Using world mythology and folktales in reading instruction for community college international students

Community colleges enroll an increasing number of international students who need instruction in the English language. The problems involved in teaching this diverse group of students include addressing the different ages, educational backgrounds and levels of language mastery. It is difficult for the ESL educator to accommodate these differences and hold students' interest when teaching with a traditional ESL textbook. This study utilized world mythology and folktales as the reading material in the community college ESL reading program. Mythology, containing universal themes from international sources, was selected to reflect the diversity of students. The methodology was action research, based on the researcher's experiences and a survey to obtain peer review. The research questions were to determine if there was a base in the literature to support using world mythology and folktales in teaching; to determine what resources were available and appropriate; and to ascertain what classification would help ESL educators. A survey was conducted among ESL educators to obtain their views of the curriculum recommendations. It was found that there is a base in the literature to support using world mythology and folktales in reading instruction. References included works by Jung, Campbell, Bruner, Hirsch and Ravitch. Resources were classified by the Fry readability formula and country of origin of the stories. Curriculum guidelines were prepared for ESL educators. Respondents to the survey reported that the curriculum guidelines should be added to an ESL reading program. Recommendations included application of the concept to community college developmental readers and development of a curriculum using legends and folktales of the United States to bring United States history into the ESL reading program.