[etni] Fwd: On Teaching Literature
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- Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 16:02:03 +0200
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From: סטיב <skbyk@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: On Teaching Literature
Kudos to Renee Wahl and to all the other teachers, who, over the
years, have written about the almost innumerable faults of the present
literature program. However, even if the ‘What HOTS/LOTS/MOTS did
youuuuuuuuu use?’ questions are dropped into the deep pit where they
belong, there would still remain an enormous gap between what a
literature program for EFL students should be and what the Ministry
has created.
The Ministry’s present approach to literature is to use the works as a
variety-pack of advanced reading ‘comprehension’ passages accompanied
by the often obfuscating HOTS exercises in misdirected pedagogy. At
best, this is a real waste of the literary material – there are so
many wonderfully badly-written and nearly totally incomprehensible
academic articles that students could practice on (and should, since
they may well be facing them in university) – and at worst, the
process could ‘turn off’ even Native-speakers from ever wanting to
read literature again. Not to mention the fact that, in addition to
teacher and student work overload, the program, as currently
conceived, isn’t really succeeding in its presumably avowed goal of
improving writing skills. Having students write seven or eight pieces
while only carefully checking and correcting two really doesn’t do
much except offer an additional six possibilities for the students to
continue the making their same mistakes and further entrenching bad
habits. Better short assignments given to small sections of the
classes at staggered intervals than making the students write, all at
the same time, relatively long essays which are often so filled with
mistakes that the corrective tasks become daunting, if not impossible.
(I won’t even bother to speak about the issues connected to internet
usage.)
However, instead of merely caviling, I would like, instead, to offer a
genuine rationale for studying literature:
I don’t think it can be disputed that the true purpose of studying
literature is to learn to appreciate it; and not, as the Ministry
seems to think, to merely ‘understand’ it as a vehicle for teaching
analytical techniques and concepts that should have been taught, in
Hebrew, in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades.
To ‘appreciate’: the which (to use an old-fashioned construct) means
examining a work, not just for its story line or ‘correct’ moral
implications or – Heaven help us – its ‘suitability’ for a particular
political program, but for how it is ‘put together’ as the artist’s
exercise in linguistic proficiency and mastery. After all, when we
examine great literature – and why, by the way, should we be offering
our students anything but the very best? – what truly thrills us and
helps us understand the meaning of literary greatness and genius is
the discovery and exploration of how the writer – regardless of genre
– uses and manipulates the language: not only to tell a story or
express ideas, but to create images, elicit and involve our
imaginations and evoke and control our emotions and reactions. In
short, it is the process of teaching the appreciation of literature
that focuses on and improves the students’ linguistic skills; even as
it demonstrates the mastery, artistry and yes, the playfulness to be
found – forgive the hyperbole – in that ‘wondrous thing that is
language.’
You want to teach literature? Then really examine it: What kind and
level of language is the writer working in? Do the sentences have a
rhythm even as prose? Are they imagistic and metaphoric or are they
lacking in color? Are they structurally and syntactically
straight-forward and clear, or are they complex and puzzling? Does,
and if so, how does the author’s use of language help us infer a
different level of content? Does the level of language and vocabulary
effect the presentation and development of the characters? Is our
interest piqued from the outset? Are we surprised, intrigued,
attracted, repelled, amused, moved, involved? Could we say the same
thing differently (how? give an example) and would it be a gain or a
loss…and why?
How does the opening paragraph, or the first stanza, or the first
dialogue exchange prepare us for what comes next? What about the next
paragraph/stanza/scene? Are there similarities to the first lines? If
so, and we see that the writer consistently writes this way, could we
call this the writer’s ‘style’? (Patterns anyone? Comparisons and
contrasts anyone?)
Why do we laugh? Is it at the situation described, or at the words
used to describe it? Does the writer use language ironically? Does the
author reveal his/her attitude to the characters? Are we meant to
laugh with or at the characters? Do we like them? Do they arouse our
sympathy, compassion, contempt, etc.?
Why is poetry considered by many to be the highest form of literature?
What makes a piece of writing poetry? What are the differences between
poetry and song…between poetry and prose? Where is the music in
poetry? What does rhyme do for us? Let’s see how easy or hard it is
to write a coherent description or thought in rhymed couplets, or in
an fixed pattern of a,b,a,b. (We could even try alliteration.) Let’s
really apply our understanding of parts of speech and replace the
nonsense words in “The Jabberwocky ”. How many different levels of
meanings has the poet implied by his choice of words? How do the
changes in standard sentence structure and syntax affect our
understanding? etc., etc., etc., etc…
I have not attempted to organize or order the above questions
coherently, but it should be obvious that these are some of the kinds
of questions and explorations that raise and expand a student’s level
and mastery of the language; even as the search for answers can
inspire appreciation and even awe. This is teaching language and
language skills in context. This is what demands and trains
recognition of patterns. This is what can provide recognition of the
multiplicity of the different meanings of a word…and so on, and so
forth.
As to the matriculation exams, I contend that any student who learns
to ask and answer even a portion of such questions will have no
problem passing even the old-fashioned, one- exam-fits-all.
True, not all students reach a level that can genuinely manage this,
but that’s even truer under the present system; which is trying to
shove often overly-long works of rather mediocre literature down the
students’ throats as if force-feeding geese; and aside from the fact
that such forced-feeding has been rightfully deemed cruel and unusual
punishment, it’s defeating its own purpose: because most of the works
are simply too long or boring to sustain student interest.. This is
particularly true for this generation of students; whose attention
spans require, at least initially, much shorter ‘bytes’. And it’s not
as if there aren’t great alternatives. If you really want to engage
students in the issues of choice, instead of “Two roads diverged…”
teach the same poet’s “Fire and Ice”. It’s much more comprehendible,
encompassable and accessible to the students; and offers a far wider
and more interesting set of possible studies and comparisons than the
present incumbent. And do get rid of those ridiculous biographical
‘bridging’ questions. A work of art should stand on its own and the
only time authorial biographical information has any
analytical/critical validity is when it is needed to clarify otherwise
unclear portions of the work; and if such clarification is necessary,
then the work is clearly flawed and we shouldn’t be teaching it in the
first place.
However, I am not entirely negative in regard of the literature
program. I greatly support the HOTS program as an excellent method for
teaching the basic approaches to literature to teachers who have no
experience in the subject. However, the program really belongs in
teaching seminaries and teacher improvement courses, not in EFL
classrooms. The ‘Post-reading Activities’ carry more than a whiff of
artificiality and misguided attempts to ‘legislate’ student attitudes
through rather elementary school-like ‘What I did in the Holidays’
assignments; and the ‘Reflections,’ and ‘Summative Assessments’ are
even more odiferous as circuitous but not very covert attempts to
provide the Ministry with some kind of ‘feel-good’ self-justification
for the HOTS program. If at all explored, the ‘reflections’ should be
limited to the students’ opinions of the work’s application to human
experiences as they understand them; and the self-congratulatory
‘Summative’ assessments should be eliminated entirely.
Finally, returning to the issue of the kinds of works we should be
teaching, the key is certainly shortness and compactness, at least
initially; and I’m not sure that I wouldn’t start formally teaching
literature in the 9th grade by introducing different genres of short
poems: perhaps starting with some nursery rhymes , which will provide
them with a genuine connection to Anglo-Saxon culture and whose
historical references will certainly intrigue them – and then moving
on to Haikus that they can all write themselves (there are several
very nice ‘write your own haiku’ programs on the internet). We might
even let them discover that poetry can be fun and non-threatening:
through Ogden Nash limericks and Lewis Carroll; and even Roald Dahl’s
spoofs on Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs; and, once
having eliminated (or at least mitigated) their often negative
attitudes to poetry, one could move on in the 10th grade to Whitman
(Oh Captain, my captain…), Frost (Fire and Ice), E. A. Robinson
(Richard Cory) and even e.e.cummings (Spring is like a perhaps hand)
and even one or two of the Sonnets (just to name a few of my own
preferences).
My experience has shown that once they can read, comprehend and
appreciate poetry, confronting literary prose is a ‘cinch’. But then,
I’ve only been teaching literature for 40 years; and unlike the
Ministry, what do I know?
Stephen Byk
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