Most Japanese students (and many teachers of English as well) believe that poems, short stories, and plays have little or no place in classrooms oriented to developing communicative competence in English or that literary texts are only for advanced learners. In fact, Japanese students often say that the study of both English and Japanese literary texts is boring and difficult. This unfortunate situation is probably the result of teaching literature in the wrong way: choosing extremely difficult texts, relying on word-for-word translation, and lecturing to students (often in Japanese) on literary criticism and the meaning of English texts. For EFL learners, this is surely not the way to develop either language skills or literary appreciation. Is there another way to use literature in the EFL classroom?
The basic premise of this presentation is that, yes, there is a better way. Effective literature-based lessons engage learners and capture their interest. They make learners excited about understanding how language is used to express an author’s communicative purpose. They make learners active participants in tasks that lead them to discover objective language features and arrive at their own well-supported interpretations of a text. They teach learners that their own understanding of a text is worthy of respect, if it is supported by evidence from the text. They are the springboard for creative communicative post-reading activities. They make learners want to read further literary texts on their own.
Such lesson outcomes do not happen by accident; teachers must carefully plan for them. This presentation will be firmly based on the theoretical principles behind such lessons, but it will focus most heavily on experiential learning in a workshop format. So, participants will experience an example lesson based on a simple poem that teaches specific language features as a means of understanding the poem. The main goal is that participants will come away with a sense of the practical skills to use in their own teaching of a poem. A second goal that usually is achieved is that participants will themselves gain a fresh appreciation of literature.
Bio: Dr. Patrick Rosenkjar, Ed.D. Temple University Japan, M.A. English San Francisco State University, teaches at Temple University, Japan, and has published articles on using literature and literary stylistics for EFL students and teacher trainers.
