ENG1517 Applied English Literature Foundation Phase Home Language Assignment 01 May 2025 | UNISA

Question 1: Why Dassies Have No Tails

Question 1.1 (10 marks)

The story Why Dassies Have No Tails is written for children between the ages of 6 and 9 years old, and it suits this age group very well for different reasons.

For 6-year-olds, stories need to have simple plots and characters that are easy to understand. In Why Dassies Have No Tails, the animals are easy to recognise, and the story is not complicated. For example, the dassie simply loses its tail because it is lazy. This makes it easy for young children to follow the events and learn a lesson.

For 7-year-olds, children enjoy stories with clear messages and beginnings, middles, and ends. In this story, we can see how the dassies wanted tails, what the plan was and how the dassie wanted tails, what the plan was and how the dassie ended up with no tail at the end. This clear sequence helps 7-year-olds understand cause and effect.

For 9-year-olds, children start appreciating character traits like responsibility and consequences. In Why Dassies Have No Tails, the dassie's laziness leads to him losing his tail. This helps 9-year-olds see how behaviour has consequences and gives them something to reflect on in their own lives.

Question 1.2 (5 marks)

The story Why Dassies Have No Tails can be seen as both a pourquoi tale and a myth. A pourquoi tale is a story that explains why something in nature is the way it is. This story does exactly that it tells us why dassies don't have tails, even though real dassies never had long tails. It gives a creative explanation for something in nature.

At the same time, it is a myth because it involves animals with human characteristics (like talking, making choices, and being lazy). Myths often try to explain the world around us using imaginative stories, which is what this story does. It doesn't give a scientific explanation but rather a fun, made-up reason. For example, the idea that the dassie was lazy and lost his chance to get a tail shows mythical storytelling.

Question 1.3 (5 marks)

Multimodal media means using different ways to present a story, like pictures, sound, and words together. Why Dassies Have No Tails is a great example because it is available online with pictures and an audio recording.