Debra, 
 
I particularly enjoyed reading your comments, and I think you truly hit
the nail on the head.   We have to use our limited time and resources
wisely and focus on what our students need.  Plus, my experiences
reading fiction in another language (French and Swedish) support your
comment on how second language readers have more questions on the
surface aspects of the story, and can figure out the symbols and themes
on their own.  
 
Thanks for your well-phrased thoughts.
 
Missy Slaathaug
Pierre SD
mslaathaug at midco.net
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Debra Smith
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 7:50 AM
To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 880] Re: using literature in adult ESL
classrooms
 
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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