Elements of nonsense in the modern English fairy-tale (based on “The BFG, the Big Friendly Giant” by Roald Dahl)

In the paper the definition of the fairy-tale is given and the features of the English fairy-tale are discussed. Being a game in the first place nonsense is considered to be the hallmark of the English fairy-tale. Nonsense may be considered both as a genre and as a literary device. The study is based on “The BFG”, an example of the English fairy-tale, written by the famous English writer Roald Dahl, who is known for using nonsense a lot in his works. The results of the literary and linguistic (on phonological, morphological, lexical, syntactic, semantic and graphic levels) analysis of “The BFG” are presented in the article. The authors come to the conclusion that the fairy-tale by Roald Dahl cannot be considered an example of “pure nonsense” despite some features of the genre. It is found out that nonsense as a literary device in the fairy-tale is based on the principles of the language game on all language levels. The fact that the book is written for children is reflected in the language of “The BFG”. The main character’s speech reminds of children’s speech which is characterised by the language game.

Promoting metalinguistic awareness in a classroom to improve reading comprehension: Examples from Roald Dahl’s novel The BFG

It is widely recognised that successful reading involves the interaction of a number of different cognitive skills and strategies in order to achieve compre-hension of the text (Baker, 2002). These skills and strategies are generally considered to be controlled by a global process called ‘metacognition’ (Kuhn & Dean, 2004). In this paper, I suggest that a large part of metacognition when reading has a (meta)linguistic component and hence time should be devoted to raising (meta)linguistic awareness when teaching and honing reading skills and strategies. Tasks based around a short extract from Roald Dahl’s (1982[2013]) novel The BFG are presented and discussed in order to illustrate how metalinguistic awareness might be raised in a classroom. Such tasks not only help to improve reading comprehension but have a number of additional benefits: they enhance and support the metacognitive toolkit, improve vocabulary acquisition and growth, and can bring a love of language and the fun of language play into the classroom.Keywords: metalinguistic awareness, reading comprehension, vocabulary, classroom activities, Roald DahlÅ fremme metalingvistisk bevissthet i et klasserom for å forbedre leseforståelse: eksempler fra Roald Dahls roman The BFGSammendragDet er bred enighet om at vellykket lesing trekker veksler på flere forskjellige kognitive ferdigheter og strategier tilknyttet tekstforståelse (Baker, 2002). Disse ferdighetene og strategiene hører inn under den globale prosessen ‘metakog-nisjon’ (Kuhn & Dean, 2004). I denne artikkelen argumenterer jeg for at en stor del av metakognisjonen i lesing har en (meta)lingvistisk komponent, og følgelig at tid bør vies til å utvikle (meta)lingvistisk bevissthet i undervisningen av leseferdigheter og strategier. Arbeidsoppaver basert på et kort utdrag fra Roald Dahls (1982[2013]) The BFG (The Big Friendly Giant / SVK – Store Vennlige Kjempe) presenteres og diskuteres for å illustrere hvordan metalingvistisk bevissthet kan utvikles i klasserommet. Slike arbeidsoppgaver hjelper ikke bare med å forbedre leseforståelsen, men har også flere andre fordeler: de forsterker og støtter den metakognitive verktøykassen, forbedrer både innlæring og utvidelse av ordforrådet, kan øke språkgleden og oppmuntre til lek med språk i klasserommet.Nøkkelord: metalingvistisk bevissthet, leseforståelse, vokabular, klasseroms-aktiviteter, Roald Dahl