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Ubaidullah Khan

Department of English language & Applied Linguistics

Allama Iqbal open university, Islamabad

A linguistics professor was lecturing to her class one day. "In English," she said, “a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative." A voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah, right."

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What is Literature?

An umbrella term giving information on every business. (Moody: 1971).

Eg. Literature for medicine, science, agriculture etc.

Literature is the use of language effectively in suitable conditions (Baird: 1969).

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Traditional Method of teaching Literature

Literary terms and difficult words introduced

Analysis of literary text without actually understanding it

Outcome is Memorising / rephrasing practice

Students only learn difficult words or patterns of texts

Language learning efficiency reduces and boredom increases.

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Rationale for literature:

Literary texts can be used in language teaching

because the language used in these texts is

suitable for the contexts of the events.

Containing real examples of grammatical structures and vocabulary items, the literary texts raise learners’ awareness of the range of the target language and advance their competence in all language skills (Povey, 1967)

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Why Literature in EFL Classroom?

1. Cultural enrichment and awareness. Helps understand a culture & its ideologies

Selection of works of best wisdom of that culture.

2. Mental training: trains mind and sensibility.

3. Memorability: Easy to remember linguistic usage (Maley & Moulding, 1985).

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Why Literature in EFL Classroom? 2

4. Rhythmic resource. Poems assist the

learner in assimilating the rhythms of a language.

5. Motivating material. May be based on

interesting material and motivational themes.

6. Convenience. Literature is a handy (photocopiable) resource.

7. Open to interpretation/ Promotes interaction.

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Why Literature in EFL Classroom? 3

8. Linguistic model: Best demonstration of language use and style by established writers

9. Extension of linguistic competence:

Students’ linguistic competence increases

10. Authenticity: A source of genuine &undistorted

language input Parkinson & Thomas (2000: 9-11)

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Literature vs Conventional Discourse Conventional discourse: use guess work to

get to information and skip lines/ passages and still interpret.

Literature: look for evidence of the new

reality, and adopt a procedure for interpretation to make sense of the discourse.

Literature provides wider room for ‘inference’

which guarantees employment of more discoursal strategies.

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Some Questions

1. What to teach when we use literary texts? (select material appropriate to level of the class)

2. What kind of text to work with? (select according to the need of students/course

objectives)

3. What can literary text be used for? (to teach language, not only history or themes)

4. How to make students enjoy literature? (motivate by teaching literature of their interest)

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What is Appropriate

Readability (length and cultural apropriacy)

Lexis: Easy (day to day) to difficult (pompous or robust)

Grammar: Different levels of syntactic complexity

Style: Do not start of with Francis Bacon if it is elementary level

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Using Short Story for Language Teaching

Teaching Grammar

Teaching pronunciation

Teaching Narration

Teaching Description

Teaching Punctuation

Comprehension questions

Vocabulary quizzes (multiple options)

Guessing contextual meanings

Prediction (what next)

Making sentences reflecting multiple meanings of a word

Using Short Story for Language ;;;;;;;;contd.

Writing story (based on given words/storyline)

Comments on last line of the story

Create a new story based on ending of story

Creative writing as home task (response to the story they have read)

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100 word story

Analyse the two stories in terms of their lexis, grammar and style.

Dadatic

and

Maeve Haran

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Story 1

My dentist was injured today while she was

torturing me. I didn't bite her. She cut herself

with one of her instruments. While she ran to

cure her wound, I stayed there with an open

mouth, not because I was dumbfounded, but

because she had not given me permission to

close it. Fortunately she could soon resume the

operation, as her wound was not really serious.

But it's my first time of rightfully shared pain at

the dentist's. She quickly disposed of my tooth

before I could say a word. Now what am I going

to put beneath my pillow?

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Story 2:

He had planned his whole life on the back of an

envelope. She didn’t possess a pen let alone a

lifeplan. She was a free spirit. She went with the

flow. Love picked him like a tornado and swept

him in her wake.

After ten years she demanded a divorce. She

needed certainty in her life, the security of

knowing her future. He had learned to live from

day to day. It irritated the hell out of her. “We

always kill the thing we love,” she told him

blithely as he got out the kitchen knife.. She hadn’t meant herself.

Activity:

Turn over your handout.

Enlist the underlined words in the two stories

that you remember.

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Teaching Word “Forms” Complete the word form chart. Remember that

some words do not have all forms. (Form)

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Verb Adverb participle Noun Adjective

Speak ------ Speaking Speaker Speakable

think

bright

bluntly

understand

Teaching “use”

a) She (apologise) __________ for being late for the meeting yesterday.

b) The doctor said that his great optimism (help)____ him recover soon.

c) It is quite difficult (get)____used to (live)___alone.

d) We often go (fish)_______along the bank.

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Speaking skills

The student are asked to read a story as a chain activity. It will enhance fluency and improve pronunciation. (primary)

The students recall and read the story as a chain activity using the given connectors and discourse markers such as “however”, “then”, “consequently”, “regarding”, “as far as”. (Intermediate)

The students play different roles based on characters in the story (Advanced)

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Activity:

Imagine you are the doctor (student A) who diagnoses that Aamir (student B) has only six more months to live. Tell him what he is suffering from. Make sure you are convincing.

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Listening Skills

Read the story out loud so students have the opportunity to listen to a native speaker of English (if at all possible); or

Play the story if a recording is available.

Who is the main character of the story?

Where/when does the story take place?

What is the problem (conflict) in the story?

How is the conflict resolved?

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http://l.georges.online.fr/tools/cloze.html

I Was Never Able To Pray (By Edward Hirsch)

Wheel me (i)____(ii)______ the shore

where the lighthouse was abandoned

and the moon tolls (iii)______ the rafters.

Let me hear the wind paging (iv)_____ the trees

and see the stars flaring (v)_____ one (vi)___ one,

like the forgotten faces (vii)______the dead.

I was never able (viii)______pray,

But let me inscribe my name

(ix)______the book (ix)________waves

and then stare (xi)______the dome

(xii)_____a sky that never ends

and see my voice sail (xiii)_____the night.

by, down, in, into,of, out, through, to

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Wheel me down to the shore

where the lighthouse was abandoned

and the moon tolls in the rafters.

Let me hear the wind paging through the trees

and see the stars flaring out, one by one,

like the forgotten faces of the dead.

I was never able to pray,

but let me inscribe my name

in the book of waves

and then stare into the dome

of a sky that never ends

and see my voice sail into the night.

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Pronunciation Teaching using Poetry

And we sit upon the rocks

Seeing the shepherd feed their flocks

By shallow river to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals

Sounds in focus: /s/, /z/

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Using Plays in EFL Class

They are short, compact and involving

Can be used for promoting speaking and reading skills

Students may be asked to enact and feel a

sense of participation

They may be asked to write a short play on an imaginative / experienced situation

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Conclusion:

___________________________________ Literature is effective for teaching language since it provides an authentic model of real life language use.

It not only teaches language, it also encourages one’s cultural and personal growth by means of moral and spiritual advancement.

Literature is not an end, it is a means to develop creative ability which helps students relate themselves to their socio-psychological context.

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