PREDAREA SI INVATAREA LIMBII ENGLEZE PRIN INTERMEDIUL LITERATURII [311738]

PREDAREA SI INVATAREA LIMBII ENGLEZE PRIN INTERMEDIUL LITERATURII

Teaching English Language through Literature

Introduction

CHAPTER 1 – THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF STUDYING LITERATURE

1.1. Definition

1.2. The use of literature in the ESL classroom. Methods and approaches (brief history)

1.3. Why using literature in ESL classroom.

1.3.1. Advantages of using literature in the language classroom

1.3.2. Disadvantages of using literature in the language classroom

1.4. Activities based on literary texts.

1.4.1. Novels and short stories

1.4.2. Plays

1.4.3. Poems

CHAPTER 2 – PRACTICAL IDEAS AND ACTIVITIES FOR THE USE OF LITERATURE IN ESL CLASSROOM……………………………………………..36

Classroom activities

2.1. Activities based on prose

2.2. Activities based on plays

2.3. Activities based on poems and lyrics

CHAPTER 3 – RESEARCH ………………………………………………………88

3.1. General frame of the research.

3.2. Questionnaire 1. (Description; Results; Analysis of the results)

3.3. Questionnaire 2. (Description; Results; Analysis of the results)

3.4. Analysis of the results

Conclusion

Bibliography

Annexes

CHAPTER 1 – THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF STUDYING LITERATURE

Definition of literature

What is literature? Literature has been defined in many different ways. Derived from the Latin litteratura meaning "writing formed with letters", [anonimizat], drama, fiction, nonfiction, and articles.

The Oxford dictionary defines it as:

1. [anonimizat].

1.1 Books and writings published on a particular subject.

1.2 Leaflets and other printed matter used to advertise products or give advice.

(https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/literature)

[anonimizat]:

written works ([anonimizat], and novels) that are considered to be very good and to have lasting importance

2. [noncount]

a: books, articles, etc., about a particular subject

b: printed materials ([anonimizat], and brochures) that provide information about something. (http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/literature)

It is difficult to provide a [anonimizat]. Much of today’s literature would not have been recognisable to literature teachers a [anonimizat].

Many scholars from all over the world have given different definitions of literature. [anonimizat], said that “Literature could be said to be a sort of disciplined technique for arousing certain emotions.” (cit. in Lazar, 1993, p. 2), but it was also defined as “simply language charged with meaning” (Ezra Pound cit. in Lazar, 1993). Therefore, [anonimizat].

Generally, [anonimizat]-novels, plays, and poems etc., some of them of great aesthetic importance or just popular fiction. According to Duff and Maley (1990), literature is a text which was written for pleasure. It is also an authentic material and its meaning varies from reader to reader.

[anonimizat]d it is difficult to identify a literary text based on its specialized language, as some linguistic features considered to be specific for literary text can occur in colloquial speech, advertising jingles, proverbs or children’s rhymes, such as metaphors, similes or alliterations. Literature language is not separate from other forms of language; it is not a language apart. According to McRae (1996), the definition of literature should include a wide range of texts: newspaper headlines, advertisements, jingles, songs, and cartoons. Literature is not restricted to printed materials alone. Lazar also states that “there is no specialised literary language which can be isolated and analysed in the same way as the language of specific fields, such as law; or specific media, such as newspapers.” (Lazar, 1993, p.6). Hall supports this idea and states that “language used in literature is in many ways central to understanding language and language use in more general terms. Literature is made of, from and with ordinary language, which is itself already surprisingly literary.” (2005, p. 10)

Literature and language are inter-related, their relationship is symbiotic. Literature provides space for the applications of language. Brumfit and Carter (1986) consider literature as "an ally of language". Language is the raw material literature is made from, and literature reflects language at work. If we want to understand a literary text, we must be competent in the language. As Hall (2005) said, the language of literature is noticeably different, and this could be important for the language teacher, it is typically more interesting and varied and representative than the language of texts we meet in classrooms today.

The use of literature in the ESL classroom. Methods and approaches (brief history)

Literature was and is part of the traditional and modern language teaching approaches.

Initially, literature was the main source of input for teaching a foreign language in classes. One of the first methods was “The Grammar –Translation Method” or “The Prussian Method” as it was known in the United States of America, and this name was given because it was developed by German scholars. As its name suggests, The Grammar –Translation Method (GTM) refers to learning a foreign language through a detailed knowledge of its grammatical rules and a list of words consulted in dictionaries. Students were given explanations on different grammar rules and example sentences, which they had to translate. They were asked to translate into and out of the target language. Great emphasis was set on accuracy and students were expected to attain high standards in translation.

GTM lays little or even no emphasis on communicative skills, as it is a text-oriented method of working out and learning the grammatical system of language (Stern, 1983). The target language is seen as a system of rules which must be observed in literary texts and the range of vocabulary is translated into mother tongue rather than explained in context. Literary texts of the target language were read, translated, and used as samples of good writing and “illustrations of the grammatical rules” (Duff and Maley, 1990).

The main characteristics of the Grammar-Translation Method are detailed by Richards and Rogers, who mention the "goal of foreign language study is to learn a language in order to read its literature or in order to benefit from the mental discipline and intellectual development that result from the foreign-language study." (Richard and Rodger, 1986, p. 3). Hall (2005) also claims that the purpose of this method was to enable language learners to read the classical texts successfully through the method of translation.

The focus is set on the development of reading and writing skills, little or no systematic attention is paid to teaching and practicing speaking and listening. Vocabulary selection is based on the reading texts used, and words are taught through a bilingual dictionary and then memorized. As a result, grammar is taught deductively. The first language is maintained as the reference system. (Richard and Rodger, 1986).

The core of this teaching method was on form, on learning the rules of grammar and the lexical items as they appeared in the text. Although this method was largely used at the beginning of the 20th century, it continues to be used in a modified form in some parts of the world, even today.

Unfortunately, after the grammar-translation method fell into disuse, there has been a consistent rejection of the use of literature in the language classroom. The language teaching method based on the translation of classic texts resulted rather inefficient when applied to teaching modern languages.

Literature was discredited as a tool, as it represented the old tradition, it was ignored because the importance rested with communication and the focus was to put forth authentic language samples. Literature was not considered either to have a communicative function or to be an authentic example of language use. Approaches focused on using language in social situations; as a result, there was little space for creativity and literature in such language teaching context.

There was a tendency in eliminating literary texts from language classes to focus on teaching language skills mainly and literature gradually started losing its role in English language teaching when the Direct Method, the Audiolingualism, the Communicative approach, The Reader Response Approach, the Silent Way or Total Physical Response successively dominated English as a second language (ESL) teaching.

The Direct Method developed in the nineteenth century as scholars attempted to build a language learning methodology. Based on the observations of children language learning, some principles and procedures were established: no translation or use of mother tongue, thinking and communicating directly in the target language, new teaching points were introduced orally, grammar was taught inductively, new vocabulary was explained through demonstrations or pictures, oral communication skills were built up in a carefully graded progression, and literary texts were read for pleasure. (Richard, Rodger, 1986). The Berlitz School of Languages is the best-known proponent of this method.

In the Audiolingualism method, imitation and memorization are used, based on the assumption that language is habit formation. Grammatical structures are placed in a sequence and rules are taught inductively. Skills must follow a certain order: listening, speaking and reading, writing postponed. Language is often manipulated without regard to meaning or context and vocabulary is limited. Obviously, there is no room for reading or studying literature.

The Reader Response Approach, which gained prominence in the late 1960s, focuses on the reader or audience reaction to a particular message and his role in interpreting texts. Learning is a constructive and dynamic process, in which students extract meaning from texts through experiencing, reflection and creativity, becoming active learners. This approach encourages students to be aware of what they bring to texts as readers; to promote open-ended discussion; to explore their own thinking and trust their own responses. Thus, when these students work through a literary text they are not encouraged to consider the aesthetic aspect of the text. Learners study literature for literature’s sake, rather than for learning language skills.

In the late 70`s and very early 80`s, when the communicative approach or communicative language teaching (CLT) appeared, literature was still ignored. The tendency in the ESL classroom was to teach "practical" contents. During this period most lessons or courses were aimed to enable the students to communicate orally. The communicative approach is organized on the basis of certain communicative functions, such as describing, apologizing, inviting, promising etc. that the ESL learners need to know. The communicative approach focuses on the significance of language functions because the learner needs knowledge of both meaning and functions. It is concerned with learners negotiating meanings for themselves, learning by doing things with language, in authentic contexts. "A communicative approach argues for the importance of meaning and personalisation for learners, for affective values in learning, for the use of authentic materials and ‘real’ language and communication.” (Hall, 2005, p.55)

As the communicative approach favors interaction among the learners using the target language in a real context, literature can play an important role in pair and group discussions, predicting, creating a scenario and debating the themes. When literature is used as a resource in the classroom, learners become active, autonomous and central to the learning process and they also gain cultural information about the country whose language they are learning (Lazar, 1993).

Since the 1980s the situation has changed and literature has found its way back into the teaching of ESL. But, different from the way it was used with the GTM, the current use of literary works in ESL classes is to improve communicative competence, as the goal of English teaching now is to make students communicate fluently in the target language. For this reason, literary texts as an authentic document, have gained importance again to improve communication and critical thinking skills and develop four basic language skills of students. A lot of research has been made by scholars for the use of literary texts in foreign language teaching: Brumfit and Carter (1986), Collie and Slater (1987), Duff and Maley (1990); MacRae (1991), Lazar (1993), etc.

In the last decades of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first things started to change and literature was considered as a likely source for language teaching and learning (Hall, 2005). Hall claims that “Through the 1990s, ‘culture’ is increasingly the buzzword, with literature (‘with a small ‘l', McRae, 1991) seen as potentially playing a role in facilitating the learner's access to this English-using culture." (p. 55)

As Gilroy and Parkinson (1996) state, in the communicative era, literature is back and the “reason for its return seems to us to be the convergence of ideas from two main sources: first, literary criticism, including the debate on the nature of literary language and reader response theory; second, communicative language teaching.” (p. 213)

Why using literature in ESL classroom

Advantages of using literature in the language classroom

The reason for using literature in ESL classes is to discover and understand the meaning of a text. The literary language derives from normal, ordinary language. It is difficult to identify, based on certain criteria, a literary text as there is no specialized literary language, as there is for specific fields such as medicine or law. Literature presents a form of discourse in which “any use of language is permissible” (Lazar, 1993, p.6) and literary language possesses several features which occur in other forms of discourse.

Literature is well-supplied with various vocabularies, word-order, sentence patterns, grammatical items which help the learners to learn the target language; it involves a wide range of vocabulary. Moreover, literary texts have multiple interpretations which generate different opinions among the learners and motivate interaction with other students and the teacher.

The use of literature in the ESL classroom is supported by McKay (1982) who argues that it is an ideal resource for integrating the four skills and it raises cross-cultural awareness. “Literature offers several benefits to ESL classes. It can be useful in developing linguistic knowledge both on a usage and use level. Secondly, to the extent that students enjoy reading literature, it may increase their motivation to interact with a text and thus, ultimately increase their reading proficiency. It may also enhance students' understanding of a foreign culture and perhaps spur their own creation of imaginative works." (p.531)

Collie and Slater (1987) plead for the inclusion of literature in the ESL classroom because it provides valuable authentic material." In reading literary texts, students have also to cope with language intended for native speakers and thus they gain additional familiarity with many different linguistic uses, forms, and conventions of the written mode: with irony, exposition, argument, narration, and so on." (p.6) Language and cultural enrichment are other reasons brought to support the use of literature in ESL classrooms, besides personal involvement. Even if a "world" of a novel, play or short story is created one, it may offer a distinct context in which characters from many social backgrounds can be depicted. A reader can discover their thoughts, feelings or customs. The reader can be drawn into the book, eager to find out what happens as events unfold; sharing characters' emotional responses. "Literature provides a rich context in which individual lexical or syntactical items are made more memorable. " (p.7) Students can become more familiar with the form and function of sentences, different structures and ways of connecting ideas or deduce meaning from context. Moreover, literature can meet the target objectives of communicative language teaching as it accelerates interpretations, classroom discussions, and interactions among students.

Maley (1989, p.12) mentions some of the most important reasons for learning English through literature: universality, non-triviality, personal relevance, variety, interest, economy and suggestive power, and ambiguity. Literary texts include global themes and topics shared by all cultures. Literature does not trivialize, but offers the reader authentic input, dealing with events, ideas, feelings which readers may connect with their own experience, facilitating the learning process. Learners are interested in the variety of topics provided by texts, which can generate topics for class debates.

Duff and Maley (1990) present three types of justification for using literary texts: linguistic, methodological, and motivational. They argue that a literary text is open to interpretations which can stimulate spoken interactions as they are open to multiple interpretations. The texts are non-trivial, they cover many major themes and contexts to which learners can bring a personal response from their own experience.

Lazar (1993) provides several reasons for using literature in ESL classroom, examining some of them.

“Literature should be used with students because:

– it is very motivating

– it is authentic material

– it has general educational value

– it is found in many syllabuses

– it helps students to understand another culture

– it is a stimulus for language acquisition

– it develops students’ interpretative abilities

– students enjoy it and it is fun

– it is highly valued and has a high status

– it expands students’ language awareness

– it encourages students to talk about their opinions and feelings” (1993, p.14)

He states that literary texts are motivating material for students who are exposed to complex themes and fresh, unexpected uses of language. A good novel or short story may be gripping; students will be interested in unravelling the plot. A play may engage students in complicated adult dilemmas and a poem may induce an emotional response from students. Literary texts help “to stimulate the imagination of students, to develop their critical abilities, and to increase their emotional awareness” (Lazar, 1993, p.19).

Access to the cultural background is also important as students can learn about different social, cultural or historical event, or people’s emotions and attitude, but they must be instructed to think critically, as these aspects could be only partially real.

Ur (1996, p. 201) also lists some of the advantages of literature as a language teaching resource, which can be summarized in the following way:

“Literature can be very enjoyable to read.

Literature provides examples of different styles of writing, and representations of various authentic uses of the language.

It is good basis for vocabulary expansion.

It fosters reading skills.

It can supply an excellent jump-off point for discussion or writing.

It involves emotions as well as intellect, which adds to motivation and may contribute to personal development.

It is a part of the target culture and has value as part of the learners’ general education.

It encourages empathetic, critical and creative thinking.

It contributes to world knowledge.

It raises awareness of different human situations and conflicts.”

Parkinson and Thomas (2000) (cit. in Sell, 2005) also list several reasons for teaching literature in ESL classroom: cultural enrichment, linguistic model, mental training, authenticity, memorability, rhythmic resource, motivating material, convenience. Reading new literature increases the awareness and understanding of students for new cultures and diverse “living rules”. Literature contains useful information about different periods and society, which can be gained with pleasure.

Hall (2005, p.48) claims that literature in second language teaching is valuable, based on “affective arguments (pleasurable, motivating, personalising), cultural arguments (cultural knowledge, intercultural experience) and psycholinguistic arguments (‘focus on form’, discourse processing skills – inferencing, processing of non-literal language, tolerance of ambiguity and others) to support his affirmation”. He also mentions more miscellaneously reasons in favour of using literary text as it

expands vocabulary;

aids language acquisition in unspecified but general ways;

‘gives a feel for’ the language;

develops more fluent reading skills;

promotes interpretative and inferential skills;

contributes to cultural and inter-cultural understanding;

literary texts are supposedly particularly linguistically memorable (some poetry perhaps qualifies);

literature is claimed to be pleasurable.

Literature provides meaningful and memorable contexts for processing and interpreting new language, thus contributing to language development. Moreover, it educates the whole person. Learners can develop attitudes and critical abilities relate to the world outside the classroom by examining values in literary texts.

Disadvantages of using literature in ESL classroom

Despite the numerous advantages of using literature in ESL classroom, there are some major drawbacks such as syntax and vocabulary, semantics, cultural barriers, the selection of the materials, occupational needs.

The most common problem is language itself. McKay (1982) discussing arguments for and against the use of literature, states that language used in literary texts is more complicated compared to Standard English, with complex structures and vocabulary, which are not used in everyday messages. "The unrestricted use of lexical items and the very creative use of language characteristic of most literary work might hamper understanding, instead of providing practical examples of how language is actually used in everyday transactional interactions." (p.186) Learners will study texts which do not respect the rules, such as word order. According to Lima, the grammatical forms and graded structures that usually guide the ESL teaching "clashes violently with the intentional bending and breaking of grammatical rules that seems to be one of the main features of literature" as "Learners need a certain awareness of normal language patterns to be able to understand deviance and a certain linguistic competence to be able to deal with unknown language and forms without resorting constantly to the dictionary or to the teacher.” (Lima, 2005)

Literary texts reflect a particular perspective, therefore students may find it difficult to read and understand concepts, which might frustrate the inexperienced reader, as they are not familiar with. Collie and Slater argue that "in some cases, literature was also seen as carrying an undesirable freight of cultural connotations." (Collie and Slater, 1987, p.2)

For Duff and Maley (1990), cultural factors may present difficulties to the point of making it “clearly impossible for an ‘outsider’ to share fully the range of references of an ‘insider’.” (p.7) According to Lima (2005), the social and political pre-conceptions of the learner can diminish their ability to understand and accept the other’s culture. But all literary works make reference to things outside themselves being prone to misinterpretation.

Text selection of materials is another difficult aspect, as a number of factors should be taken into consideration when choosing a text, such as learners’ language proficiency, background knowledge, age, interests, as some “students do not have the linguistic, literary and cultural competence to tackle the text” (Lima, p.186).

The length of the texts is also questionable. For some learners, longer texts are difficult, as they need a bigger amount of time to tackle it, for others “shorter texts present more difficulties simply because they do not offer the extended contextual support and repetition which longer texts do.” (Duff and Maley, 1990, p.7). The disadvantage is also stated by Ur (1996) "many literary texts are long and time-consuming, to teach." (p. 201)

Literature cannot provide the necessary ‘material’ for students to develop their occupational or specialized field such as science or technology; they may find literature irrelevant or even useless to their needs.

Methodological approaches and models of teaching literature in ESL classes

A work of literature can be approached in many ways. During the years, there have been different models suggested on the teaching of literature to ESL/EFL students: Maley (1989), Carter and Long (1991), Lazar (1993), Carter and McRae (1996), Amer (2003), Savvidou (2004), Van (2009). Still, there is not a generally accepted categorization.

Maley (1989) describes two approaches to teaching literature: “the study of literature” as a cultural artefact and “the use of literature as a resource for language learning” (p.11), subdivided into the critical literary approach and the stylistic approach, which are similar to the produce-based and product-based teaching. In the critical literary approach, we focus on the literariness of the texts including such features as the plot, characterization, motivation, background, etc. which requires students have the knowledge of literary conventions.

The stylistic approach, Marley states, focuses on literature as ‘text’. Contrary to the first approach here we have description and analysis of language rather than making literary analysis and interpretations.

Duffy and Maley (1990) present three types of justification for including literary texts in ESL classroom: they offer genuine samples of a very wide range of styles, registers, in which students study the language and linguistic structures of the text; they are open to multiple interpretations fostering interaction; literary texts are non-trivial.

Carter and Long (1991), followed by Lazar (1993) identify and describe three possible approaches: a language-based approach or model, literature as content or cultural model and literature as personal enrichment or growth. They develop Maley’s classification and add a third one which is a mixture of the previous two.

Lazar (1993) supports the language-based approach which is seen as a “broad approach which covers a range of different goals and procedures” (p. 27) Studying the language of a literary text will help students increase their knowledge of English and learn how to analyse the text.

The language model is more learner-centred. Literature is seen as an instrument to teach specific vocabulary and structures, it is the literary medium. Students pay attention to the way language is used. Stylistic analysis can also be used for studying the linguistic features of the text in order to make relevant interpretations. Carter and McRae (1996) describe this model as taking a ‘reductive' approach to literature.

In the traditional approach, “literature itself is the content of the course” (Lazar, 1993, p. 24), and learners acquire English by reading the text. Literature is seen as an ideal vehicle for presenting the cultural notions of the language (Carter and Long, 1991). The cultural model uses the literary text as a product, a source of information for understanding different cultures and ideologies. It will examine the historical, social and political background to a text, as well as literary movements and genres. Language structure is not explained or intentionally learnt. The mother tongue is often used to discuss the literary terms or to translate the text. This approach tends to be quite teacher-centred.

The third approach sees literature as a useful tool for encouraging students to express their opinions and communicate with the others in the classroom. It is suitable for group work. A personal growth model is a process-based approach. It is also more learner-centred. It encourages students to present opinions and feelings, to connect the text with their personal experiences it opens up new worlds to be explored. Texts are the basic stimuli for the classroom activities, and the interaction between the text and the reader is supposed to make the language more memorable. Materials are often based on the student`s personal involvement. Group work is described as especially relevant for this approach. The model focuses on the particular use of language in a text and the cultural elements. It is a mixture of the previous models.

A combination of the three approaches presented above can lead to finding the right teaching methods, as the first one opens up possibilities for grammar teaching, the second stimulates reading and writing, and the third approach is a good starting point for discussions and language practice.

Carter and McRae (1996) in their Introduction make a clear distinction between the study of literature and the use of literature as a resource for learning. They define and explain two types of literature teaching as a product and as a process.

In product based or centred teaching, the work tends to focus on the text which must be intact, not altered; learners should develop their skills for reading. They have to remember the text and recall when the situation requires it, so they develop knowledge about literature. Furthermore, they must rely on teachers or literary criticism books as an authority. The study implies an aesthetic approach to the text, as Maley (1986) also points out; it involves knowledge of terms and conventions, metalanguage and critical concepts.

In the process based teaching the text does not have a special place, “it involves the teacher coming down from the pedestal or lectern and involves a classroom treatment of literature as does not view literature as a sacrosanct object” (Carter and McRae, 1996, p. xxii). We have a text-as-object which contains language items to be learnt, helping students improve their vocabulary and practice language structures. The text can be manipulated, cut up into small parts, dramatized, in order to stimulate students’ response. The aim of these activities is to involve learners with the text, to develop their skills, to express their opinions, and a “main overall aim is to encourage greater self-sufficiency among students and correspondingly less reliance on the teacher as a source of knowledge" (p. xxii-xxiii)

Amer (2004, p. 63) presents two pedagogically effective approaches to teaching narrative texts which have gained popularity in ESL literature: the “Story Grammar Approach” and the “Reader Response Approach” which are mainly effective for reading comprehension.

The Story Grammar approach is based on the idea that readers should be aware of text structure, interacting with the text, understanding how the author organized ideas. As there are, basically, two important types of text structure: narrative and expository, students must use their comprehension processes differently when reading these types of texts, guessing how the ideas are developed in a text. The learner is helped to understand the text which may be divided into episodes, followed by comprehension questions focusing on the relevant elements in the story. Teachers may use visual or graphic representations to illustrate the story grammar or use the mother tongue in giving instructions.

The Reader Response Approach is based on a premise of teaching literature for literature's sake, not for language learning and development purposes. It is similar to Maley’s (1989) critical literary approach. The reading process is seen as a transaction between the reader and the text in which the reader responds according to his cultural background, past experiences or beliefs, therefore we can have multiple interpretations rather than a single correct interpretation of a text. “The aim of The Reader Response Approach is to encourage learners to respond to the text and express their own ideas, opinions, and feelings freely." (Amer, 2004, p.68)

Van (2009) goes further, in consonance with the approaches to the analysis of literary fiction, presenting a review of six approaches to teaching literature: New Criticism, Structuralism, Stylistics, Reader-Response, Language-Based, and Critical Literacy.

Bobinka (2014) states that many scholars indicate that none of the approaches to literature teaching in the ESL classroom is complete enough to be implemented independently. In the last decade, scholars have tried to combine different approaches to increase the use of literature as an effective tool in language acquisition, incorporating literary texts into the language classroom. There have been several attempts “to develop an integrative model towards literature teaching that would include the linguistic, cultural and personal elements.” (p. 255)

Duffy and Maley (1990) present three elements which can be included in the teaching of literature in the ESL classroom: the linguistic element – in which learners study the language and linguistic structures of the text; the methodological element – in which students are introduced to the English reading process and reading strategies; and the motivational element – in which students are made aware that the enjoyment or appreciation of the text is the most important thing.

Savvidu (2004) asserts that “an integrated approach to the use of literature offers learners strategies to analyse and interpret language in context in order to recognize not only how language is manipulated but also why.” (p. 5) An integrated model is a linguistic approach, according to her, based on some of the strategies used in a stylistic analysis, which explores texts from the perspective of style and its relationship to content and form. She suggests a six-stage based model.

The first stage, Preparation and Anticipation, brings out learners’ real or literary experience of the main themes and context of texts. Focusing enables learners to discover the text by listening or reading and focus on specific content in the text. In the next stage, Preliminary Response, learners are expected to give their initial response to the text, written or spoken. Stage four and five, called Working at it, focus on comprehending the first level of meaning through intensive reading and analysing of the text at a deeper level. The last stage, Interpretation and Personal Response, aims to increase understanding and enable students to find and present their own personal interpretation of the text.

The growing interest towards the use of literature and literary texts in the ESL classroom is unquestionable. Literature is considered, by many scholars and educators, an efficient tool that can provide learners with opportunities to expand their knowledge and understanding of English culture, as well as develop different aspects of the use of language.

Activities based on literary texts

Literary texts can be approached in many ways, depending on the purpose for reading and methods used by teachers. The models presented in this chapter for teaching literature use texts in order to help students develop all their skills. Collie and Slater (1987) asking about the benefits of studying a particular literary work for furthering one or several language skills, state that “Each novel, short story or play can spark off a wealth of different activities. Tasks and exercises based on a literary text can provide valuable practice in listening, speaking or writing, as well as improving reading skills.” (p. 32).

A lot of different strategies can be applied to the teaching of reading and understanding literature, such as prediction, reading comprehension, creative writing, role-plays, drama, etc. But it is generally accepted that there are three stages for reading: pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading. Long (1986, p. 54) names other stages: activity preparation; linguistic investigation; background, but the aims and activities designed are similar, while Collie and Slater (1987) organize reading activities as first encounters; maintaining momentum; exploiting highlights and endings.

Pre-reading activities help students prepare for the reading itself, motivate them to read, help students with cultural background, they are used to pre-teach vocabulary, anticipating the topic and grammar structures in the texts. Collie and Slater (1987, p.16) mention that students should be convinced that the task ahead is not an impossible one as these activities can be designed to set the mood, create interest, or spark curiosity.

Here are some examples of pre-reading activities: guessing from pictures, words or sentences, making predictions about the theme; brainstorming; discussing the quotation about the literary work they will read; reading about the author; reading/ listening text on historical background; matching important words with their dictionary definitions; watching or listening to a video/recording of the text to be studied; personal reactions to theme or subject presented.

While-reading activities are meant to help students to focus on aspects of the text and to understand it better, in terms of plot, characters, language, and style. The goal of these activities is to develop students' skills to identify main ideas, learn vocabulary from context, and identify functions of the language. During this stage, learners could confirm predictions made previously, gather and organize information. There is a wide variety of activities described and exemplified by Lazar (1993), Collie and Slater (1987), Duff and Maley (1990), such as: skimming a text for specific information; identifying the topic sentence; sentence completion; multiple choice questions; choosing the best definition for words; comprehension questions about the meaning of certain words; comparing beginnings; jumbled sentences; asking questions about characters, plot or settings; completing a table with specific information; writing a brief summary of the plot; assigning roles, etc.

According to Harmer (2007, p. 99) reading also has a positive effect on students' vocabulary knowledge, on their spelling and on their writing. We can also use reading materials to demonstrate the way we construct sentences, paragraphs and whole texts. Reading texts should not be the purpose itself, but provide good models for writing and topics for further discussions. Post-reading activities help students make interpretations of the text, by critically analysing what they have read, summarize their learning, practice writing by organizing their thoughts and ideas. There are a lot of activities for this stage, most of them involving speaking and writing: debating on the topic; writing diary entries or a letter describing the events; giving personal reaction to the text; true or

false; role-play or acting out of a scene from the text; making trailers to advertise the work read; writing a ‘blurb’ for the back cover; retelling the story, etc.

A language-based approach covers a range of different goals and procedures. Duff and Maley (1993) mention that the primary aim of this approach is “quite simply to use literary texts as a resource (and it will not be the only resource) for stimulating language activities.” (p. 5)

Lazar (1993), Duff and Maley (1990), Collie and Slater (1987) describe most of them, giving examples and presenting the aims. Sentence completion, gap-fill or cloze exercises, matching words to definitions, predictive writing, ordering sentences in the correct sequence, writing your own poem, matching words to pictures, checking word meaning in a dictionary, organizing words according to lexical relationships can be used to learn new vocabulary, to promote oral practice, to learn or revise structures of grammar, morphology or syntax, to improve students’ imaginative and cognitive skills.

Alan Durant (1995, p.12-13) lists 10 types of suggestive activities, which all suppose close initial engagement with the language and structure of the text or passage:

1. 'Comparison' activities – Students compare texts, which are as similar as possible, about the same subject in different registers, from different periods, etc.

2. 'Replacement' activities – words into a text are substituted and students monitor the changing effect created by listing responses and connotations. This method can be used to explore: rhythm, alliteration, word-stress, sentence-construction, connotations of words or phrases, etc.

3. 'Ordering' activities – sentences of a paragraph are put into a jumbled order, and students should recreate order by looking for clues in the language; re-arrange words of a jumbled sentence. This method is suitable for exploring grammaticality and phrase-structure.

4. 'Completion' activities (cloze) – words from a text are deleted in order to explore predictive properties of context; teachers can choose words or phrases to delete which highlight the aspect of the language they are interested in.

5. 'Prediction' activities – students are given an opening to a novel or short story, at first the title and then sentence by sentence, testing hypotheses about what follows. This method is used for improving writing skills.

6. 'Classification' activities – an odd-one-out activity followed by a justification of choices. It is a useful way of reorganizing material to be presented in lecture form as problems and puzzles.

7. 'General problem-solving' activities – puzzles with possible solutions instead of asking direct questions.

8. 'Continuation' activities – students should write further lines of a poem or continue any text-excerpt, trying to keep the style consistent.

9. 'Composition' activities – students are asked to rewrite the text in a different genre; as a newspaper report, file entry, diagram, map, etc.

10. 'Performance' activities – storyboarding and dramatizing a passage; improvisation.

In order to participate in the 'productive' aspect of any of the activities, students have to read and comprehend the texts. “The apparent 'need' for understanding, to be able to create or compose, is intended to inspire (and very often does inspire) a degree of personal interest in close attention to the language and implied meanings of the text which would be unlikely to exist if the only reason for paying such attention was to give answers in a test, or to participate in general, unstructured discussion or elicitation.” (p.14)

Literature is used in the language classroom in order to teach grammatical structures, morphology, and syntax, as well as to develop students' creativity and imagination. These aims lead to diversified activities classified according to the genre: novels, short stories, plays, and poems.

Novels can reflect real-life situations and offer students a glance at the target language culture and helps them to understand and appreciate it, but they are relatively long works of narrative fiction, with a chronological sequence of events, linked by relations of cause and effect, using different narrative techniques. As a result, a number of practical problems may arise and students have to cope with the length of many novels, the volume of unfamiliar vocabulary items or they can lose interest in reading. These aspects could be surmounted with the right choice of the topic which may stimulate students to read at home and texts where students will not feel overwhelmed by unfamiliar language or simply using extracts to teach ESL in the classroom.

Short stories are simply fun and enjoyable to read. Reading short fiction undoubtedly improves students' language skills, as McKay (1982) states that contemporary literary anthologies are based on the assumption that the study of literature helps improve students' language abilities and broaden their linguistic exposure. Texts are used to develop language skills, both syntactic and lexical. Short fiction texts are also a valuable resource for observing not only language but life itself.

Using short stories in the ESL classroom brings some benefits, because they are short text, by definition, which makes students read them easier, as students are always worried about the amount of work they need to perform, they may feel more comfortable and free to explore different cultures, helping students communicate with each other due to it universal language.

Short fiction can motivate students to go beyond the surface meaning, and contribute to the development of cognitive analytical abilities.

Activities connected with short fiction usually aim toward specific learning objectives for the students: reinforcing or reviewing grammatical points; developing vocabulary; improving students' organizational skills; increasing students' knowledge of the target culture; interpreting the literature in the conventional sense, and simply helping the students enjoy the story. (Sage, 199, p.61)

Here are some activities designed for ESL learners based on novels and short stories, as they are described by Collie and Slater (1987), Duff and Maley (1990), Lazar (1993), Harmer (2007), Paran and Robinson (2016):

Activity: Vocabulary – meaning in the context

Level: All

Procedure: Divide students into two groups and provide them with a list of words from the literary text chosen. Group A look at Word List 1, Group B look at Word List 2. Ask students to discuss what the words on their list mean in the context of the story. When they finish, they have to explain the meaning of the words to the students in the other group.

Type of interaction: Group work

Notes: The text will be chosen according to students’ level of English proficiency.

Students can use dictionaries to help them, but the word must be explained in the context.

Activity: Vocabulary – adverbs

Level: Intermediate

Procedure: Students are given a piece of descriptive writing from a novel or short story from which all adverbs and adjectives are removed. They rewrite the text adding those they think will liven it up, and compare their version with the original. They may use dictionaries to help them

Type of interaction: Individual work, group work

Notes: This action can be used to revise the parts of speech.

Activity: Grammar practice – tenses

Level: Lower-intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Students are given an extract from a novel or short story in which all tenses are removed. They are provided with the actual verbs to fill in. After completing this task, they compare their text with the original.

Type of interaction: Individual work, class

Notes: Students can be asked to explain their choices in order to reinforce the use of tenses.

Activity: A vocabulary game

Level: Intermediate

Procedure: Students are given the first page of the short story to read (20-25 lines).

Prepare as many slips of paper as there are students in the class. Half the slips have one difficult or unusual word from the text; the other half has a definition of one such word. Put all the slips into a container and lets each student choose one. By reading out their word or definition to each other, students must now try to find their partner.

Notes: This activity may be chaotic at first, and the noise level can be rather high. It is an effective way of getting students to use the context to try to guess meanings. (Collie and Slater, 1987, p.178)

Activity: Predicting from words and pictures

Level: Intermediate

Procedure: Give students a number of words from a text. Ask them to work in groups and predict what kind of a text they are going to read – or what story the text tells. They then read the text to see if their original predictions were correct.

Type of interaction: Group work

Notes: We can also give students pictures to predict from.

Activity: Odd man out

Level: Intermediate

Procedure: Make sets of three short texts which are in some way similar, having the same topic or style. One of the passages should have a particular feature which makes it stand out from the other two (one text might be a satire or parody, or one might be different in meaning from the others). Ask students to read the text silently and decide which is the odd man out, supporting their answer with arguments.

Type of interaction: Individual work

Notes: The activity requires close attention to the use of language. It also trains students to refer back to the text in their reasoning. (Duff, p. 39)

Activity: Vocabulary – descriptive words

Level: Upper-intermediate

Procedure: Give students a piece of descriptive writing from a novel or short story from which all adverbs and adjectives are removed. They have to rewrite the text adding those words they think will liven it up, and compare their version with the original. They may use dictionaries to help them. Ask students to discuss in groups, comparing their choices.

Type of interaction: Individual work, group work

Activity: Characters’ dialogue

Level: Intermediate to upper-intermediate

Procedure: Ask students to write a dialogue between two main characters after reading a short story or an extract from a novel.

Type of interaction: Individual work

Notes: If students are confident, they can act out their dialogues with a partner.

Activity: Author’s comments

Level: Intermediate

Procedure: Select a number of short passages of dialogue which also include comments by the author on how the characters speak, remove them and write out the passages leaving gaps for the missing parts. Ask students to choose an appropriate comment for each gap. If several comments seem suitable, they should note their preferences. Or hand out copies of the authors' comments, not in matching order and ask the students to choose an appropriate comment for each gap. Additionally, ask students to play the dialogue.

Type of interaction: Group work

Notes: The activity is, in fact, a form of reading comprehension, as students should search for clues in the text in order to guess what kind of comments the author might have made. (Duff, p.42)

Activity: Suggesting the words

Level: Lower intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Choose a passage of twenty to thirty lines involving dialogue between two characters. Select eight to ten short remarks, such as ‘I ’d like that’, ‘Do you mind?’, or fragments of remarks like ‘. . . driving away’, ‘. . . get some sleep’. Then write out the passage(s), omitting the selected expressions. Give students copies of the passage without the selected expressions and ask them to read it through and note down their suggestions for the missing words. Ask students to worm groups and discuss their ideas. Correct their suggestions, if necessary.

Type of interaction: Individual work, group-work

Notes: The emphasis in this activity is on the spoken language. (Duff and Maley, 1990, p.72)

Activity: Television reportage

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Ask each group to prepare and present a short reportage on the events of the story, as though for a ‘special report’ to be shown on the evening news programme. One of them is to be the reporter; the others are the subjects, the characters in the story. The special reports are presented in front of the class.

Type of interaction: Group-work, role-play

Notes: Students may be given a framework to start them off. The teacher can help students prepare their scripts. They are encouraged to make the interviewees from the story act ‘in character’. (Collie and Slater, 1987, p. 233)

Activity: Role play

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Students read a dialogue from a short story or a novel and then improvise their own role play of what happens next.

Type of interaction: pair-work, role-play, group-work

Notes: Students may act out their roles in front of the class.

Activity: Choose the summary

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Ask students to read the short novel or story. This part can be done as a class activity or assign it as homework. After they have read it, give them three different summaries of a short story. They have to decide which summary is the most accurate. Ask students to explain their choice.

Type of interaction: Individual work, group work

Notes: This is a post-reading activity which may be more pleasant for students that writing the summary by themselves.

Activity: Choose a cover

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Select some pictures, including the cover of the story. Ask students to choose a cover for the story they have read. If there are more editions, ask students to decide which is better by identifying the theme, emotions or ideas.

Type of interaction: Group-work

Activity: Speculating about the title

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Inform students that they are going to read a story. Give them the title which should be one word only. Ask them to think what the word is being referred to. Ask student write down as many expressions they know containing the word given. After reading the short-story, students are asked to choose the expressions connected to the text.

Type of interaction: Group-work, individual work

Notes: This activity can be used as a warm-up.

Activity: Word portraits

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Select a character sketch from a novel or short story. Prepare a short list of words or expressions which might or might not apply to the character described. Try not to use words which actually appear in the text. Give students a copy of the fragment chosen and allow five minutes for silent reading. Write the prompts on the blackboard or prepare a copy of them for each group. Ask students to decide which of the prompt words are most appropriate to the character. For each prompt word, they should find words or lines in the text to support their decision.

Type of interaction: Group-work

Notes: Students can improve their vocabulary.

Plays are texts that tell a story through performance rather than the narrative style used in novels or stories. Words, or language, are central to the meaning of a play. Drama eases an active involvement of students in the process of learning, developing the awareness of the use of language in different situations. It can boost self-confidence, spontaneity, develop creativity and trigger emotions.

Using drama in ESL classroom is a good method to engage students in activities which allow them to be active during the lesson, to use their imagination, to participate in conversations and to use the foreign language in suitable conditions and surroundings. This can motivate them and help to acquire language in a more natural way and to develop their language skills.

Some of the advantages of using dram or plays in ESL classroom are: learning new vocabulary and expressions in their proper context; improving pronunciation and intonation in English integrating both verbal and nonverbal aspects of communication; building up students’ confidence to speak in public, as they can pretend to be someone else; setting a nice atmosphere by relieving the tension of learning. Moreover, drama exercises create the opportunity to work in pairs or groups, students should cooperate with each other during the lesson, in order to make decisions and negotiate to achieve agreement, they improve the ability to interact together.

Lazar (1993) reiterates the idea that a play exists in performance, but it also exists as words on a page or a text. “Since most plays are rich in dialogue, using a play with students is a useful and exciting way of focussing on conversational language.” (p. 137) and, in the same time, they are exposed to other features of the conversational language, learning how conversations are ordered and sequenced in English, what expressions should be used in different contexts, the way people speak reflects their relationship and relative status. Students also have to possibly to improve their vocabulary picking up new phrases or formulaic expressions used by the characters in a play, particularly if the text is read or performed in class.

The activities designed on plays are for different language focus, productive as well as receptive ones: grammar, writing, speaking and listening as many plays are available on records or videos nowadays, especially suitable for listening/ watching exercises.

Most of the activities presented for novels and short stories can be adapted for plays, too. The following activities are described in Collie and Slater (1987), Duff and Maley (1990); Lazar (1993) and Paran and Robinson (2016):

Activity: Missing lines

Level: All

Procedure: Remove some lines from a scene. Write them underneath the dialogue. Ask students to decide where each one of the missing lines belongs. They have to mention what kinds of connections between the lines in the dialogue helped them to put the missing lines. Read or listen to the extract and ask students to check if their version of the dialogue the same or different from the original play.

Type of interaction: group-work

Notes: This activity is suitable for all levels, as long as the extract is carefully selected.

Activity: Identifying key elements in a narrative

Level: All

Procedure: Ask students to read a short story or novel. Give them a table with Wh-question to fill in who, what, where, when, why, how. Leave the answers to only a few of the questions in the table and ask students to complete the rest. Discuss what kind of story or novel it is.

Type of interaction: group-work

Notes: This activity is suitable for all classes, but the choice of the text has to be done according to their level of study.

Activity: Strip-story

Level: All

Procedure: Strip a story into paragraphs. Give each student a strip and ask them to talk about the events or key elements they identify in the given paragraph, in order to find the correct order. Discuss what kind of story it is.

Type of interaction: group-work or class work

Activity: Describe characters

Level: Lower intermediate

Procedure: Select a dialog where the characters are in a specific situation without being mentioned. Prepare three or more descriptions. Ask students to read the dialog and decide which one they like best. Then ask them to write the rest of the dialogue and perform it in front of the class.

Type of interaction: Individual work, group-work

Notes: For this kind of activity a selection of modern and post-modern plays is recommended.

Activity: Match the pictures to the characters

Level: Lower intermediate

Procedure: Select a scene from a play where characters are in a specific situation without being mentioned. Prepare some pictures which can reproduce the setting. Ask students to read the dialog and decide which picture best fits the dialogue. Ask students to discuss their choice.

Type of interaction: pair- work, group-work

Notes: For this kind of activity a selection of modern and post-modern plays is recommended.

Activity: Listening: stress and pause

Level: Lower intermediate upwards

Procedure: Select a section of a dialogue (lasting about three minutes) in which the speakers frequently pause or give special stress to certain words. Play the recording for about three to five minutes of the dialogue which comes before the passage chosen. Give students copies of the text of the extract. Ask them to work on their own for about five minutes. They should look through the dialogue and underline any words they think will be stressed by the speakers or any words which will be spoken in a special tone. They should also mark with a V any places where they would expect the speakers to pause. Ask students to form groups and to compare the pauses and stresses they have marked on their texts. Play the recording and ask students to compare their answer to the original.

Type of interaction: individual work, group-work

Notes: The answer is open to interpretations. Remind students that in this activity there are no absolutely ‘right’ answers.

Activity: Acting out

Level: Intermediate

Procedure: Select an extract from a play connected to the topic of the lesson. Give students copies and ask them to read the text silently. Deal with any linguistic problems that students have with the text. Then assign each student a role. Ask students to act out their role in front of the class, reading their part. They should think about intonation, facial expressions, and even gestures. Get the pairs to change partners, so that students still retain the same roles. Each student playing A will be paired with a different B. For the last performance, students should act out the scene without their text. They can improvise.

Type of interaction: Role-play

Notes: This activity works best if there is an open space in the classroom are for students to move about in.

Activity: Compare and contrast

Level: Intermediate

Procedure: Select two extracts from different plays which have the same topic or dealing with the same situation, such as meeting someone for the first time. Ask students to compare the two texts by filling in a chart – Setting; Period; Relationship between the characters; Type of language used. Then ask students to think about how the texts might differ from ordinary conversation.

Type of interaction: Pair-work, class discussion

Notes: After discussing the chart with students, they may be interested in finding more about the plays they read the extracts from.

Activity: Creating situations from dialogue

Level: Intermediate

Procedure: Select short passages of dialogue which are easy to speak, from modern plays. Replace the characters’ names with letters (A, B, or C). Give each group copies of the extracts and ask students to expand the text by writing the dialogue of their own to come before and after the passage (about six lines in each case). When they finish, ask each group to perform its version of the dialogue for the class. Students try to work out what was happening in the performance.

Type of interaction: Group-work

Notes: For this activity, the stress should not be on performance but on interpretation, so students can read their parts sitting down.

Activity: Reported Speech

Level: Upper-intermediate

Procedure: Select sections from a play. Ask students to work in groups to turn the dialogue into reported Speech. Then groups exchange the reported version, turn it back into dialogues and check if their result is similar to the original text.

Type of interaction: Group-work

Notes: The activity will help students practice grammar in context. The activities can be performed with short stories, too.

Activity: End the scene

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Students read a dialogue from a play, where a conflictual situation or problem is presented. Ask them to write a continuation of the dialogue, trying to 'resolve' it in some way. Then they play their ending in front of the class.

Type of interaction: role-play, group-work

Notes: Students should continue the dialogue in the same linguistic style.

Activity: Write a letter based on a scene

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Students read a dialogue/scene from a play, where an odd character or situation is presented. Ask them to write to somebody they know, their relatives or friends, telling what happened. Inform students that they are one of the characters and they have to use the appropriate language.

Type of interaction: individual work

Notes: This activity is designed to practise writing letters which are both formal and informal.

Activity: Directing a performance

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Ask students to imagine they are directing a performance of a scene or extract from a play they have read. Jot down some headings they have to write their ideas: Sets; Lighting; Music; Props; Costumes; Gestures. Ask them to explain their choices or perform the scene.

Type of interaction: Work in pairs or groups, followed by a class discussion.

Notes: The aim of this activity is to remind learners of all the aspects of a performance of a play, as well as developing creativity.

Activity: Listening: word recognition

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Select a recorded passage of dialogue from a play containing words or expressions which students may have difficulty in identifying (in speech), which are similar in sound or meaning. Write the pair of words on the blackboard, so students can copy it. Play a recording of the extract then ask students to listen and mark with a tick any of the words on their lists that they hear. Ask students which words from the list they heard.

Type of interaction: Individual work, class discussion

Notes: The activity can be done as a competition.

Activity: Different versions

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Select two extracts – the original of a non-contemporary play and a version of it written in modern English. Students compare two extracts and try to identify differences in grammar and vocabulary, and the effects conveyed by these.

Type of interaction: Individual work, class discussion

Notes: This works particularly well with Shakespeare.

Activity: Write the missing lines

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Choose a dialog from a play between two characters. Divide the class into two groups. One group is given all the lines spoken by character A only and has to write the responses of character B themselves. The other group is given the lines of character B only and has to write the missing lines for character A. Ask the groups to compare their version with the original lines spoken by both characters.

Type of interaction: group-work, class discussion

Notes: This can also be done with three groups using an extract involving three characters.

Activity: Jumbled lines

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Choose a dialog from a play between two characters and mix up lines ask students to unscramble them. Ask the groups to compare their version with the original lines, either reading it or listening/watching the recording of the extract.

Type of interaction: group-work, class discussion

Activity: Replace a character

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Ask students to complete a dialogue between the play's characters with their own word.

Type of interaction: Individual work, class discussion

A poem is a metaphor, and this is the most distinct connection between learning and poetry. Most learning takes place through a metaphorical process, relating the unfamiliar to what the learner already knows. Sage (1987, p.13) attributes poets the role of “leading readers to fuller experiences, not only of ordinary moments but also special moments. Poetry uses language to evoke and exalt special qualities of life, and suffuses readers with feelings.“

Obviously, poems trigger emotions and thoughts, developing a sensitivity for words; they are open to explorations and different interpretations, they capable of producing a strong response from the reader. Lazar (1993, p.101) also states that teaching ESL through poems aims to enable students to make confident interpretations of a poem, identifying linguistic features, developing creativity and improving vocabulary. Students are exposed to complex themes and unexpected uses of vocabulary

Poetry can contribute to the learning and teaching of basic language skills, although it provides students with a different view towards language use. As Paran and Robins (2016) show, some poems exhibit a dominant grammatical structure and from this perspective, they are useful as a means of revising and utilizing structures in an interesting context.

Here are some activities most of them designed by Duff and Maley (1990); Lazar (1993) and Paran and Robinson (2016):

Activity: Ordering the poem/ Jumbled lines

Level: All

Procedure: Jumble up the lines of a poem, so they are not in the correct order. Ask students to try to reorder them so that they make a complete poem. Ask students to compare their work to the original one, telling which one they prefer and why. Students should explain their choice in terms of ideas, language structures, connectors, and punctuation.

Type of interaction: Pair-work

Notes: This activity focus on how the overall discourse of the poem is structured, involving more than comprehension of meaning, as students should decide about the correct order of the lines, based on their knowledge.

Activity: Continue the poem

Level: All

Procedure: Choose a poem suitable for students' level and write all, but the final stanza. Ask students to continue the poem, paying attention to the theme, lexis, and structure of the poem. When they finish, they compare their versions to the original.

Type of interaction: Individual work, class work.

Activity: Gap filling

Level: Elementary to low-intermediate

Procedure: Give students a poem and ask them to work with a partner to complete the poem using the words in the box.

Type of interaction: Pair-work

Notes: Students at lower levels may enjoy and understand the deeper meaning of a poem without actually having sufficient oral skills to discuss it. Poems do not have to be used as an end in themselves, but can be used as a way of extending students' knowledge of the language. Lazar (1993, p.109)

Activity: Vocabulary – synonyms and antonyms

Level: All levels

Procedure: Underline some words from a poem. Asks students to find synonyms and/ or antonyms for those words, in context and replace them. Students then compare their version to the original and discuss which one is better.

Types of interaction: Group-work.

Activity: Vocabulary – connected words

Level: Elementary to low-intermediate

Procedure: Choose a poem. Extract the words which can form pairs as they belong to the same lexical family. Give students the list of words and ask them to arrange them in pairs in the two columns as in the example.

Type of interaction: Individual work

Note: This activity is used for organising words according to lexical relationships.

Activity: Opening lines

Level: Elementary to intermediate

Procedure: Select the opening lines of five works of non-fiction and five poems. Ask students to decide which lines they think are the openings of poems.

Type of interaction: Class works as one large group

Notes: This activity is meant to show that literature is not necessarily a language apart and plain prose may have its poetry.

Activity: Match the title

Level: Elementary to intermediate

Procedure: Give students three very short and simple poems in English, after removing their titles and a list of six titles – three genuine and three invented. After reading the poems, ask students to decide which title is most appropriate for each poem. They should support their answer with arguments from the text based on lexical elements and topic.

Type of interaction: Individual work, group work

Activity: Vocabulary

Level: Lower-Intermediate to Intermediate

Procedure: Ask students to write adjectives, from a poem, that describe different states/ideas and their effects, for example, cold and heat, happiness and sadness.

Type of interaction: Pair-work, role-play

Notes: This activity is enjoyable for limited-English-proficient students. The activity is easy if students have to fill in missing letters of words in a certain grammatical or semantic category. (Sage, 1987, p. 37)

Activity: Compare and contrast/ matching texts

Level: Intermediate

Procedure: Select two or three short poetry which could be compared or contrasted, having certain features in common – the same theme, style or form or identical titles. Ask students to read the poems and underline any words that are difficult to understand, any striking word, and write any thought or comments that are similar in the poems. Ask students to compare and discuss the lines they have marked.

Type of interaction: Groups of four

Notes: This is a speaking activity and one of the difficulties in using matching texts is that, although the passages clearly have some features in common, this fact alone does not necessarily generate discussion. (Duff and Maley, 1990, p. 64)

Activity: Predicting

Level: Intermediate

Procedure: Divide students into two groups. Ask one group to look at the lines from a poem, from which two words have been removed. Ask students to predict what words could go in the blanks. Ask the other group to look at the same lines from the poem but with different words removed, and to do the same as the other group. Put students into pairs so that each pair consists of a student from each group. Ask students to discuss how they filled in the blanks and why.

Type of interaction: Group-work, pair-work

Note: Some word might be difficult for students at this level, so students can use dictionaries to establish its meaning.

Activity: Sentence "decombining"

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Divide compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences into simple sentences. Ask students to put them in the order in which they would occur in non-poetic usage and ask them to observe the differences from the poetic arrangement.

Type of interaction: Pair-work

Note: This activity can help students understand the form of poems and its deviant language structures. Sage (1987)

Activity: Split poem

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Choose a poem with equal length lines, split each line into two parts, and place the half lines under separate columns (A and B). Ask students to reconstruct the poem. For lower level, let the students hear the poem before they start reconstructing. Ask students to compare their result to the original form.

Type of interaction: Group-work

Notes: This approach allows students to work their way from language to meaning.

Activity: Change the poem

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Choose a poem and write it down on a blackboard. Ask students to choose one word from the poem and replace it with their one. They must be the same part of speech. Each student in the group can change one word only. They read the final poem and compare with the initial one.

Type of interaction: Group-work

Notes: This activity can be used to reinforce vocabulary and make poems more accessible to learners.

Activity: Line it up

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Write the text of a poem as a single paragraph. Put the students into groups, and give each group a poem-paragraph. Ask students to arrange the text into lines and stanzas, based on punctuation and rhythm and rhymes. Ask students to read their versions to the class and compare them to the original.

Type of interaction: Group-work

Notes: Students should be encouraged to experiment, instead of breaking the text into syntactical units.

Activity: The follow-up conversation

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Play the record of a poem or song where the writer addresses or the singer sings to a specific person. Ask students to imagine the conversation they have following the song. They have to read or play the dialogue prepared in pairs.

Type of interaction: Pair-work, role-play

Activity: Turn the poem into prose

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Give students a poem to read and discuss in class the ideas they can identify. Then ask them to write the story behind the poem. They have to add more details, such as actions, settings, and characters.

Type of interaction: Classwork, Individual work

Activity: Poetry or prose

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Procedure: Select two or three short passages of prose which are in some way close to poetry because of their rhythm, use of language or imagery. Write these passages out in the form of poems and copy two or three short poems, without making any changes to the text. Ask students to work in groups and give each group a complete set of the passages and poems chosen. Tell students that certain of the passages were originally written in the form of prose and ask them to identify the poems and the passages they think must be prose texts. Discuss their reasons for choosing some passages as poems. (Duff and Maley, 1990, p.20-21)

Type of interaction: Group- work

CHAPTER 2 – PRACTICAL IDEAS AND ACTIVITIES FOR THE USE OF LITERATURE IN ESL CLASSROOM

The following activities were designed on literary texts and grouped under three categories: Activities based on prose, Activities based on plays and Activities based on poetry, ranked by their level. Some of them can be used for both developing students creativity and improving vocabulary, some are meant to boast learners’ confidence in their ability of reading and understanding literature.

The activities described can help students “deconstruct” the text as they will learn that literature language is not a language apart. It is easier to accept things which we do not overrate; this is the reason learners should play with text, not to put them on a pedestal.

Activities based on prose

Hand-out

Underline all the verbs and expressions which describe daily routine.

'Well, in the morning I get up and go through a series of exercises. I've got one room fitted up as a little gymnasium, and I punch the bag and do shadow-boxing and weight-pulling for an hour. Then after a cold bath–There's a thing now! Do you take a daily cold bath?'

'No,' admitted Roger, 'I take a hot bath in the evening three or four times a week.'…

'After my bath,' he continued, drawing a merciful veil of silence over the matter, 'I have breakfast and drive to my office in New York, where I work until four. Then I lay off, and if it's summer I hurry out here for nine holes of golf, or if it's winter I play squash for an hour at my club. … Or maybe I sit down with a good book of poetry and spend the evening alone. At any rate, I do something every night to get me out of myself.'

Rewrite the text as it is presented by a narrator. Use the third person singular forms.

Key:

Task 1:

'Well, in the morning I get up and go through a series of exercises. I've got one room fitted up as a little gymnasium, and I punch the bag and do shadow-boxing and weight-pulling for an hour. Then after a cold bath–There's a thing now! Do you take a daily cold bath?'

'No,' admitted Roger, 'I take a hot bath in the evening three or four times a week.'…

'After my bath,' he continued, drawing a merciful veil of silence over the matter, 'I have breakfast and drive to my office in New York, where I work until four. Then I lay off, and if it's summer I hurry out here for nine holes of golf, or if it's winter I play squash for an hour at my club. … Or maybe I sit down with a good book of poetry and spend the evening alone. At any rate, I do something every night to get me out of myself.'

Task 2:

He gets up…goes…punches… Does he take?… has…works…lays… hurries… plays… sits… spends… does.

Hand-out 1

Fill in the gaps with the appropriate words.

She threw herself on the sofa and began to cry ……….. (1) into the pillows.

'He brought it on himself,' said Roger……………. (2), 'I've stood as much as my self-respect will allow. I don't want you going out with him any more.'

'I will go out with him!' cried Gretchen………….. (3) 'I'll go out with him all I want! Do you think it's any fun living here with you?'

'Gretchen,' he said…………..,(4) 'get up and put on your hat and coat and go out that door and never come back!'

Her mouth fell ……….. (5) ajar.

'But I don't want to get out,' she said………….(6)

'Well, then, behave yourself.' And he added in a gentler voice: 'I thought you were going to sleep for this forty days.'

'Oh, yes,' she cried………….7), 'easy enough to say! But I'm tired of sleeping.' She got up, faced him………….. (8) 'And what's more, I'm going riding with George Tompkins tomorrow.'

'You won't go out with him if I have to take you to New York and sit you down in my office until I get through.'

She looked at him with rage in her eyes.

'I hate you,' she said…………. (9) 'And I'd like to take all the work you've done and tear it up and throw it in the fire. And just to give you something to worry about tomorrow, I probably won't be here when you get back.'

She got up from the sofa, and very…………. (10) looked at her flushed, tear-stained face in the mirror. Then she ran upstairs and slammed herself into the bedroom.

Key:

passionately

stubbornly

wildly

coldly

slightly

dazedly

bitterly

defiantly

slowly

deliberately

Hand-out

There …………………. (to be) one particular fact that he …………………. (to remember), but it …………………. (not to be) all important to him. Singer …………………. (to recall) that, although he …………………. (to be) deaf since he …………………. (to be) an infant, he …………………. (not to be, always) a real mute. He …………………. (to be) left an orphan very young and placed in an institution for the deaf. He …………………. (to learn) to talk with his hands and to read. Before he …………………. (to be) nine years old he could talk with one hand in the American way – and also could employ both of his hands after the method of Europeans. He …………………. (to learn) to follow the movements of people’s lips and to understand what they …………………. (to say). Then finally he had been taught to speak.

Key:

was; was not; recalled; had been; was; had not always been; was; had learned; was; had learned; said.

Past tense simple is used for telling the story.

Past perfect simple is used to emphasize that an action happened before another past action.

Hand-out

Choose the correct form of the verbs in brackets.

Well, here I am. I …………….(to be) back. I ……………( not to mean) to go on writing tonight, but I …………… (not to see) why I shouldn’t. Nobody will know. I ………… (to feel) the need to continue. Though it ……….. (to be) a very eventful evening, nothing untoward. There was a moment as I …………… (to walk) under the motorway when I ………. (to feel) nervous. A tall black man ………(to walk) towards me, straight at me, as though he …………(to mean) to collide with me. I……………. (to be) nervous ever since I ……… (to have) my bag snatched. Now I ……….. (not to carry) anything in my bag, except my bathing suit, and my trainers, and my Club Pass, and a fiver in case I ……………. (to think) of something I …………… (to need) for supper on the way home. But he wouldn’t know I hadn’t got anything in it worth having, would he? Anyway, half the people around here ……………..(to look ) psychotic. You can’t tell the muggers from the mad. I know I shouldn’t say that, even to myself, but it’s true.

Key:

am; didn’t mean; don’t see; feel; was not/wasn’t; walked; felt; was walking; meant; have been/ ’ve been; had; don’t carry; think; need; look.

Hand-out 1.

Hand-out 2.

Task: For each gap provide adjectives or adverbs which fit best.

In the town, there were two mutes, and they were always together. Early every morning they would come out from the house where they lived and walk arm in arm down the street to work. The two friends were very ……….. The one who always steered the way was an ……….. and ……….. Greek. In the summer he would come out wearing a ……….. or ……….. polo shirt stuffed ……….. into his trousers in front and hanging ……….. behind. When it was ……….. he wore over this a ……….., ……….. sweater. His face was ……….. and ……….., with half-closed eyelids and lips that curved in a gentle, stupid smile. The other mute was ………… His eyes had a ……….., ……….. expression. He was always……….. and very ……….. dressed.

Key:

The original text:

In the town, there were two mutes, and they were always together. Early every morning they would come out from the house where they lived and walk arm in arm down the street to work. The two friends were very different. The one who always steered the way was an obese and dreamy Greek. In the summer he would come out wearing a yellow or green polo shirt stuffed sloppily into his trousers in front and hanging loose behind. When it was colder he wore over this a shapeless grey sweater. His face was round and oily, with half-closed eyelids and lips that curved in a gentle, stupid smile. The other mute was tall. His eyes had a quick, intelligent expression. He was always immaculate and very soberly dressed. (McCullers, p.3)

Hand-out 1

TEXT A

Hand-out 2

Turn the dialogue into Reported Speech, using different reporting verbs to reproduce the way characters speak.

'We ought to see each other more,' he told Roger tonight. 'You ought to go out more often, old boy. Cocktail?'

'No, thanks.'

'No? Well, your fair wife will–won't you, Gretchen?'

'I love this house,' she exclaimed, taking the glass and looking admiringly at ship models.

'I like it,' said Tompkins with satisfaction. 'I did it to please myself, and I succeeded.'

Roger stared moodily around the stiff, plain room, wondering if they could have blundered into the kitchen by mistake.

'You look like the devil, Roger,' said his host. 'Have a cocktail and cheer up.'

'Have one,' urged Gretchen.

'What?' Roger turned around absently. 'Oh, no, thanks. I've got to work after I get home.'

'Work!' Tompkins smiled. 'Listen, Roger, you'll kill yourself with work. Why don't you bring a little balance into your life–work a little, then play a little?'

'That's what I tell him,' said Gretchen.

'Do you know an average business man's day?' demanded Tompkins as they went into dinner. 'Coffee in the morning, eight hours' work interrupted by a bolted luncheon, and then home again with dyspepsia and a bad temper to give the wife a pleasant evening.'

Roger laughed shortly.

TEXT B

Hand out 3

Turn the dialogue into Reported Speech, using different reporting verbs to reproduce the way characters speak.

‘Here's the spring,’ Nick said to his sister. ‘And here's the stones where I camped before.’

‘It's a beautiful, beautiful place, Nickie,’ his sister said. ‘Can we see the lake, too?’

‘There's a place where we can see it. But it's better to camp here. I'll get some wood and we'll make breakfast.’

‘The firestones are very old.’

‘It's a very old place,’ Nick said. ‘The firestones are Indian.’

‘How did you come to it straight through the woods with no trail and no blazes?’

‘Didn't you see the direction sticks on the three ridges?’

‘No.’

‘I'll show them to you sometime.’

‘Are they yours?’

‘No. They're from the old days.’

‘Why didn't you show them to me?’

‘I don't know,’ Nick said. ‘I was showing off I guess.’

‘Nickie, they'll never find us here.’

‘I hope not,’ Nick said.

Key:

TEXT A

Roger emphasised that they had to see each other more, advising his friend to go out more often, then he offered him a cocktail.

The man refused/rejected/ declined his offer

Roger/He asked for confirmation and then implied that his wife, Gretchen, would.

She said that she loved that house.

Tompkins said with satisfaction that he liked it too, adding that he had done it to please himself and I had succeeded.

Roger said his host that he looked like the devil and offered him a cocktail in order to cheer him up.

Gretchen urged him to have one.

Roger asked absently what was about then he refused, mentioning that he had to work after he got home.

Tompkins warned Roger he would kill himself with work and he recommended that he should bring a little balance into his life – work a little and then play a little.

Gretchen said that she tells him the same thing. / Gretchen bore him out.

Tompkins wanted to know if he knew an average business man's day and then he enumerated the activities: coffee in the morning, eight hours' work interrupted by a bolted luncheon, and then home again with dyspepsia and a bad temper to give the wife a pleasant evening.

TEXT B

Nick showed his sister the spring and the stones where he had camped.

His sister stressed that the place was beautiful and asked him to see the lake.

Nick told her that there was a place where they could see the lake, but they had to camp there, then he added that he would get some wood and they would make breakfast.

The girl remarked that the firestones were very old.

Nick explained to her that it was a very old place and the firestones were Indian.

The girl wanted to know how he had come to it straight through the woods with no trail and no blazes.

Nick wondered if she hadn’t seen the direction sticks on the three ridges.His sister said no.

Nick promised to show them sometimes.

The girl asked him if they were his.

He denied adding that they were from old times.

His sister asked him the reason why he hadn't shown them to her.

Nick replied that he didn’t know, adding that he had been showing off.

The girl informed Nickie that they would not find them there.

Nick hoped so.

Hand-out 1

Read the text and try to explain the meaning of the words in bold.

She never stops talking. How she ever manages to elicit any information from her clients – her victims, I call them – God alone knows. Yet she does. And she elicits information from me too. Because every now and then I have to break in, to stop the remorseless flow of gossip and ignorant opinion and innuendo. That’s how she tricks me into confessions. Maybe she has the same effect on those single mothers and battering stepfathers. The reverse of the psychoanalytic approach – not silence, but a battery of words. People tell her their secrets in order to shut her up.

I am so mean about Sally. But she has subjected and subdued me and I must fight back somehow. I fight back on this silent scroll of outrage because I am bound to Sally for ever. I will never shake myself free.

Handout 2

Match the words with their definitions.

Key:

Hand-out 1

Hand-out 2

Fill in the gaps with the adjectives from the box

As she took her stance for a short mashie shot, Dexter looked at her closely. She wore a/an ………………(1) gingham dress, rimmed at throat and shoulders with a ……………… (2) edging that accentuated her tan. The quality of exaggeration, of……………… (3), which had made her ……………… (4) eyes and ……………… (5) mouth absurd at eleven, was gone now. She was arrestingly……………… (6). The color in her cheeks was centered like the color in a picture – it was not a ‘high’ color, but a sort of fluctuating and ……………… (7) warmth, so shaded that it seemed at any moment it would recede and disappear. This color and the mobility of her mouth gave a/an ……………… (8) impression of flux, of ……………… (9) life, of……………… (10) vitality – balanced only partially by the sad luxury of her eyes.

Glossary:

mashie – a golf club that has a relatively narrow metal head

gingham – a cotton fabric, usually woven of two coloured yarns in a checked or striped design

Key:

blue; 2. white; 3. thinness; 4. passionate; 5. down-turning; 6. beautiful; 7. feverish; 8. continual; 9. Intense; 10. Passionate

Hand-out 1

For each gap, choose which of the four possible answers A, B, C or D fits the space best.

There was a pause. Then she smiled and the corners of her mouth ……….(1) and an almost imperceptible ………. (2) brought her closer to him, ………. (3) up into his eyes. A ………. (4) rose in Dexter's throat, and he waited ………. (5) for the experiment, facing the ………. (6) compound

that would form mysteriously from the elements of their lips. Then he saw – she ………. (7) her excitement to him, lavishly, deeply, with kisses that were not a………. (8) but a fulfillment.

Key:

drooped

sway

looking

lump

breathless

compound

communicated

promise

Hand-out 2

For each gap, choose which of the four possible answers A, B, C or D fits the space best.

When autumn had come and gone again it ……….(1) to him that he could not have Judy Jones. He had to ……….(2) this into his mind but he convinced himself at last. He lay ……….(3) at night for a while and argued it……….(4) He told himself the……….(5) and the pain she had caused him, he ……….(6) her glaring deficiencies as a wife. Then he said to himself that he loved her, and after a while he ……….(7) asleep. For a week, lest he imagined her ……….(8) voice over the telephone or her eyes opposite him at lunch, he worked hard and……….(9), and at night he went to his office and……….(10) out his years.

Key:

occurred

beat

awake

over

trouble

enumerated

fell

husky

late

plotted

Hand-out 1

Use the words given in CAPITALS to form a word that fits into the gap

Succeeding Dexter's first…………….(1) EXHILARATE came ……………. (2) REST and …………….(3) SATISFY. The …………….(4)HELP ecstasy of losing himself in her was opiate rather than tonic. It was …………….(5 ) FORTUNE for his work during the winter that those moments of ecstasy came …………….(6) FREQUENT. Early in their ……………. (7) ACQUAINT it had seemed for a while that there was a deep and ……………. (8) SPONTANEITY mutual attraction that first August… There was all the ecstasy of an engagement about it, ……………. (9) SHARP by his ……………(10) REALISE that there was no engagement

Key:

1. exhilaration

2. restlessness

3. dissatisfaction

4. helpless

5. fortunate

6. infrequently

7. acquaintance

8. spontaneous

9. sharpened

10. realization

Hand-out1

Read the extract from Margaret Atwood’s novel The Blind Assassin and write a newspaper article presented Laura's death.

Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge. The bridge was being repaired: she went right through the Danger sign. The car fell a hundred feet into the ravine, smashing through the treetops feathery with new leaves, then burst into flames and rolled down into the shallow creek at the bottom. Chunks of the bridge fell on top of it. Nothing much was left of her but charred smithereens.

I was informed of the accident by a policeman: the car was mine, and they'd traced the license. His tone was respectful: no doubt he recognized Richard's name. He said the tires may have caught on a streetcar track or the brakes may have failed, but he also felt bound to inform me that two witnesses – a retired lawyer and a bank teller, dependable people – had claimed to have seen the whole thing. They'd said Laura had turned the car sharply and deliberately and had plunged off the bridge with no more fuss than stepping off a curb. They'd noticed her hands on the wheel because of the white gloves she'd been wearing.

Hand-out 2

Read the article included in the book and compare it to yours. Are they very different?

The Toronto Star, May 26, 1945

QUESTIONS RAISED IN CITY DEATH

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

A coroner's inquest has returned a verdict of accidental death in last week's St. Clair Ave. fatality. Miss Laura Chase, 25, was traveling west on the afternoon of May 18 when her car swerved through the barriers protecting a repair site on the bridge and crashed into the ravine below, catching fire. Miss Chase was killed instantly. Her sister, Mrs. Richard E. Griffen, wife of the prominent manufacturer, gave evidence that Miss Chase suffered from severe headaches affecting her vision. In reply to questioning, she denied any possibility of intoxication as Miss Chase did not drink.

It was the police view that a tire caught in an exposed streetcar track was a contributing factor. Questions were raised as to the adequacy of safety precautions taken by the City, but after expert testimony by City engineer Gordon Perkins, these were dismissed.

The accident has occasioned renewed protests over the state of the streetcar tracks on this stretch of roadway. Mr. Herb T. Jolliffe, representing local ratepayers, told Star reporters that this was not the first mishap caused by neglected tracks. City Council should take note.

Hand- out 1

Read the beginning of the story.

“Nickie,” his sister said to him. “Listen to me, Nickie.”

“I don't want to hear it.”

He was watching the bottom of the spring where the sand rose in small spurts with the bubbling water. There was a tin cup on a forked stick that was stuck in the gravel by the spring and Nick Adams looked at it and at the water rising and then flowing clear in its gravel bed beside the road.

He could see both ways on the road and he looked up the hill and then down to the dock and the lake, the wooded point across the bay and the open lake beyond where there were white caps running. His back was against a big cedar tree and behind him, there was a thick cedar swamp. His sister was sitting on the moss beside him and she had her arm around his shoulders.

“They're waiting for you to come home to supper,” his sister said. “There's two of them. They came in a buggy and they asked where you were.”

Hand-out 2

Rearrange the lines in a logical order.

Key:

‘Did anybody tell them?’

‘Nobody knew where you were but me. Did you get many, Nickie?’

‘I got twenty-six.’

‘Are they good ones?’

‘Just the size they want for the dinners.’

‘Oh, Nickie, I wish you wouldn't sell them.’

‘She gives me a dollar a pound,’ Nick Adams said.

‘They know about everything, Nickie,’ his sister said hopelessly. ‘They said they were going to make an example of you and send you to the reform school.’

‘They've only got proof on one thing,’ Nick told her. ‘But I guess I have to go away for a while.’

‘Can I go?’

‘No. I'm sorry, Littless. How much money have we got?’

‘Fourteen dollars and sixty-five cents. I brought it.’

‘Did they say anything else?’

‘No. Only that they were going to stay till you came home.’

‘Our mother will get tired of feeding them.’

‘She gave them lunch already.’

‘What were they doing?’

‘Just sitting around on the screen porch. They asked our mother for your rifle but I'd hid it in the woodshed when I saw them by the fence.’

‘Were you expecting them?’

‘Yes. Weren't you?’

‘I guess so. Goddam them.’

Activities based on plays

Underline all the question forms in the text.

ALGERNON: How are you, my dear Ernest? What brings you up to town?

JACK: Oh, pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring one anywhere?

Eating, as usual, I see, Algy!

ALGERNON: [Stiffly.] I believe it is customary in good society to take some slight refreshment at five o'clock. Where have you been since last Thursday?

JACK: [Sitting down on the sofa.] In the country.

ALGERNON: What on earth do you do there?

JACK: [Pulling off his gloves.] When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring.

ALGERNON: And who are the people you amuse?

JACK: [Airily.] Oh, neighbours, neighbours.

ALGERNON: Got nice neighbours in your part of Shropshire?

JACK: Perfectly horrid! Never speak to one of them.

ALGERNON: How immensely you must amuse them! [Goes over and takes a sandwich.] By the way, Shropshire is your county, is it not?

JACK: Eh? Shropshire? Yes, of course. Hallo! Why all these cups? Why cucumber sandwiches? Why such reckless extravagance in one so young? Who is coming to tea?

ALGERNON: Oh! merely Aunt Augusta and Gwendolen.

JACK: How perfectly delightful!

Key:

Task 1:

Wh-word + auxiliary verb + subject + verb?

Wh-word as a Subject + verb?

Tag question, at the end of a statement: auxiliary verb + subject?

Task 2:

ALGERNON: How are you, my dear Ernest? What brings you up to town?

JACK: Oh, pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring one anywhere?

Eating, as usual, I see, Algy!

ALGERNON: [Stiffly.] I believe it is customary in good society to take some slight refreshment at five o'clock. Where have you been since last Thursday?

JACK: [Sitting down on the sofa.] In the country.

ALGERNON: What on earth do you do there?

JACK: [Pulling off his gloves.] When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring.

ALGERNON: And who are the people you amuse?

JACK: [Airily.] Oh, neighbours, neighbours.

ALGERNON: Got nice neighbours in your part of Shropshire?

JACK: Perfectly horrid! Never speak to one of them.

ALGERNON: How immensely you must amuse them! [Goes over and takes a sandwich.] By the way, Shropshire is your county, is it not?

JACK: Eh? Shropshire? Yes, of course. Hallo! Why all these cups? Why cucumber sandwiches? Why such reckless extravagance in one so young? Who is coming to tea?

ALGERNON: Oh! merely Aunt Augusta and Gwendolen.

JACK: How perfectly delightful!

Hand-out 1

MEG: You got your paper?

PETEY: Yes.

MEG: ………..….(to be) it good?

PETEY: Not bad.

MEG: What ………..… (it/ to say)?

PETEY: Nothing much.

MEG: You ………..… (to read)read me out some nice bits yesterday.

PETEY: Yes, well, I (not /to finish) this one yet.

MEG: ………..… (you/ to tell) me when you come to something good?

PETEY: Yes.

[PAUSE]

MEG: ………………..(you/to work) hard this morning?

PETEY: No. Just stacked a few of the old chairs. Cleaned up a bit.

MEG: Is it nice out?

PETEY: Very nice.

[PAUSE]

MEG: Is Stanley up yet?

PETEY: I ………(not/ to know). Is he?

MEG: I don't know. I …………(not/ to see) him down yet.

PETEY: Well then, he can't be up.

MEG: …………(you/ not/ to see) him down?

PETEY: I…………( lust only/ to come) in.

MEG: He must be still asleep.

Key:

Tapescript

MEG: You got your paper?

PETEY: Yes.

MEG: Is it good?

PETEY: Not bad.

MEG: What does it say?

PETEY: Nothing much.

MEG: You read me out some nice bits yesterday.

PETEY: Yes, well, I haven't finished this one yet.

MEG: Will you tell me when you come to something good?

PETEY: Yes.

[PAUSE]

MEG: Have you been working hard this morning?

PETEY: No. Just stacked a few of the old chairs. Cleaned up a bit.

MEG: Is it nice out?

PETEY: Very nice.

[PAUSE]

MEG: Is Stanley up yet?

PETEY: I don't know. Is he?

MEG: I don't know. I haven't seen him down yet.

PETEY: Well then, he can't be up.

MEG: Haven't you seen him down?

PETEY: I've only just come in.

MEG: He must be still asleep.

Hand-out 1

SHE: It’s unimaginable. So you are here all the time?

He: Without cease.

SHE: How troubled you look! May one see them?

HE: No, madam.

SHE: I may not go and see them?

HE: No, madam.

SHE: May we have a little light?

HE: No, madam

SHE: How cold you are! Are these the two knobs?

HE: Yes.

SHE: Just push? Is it live? I ask you is it live?

HE: No, you must twist. To the right.

SHE: [astonished] But there are more than one!

HE: Yes.

SHE: How many?

HE: To the right, madam, to the right.

Key:

Tapescript

Rough for Radio I by Samuel Beckett

HE: Madam.

SHE: Are you all right? [Pause.]you asked me to come.

HE: I ask no one to come.

SHE: You suffered me to come.

HE: I meet my debts.

[Pause.]

She: I have come to listen.

HE: When you please.

[Pause.]

SHE: May I squat on the hassock? [Pause.] Thank you. [Pause.] May we have a little heat?

HE: No, madam.

[Pause.]

SHE: Is it true the music goes on all the time?

HE: Yes.

SHE: Without cease?

HE: Without cease

SHE: It’s unthinkable! [Pause.] And the words too? All the time too?

HE: All the time.

SHE: Without cease?

HE: Yes.

SHE: It’s unimaginable. [Pause.] So you are here all the time?

He: Without cease.

[Pause.]

SHE: How troubled you look! [Pause.] May one see them?

HE: No, madam.

SHE: I may not go and see them?

HE: No, madam.

[Pause.]

SHE: May we have a little light?

HE: No, madam

[Pause.]

SHE: How cold you are! [Pause.] Are these the two knobs?

HE: Yes.

SHE: Just push? [Pause.] Is it live? [Pause.] I ask you is it live?

HE: No, you must twist. [Pause.] To the right.

SHE: [astonished] But there are more than one!

HE: Yes.

SHE: How many? [Pause.]

HE: To the right, madam, to the right.

[Click.]

Hand-out 1.

Rearrange the lines of the dialogue in the correct order.

Key:

SARAH: Tired?

RICHARD: Just a little.

SARAH: Bad traffic?

RICHARD: No. Quite good traffic, actually.

SARAH: Oh, good.

RICHARD: Very smooth.

SARAH: It seemed to me you were just a little late.

RICHARD: Am I?

SARAH: Just a little.

RICHARD: There was a bit of a jam on the bridge. Pleasant day?

SARAH: Mmn. I was in the village this morning.

RICHARD: Oh yes? See anyone?

SARAH: Not really, no. Had lunch.

RICHARD: In the village?

SARAH: Yes.

RICHARD: Any good?

SARAH: Quite fair.

RICHARD: What about this afternoon? Pleasant afternoon?

SARAH: Oh yes. Quite marvellous.

RICHARD: Your lover came, did he?

SARAH: Mmnn. Oh yes.

RICHARD: Did you show him the hollyhocks?

SARAH: The hollyhocks?

RICHARD: Yes.

SARAH: No, I didn't.

RICHARD: Oh.

SARAH: Should I have done?

RICHARD: No, no. It's simply that I seem to remember your saying he was interested in gardening.

SARAH: Mmnn, yes, he is.

Activities based on poetry

Hand-out 1

Hand-out 2

Rearrange the lines to form a poem.

Key:

It was a big boxy wreck of a house

Owned by a classmate of mine named Rod Usher,

Who lived in the thing with his twin sister.

He was a louse and she was a souse.

While I was visiting them one wet summer, she died.

We buried her,

Or rather we stuck her in a back room for a bit, meaning to bury her

When the graveyard dried.

But the weather got wetter

One night we were both waked by a twister

Plus a screeching and howling outside that turned out to be sister

Up and dying again, making it hard for Rod to forget her.

He didn't. He and she died in a heap, and I left quick,

Which was lucky since the house fell in right after,

Like a ton of brick.

Hand-out 1

Task: Write the following text as a poem, based on punctuation, rhythm or rhymes.

There was no water at my grandfather’s when I was a kid and would go for it with two zinc buckets. Down the path, past the cow by the foundation where the fine people’s house was before they arranged to have it burned down. To the neighbor’s cool well. Would come back with pails too heavy, so my mouth pulled out of shape. I see myself, but from the outside. I keep trying to feel who I was, and cannot. Hear clearly the sound the bucket made hitting the sides of the stone well going down, but never the sound of me.

Key:

The original poem:

There was no water at my grandfather’s

when I was a kid and would go for it

with two zinc buckets. Down the path,

past the cow by the foundation where

the fine people’s house was before

they arranged to have it burned down.

To the neighbor’s cool well. Would

come back with pails too heavy,

so my mouth pulled out of shape.

I see myself, but from the outside.

I keep trying to feel who I was,

and cannot. Hear clearly the sound

the bucket made hitting the sides

of the stone well going down,

but never the sound of me.

Key: Picture 2 represents Arthur Mitchell dancing.

Hand-out 1

Hand-out 2

Slim dragonfly

too rapid for the eye

to cage—

contagious gem of virtuosity—

make visible, mentality.

Your jewels of mobility

reveal

and veil

a peacock-tail.

Hand-out 1

Handout 2

Inspiration du Matin

by Oscar Wilde

The Thames nocturne of blue and gold

Changed to a Harmony in grey:

A barge with ochre-coloured hay

Dropt from the wharf: and chill and cold

The yellow fog came creeping down

The bridges, till the houses' walls

Seemed changed to shadows and St. Paul's

Loomed like a bubble o'er the town.

Then suddenly arose the clang

Of waking life; the streets were stirred

With country waggons: and a bird

Flew to the glistening roofs and sang.

But one pale woman all alone,

The daylight kissing her wan hair,

Loitered beneath the gas lamps' flare,

With lips of flame and heart of stone.

Key:

blue – azure, sapphire

gold – yellow, auric

grey – leaden, ashen, bleak

chill – frosty, brisk, cool, wintry, crisp

cold – chilled, shivering, glacial, hostile

fog – mist, cloud, smoke

creeping – sneaking, moving slowly

shadows – darkness, silhouettes, ghosts,

bubble – foam, balloon,

clang – rattle, clap

stirred – aroused, touched, worked up, excited, ablaze

glistening –glazed, shiny, bright, shining, glossy,

pale – strong, full, dark, pallid, sick

wan – sickish, pale, mad, unhinged, grisly

loitered –strolled, went slowly,

flare – fire, blaze, torch

flame – passion, warmth, ardour, fervour, heat,

stone – rock, boulder, gravel,

Hand-out1

Task: Write the following text as a poem. The original poem has short lines with small letters and no punctuation marks.

Some say I'm now almost extinct in this park, but the people who say this don't know that by smelling the orchids in the trees they're sensing the fragrance of my chops; that by hearing the rumbling of the waterfalls, they're listening to my ancestors' great roar; that by observing

the constellations of the night sky they're gazing at the star spots on my fur; that I am and always will be the wild untamed living spirit of this jungle.

Key:

some say/ I'm now almost/ extinct in this park/

but the people/ who say this/ don't know

that by smelling/ the orchids/ in the trees

they're sensing/ the fragrance/ of my chops

that by hearing/ the rumbling/ of the waterfalls

they're listening/ to my ancestors'/ great roar

that by observing/ the constellations/ of the night sky

they're gazing/ at the starspots/ on my fur

that I am and/ always will be/ the wild

untamed/ living spirit/ of this jungle

Key: Students’ own answers. The figure 5 is stationary/ tense on the firetruck, but the truck is moving, so we see it smaller and smaller.

Hand-out 1

Hand-out 2

The Great Figure

by William Carlos Williams

Among the rain

and lights

I saw the figure 5

in gold

on a red

firetruck

moving

tense

unheeded

to gong clangs

siren howls

and wheels rumbling

through the dark city.

Hand-out 1

Fire and Ice

by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Hand-out 1

Fill in the gaps with the words in the box

be (x2), been, could, have, stayed

I could have been your pillar, could have been your door

I could have……………………(1) beside you, could have stayed for more.

Could have been your statue, could have …………….(2) your friend,

A whole long lifetime could ……………….. (3)been the end.

I could …………..(4) yours so true

I would be, I should be through and through

I ………………(5) have been one of these things first

I could have been one of these things first.

Replace the underlined words with a similar expression of your own.

I could have been a sailor, could have been a cook

A real live lover could have been a book.

I could have been a signpost, could have been a clock

As simple as a kettle, steady as a rock.

Which is the meaning of the modal COULD in this text

Key:

1.stayed, 2. been, 3. have, 4.be, 5.could;

could have been = it was possible for me to be; there was a slight chance for me to be, I had the chance, but I missed it; etc.

It indicates a possible past action which was not done by the subject.

Tapescript:

One of These Things First

by Nick Drake

I could have been a sailor, could have been a cook

A real live lover, could have been a book

I could have been a signpost, could have been a clock

As simple as a kettle, steady as a rock

I could be here and now

I would be, I should be, but how?

I could have been one of these things first

I could have been one of these things first

I could have been your pillar, could have been your door

I could have stayed beside you, could have stayed for more

Could have been your statue, could have been your friend

A whole long lifetime could have been the end

I could be yours so true

I would be, I should be through and through

I could have been one of these things first

I could have been one of these things first

I could have been a whistle, could have been a flute

A real live giver, could have been a boot

I could have been a signpost, could have been a clock

As simple as a kettle, steady as a rock

I could be even here

I would be, I should be so near

I could have been one of these things first

I could have been one of these things first.

Hand-out 1

Glossary:

gossamer – a fine, filmy substance consisting of cobwebs spun by small spiders, seen especially in autumn.

tryst – a private romantic rendezvous between lovers.

Key:

Tapescript:

Les Ballons

by Oscar Wilde

Against these turbid turquoise skies

The light and luminous balloons

Dip and drift like satin moons,

Drift like silken butterflies;

Reel with every windy gust,

Rise and reel like dancing girls,

Float like strange transparent pearls,

Fall and float like silver dust.

Now to the low leaves they cling,

Each with coy fantastic pose,

Each a petal of a rose

Straining at a gossamer string.

Then to the tall trees they climb,

Like thin globes of amethyst,

Wandering opals keeping tryst

With the rubies of the lime.

Handout 1

Hand-out 2

So long, Marianne

by Leonard Cohen

Come over to the window, my little darling,

I'd like to try to read your palm.

I used to think I was some kind of Gypsy boy

before I let you take me home.

Now so long, Marianne, it's time that we began

to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.

Well you know that I love to live with you,

but you make me forget so very much.

I forget to pray for the angels

and then the angels forget to pray for us.

We met when we were almost young

deep in the green lilac park.

You held on to me like I was a crucifix,

as we went kneeling through the dark.

Your letters they all say that you're beside me now.

Then why do I feel alone?

I'm standing on a ledge and your fine spider web

is fastening my ankle to a stone.

For now I need your hidden love.

I'm cold as a new razor blade.

You left when I told you I was curious,

I never said that I was brave.

Oh, you are really such a pretty one.

I see you've gone and changed your name again.

And just when I climbed this whole mountainside,

to wash my eyelids in the rain!

Key:

Possible answer: The chore is difficult as the temperature is low, somebody has to split the logs and this activity is performed outside or in a shed. On Sunday people tend to sleep more

Hand-out 1

Those Winter Sundays

by Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,

then with cracked hands that ached

from labor in the weekday weather made

banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he’d call,

and slowly I would rise and dress,

fearing the chronic anger of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,

who had driven out the cold

and polished my good shoes as well.

What did I know, what did I know

of love’s austere and lonely offices?

Hand-out 2

STORY PLAN

Introduction –the characters and setting.

Initiating action – the initial point of the story

Rising action – the events leading to the climax

Climax – the most intense part of the story

Falling action –the actions heading to the conclusion

Resolution – the solution of the problem

Key:

The poem is about the French Resistance in The Second World War.

A partisan is a member of an armed group formed to fight secretly against an occupying force, in particular, one operating in German-occupied Yugoslavia, Italy, and parts of eastern Europe in the Second World War. (Oxford Dictionary)

Hand-out

The Partisan

When they poured across the border

I was cautioned to surrender,

this I could not do;

I took my gun and vanished.

I have changed my name so often,

I've lost my wife and children

but I have many friends,

and some of them are with me.

An old woman gave us shelter,

kept us hidden in the garret,

then the soldiers came;

she died without a whisper.

There were three of us this morning

I'm the only one this evening

but I must go on;

the frontiers are my prison.

Oh, the wind, the wind is blowing,

through the graves the wind is blowing,

freedom soon will come;

then we'll come from the shadows.

Hand – out 1

TEXT 1

There was no water at my grandfather’s

when I was a kid and would go for it

with two zinc buckets. Down the path,

past the cow by the foundation where

the fine people’s house was before

they arranged to have it burned down.

To the neighbor’s cool well. Would

come back with pails too heavy,

so my mouth pulled out of shape.

I see myself, but from the outside.

I keep trying to feel who I was,

and cannot. Hear clearly the sound

the bucket made hitting the sides

of the stone well going down,

but never the sound of me.

TEXT 2

I wonder how many people in this city

live in furnished rooms.

Late at night when I look out at the buildings

I swear I see a face in every window

looking back at me

and when I turn away

I wonder how many go back to their desks

and write this down.

TEXT 3

Three greasy brother crows

wheel, beak to heel,

cutting a circle into the bruised and troubled sky,

making fast, dark rings through the thicksome

bloats of smoke.

For so long

the lid of the valley was clear and blue

but now, by God,

it roars.

TEXT 4

Completely protected on all sides by volcanoes

a woman, dark-haired, in stained jeans

sleeps in central Africa.

In her dreams, her notebooks, still

private as maiden diaries,

the mountain gorillas move through their life term;

their gentleness survives

observation. Six bands of them

inhabit, with her, the wooded highland.

When I lay me down to sleep

unsheltered by any natural guardians

from the panicky life-cycle of my tribe

I wake in the old cellblock

observing the daily executions,

rehearsing the laws

I cannot subscribe to,

envying the pale gorilla-scented dawn

she wakes into, the stream where she washes her hair,

the camera-flash of her quiet

eye.

TEXT 5

The afternoon darkened.

The sun was lost in the western forest.

Fireflies were twinkling over the darkened meadow.

They caught them,

tied them with threads into shining bouquets,

and hung them before the altar,

where the Host remained exposed.

Then they pitched their tents,

built their bivouac fires, stationed guards,

and lay down to rest.

Such was the first Mass sung in Montreal.

Text 6

The sun was shining from all directions.

The ground war read and dusty,

the grass was brown and dusty;

but then,

“brown is the natural condition of the grass

Key:

Text 1- Summer at Blue Creek, North Carolina by Jack Gilbert – POEM

Text 2 – I wonder how many people in this city by Leonard Cohen – POEM

Text 3 – And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave – PROSE

Text 4 – The Observer by Adrianne Rich – POEM

Text 5 – Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen -PROSE

CHAPTER 3 – RESEARCH

3.1. General frame of the research.

Hypothesis

In this chapter, we will present a research experiment that was aimed at demonstrating that by using different activities based on literary text, students can improve their language skills, creativity, and fluency in English, and enrich their knowledge, as well as enjoying reading different literary texts.

Objectives

The objectives of the research are as follows:

implementing activities based on literary text in order to activate the process of learning;

collecting and analysing data to determine students’ habits of reading and learning;

collecting and analysing data to determine the level of satisfaction students have when using the proposed activities;

synthesizing the results and drawing conclusions.

Procedure

The research consists of three parts: two surveys and some activities performed during ESL classes.

A number of 51 students participated and answered questions about literature and teaching methods, in both surveys, they also attended English classes where the activities described in Chapter 2 were used. The students work in large groups of 10 to 14, as they study English five hours per week.

The first part was a survey, in the form of a questionnaire, carried out in September 2017. It was meant to establish the interest students pay in reading, their reading habits and the relevance of studying literature from their point of view.

During the school year 2017-2018, students had to do different activities based on literary texts.

The third part of the research was a second survey, also in the form of a questionnaire, as it allows us to collect data from students within a short period of time. It was applied after the same students had performed some of the activities mentioned above, in June 2018. The third section of the questionnaire was repeated in order to observe if there is a change in learners' attitude towards the importance of literary text.

As the Likert-scale questions in which students are asked to select one of the several categories by circling or checking their response, we choose an even number of questions decrease the possibility of false results, as some students choose the middle answer in order to avoid taking a clear stand on the topic, as this risk is presented by McKay (2006, p.39)

3.2. Questionnaire 1. Description; Results; Analysis

Description

The questionnaire consists of 15 questions structured into 3 sections.

Section 1 – General information (questions 1 to 4). It gathers general information, such as age, sex, number of years students have studied English.

Section 2 – Reading literature (questions 5 to 10). This section inquires about students’ habit of reading and types of text the classify as literature and the difficulties in reading such texts.

Section 3- The relevance of literature in your education (questions 11 to 15). This part aims to investigate students’ attitude towards literature. It consists of 5 statements which student had to answer by circling “A. Strongly agree”, “B. Agree”, “C. Disagree” or “D. Strongly disagree”.

Participation and Distribution

The questionnaire was handed out to 51 students from 4 classes at “Transilvania” High School, Deva in October 2017 and aimed to investigate how literature is used by collecting data about students` habits of reading and studying English as a second language.

Results

Section 1 – General information.

The following table shows the answers students gave to the first two questions about age and sex.

The majority of students are males, as it is a technological high school. Their age is between 14 and 19.

For question 3 “How long have you been studying English in total?” the responses differ from 4 to 10. Some of them started the study of English in the second year of school, some in the fifth.

As we can see from the results shown in the table below, most students evaluated correctly their level of English, corresponding to the class they belong to.

Section 2 – Reading literature

The second part of the questionnaire treated students’ habit of reading. The first question in this section was “How can you describe reading?”, and students were asked to circle the appropriate letter. 4 students circled A. An enjoyable activity, three of them being girls, 24 students said that it was a task done just when necessary, and 23 circled answer C. A hard and boring task.

Asked about the kind of literary texts they had met in school, 82.35 % answered excerpts from the text, 9.8% circled whole texts and 7.84% chose both. Of 51 students, one student constitutes 1.96% of the totality.

Question 7 – “Which of the following have you met in your English course books?” revealed the fact that some students most students worked with newspaper articles as there were 43 of them who circled this option. But only 2 students indicated plays and 5 novels. 19 out of 51 chose poetry, here they took into consideration lyrics, too. Two of them indicated “Others”, mentioning comics. Newspapers articles (94.1%) were the most common type of text student had met, which is a fair percentage, as most course book reading tasks are based on them.

When students were asked how they usually get specific information from a text – question 8 – most of them, 58.8% opted for reading the whole text each time they look for information, 23.5 % of them, however, opted for skimming the text for specific information, and only 17.64 % rely on previous information and hints. This proves that many students do not use all the textual cues; they do not make predictions and then check them against the reading text. In order to comprehend a text, a reader should use the knowledge stored in his brain and make use of additional information such as pictures or highlighted words.

Questions 9 and 10 were designed to check the problems students have to face when they deal with literary text. Most of the students 62,74% had difficulties in reading and understanding literary materials, 23.5% opted for scientific text as being a problem and 13.7% said they find technical text challenging. 39.2% of the respondents had difficulties with vocabulary, while 35.3% with figurative language, which proves that students use the same reading techniques they apply for non-literary text and they do not predict meaning from context. The remaining respondents 25.5% affirm that they have difficulties with sentence structure. These figures indicate the lack of literary competence as well as students’ habit of reading.

Section 3 – The relevance of literature in your education

For the statement “Literature is important for my education”, as illustrated, most students agreed and strongly that literature is an important part of their education. Over half of the students replied “Agree”, 13.7% “Strongly agreed”. There were 29.4% of students who did not consider literature important for them and fewer students (5.8%) strongly disagreed with the statement.

Statement 12 revealed how important students considered literature for their personal development. The majority of students felt that literature was an important part of their personal development, as 27 students answered “B. Agree” and 5 students answered “A. Strongly agree”. An interesting finding is that the number of students who strongly disagreed with this statement is higher than for statement number 11. In total, there were 19 respondents who believed that literature is not important for personal development.

Most students were positive to the claim that literature facilitates understanding different cultures, 28 circled “B. Agreed” and 7 circled “A. Strongly agreed”. A third of them disagreed with this statement.

33 students circled "B: Agree" as the response to the statement of whether or not literature facilitates understanding society, 8 strongly agreed and 10 disagreed with the statement and only 1 strongly disagreed.

The majority of students (60.78%) said that literature provides insight into other people's behavior, the last statement of this section, while 23.55 disagreed. 6 strongly agreed with the claim, only 2 students opted for "D. Strongly disagree”.

Analysis of the results

In the questionnaire there was no separation between using literature as a resource for language learning and using literature for the study of literature, therefore the questionnaire was not designed to gather input on this issue.

The first section of the survey was designed as a key control, in order to establish students’ age and level of knowledge; moreover to verify the same students would respond to the second survey.

Questions used to observe students’ habits of reading literature, from section two, proved that they have few contacts with literary texts and they had little practice in reading them, as more than half respondents classified them as challenging.

The third section of the questionnaire showed that students considered literature as an important part of their education and personal development, as well as for improving their knowledge, as 87% of the total number of 51 respondents agreed or strongly agreed with these possible benefits of studying literature.

As there was a small percentage of students who indicated literary texts as part of their course books, it was recommended that literature-based activities be introduced during the class.

Questionnaire 2

The questionnaire consists of 12 questions structured into 3 sections.

Section 1 – General information (questions 1 to 4)

It gathers general information, such as age, sex, number of years students have studied English. It contains the same question as in Questionnaire 1, Section 1.

Section 2 – Level of satisfaction (questions 5 to 7)

This section inquires about students’ satisfaction in performing activities based on different literary texts. It contains two multiple choices questions to establish their level of satisfaction, and an open-ended question to allow respondents to write their own answers.

Section 3- The relevance of literature in your education (questions 8 to 12)

This part aims to investigate students’ attitude towards literature after practicing specific activities designed on literary texts. It consists of the same 5 statements as those in Section 3, Questionnaire 1.

Participation and Distribution

The questionnaire was handed out to 51 students from 4 classes at “Transilvania” High School, Deva in October 2017 and aimed to investigate how literature is used by collecting data about students` habits of reading and studying English as a second language.

Results

Section 1 – General information

The data collected from this part proved that the same group of students responded to our questionnaire.

Section 2

The first section of this section referred to students' level of satisfaction regarding the type of literary text used in classes. Most of them opted for prose (62.7%), 6 students enjoyed them very much. There were students (37.2%) who did not enjoy working with this type of text. A big percentage of them (90%) liked working with plays which seems to be more accessible. Poetry was also considered interesting and fun, 11 students circled “A. Very much”, and 32 “B. Much”, while 8 students like a little or very little the activities designed on poems and lyrics.

Question number 6 “How can you describe the following activities performed during the ESL class?” asked students to grade their level of satisfaction with five kinds of activities. For “Discussion based on a literary text read” 3 students circled “A. Very interesting” and 25 “B. Interesting”, while 18 found it “C. Somehow interesting” and 5 considered it “D. Not interesting”.

The grammar exercises designed on literary texts were appreciated as “A. Very interesting” by 11 respondents and “B. Interesting” by 23students, which represented more than 66%.

The number of respondents choosing role-play activities was significantly bigger, 72.55% of students liked these activities. 9 students circled “C. Somehow interesting” and 3 of them “D. Not interesting”.

27.4% of students disliked vocabulary activities, while the majority appreciated them as very interesting (9 respondents) or interesting (28 respondents).

The last activity students were asked about was less appreciated, as 58.8% of them evaluated these activities as “A. Very interesting” and “B. Interesting”.

For the open-ended question number 7, students wrote some activities, still, there were 5 students how did not mention anything. 9 students wrote only one activity, 24 wrote 2 activities, 11 students enumerated 3 different activities and 2 of them wrote 4.

Students’ answers are included in the table below counting how many times each activity was mentioned, ranked by preferences. We grouped all the vocabulary activities, as some students wrote in detail what kind al activity they enjoyed, such as: “When we had to find a synonym”, “Write the adjectives to describe a person from the text”, while others wrote just ”vocabulary”. The same criterion was applied for grammar.

Section 3

This section was meant to establish students’ opinion about the relevance of literature in their education after they had read literary texts and fulfilled different tasks. The table below represents their answers.

For statement number 8, 9 students circled “A. Strongly agree” and 32 opted for “B. Agree”, 8 “B: Agree” and only one circled “A: Strongly agree”.

The majority said that literature was important for their personal development 33 students agreed and 7 strongly agreed, while 12 students disagreed with the statement and 2 strongly disagreed.

33 respondents agreed that literature facilitates understanding different cultures and 10 strongly agreed. 8 students were negative towards this claim.

As a response to the statement “Literature facilitates understanding society.” 38 students opted for “B. Agree”, 9 strongly agreed and 4 disagreed with the statement. None of the students strongly disagreed.

The majority of the students said that literature provides insight into other people`s behaviour. 37 circled “B: Agree” and 10 circled “A: Strongly agree”, 3 circled “C. Disagree” and one strongly disagreed with the statement.

Analysis of the results

As we can see from the figures presented most students enjoy reading and solving the tasks for each literary genre, but some of them were still reluctant to read long pieces of literature.

Question number 6 "How can you describe the following activities performed during the ESL class?" proved that students liked most of the activities; still, they have problems with speaking and writing as they lack confidence in public speaking or they cannot focus on activities which require a longer time to be done.

The figures presented in the third section of the survey indicate an increased interest in studying literature. For each statement, the number of positive choices reveals the fact that students' attitude towards literature has changed for the better.

Students’ attitude towards the importance of literature in their education was changed there were 41 respondents compared to 33 in October who agreed and strongly agreed with the statement. There was a visible decrease in the number of students who disagreed from 15 to 8.

Students made different choices when they had to scale the importance of literature in their personal development, 40 respondents agreed and strongly agreed with the claim as they learnt how to read literary texts and use them.

Data collected from students’ responses to the third statement “Literature facilitates understanding of different cultures.” indicate that 8 of them revised their attitude and beliefs.

On the role of literature as the facilitator for understanding society, students' opinion changed too, there were 7 more students compared to the first survey, who decided they agreed with the claim, and none of them strongly disagreed.

A significant alternation in figures can be noticed analysing student's choices the statement "Literature provides insight into other people`s behaviour”. Most of them were in favour of this statement, owing to the fact that some activities were seen as interesting and very interesting and they could learn more about people’s actions and reactions.

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Simpson, P. (1997). Language through literature: an introduction. London, and New York: Routledge.

Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Van, T. (2009). The relevance of literary analysis to teaching literature in the EFL classroom. English Teaching Forum 2-9 (3).

RESOURCES:

Literary texts:

American Literature. (1991), New York, Glencoe McGraw-Hill

Atwood, M. (2000). The Blind Assassin. New York: Anchor Books, Random House

Cave, N. (1990). And the Ass Saw the Angel. Penguin Books

Fitzgerald, F.S. (2011), Collected works of F, Scott Fitzgerald. Ware: Wordsworth Editions Limited.

McCullers, C. (2000), The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. New York, Houghton Mifflin Company

Pinter, H.(1993), The Lover, The Party, The Basement, Two plays and a film script. New York: Grove Press, Inc.

Wilde, O. (1997). The Completed works of Oscar Wilde. Ware: Wordsworth Editions Limited.

Sites:

Favorite Poem Project

https://www.poemhunter.com

https://www.writerswrite.com

http://www.onestopenglish.com

ANNEXES

Questionnaire 1

Section 1 – General information.

1. Gender (Circle the appropriate letter)

A: Male B: Female

2. Your age (Fill in)

_________________

3. How long have you been studying English in total? (Fill in)

______________years

4. Student`s level (Circle the appropriate letter.)

A. Lower-intermediate B. Intermediate C. Upper-intermediate D. Advanced

Section 2 – Reading literature

5. How can you describe reading? (Circle the appropriate letter.)

A. An enjoyable activity B. A task done just when necessary C. A hard and boring task.

6. What types of literary texts have you met in school? (Circle the appropriate letter)

A. Excerpts from texts B. Whole texts C. Both (excerpts and whole texts)

7. Which of the following have you met in your English course books? (Circle all relevant answers. Fill in if necessary)

Biographies

Diary

Essays

Fantasy

Newspapers

Novels

Plays

Poetry

Short stories

Travel literature

Others. Please fill in:……………………………………………

8. How do you usually get specific information from a text?

A. Read the whole text B. Go quickly through the text to get the information required

C. Use previous information and hints

9. Which kind of text do you find challenging?

A. A literary text B. A scientific text C. A technical text

10. What difficulties do you face when reading a literary text?

A. Figurative language B. Sentence structure C. Vocabulary

Section 3 – The relevance of literature in your education

11. Literature is important for my education. (Circle the appropriate letter.)

A. Strongly agree B. Agree C. Disagree D. Strongly disagree

12. Literature is important for my personal development. (Circle the appropriate letter.)

A. Strongly agree B. Agree C: Disagree D. Strongly disagree

13. Literature facilitates understanding of different cultures. (Circle the appropriate letter.)

A. Strongly agree B. Agree C: Disagree D. Strongly disagree

14. Literature facilitates understanding society (Circle the appropriate letter)

A. Strongly agree B. Agree C. Disagree D. Strongly disagree

15. Literature provides insight into other people`s behaviour. (Circle the appropriate letter.)

A. Strongly agree B. Agree C. Disagree D. Strongly disagree

Questionnaire 2

Section 1 – General information.

1. Gender (circle the appropriate letter)

A: Male B: Female

2. Your age (fill in)

_________________

3. How long have you been studying English in total? (fill in)

______________years

4. Student`s level (circle the appropriate letter)

A. Lower-intermediate B. Intermediate C. Upper-intermediate D. Advanced

Section 2 – Level of satisfaction

5. How much did you enjoy activities based on literary texts? (For each category circle the appropriate letter)

6. How can you describe the following activities performed during the ESL class? (For each activity circle the appropriate letter)

7. Which activity/activities did you enjoy much (Please fill in)

……………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Section 3 – The relevance of literature in your education

8. Literature is important for my education. (Circle the appropriate letter.)

A. Strongly agree B. Agree C. Disagree D. Strongly disagree

9. Literature is important for my personal development. (Circle the appropriate letter.)

A. Strongly agree B. Agree C: Disagree D. Strongly disagree

10. Literature facilitates understanding of different cultures. (Circle the appropriate letter.)

A. Strongly agree B. Agree C: Disagree D. Strongly disagree

11. Literature facilitates understanding society (Circle the appropriate letter)

A. Strongly agree B. Agree C. Disagree D. Strongly disagree

12. Literature provides insight into other people`s behaviour. (Circle the appropriate letter.)

A. Strongly agree B. Agree C. Disagree D. Strongly disagree