Fichamento 01 – "Use of literature in teaching English"

Por Camila Dias da Silva e Jenny Yoshioka.

Identificação:

KESHAVARZI, Abdollah. Use of literature in teaching English. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 46, 2012, p. 554-559. Available in http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042812012888. Access in February, 14^th.

Resumo:

Teachers in general and English teachers specifically, are always concerned with the kind of material they are going to present to their students. One of the most challenging kinds of material for English classes is literature. Although some scholars have pointed out to the shortcoming of literature use in practice, it is so vast and so practicable that instructors cannot stop using it. Language learning requires acquiring four skills of reading comprehension, writing, listening and speaking. Some sources provide materials that can meet some of these abilities, but literature has proved a good source that fulfills these four skills. Also, language learning deals with culture, and hence with social understanding. It is this feature of language that demands materials dealing with culture. Literature is culture; that is, it is not to say that literature deals with culture, but it should be said that literature is the culture of the people using that language. Besides, it can be claimed that the use of literature in language classes encourages more thoughtful and purposeful language learning. In this respect, the learners are not only exposed to the real use of language, but also they become critical thinkers. As such, the present paper will debate the reasons behind using literature as a good source in teaching English language.

Palavras-chave: Literature; English language; Culture; Language four skills.

Citações:

1.      Introduction

“Choosing appropriate texts is the first step to teaching English in the ESL/EFL classroom. (…). An important goal of education is equipping learners with materials to improve their own futures and become contributing members of their own society, rather than burdens on society and others. (…). A vast part of this material comes from literature.” (p. 554);

“(…) language teachers are regarded as carriers of cultural messages, and understanding a language necessitates understanding its culture. In other words, an appreciation of certain key cultural concepts is required for a true understanding of the language being learnt.” (p. 555).

2.      Discussion

“Since literature is related to real-life situations, it deals with accurate diction. (…). Also, since literature deals with different moods as well as situations, it is prevalent with diverse forms of sentences. (…). As such, literature contains all these various forms of use of language. Besides, passion has its own value in literature. When reading literature texts, the reader is engaged with this passionate aspect of the text. (…) What is important is that conflict resolution and communication strategies are best mediums to create learning environment for engagement.” (p. 555);

“Language is associated with culture. That is, language is the carrier of cultural messages. As such, literature is very significant when employed in teaching a language. Literature is culture.” (p. 555);

“Undoubtedly, ‘the English curriculum is a place for enjoying and reflecting on… cultural resources, debating their values, and imagining and designing… futures’ (Goodwyn, 2009: 12).” (p. 555);

“(…) teachers should consider language as entailing social acceptability, that is, they should look to English classroom as carrying resemblance with the outside language. Besides, non-native students need to be exposed to various literary texts in order to be able to consider the other’s culture in their international communication.” (p. 556);

“(…) by culture, students explore hidden facets of English speaking culture. (…). The piece of literary work entertains and opens the eyes of students as they see how other people think, interpret, and act on a variety of things, especially those things ESL students are familiar with.” (p. 556);

“Literature is a good source for English language learners to develop inner speech. It is literature that provides them the source for internalization of various verbal practices of the community, and the learner is enabled to ‘think words’ and to be engaged in mental rehearsal and internal self-talks. Therefore, literature encourages more thoughtful and purposeful language learning. It exposes the learners to the real use of language.” (p. 556);

“Literature helps in incorporation of linguistic competence into communicative competence by putting language into use in different social situations.” (p. 556);

“Use of literature in English classrooms makes the learners focus on the meaning (Mourão, 2009). In this sense, language becomes a means for its own real function. It is not just a means for practice. Language becomes a means in the hands of learners and manipulated by them to use their background knowledge to understand authentic texts, (…).” (p. 556);

“(…) the focus is ‘on the process rather than product’, the emphasis is on ‘negotiation rather than pre-determination’, and the teacher ‘acts as facilitator’ and ‘not just instructor’ (17).” (p. 556);

“Literature develops learners strategies; they listen and read for general meaning, predict and guess the meaning of unfamiliar words. (…). Literature helps students to go beyond the surface meaning and dive into underlying meanings; that is, it enables students to go beyond what is written and dive into what is meant.” (p. 557);

“Literature provides the kind of subject matter that has the power to motivate learners and help them in exploring the possibilities of usages and meaning that enhances their language competence in a great way. (…). Literature evokes feelings through words, pulls learners out of the graded grammatical forms and helps them to communicate in a way that attracts language learning.” (p. 557);

“A main factor of learning process is the promotion of reflective thinking in the learner. A reflective process, or reflective thinking, is considered a critical component of transformative learning for learners (Kember et al., 1999; Mezirow, 1991). (…). This way, learners reflect on their own experiences and compare how their experiences are similar to or different from their expectations. (…) uses the language to communicate with his elders, to satisfy his demands, to attract the others, and to interact with those around himself. Literature creates exactly the same environment for the English learner.” (p. 557).

3.      Conclusion

“Literature is intellectually stimulating because it allows a reader to imagine worlds they are not familiar with." (p. 557);

“(…) literary texts help them to acquire the language as a means of communication.” (p. 558);

“When English is taught through literature, it creates the power of self-belief in students, and hence, influences learner’s behaviors, motivation and attitudes towards English language learning.” (p. 558).