Gina --

Until a couple of years ago I was teaching advanced ESL to adults, and one
of my textbooks was a collection of contemporary short stories. It was an
ESL text, so its pre- and post-reading activities were geared to ELLs. I
liked the book a lot, and I love teaching literature -- I have a Ph.D. in
English and have enjoyed nothing in my teaching career more than reading
literature with working adults in a university's night program, so I'm
sympathetic with your goals -- but my response to your post would
nevertheless mostly be cautions.

First, my mandate in a publicly funded ESL program is to teach language and
culture to prepare students to use English and function in the U.S. in daily
life, the workplace, and academia. Certainly aesthetics expresses something
about the culture, and some of our students may be going on to an academic
life where the language and terminology of literature are relevant, but
neither point is very persuasive with regard to the needs of most students.
I would want and feel obligated to "use" the literary work primarily as a
text where students would experience a particular kind of English,
encountering new vocabulary, expressions, and syntax, and as a springboard
for class discussion. Perhaps this is what you meant by "efferently" -- this
is a word I have not encountered previously, and the dictionary wasn't much
help, but from context that's my impression. (Maybe you could clue me in to
exactly what it means in a TESOL context?)

In any case, at my particular site, many of our advanced students have
college degrees and are well versed in the liberal arts; my advanced
students already had aesthetic sensibilities and didn't need me to explain
themes or symbols -- they just needed the English terminology for discussing
literature and a lot of help with the surface meaning of the texts
(ironically, they needed far more help understanding exactly what happened
in each story and who said what to whom than they did getting the "deeper"
meaning).

Second (your question 2), my experience is that about as many ELLs want to
read and discuss literature as native speakers -- that is, usually not many.
In a needs-based program, I'm obligated to focus on students' desires and
perceived needs as well as what I think they need. Many of them perceive
literature as especially difficult in any language, and having to read it
seems like an unnecessary emotional burden when the language itself is
presenting plenty of opportunity for discouragement. At the same time, my
students did enjoy the conversations that emerged from reading short
stories, not about the literature itself, but about aspects of their own
experience related to the reading.

Third, my experience is that literary language is exponentially more
difficult for language students than media language. As a fairly advanced
Arabic student, I have recently been studying some short stories and a
novel. Being "a literature person," I have a lot of motivation to read
literature in Arabic. Yet I find the experience very frustrating because
there is so much vocabulary I don't know, and the syntax and dialogue are
also generally much harder to follow than those of a newspaper article,
biography, or history text. Media language is not only easier for students,
but it reflects more accurately the type of language most students will need
to function at a reasonably 'cultured' level in American society. As long as
media language is challenging, most literary language will be rather
frustrating for most students.

About your question 7 -- I would try to point out to naysayers the human
value of literature, but when it comes to literature in an ESL class, I do
feel we have so much else to do that reading literature takes an amount of
time disproportionate to its value for most of the class.

So -- when I was teaching short stories to advanced students, I was very
happy for the ESL-driven apparatus provided by my book's publisher, and I
think reading a literary text twice a month is enough in ESL class.
Otherwise, in my program, I'd be driving students away, and that's not good
when funding is mostly tied to student hours. Still, with careful use of the
pre- and post- activities and a lot of time spent summarizing and glossing,
the students seemed to enjoy occasional fiction, especially the resulting
discussions. I teach low-beginning ESL now, and I don't even try to find
easy-enough snippets of literature, if many exist, nor do I think my
students would particularly profit from them at this point. But I'm curious
because of your project, so I am thinking of trying William Carlos Williams'
little poem about plums on my class next time we're working on food, and
I'll be interested in hearing the outcome of your study, so I hope you'll
report back to us.

Debra Morris Smith
Parkway AEL
Missouri



From: < ginabina2u at verizon.net>
Date: December 9, 2006 10:21:57 AM EST
To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 867]   using literature in adult ESL classrooms
Reply-To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List <
englishlanguage at nifl.gov>

Since I'm new to this discussion board, I'll first introduce myself: I'm a
graduate student in the TESOL program at UMCP, with the goal of teaching
English to adult immigrants.  I'm very interested in using literature
(poetry, novellas, plays, folktales, myths, novels...) in teaching adult
ELLs.   And, I'm currently writing a paper on the topic.


I have several "burning" questions for anyone who's had experience with this
approach, and would greatly appreciate any insights you might have.


Here's some background: I'm interested in using literature aesthetically
(rather than efferently) in teaching ESL adults.  In other words, I want to
share my passion for literature with my students -- to engage them in the
literary process (interacting with the literature, and thinking about how it
applies to their own life experiences) -- not use it merely to teach
grammar.   It's important to me that literature be used appropriately in the
classroom... the way the authors intended it to be used.  I'm also very
interested in how culture plays a (huge) role in literature... and how a
teacher can take advantage of this and use literature to not only teach
English, but also to promote cultural awareness (of different cultures, as
well as those of the students) and sensitivity in the classroom.


As part of my research paper, I'm required to interview a teacher who has
(or has had) experience with teaching literature to adult ESL students.  You
may have taught literature aesthetically or efferently, or both.   That's
fine.  I'd like to hear about your experiences.  Below are my questions:


1) What has worked for you in using literature to teach ESL adults?  What
hasn't?  Why?


2) Have you had any difficulty motivating and engaging adults in learning
English through literature?


3) Is a certain level of English language proficiency necessary before using
literature in the adult classroom?  Is it possible to use literature with
low level students?


4) If you've used literature with low level adult students, what has worked
and what hasn't?


5) Do you have any literature lesson plan ideas for adults (at any level)
that have especially worked for you?


6) In your opinion, are there any circumstances in which using literature
for ESL adults isn't recommended?


7) How would you respond to the criticism that teaching literature is
impractical for adults?  (Common gripes: "ESL adults need to learn English
to survive... literature is 'fluff' and useless...   adults are too busy to
sit around and discuss literature... in the time they *do* have, they should
be learning practical English.")


A lot of questions, I know.  If you haven't the time to answer all of them,
I'm *most* interested in questions 2, 5, 6, and 7.


I look forward to reading your comments!


Thanks so much,


Gina Verbrugge
Graduate Student
University of Maryland, College Park
ginabina2u at verizon.net
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