask students to define what these smileys mean;

• 2)    you can write tricky adjectives of specific emotions on the board and ask students to invent new smileys to them;

• 3)    you can ask students to elaborate their own system of smileys and corresponding emotions.

The choice depends on the language level of a group and your goal, which can be either to learn new words (2) or develop their speaking skills (1 and 3).

In Chapter 109 there is a picture of an alien painted by Christopher. However, if it is our previewing and scanning of the book, we do not know it and we are free to speculate what it is. In Chapter 191 we are given a map of the train station in Swindon. To get students involved you can ask them to sketch a map of your university building, for instance.

After students have learned that Christopher has Asperger’s Syndrome (not only through the review but after having read about his peculiarities in behaviour), it is useful to show a documentary about this syndrome. Unfortunately, I have not found such a documentary in English yet. Nevertheless, my students watch an interview with people who possess this syndrome ( https ://otr-online.ru/programmi/za-delo-/viiti-iz-auta-72557.html ). This vivid impression helps them conceive the problem of the book better. Usually I show a fiction film as well. It is Rain Man by Barry Levinson. Although the main characters have different illnesses, they are similar in behaviour. If we are short of time, we can watch only one episode (about matches in the cafe). You should not expect that students have watched it before. Once I was told, "The film was made a long time ago to watch! ’ (By the way it is a film of 1988).

In my opinion, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is a perfect book to go beyond it. The topic or problem only slightly mentioned in it can prompt other challenging tasks. These are some of them:

• 1.    Find interesting facts about Apollo space missions.

• 2.    Explain what your name means.

• 3.    Give criteria of Postmodernism mode of writing.

• 4.    Tell us about the Gulf War.

• 5.    What diseases connected with the heart do you know?

• 6.    Enumerate principles that any detective work should comprise.

• 7.    Find other tricky problems which are similar to The Monty Hall Problem.

We always do exercises to improve vocabulary:

• 1.    Give synonyms to: a) groan, b) monkey business, c) lose rag, d) slander.

• 2.    Continue the row: gardening fork, rake, spade...

• 3.    Find all possible ways of telling a lie.

Some phenomena are new for students. In the book you can meet references to synesthesia (smelltrack, preference of colours), which allows taking articles about it to expand background knowledge. If we dwell on Christopher’s thoughts about our galaxy, we can discuss the Big Bang theory, stellar constellations, black holes, worm holes, etc.

After having read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, students can make a talk-show. In Russia we have such a show as Let Them Talk where guests address personal and society issues (crime, drug abuse, suicide, infidelity). Originally the program was inspired by the Jerry Springer show and the Oprah Winfrey show.

You can offer the following list of characters to choose:

• -    Presenter

• -    Christopher

• -    Father

• -    Mother

• -   Mrs Alexander

• -   Mrs Shears

• -    Mr Shears

• -    Siobhan

• -    Any friend of Christopher

• -    Policeman

• -    Experts and audience

Students are asked to write a script and think over catchy traits of the characters they are going to perform. You can state the problem they should solve, for instance, Who should take care of Christopher? It is possible to slightly deviate from the book. As for me I suggest introducing an expert who provides DNA tests (as it often happens in the talk show) so that students feel free in their imagination.

While teaching foreign languages we should use every opportunity to read fiction books. Although different courses require different techniques and tasks, we should seek for appropriate means so that students can immerse in English at least in some way.