5 Reasons to Use Literature in (English) Language Classes (of any Level)
Martina Šindelářová Skupeňová, Czech Republic
Martina is an English language lecturer at Masaryk University Language Centre, Brno, Czech Republic. She is interested in visual arts, architecture and literature and she has been trying to include those in language education as much as possible. She contributed to the Global Issues in the ELT Classroom resource book.
E-mail: skupenova@phil.muni.cz
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Introduction
Literature is real. Think of authentic tasks.
Literature is prestigious. Allow students to participate at this prestige.
Literature is personal. Let students find their own way.
Literature is imaginative. Encourage students to be creative.
Literature is fun. Entertain your students.
Conclusion
Bibliography
This article deals with benefits that using literature in language classes brings to both students and teachers. Most of the observations described in the article arise from preparation, piloting and teaching of a university English language course based on literary texts. The course was developed for students of humanities (Faculty of Arts), often students of foreign languages and literatures, who study English as their second or third language. The original idea was to create a course of English for Specific Purposes using CLIL methodologies. However, as the course was being planned and prepared, I realized that there were some serious obstacles to this conception.
Not only did data from the course obligatory entrance test reveal that the students´ average level was B1, additional information about students self-evaluation, motivation and interests which was collected from pre-course questionnaires showed crucial limitations for the course too. The students felt the need to be able to read both complex literary texts as well as secondary texts on literature in English, but they were admitting that their reading skills were not corresponding to those challenges. When assessing their writing skills and needs, the students claimed that they lack experience in writing longer or analytical texts, but at the same time they were not willing to practice and were only ready to spend 20 minutes a week on preparation for the course. Besides, most of the students took the course within the first year of their undergraduate studies, and hence had only limited theoretical background knowledge.
Consequently, many alterations had to be made to the course design. New ways to make literature approachable and possibilities to introduce students into literary studies in English were searched for. This text is going to present 5 important arguments which served as the basis of my course and which explain that the use of literature is rewarding not only for advanced students or just for students of humanities. Based on the arguments, five possible ways to overcome problems when using literature for language teaching purposes will be demonstrated. To some degree, those may also be ways to introduce basics of literary theory in English language classroom.
Having no general objections to using adapted literary texts in classes, this article suggests that the authenticity of original literary works is of great advantage for teaching purposes. Students, starting from very low levels, appreciate situations when they are faced with real-life situations and authentic challenges. Therefore, it makes sense to practice their reading skills not just on the basis of carefully selected and prepared textbook texts, but to include texts they would normally read in their first languages, such as news articles, websites and also literary texts. Students in my course were both motivated to read original texts and aware of their limited reading skills, so it was my task to provide them with chances to practice and improve. With the realm of literature including an enormous variety of genres and forms from nursery rhymes and short stories to complex novels, an attractive yet comprehensible and approachable text can be found for any student.
As literary works employ various settings and backgrounds, it is possible to find texts for even specialized courses or students with special interests. For example, I used Simon Mawer’s Glass Room in my course as it was inspired by a famous villa in Brno. However, this novel would be a great source for architects or admirers of modern architecture studying English anywhere in the world. The Girl who Fell from the Sky by the same author could be recommended for those interested in history and his Mendel's Dwarf for students of biology or genetics. Deller and Price argue that, “Students are more motivated when they are learning through English something that is part of their learning and thinking, rather than just learning the language, which may or may not have seem to them to have any obvious purpose.” (Deller, S., Price, C., 2007, p.127) Their statement supports the idea that when English teachers use literature, they can combine teaching language and teaching content which may be any subject, or as it was the case of my course literature itself.
Naturally, students´ ability to deal with authentic texts is limited by their language level, but a teacher should be able to find a manageable task that would copy a real-life situation too. Such authentic tasks should be based on our first language practice and could consist of making observations about characters, setting or language, summarising the main events or predicting future development. Students at A1 or A2 level could be assigned simple tasks, such as to connect original and translated titles of famous books, to identify where story takes place, to judge whether a person is a positive or negative character, man or woman, young or old, etc. With higher levels, the tasks can become more sophisticated and complex; students at B2 level can be asked not just to describe facts or retell plots but also to analyse, discuss and interpret different aspects of literary works. Students with some theoretical background and professional interest can be taught and encouraged to use appropriate terminology as well. In this way, I was able to involve CLIL elements in my course and mastering basic literary terms became one of the course outcomes. As this corresponded to students´ actual needs, the wish to handle literature in an authentic way was not contradicted.
Besides assigning appropriate tasks, the decision to only use excerpts is a logical way to make texts approachable for students. The use of excerpts can be considered an authentic approach, because there are situations when we only deal with a section of a literary text in real life. Most readers decide about buying a new book by reading excerpts, such as book covers or reviews. When reading translations of literary texts some readers would search for the original version of a beautiful, or interesting, or in the translation somewhat confusing section of the text, etc. The importance of choosing a good excerpt has been highlighted both in theory and practice. Cook claims that only excerpts not relying too much on previous context should be used, “The number of allusions to information given in the preceding text should be analysed and annotated, omitted or altered. Texts particularly rich in such allusions should be avoided.” (Brumfit, C.J., Carter, R.A., 1991, p.164). Also, he suggested that the quality of the text has to be contained within the excerpt as such and not depending on the quality of the whole work. This advice correlates with the wish to handle literary excerpts in an authentic way. In real life, the readers are also exposed to excerpts that are independent or self-sufficient to a certain degree. In my course, I have successfully used opening lines for a series of activities that were based on the authentic experience of dealing with expectations at the beginning of a new book.
In most cultures literary works carry a high social and cultural status. In history of many countries, including my country, the Czech Republic; literature had strong connections with politics. Although individual students can often be poor readers who do not read much or do not read high quality or classical literature, they would most probably share the general perception of literature being a valuable and prestigious cultural phenomenon. Consequently, being able to read literary works, or at least achieve partial comprehension of literary excerpts, gives students a strong feeling of self-confidence about their language competence.
In this context, it can be suggested that texts by famous writers, even if the language they use may be too difficult and the topics they write about might not be of special interest to students, have bigger potential for teaching purposes than more comprehensible texts written by less known writers have. Brumfit uses the term classic status and explains that, “The desire to read Dickens or Shakespeare may enable students to overcome difficulties which would be significant in terms of other criteria.” (Brumfit, C.J., Carter, R.A., 1991, p.190) According to my experience, when working with texts by authors unknown to students they lack the feeling of prestige and their enthusiasm and involvement in activities is not that strong. As a result, my text collection consists of classics and contemporary best-sellers (which have to be up-dated every time the course is being taught) in English and famous English translations of world literature. Among the translations are books coming from students´ first language, this has proved to be a very good source for comparative activities.
English translations of books from other cultures provide opportunities to include intercultural, multilingual and metalinguistic elements in language learning context. As Lazar says, “There is strong argument for saying that exposing students to literature from other cultures is an enriching and exciting way of increasing their awareness of different values, beliefs, social structures and so on.” (Lazar, G., 1993, p.62). A teacher can easily facilitate a discussion on differences between cultures, countries or languages on a basis of a well-chosen literary text and its translation. Once again, students’ language output in those situations can range from very simple observations – e.g. identifying and/ or comparing different dishes or life-styles to complex debates about stereotypes, cultural shock or assimilation. Parallel tasks can be focused at language, beginners just identifying international or loan words present in both original and translated version of a text, intermediate students discussing various ways of expressing formality in different languages and advanced students working with idioms and collocations. Students in my course, who mostly have basic linguistic training, could also be asked to try to analyse translation techniques used in the text.
Regardless of their level, activities referring to texts from students´ own cultures (or in their own languages) allow them to participate at the prestigious status of literature. As students can rely on their background knowledge, they can play the role of an expert “They will feel empowered by their ability to relate to the values and traditions of their own society,” as expressed by Lazar (Lazar, G., 1993, p.19). Therefore, it can be argued that comparing or contrasting their own culture to a different one provides students with a possibility for a new or better understanding of intercultural issues and at the same time allows them to gain confidence from the interest and respect shown to their own background.
For defining and interpreting literature as a cultural phenomenon, reader’s perception has become a crucial perspective in contemporary literary theory. According to this view, all readers have their own understanding of what literature is and what features qualify a text to be read as a piece of literature. Similarly, using literary texts in language classroom should emphasize the personal dimension of this type of an encounter with a foreign language and be based on excepting individual, subjective readings of the same text. Brumfit and Carter clarify that, “The process of reading is a process of meaning-creation by integrating one´s own needs, understanding, and expectations with a written text.” (Brumfit, C.J., Carter, R.A., 1991, p.21). The recognition of different versions of the same text should create the basis for communication between individual students and the teacher.
With this in mind, a teacher should employ literary texts for engaging, reflective activities, focus on situations with open solutions and create tasks with no wrong answers. Duff and Maley emphasise that, “The student is an active agent not a passive recipient. It is vital for us that the activities provoke a genuine interaction between the reader and the text, and between the readers themselves – including the teacher!” (Duff, Al., Maley, A., 1990, p.5). In this respect, it is obvious that if students share their feelings or impressions they cannot be criticized or questioned in any way. Besides, students should not be forced to express themselves as their reading of a text might touch on spheres that are too sensitive or private.
On the other hand, to define literature on the basis of a reader´s subjective perception allows us to include activities based on experiencing literature rather than understanding it. In this manner, even experimental forms and unusual genres can be incorporated in the language classroom. Students can be exposed to graphical poems by Václav Havel, nonsense poetry by Lewis Carroll or an audio recording of Allan Ginsberg’s Howl. Whether students are able to respond and reflect on verbal, audio or visual associations and effects that the author produced does not entirely depend on their language level. As Duff and Maley explain, “Literature involves affect and emotion. In order to process them we have to embark on a process of making imaginative interpretations of the reality they represent. Interaction with a literary text usually involves a deeper level of mental processing, a greater personal involvement and response, and hence a greater chance of leaving traces in the memory” (Duff, Al., Maley, A., 1990, p.6). For all those reasons, I think that “immersion in literature” activities serve a purpose for language learning, or learning in general, and they facilitate a more personal perspective to the learning context.
Reading literature results in creating personal versions of literary texts. The fact that readers get involved in imaginative processes is one of the basic characteristics of a literary text. Readers typically use their imagination and creativity as they try to visualize the people, objects and places represented in the text, or as they try to predict future actions or development; they might even think about alterations to the text. Those natural tendencies can be further developed for language learning purposes.
As far as the use of visual materials and activities based on them is concerned, I believe that this is a seriously underestimated issue in case of adult students, students of higher levels or students of academic courses. It should be considered that it is not just students with a predominant visual intelligence who benefit from those activities. Asking students to think in visual terms makes them change their typical ways of learning and handling a foreign language; which is an enriching experience for language acquisition (for students’ and their personal development.
Visual types of activities usually also allow weaker and stronger students to work together. Group activities, such as a “casting task” – students choose actors for leading roles in a film adaption of the discussed book - can be engaging for various types of students as good readers can find and understand detailed character descriptions in the text. Good speakers can rephrase and paraphrase those excerpts and even weak students with good visualization skills can come up with creative solutions. A simple yet complimentary visual task can follow any reading, both of literary and non-literary texts, groups of students can be asked to search for, choose or create appropriate illustrations, graphs or schemes to enhance the text and to connect reading with other skills.
The imaginative potential of reading literature can naturally be transformed in writing. Based on my experience, a short creative writing task can be handled by all students, once they feel relaxed about its outcome. Following some of the previously mentioned principles, those writing tasks should have some authenticity, prestigious features and, most importantly, have no wrong answers. I have never had more writing done on voluntarily basis than in my literary course. Students liked developing opening lines by famous writers and I think they found it extremely enjoyable to imagine and enact the role of co-authors with the works of Jane Austen or Salman Rushdie. Similarly, they enjoyed choosing the best lines of Kafka´s Castle and rewriting them in dialogue bubbles and panel descriptions for its recent graphic novel adaptation. They even tried to write poetry inspired by the famous villa Tugendhat and its description in the Glassroom novel. In contrast to what they stated in the pre-course questionnaires, the students were willing to get some academic writing training too.
There exists a general impression that people, young people in particular, read literature less than before, the sale numbers of recent best-sellers and audience size of some online blogs prove otherwise. I believe that reading is still a widely spread free time activity and that the audience of elite genres has never been very big anyway. As long as teachers choose the right reading material, students will find literature interesting. I suggest that the choice of literary texts included in language classrooms should help to create an atmosphere that does not focus solely learning, but having fun, at least to a certain degree. Teachers should try to find texts or excerpts that have entertaining qualities, which does not necessarily mean that they do not have other qualities or cannot be used for sophisticated tasks. For example, activities analysing or suggesting translations can be introduced again. Even a beginners can observe that a joke is culturally embedded and therefore it is not easily translated into a different language.
For the sake of visual types of students, less active students, as well as all the other students, film adaptations of literary works can be included in language classrooms. By making students feel comfortable when watching a short video, a teacher can skilfully introduce a wide variety of authentic and engaging activities. Working with a video and corresponding text together results in more lively discussions, more detailed explanations, better argumentation and generally speaking more enthusiastic responses, according to my observation.
It is my strong personal belief that literary texts should not be used in grammar or vocabulary exercises. This would neither mean handling literature in an authentic way, nor make it attractive to students. Moreover, the traditional formats of gap fills or multiple choices would destroy the complexity and originality of author´s language. Very often it is the original, strange or unorthodox use of language that makes literature so interesting for the reader. Some theoreticians see the inclusion of different linguistic phenomena in literature as its crucial potential for language learning, “In terms of the language, literary texts offer genuine samples of a very wide range of styles, registers, and text/types at many levels of difficulty.” (Duff, A., Maley, A., 1990, p.5). Taking advantage of this richness, teachers can teach students with enjoyable examples of specific language, slang or dialects.
This paper does not intend to state that no attention should be paid to grammar or vocabulary when working with literature in language classes. However, it suggests that instead of adopting literary texts into exercises, they should be used for activities engaging students´ critical thinking and analytical skills. Students should be asked to question, compare and contrast certain linguistic patterns rather than copy them in a passive way. Such an approach enables students to work for example with Jane Austen´s extremely formal dialogues in an entertaining way, since their task can be to reformulate the conversations in 21st century youth language. Literary-minded students can be asked to handle this task using appropriate terminology or by working with language corpora tools.
The purpose of this paper is to share beliefs about using literary texts in the language classroom and to illustrate them by introducing concrete ways that allow students to approach literature in English. It was stated that students at every level and of every background can benefit from tasks based on literary text. Since students appreciate connections between real-life and learning, it is suggested that they should get involved in authentic tasks, however simple their language output might be. Furthermore, the paper explained that activities around texts by respected authors and activities relating literary texts to students own cultural background increase students’ motivation. The understanding that perception of literary works is always individual and subjective was identified as a crucial reason for including literature in language learning. This understanding offers opportunities for a personalized approach to teaching and creates situations which do not always aim at understanding, but also emphasize the importance of experiencing literature. The imaginative character of literature is described as a key to students’ creative involvement in language learning. The article paper pointed out that besides creative writing, visual types of activities can also activate students´ minds in less usual, yet enriching ways. Moreover, the advantages of creating a fun atmosphere in language classes were presented. Throughout the paper, suggestions were made for tasks that require a more theoretical approach from the students. By following the above mentioned principles, I believe I was able to create a course based on literary texts that corresponds to the needs of university students; whose English level is still lower than B2 but who wish to get involved in studying literature using English literary sources. It should be possible for other teachers to successfully engage literature in their courses by choosing some of the ways I have mentioned and adapting them for their students’ situation.
Brumfit, C.J., Carter, R.A. (1991): Literature and Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Carter, R.A., Long, M.N. (1987): The Web of Words. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Clarke, D.F. (1989): Talk about Literature. Hodder and Stoughton Limited.
Daniels, H., Steineeke, N. (2004): Mini-lessons for Literature Circles. Heinemann.
Deller, S., Price, C. (2007): Teaching other Subjects through English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Duff, A., Maley, A. (1991): Literature, Resource Books for Teachers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lazar, G. (1993): Literature and Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Short, M. (1992): Reading, Analysing and Teaching Literature. London: Longman House.
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