Detective Fiction As A Motivating And Practical Tool For Learning The Language

Chapter I. DETECTIVE FICTION AS A MOTIVATING AND PRACTICAL TOOL FOR LEARNING THE LANGUAGE

I.1. English Language Teaching

I.1.1.Why do people learn foreign languages?

Learning foreign languages have always been considered very useful. It is not a novelty that people have been interested in assimilating another language for different reasons. The motifs why people learn foreign languages nowadays are different from why they might have learnt them many years ago.

The first one was communication. From the very beginning, human beings have tried to communicate to each other, verbally or not.

The second reason implies the idea that speaking a foreign language is a sign of education and the third, the belonging to a higher level of society or just for traveling.

It is obvious that almost every age has its way to acquire a new language. The difference is how it has been done: from hiring foreign nannies for the young ones going through enrolling them in kindergartens where a foreign language is taught, up to teaching it in schools as a curriculum.

We live in a world where learning a foreign language has become a necessity, the importance of speaking a different language, especially English, is closely connected to the development of society itself. The society has changed quickly; it has turned into a unique one, where globalization occupies the first place: apart from information and currency, mastery of a common language represents an outstanding instrument in the development of the world.

The new role of the foreign languages has made educators devise new ways of teaching them, so that their results match the students’ needs.

English, spoken all over the world, should not be associated exclusively with English speakers. Learning a new language can help tremendously with the career prospects, the college education and experiences, travel, and personal enjoyment of the arts and culture. That is why, when learning a new language a background of that country culture is required. The language itself cannot be assimilated without the knowledge of culture and traditions.

I.1.2 Success in language learning

Why are some students successful at language learning while others are not? Teaching would be easy if we knew the answer to the previous question.

It is believed that motivation plays an important role in this process.”Motivation is some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action.”1

According to Jeremy Harmer, language learners who are motivated perceive various kinds of goals: short-term goals and long-term goals. The first ones may refer to the fact they wish to get a better job at some future date ,or a desire to be able to communicate with other members of a target language community, while the last ones might include things such as passing a test or wanting to finish a unit in a book.

Generally ,strong motivated students with long –term goals are easier to teach than those who have no real drive.

There are persons who like different things ,why not learn English through them ? For example, if Indian subcontinent are cricket crazy, why not teach English through cricket? Let them learn English trough their passionate topic.. We know most people in the world are found of movies .Why not make them learn English through movies ,in the end the films reflect reality and life itself .Many of us like stories ,why not learn a foreign language through stories?

This is exactly what happens in ”Smarten your English through” products. English is explained through a passionate topic of the common man. Imagine “Smarten your English through Cricket “or “Smarten your English through Stories” .etc

I believe we should encourage youngsters to catch this opportunity to study through this effortless and enjoyable way. That is why I chose for my students a topic loved by them: Detective Fiction .

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1.Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching ,Longman 1991,p.3

I.2. Types Of Stories and Reasons For Using Detective Fiction

I.3. The role of detective stories in language teaching

I.4. Detective Fiction: Developing Critical Thinking

I.4. Detective Fiction: Developing Critical Thinking

Crime fiction focuses upon the use of reason, by the detective and the reader, and such “it is an escape not from life but from literature”, or at least the kind of literature that employs devices such as “stream of consciousness.”1

1.(Richard Bradford-Crime Fiction: A very short introduction)