Edwin Malachi Vethamani, "Teaching Literature in the EFL Classroom"
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Teaching lit for study—using lit as resource: why is Malaysia a special case in this respect?
What is the situation like in Hungary? Recall your own experience about lit-teaching.
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Resource—using lit as a MEANS for creating lg awareness thru texts. What are the texts like?
The focus is on ……. (how students arrive at an understanding of how the author put together the text),
including lg-based activities (3: ……………….., ……………………….., ……………………………) and
on the …… (how students respond to texts), so the students are involved in unfolding the meaning instead of
being told about it.
Illustration: the poem about the moon (to be completed though not w the original words)
q-s: is the persona old or young? + group-work > making them aware of a child’s and an adult’s choice of
vocab. and structures
using binaries (innocence-experience) for sensitizing them of theme (growing up)
Study—where the focus is on lit as a PRODUCT and largely stylistic analysis (lexis, syntax, cohesion,
phonology, graphology, semantics, dialect, register, period, function) and criticism is used (> we need a
bridge between lg awareness and critical appreciation)
Do you consider his arguments about Wordsworth`s "I Wandered Lonely…" strong and convincing (about
the daffodils and wasting time)? What is his example for an attitude of questioning traditions?
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Why do we teach our students lit? What will you become if you study lit?
("………………………..") 1 ……………………, 2 ……………............, 3 …………………………
--lit as an example of lg in use
--exploring cult-al identities, differences
--lit as an incentive of independent reading (?)
--skills in lit? --1 the p……ual skill (recognizing the different genres, mainly by the elements thru individual
activities—Can you read a poem silently?) 2. the d….ing skill (moving from the literal to the literary +
evaluation and appreciation of texts) 3 the e….ing skill (how to answer questions in writing)
--develop the so-called e………n gap (guessing what`s gonna happen next in the text)
> Do we know how to read? Or are we just regurgitating what the teachers have said?
Illustration: the poem about … …. (read out loud)
q-s: Do you think the writer of the poem enjoys living in this place? How does it come thru in lg? (number of
sentences, run-on lines, shape of stanzas—snakelike?, etc. all the while asking questions, trying to elicit
answers that wd bridge the gap `tween lg and implied meaning…)
--centering the reader, and then read and maybe disagree w what the critics had to say
--(potential) inter-textual references
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Criteria for selecting texts: the canon ( ..% canon- ..% new writings)
--local (Malaysian E)—foreign writers
--lit in E > lit-s in E-es (?) < teamwork in Malaysia on the different genres
--lit with "a big L" (as opposed to lit with "a small l")
--abridged or original (> the literariness gets lost)
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Teacher-training in M
--problems: they want ready-made texts instead of putting in their own efforts; retrained teachers > "converted E
teachers"; assessment, etc.
Why literature?
--The cultural model (enables students to understand and appreciate cult-s and ideologies different from their own in
time and space and to come to perceive tradition of thought, feeling, and artistic form within the heritage of
the lit of such cult-s endows.
--The lg model (lg is the literary medium, lit is made from lg and the more students can read in and thru lg the better
able they will be to come to terms with a literary text as lit.
--The personal growth model (to achieve an engagement w the reading of literary texts to carry beyond the classroom
an enjoyment > reading for pleasure
Breadth v. depth
--accurate reading > fluency ?
Lit for study; lit as resource
--a knowledge about lit as opposed to a knowledge of lit
Ronald Carter, "Look both ways before crossing: developments in the language and lit. classroom"
--How wd u characterize the shift of balance that occurred in the 80's in the field of lit. teaching in ELT?
(lit. per se > the teaching of lit. at the interface w lg teaching: lit. texts integrated w more familiar lg
teaching materials)
--What do we mean by the assumption that lg-based approaches are essentially integrative?
(they seek to integrate lg & lit. study; they offer approaches to literary texts accessible to a wider range of
students, from lower to upper intermediate levels) Elaborate on what this means in practice.
--Roger McGough, "40 – Love"
Outline a detailed class plan on how you wd go about teaching this text in one of your own classes.
Apply: step-by-step format; grouping the students; tricks other than just giving them the text as a sentence,
shuffling the columns; vocab warm-up; cultural background on and analogy between sports (tennis), marital
relationship development patterns; background on genre, etc.
Try and find similar texts (poems or other) that may be used for similar purposes (e.g. All good matches start
w love all; to get to first base; to sit in the dugout; to hit a home run, etc.)
--Do u agree w the statement that lg-based approaches are student-centered, activity-based, and process-oriented?
Elaborate on a justification of the side u take.
--Prediction exercises; cloze exercises; ranking tasks; active comprehension techniques; producing and acting out the
text—Do u know what all these are, how they work, etc. Have u tried applying any of them before? How did
u find the results? Were the students happy?
--Stylistic approaches: Explain why in your opinion Cummings is a good starting point for students to be initiated to
the practice of stylistic approaches.Think of other poems by the same author that cd be used for similar
purposes. Prepare a stylistic-approach outline on one of these poems for next week.
Who else do you think wd be a good candidate among American poets to serve as an example for the
illustration/introduction of unorthodox strategies in grammar. Why wd E.D. and Cummings offer useful
springboards into the realm of poetic creation? Use your assignment text for listing reasons.
--Do you agree w the list that enumerates the potential disadvantages in stylistics for the teaching of lit. in EFL/ESL
(pp. 6-7)?
--Literature w a small 'l' – Creativity in everyday E – Cultural awareness
advertisements, jokes, newspaper headlines, examples of verbal play, cartoons (Gary Larson)—Cd u collect
and put together your private "database" of individual specimens that can be used in class? (E.g.: Lox lag
brings about bagel boom; Knock-knock jokes, What-do-u-call jokes, etc.)
Can u explicate the examples on p. 8? How -bout the ones on p. 9? Perhaps distorted proverbs in both lg-s
might represent a good starting point for sensitizing your students to the humor potential in lg use (the kind
of "Addig usd a vasat, amig el nem torik" or
A bird in hand…; The early bird catches…, etc.)
Collect idioms and fixed phrases w reference to other nations to illustrate cultural bias in E. (e.g.: pp. 10-11;
Chinese boxes, Danish cookies, etc.)
Example: What is a literary text? Checking literariness
Do u think the texts in the example are applicable? Wd u try them in your own classes. What aspects—if
any—of the assignments wd u change before giving them to your students?
Example 2: Two-in-one story
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The cook stole a leg from a beautiful roast stork just before it was served to the king.
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'But, your Majesty, you didn`t clap last night.'
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He glowered at them. 'Gentleman, I have something I must say: half of you are idiots.'
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The king asked him angrily why the bird had only one leg.
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One day a company chairman got very angry with his board of directors.
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The king clapped his hands and the birds flew off. 'There,' he said, 'You see, they all have two legs the
moment I clap.'
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"very well', the chairman said, 'I withdraw it—half of you are not idiots.'
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Next morning the king went down to the river and saw the storks all standing on one leg.
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One of the directors stood up and banged on the table. 'I demand that you withdraw that last observation, Mr.
Chairman.'
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The cook replied, 'Storks only ever have one leg—come to the river with me tomorrow and I will show you,
Your Majesty.'