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Masayuki Teranishi, Yoshifumi Saito, Katie Wales (Eds.) - Literature and Language Learning in The EFL Classroom-Palgrave Macmillan UK (2015) PDF
Masayuki Teranishi, Yoshifumi Saito, Katie Wales (Eds.) - Literature and Language Learning in The EFL Classroom-Palgrave Macmillan UK (2015) PDF
BRITAIN TODAY
Old Certainties, New Contradictions (co-authored)
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LITERATURE AS INSPIRATION IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
(co-edited)
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POLYPHONY IN FICTION
A Stylistic Analysis of Middlemarch, Nostromo, and Herzog
ROCK UK
A Cultural History of Popular Music in Britain (co-authored)
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A DICTIONARY OF STYLISTICS
FEMINIST LINGUISTICS IN LITERARY CRITICISM (edited)
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THE LANGUAGE OF JAMES JOYCE
NORTHERN ENGLISH
A Social and Cultural History
PERSONAL PRONOUNS IN PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH
SHAKESPEARE’S DRAMATIC LANGUAGE (co-edited)
d
Literature and Language
Learning in the EFL
Classroom
Edited by
Masayuki Teranishi
University of Hyogo, Japan
Yoshifumi Saito
The University of Tokyo, Japan
Katie Wales
University of Nottingham, UK
Selection and editorial content © Masayuki Teranishi, Yoshifumi Saito and
Katie Wales 2015
Individual chapters © their respective authors 2015
Epilogue © Ronald Carter 2015
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-44365-6
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First published 2015 by
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Teranishi, Masayuki, author.
Literature and language learning in the EFL classroom / Masayuki Teranishi,
University of Hyogo, Japan ; Yoshifumi Saito, The University of Tokyo, Japan ;
Katie Wales, University of Nottingham, UK.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. English language – Study and teaching – Japanese speakers. 2. English
language – Study and teaching – Japanese students. 3. Literature – Study and
teaching. 4. Interdisciplinary approach in education. 5. Reading – Language
experience approach. I. Saito, Yoshifumi, 1958- author. II. Wales, Katie, author.
III. Title.
PE1130.J3T38 2015
428.0079052– dc23 2015005434
In Memoriam Geoffrey Leech 1936–2014
Contents
List of Figures x
List of Tables xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction 1
Masayuki Teranishi, Yoshifumi Saito and Katie Wales
vii
viii Contents
Index 321
List of Figures
x
List of Tables
xi
xii List of Tables
In April 2011, just after the disastrous earthquake and tsunami in eastern
Japan, seven Japanese scholars started a research project subsidized by
the Japanese government which aimed to provide insights into some
of the issues connected with the use of literature in English language
teaching contexts – as well as solutions to those issues – through discus-
sions with practitioners of literature and language teaching in Japan. As
a result of their attendance at both domestic and international confer-
ences, at which they met, talked to and learned from practitioners in a
variety of fields with a variety of educational and teaching backgrounds,
it became apparent that many of the subjects covered by the project
would be of relevance to a much broader audience, outside Japan, while
also benefiting the Japanese audience by introducing teaching/learning
theories and practices developed globally. I first contacted Marina
Lambou, who had chaired my presentation on pedagogical stylistics at
the PALA (Poetics and Linguistics Association) conference. Because of
her considerable teaching range, including experience with Japanese
students, I hoped that she would be interested in the project. I also
contacted two internationally renowned scholars: Professor Katie Wales,
who had supervised my PhD dissertation, and Professor Yoshifumi Saito,
a pioneer in literature and English education in Japan. Their replies were
positive and encouraging and I was very lucky to be able to include
them as core members of the project. With this as a start, the publica-
tion project became globalized, with more prominent figures and prom-
ising young scholars joining us to make their contributions. The result
is Literature and Language Learning in the EFL Classroom, which benefits
from an international and interdisciplinary range of contributors.
The contributors from Japan, the UK, the USA, China and the
Netherlands were specifically chosen for their expertise as well as for
their knowledge and research skills gained through extensive profes-
sional practice in literature, language education, stylistics and EFL. The
experience they bring to this volume provides invaluable insights into
issues that can be caused by social, cultural and native language differ-
ences in English language teaching contexts. Moreover, the volume
presents readers with different approaches as well as teaching methods
and materials that can be used in their own classrooms.
xiii
xiv Preface
xv
Notes on Contributors
xvi
Notes on Contributors xvii
Seminal works on the topic of the English language and literature have
been published in a variety of fields, such as literature and language
teaching (e.g. Carter, 2007; Carter and Long, 1987; Carter and McRae,
1996; Carter and Walker, 1989; Hall, 2005; Lazar, 1993; Picken, 2007),
EFL/ESL (e.g. Carroli, 2011; Grabe, 2009; Hanauer, 2010; Paran, 2006;
Paran and Sercu, 2010, Yoshimura et al., 2013) and stylistics (e.g. Burke
et al., 2012; Short, 1989; Simpson, 1996; 2004; Toolan, 1997; Watson
and Zyngier, 2006). This book aims to address some of the questions that
were asked by them but remain unresolved (see also Epilogue by Ronald
Carter). First of all, the justification for the inclusion of literature in the
1
2 Masayuki Teranishi, Yoshifumi Saito and Katie Wales
This collection of chapters may be unique in the sense that many chap-
ters, either directly or indirectly, target the Japanese EFL classroom and
will necessarily benefit those who are currently teaching or will be
teaching in Japan. In fact, 14 chapters out of 19 are written by Japanese
authors (in addition, Sheehan’s chapter is concerned with a Japanese
university classroom) and some of them deal with issues peculiar to
Japanese teaching settings that have not been fully covered by the above-
mentioned seminal works. On the other hand, this book also targets
an international readership, and the contributors have been chosen
from the UK, the USA, China and the Netherlands as well as Japan,
with consideration to their expertise and extensive teaching experience.
Literature and language learning in EFL contexts involves such a wide
range of aspects that no single perspective or theory can address all the
problems it raises. In this volume, therefore, native as well as non-native
and Japanese as well as non-Japanese English teachers with a variety of
backgrounds attempt to address the same problem: how to (re)intro-
duce valuable literary works into EFL/ESL classrooms from a local and/
or global perspective.
The chapters of the book have been arranged into two parts, Part I:
Current Issues and Suggestions for New Approaches (Chapters 1–6)
and Part II: Empirical and Case Studies (Chapters 7–19), to reflect the
Introduction 3
of literature in Japan, and suggests what teachers can apply in EFL educa-
tion. L1 education in Japan has treated literature as a key teaching mate-
rial, and generations of teachers have introduced various approaches
to meet the changing needs of learners. The main body of the chapter
examines how Japanese as L1 learners encounter literature before and
after elementary school, the contents of government-approved text-
books, and pedagogical practices using literature within and outside L1
classes. The last section of this study examines how EFL teaching can
apply those practices.
In Chapter 4, Yoshifumi Saito proposes to construct a comprehen-
sive methodology of pedagogical stylistics that is capable of providing
students with both input- and output-based learning opportunities in
the classroom. Two of the most significant disciplines in the method-
ology are traditional analysis- and description-oriented pedagogical
stylistics, which has acted mostly on the students’ reading process, and
creative stylistics, which he theorized in Saito (forthcoming) in order to
apply the insights gained in stylistic analyses to creative writing. This
chapter argues that these two disciplines can be theoretically connected
in producing a course in which language students will be guided from
literary reading to creative writing and demonstrates the connecting
procedure by describing the stylistic features of the literary effect called
‘dramatic irony’ and then showing how it can be reproduced in the
process of creative writing.
In Chapter 5, Michael Burke provides a framework for developing
and deepening English L2/EFL language acquisition through a blend of
cognitive stylistic analysis and conceptual metaphor theory. The focus
of teaching lies in motivating students to unpack, evaluate and criti-
cally debate the kinds of properties and characteristics that are mapped
from source to target domains in conceptual metaphors. The core of
this chapter on critical thinking consists of a cognitive stylistic analysis
of a poem punctuated by numerous interactive conceptual metaphor
learning activities. The chapter concludes with a number of sugges-
tions for further work in unpacking and appraising creative conceptual
metaphors. A central goal of the chapter is to propose cognitive stylistic
analysis as a useful English L2/EFL pedagogical methodology.
In Chapter 6, Gillian Lazar explores the ways in which post-modernist
picture books can be employed in L2 English education. Post-modernist
picture books in English have been characterized as children’s books with
pictures that subvert literary conventions, manifest complex intertextu-
ality and communicate multiple meanings leading to open-ended inter-
pretations. Such picture books, including those by Anthony Browne,
Introduction 5
Japanese EFL students, their writings, and their perceptions and atti-
tudes regarding literature-based writing. Kuze gives a practical report on
how those literature-based activities provide learners with opportuni-
ties to write creatively in a foreign language, to read texts actively as an
impetus to that writing, and to enjoy interpreting texts on their own,
rather than simply accepting someone else’s interpretation.
In Chapter 13, Kiyo Sakamoto explores the role of literature in the learn-
er’s first language as a way to encourage them to communicate in a second
language. In this case study, Japanese university students were asked to
translate traditional Japanese short poems into English. The students’
comments and answers to questionnaires show that this activity could
induce the students to produce creative expressions in English, offers
them a chance for meaningful communication with English speakers,
and raises their language awareness in both L1 and L2. The study thus
suggests the potential of using the L1 heritage in the L2 classroom.
In Chapter 14, Yuka Kusanagi presents a study of the implementation
of literary reading circles and essay-writing activities in a general EFL
course for medical students at a Japanese university. The chapter reviews
the liberal arts education needs of medical students, the use of literature
and the role of narrative in learning an additional language. Kusanagi
discusses the mixed results of the analyses of students’ written narra-
tives. Students appreciated reading Never Let Me Go, an English-language
novel on the theme of bioethics, and the experience possibly broad-
ened their understanding of medical science, human beings and society.
Nevertheless, the questionnaire results suggest that students lacked the
confidence, particularly in speaking, to express their views on the book.
The chapter concludes with some of the educational implications of this
type of instruction.
In Chapter 15, Masako Nasu examines the role of literature in foreign
language acquisition by engaging in a qualitative analysis of the oral
histories of successful foreign language learners. First, by reviewing
recent studies that examine early recorded documents of past masters
of the English language, such as Inazo Nitobe (1862–1933), Tenshin
Okakura (1862–1913) and Hidesaburo Saito (1866–1929), she summa-
rizes how Japanese formerly acquired advanced levels of English profi-
ciency, and how literature helped their language learning. Second, she
analyses her own interviews with successful learners of English, Chinese
and Japanese as a foreign language to identify the role of literature in
their language learning. The oral histories of advanced-level foreign
language learners can be seen to have implications for the use of litera-
ture as an aid to EFL learning.
8 Masayuki Teranishi, Yoshifumi Saito and Katie Wales
References
Burke, M., Csábi, S., Week, L. and Zerkowitz, J. (eds) (2012) Pedagogical Stylistics:
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Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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10 Masayuki Teranishi, Yoshifumi Saito and Katie Wales
1 Introduction
13
14 Geoff Hall
as well as wider educational aims (see Chapter 4). The idea of encour-
aging and supporting creative writing in second language learning is
argued by such researchers to correspond to developing arguments in
the theoretical literature of second language acquisition of ‘appropria-
tion’, and performance of new identities in a new language, ‘emergence’
of language and generally the development of bilingual and bicultural
expertise rather than ‘native speaker’ ‘target language’ achievement as
second language acquisition research traditionally argued for (Kramsch,
2009). Benchmark statements of ‘translingual and transcultural compe-
tence’ (MLA) or references to intercultural competence in the Common
European Framework argue for exactly this kind of development in new
users of a language. Spiro (2014) reports that her creative writers iden-
tified poems they liked and wanted to work with, giving a variety of
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such activities and modules is to develop the writing skills and criticality
of apprentice writers without losing the very valuable gains they are
clearly already making by struggling into voice in this new strange and
challenging language. A range of activities is needed, such as stylistic
transformation exercises (just as Gerard Manley Hopkins began by delib-
erately imitating Keats) to develop awareness of the resources a language
offers. The practice of reading and discussing literature, of course, pre-
eminently develops such critical awareness, and so it can be argued that
the reading and writing of literature should be linked in any curriculum
or syllabus.
The challenge for teachers and researchers today is that until recently
language teaching and second language learning research had mainly
confined itself to upper secondary, and most typically university-level,
education, and indeed tended to concentrate on narrower linguistic and
‘skills’ issues. The present opportunity and challenge is that issues raised
by larger numbers of second language readers of a wider range of litera-
tures need to be better understood and researched in fuller educational
contexts. The most engaging and stimulating work I have seen in this
respect is led by Bland’s Children’s Literature and Learner Empowerment
(2013) and related work as reported, for example, in Bland and Lütge
(2013) and Cameron and McKay (2010). As Paran points out (2008
and elsewhere), much of the best empirical work is itself probably not
written up or is disseminated through unofficial channels, whether on
the internet, within action research projects or as part of Masters and
PhD theses, but it is worth seeking out and ever easier to do so. Thus
Lima (2013; 2014; Lima and Lamy, 2013), for example, reports and
reflects usefully on her own work and that of others on uses of literature
through social networking sites.
I should stress here too that it is rather approximate and slightly
misleading to stuff together affordances of new technologies with
young learner headings in this section of this chapter. Lima does not
specifically talk about young learners and indeed many young learners –
despite the hype – are not fluent users of the internet, but actually rather
conservative and restricted (something else their teachers may be able
to help them with). Similarly, Bland (2013) and Bland and Lütge (2013)
emphasize the value of using children’s literature for all learners, not
just for children, as our understanding of ‘creativity’ becomes ever more
sophisticated and more difficult to pin down to a precise age bracket
or audience. Lütge, for example, writing on issues of ‘otherness’ and
intercultural or ‘transcultural’ learning using such literature, reminds
us not only that ‘otherness’ is a function of language learning (after
Kramsch and others) but also that ‘a feeling of ‘not-belonging’ is a
common feature, perhaps the most remarkable [‘salient’?] denominator
of much children’s and young adult literature’ (103). These stories can
be exploited visually, as graphic narratives, or through adaptations to
and appropriations by other media often, for their postmodern narra-
tological qualities (metalepsis and others) and rampant intertextuality.
All in all, such studies show us that there is much more than language
(what I called earlier ‘discourse’) to be learned from such materials, and
that it can be taught in engaging and meaningful ways by enterprising
22 Geoff Hall
References
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24 Geoff Hall
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2
Literary Texts as Authentic
Materials for Language Learning:
The Current Situation in Japan
Kazuko Takahashi
Since the 1990s, researchers have noted that literary texts can be used
positively in L2 classrooms1 (see Gilroy and Parkinson, 1997; Hall, 2005;
Kramsch and Kramsch, 2000; Maley, 1990; Schultz, 2002; Simpson,
1997). Maley (1990: 3), for example, says that ‘[during] the period of
structural dominance, literature found itself side-lined’ and that ‘[for]
a time the new functional-notional communicative movement also
ignored literature’. He goes on to explain that ‘in the last ten years or so
there has been a remarkable revival of interest in literature as one of the
resources available for language learning’.
Undeniably, however, even now in some L2 classrooms, ‘so-called
“authentic”’ language materials are more popular than literary mate-
rials’ (Cook, 2000: 189). This minimized use of literary materials can be
understood through Guy Cook’s explanation:
26
Literary Texts as Authentic Materials 27
Moreover, in Korea, Lee (2005: 4) indicates that ‘now, with the tide
of practicality rapidly encroaching upon the academia of liberal arts,
and of English literature in particular’, scholars of English literature in
Korea are forced to look at themselves and their research ‘from a non-
English major’s point of view’. With regard to English education in
Japan in recent years, the overall objectives of English teaching have
been to develop learners’ practical communicative competence. Against
this background, especially since the 1980s, literary works have been
marginalized.
Therefore, this article examines why L2 classrooms have reduced the
utilization of literary materials in the light of the current situation in
English teaching in Japan. It also aims to reconfirm that literary works
are authentic materials and are beneficial to improving L2 learners’
communicative competence in English.
28 Kazuko Takahashi
1989: Revision of the Courses of Study for Junior and Senior High Schools
Implementation: junior high schools in 1993, senior high schools in 1994
Overall objective in studying foreign languages: to develop students’
communication abilities
Other features: the word communication appeared for the first time
1998: Revision of the Course of Study for Junior High Schools
Implementation: 2002
The overall objective in studying foreign languages: to develop students’
basic practical communication abilities
Other features: ‘Examples of Language-use Situations’ and ‘Examples of
Functions of Language’ are clarified.
1999: Revision of the Course of Study for Senior High Schools
Implementation: 2003
The overall objective in studying foreign languages: to develop students’
practical communication abilities
Other features: ‘Examples of Language-use Situations’ and ‘Examples of
Functions of Language’ are clarified.
2008: Revision of the Course of Study for Junior High Schools
Implementation: 2012
The overall objective in studying foreign languages: to develop students’
basic communication abilities
Other features: ‘Examples of Language-use Situations’ and ‘Examples of
Functions of Language’ are clarified.
Continued
Literary Texts as Authentic Materials 29
Source: Table created by author based on the Courses of Study for Junior and Senior High
Schools from the 1980s.
As the table shows, the word communication was first used in 1989 to
define the objectives of foreign language study in junior and senior high
schools. In 1998, the word practical was added to these objectives. The
1998 version of the Course of Study for Junior High Schools clarified
the Examples of Language-use Situations and Examples of Functions
of Language for the first time. Since then, English teachers have been
expected to teach English through these examples in their classrooms.
What are the Examples of Language-use Situations and Examples of
Functions of Language? The latest version of the Course of Study for
Junior High Schools states the following:
a. Facilitating communication:
Addressing Giving nods [Assenting] Asking for repetition
Repeating, etc.
b. Expressing emotions:
Expressing gratitude Complaining Praising Apologizing, etc.
c. Transmitting information:
Explaining Reporting Presenting Describing, etc.
d. Expressing opinions and intentions:
Offering Promising Giving opinions Agreeing Disagreeing
Accepting Refusing, etc.
e. Stimulating a communication partner into action:
Asking questions Requesting Inviting, etc. (MEXT, 2014b;
formats modified by author for brevity’s sake)
30 Kazuko Takahashi
Table 2.2 Chief incidents responsible for the marginalization of literature within
English education in Japan
Source: Table created by author based on the following data: the Courses of Study for
Junior and Senior High Schools from the 1970s; MEXT, 2003; Higher Education Bureau,
MEXT, 2012.
Literary Texts as Authentic Materials 31
the English textbooks was mostly 148 mm × 210 mm before the latter
half of the 1990s. After that, however, a larger format of 182 mm ×
257 mm came to be adopted for most English textbooks. In addition,
many colourful photographs and illustrations began to be used, instead
of black-and-white illustrations. As for the textbooks’ content, literary
materials decreased, whereas conversational text increased after the
latter half of the 1990s (see Erikawa, 2008).
Here are some examples indicating the extent to which literary works
have been marginalized from junior high school textbooks. From the
1978 to the 1990 editions, The New Crown English Series 3 textbooks for
third-year junior high school students had included retold versions of
O. Henry’s short story ‘The Gift of the Magi’ (Nakamura et al., 1978;
1981; 1984; 1987; 1990). However, ‘The Gift of the Magi’ was excluded
from the 1993 edition and conversational text was included instead
(Nakamura et al., 1993). In the current edition of New Crown English Series 3
(Takahashi et al., 2012), many materials are written in a conversational
style. In other words, these materials are considered to contain language
more likely to appear in everyday situations than O. Henry’s short story.
The second example is the New Total English series published by
Shubun Shuppan. This series once used various literary materials. In
1993, for example, New Total English 3 textbooks for third-year students
used many literary works such as retold versions of The Arabian Nights
and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In 1999, however, as a result of the
economic downturn, Shubun Shuppan went bankrupt and a different
publishing company picked up the ‘Total English’ series, beginning
publication from 2002. The new series was completely different from
previous ones; many conversational materials were adopted, and their
contents were related to everyday expressions. For example, the latest
edition of Total English 3 (Yada et al., 2012) contains topics on school
trips, shopping and emails as its main materials.
As these examples demonstrate, literary materials have recently been
removed from junior high school English textbooks, whereas conver-
sational materials dealing with everyday topics have become widely
adopted.
English textbooks for senior high schools have also marginalized literary
materials. For instance, in 28 textbooks for ‘English Reading’, an English-
related course in senior high schools, only 61 of 496 units (about 12.3
per cent) use literary materials.3 However, most of the literary works in
these textbooks are for ‘rapid reading’, ‘further reading’, ‘supplementary
reading’, ‘extra reading’ or ‘optional reading’. In other words, these works
are not to be read closely, but to be read very quickly. As headings such
Literary Texts as Authentic Materials 33
Table 2.3 Total number of university-level English textbooks for academic years
2009–2014
Source: Table created by author based on data from the Association of English Textbook
Publishers, 2009–2014.
* ‘LL’, an English abbreviation coined in Japan that stands for ‘language laboratory’.
34 Kazuko Takahashi
Communication abilities
Authentic materials =
‘so-called “authentic”’
Language abilities that materials*
meet utilitarian needs suitable materials e.g., daily conversation,
newspaper and magazine
articles, TV commercials,
advertisements, web pages
Conversational abilities
The best thing we can do now is free ourselves from blind faith in
so-called authenticity and understand that literary works are authentic
materials for L2 learning.
Why are literary texts necessary in L2 classrooms? This question has many
answers. MEXT (2011b) states that the materials to be used should be
useful ‘in understanding various viewpoints and ways of thinking, ... and
cultivating a rich sensibility’ and ‘in deepening the understanding of the
ways of life and cultures of Japan and foreign countries, raising interest
in language and culture, and developing respectful attitudes toward these
elements’ (MEXT, 2011b). This explanation aptly describes the nature of
literary texts. Besides that, as Aebersold and Field (1997) suggest, literary
texts enable learners to promote ‘cultural understanding’ and ‘language
proficiency’. Literary materials allow learners ‘to personalize the class-
room by focusing on human experiences and needs’ (Aebersold and Field,
1997: 157–158). In addition, most literary works give a clear context to
students, and these works are effective in teaching not only language
‘usage’ but also language ‘use’ (see Widdowson, 1978: 1–21).4 Literary
texts can themselves include almost every kind of textual material, such
as articles in newspapers and magazines, TV commercials, advertisements
and web pages. If students learn English through literature, they can
experience a great variety of texts (see ‘re-registration’ in Carter and Nash,
1990: 38–39). But, more importantly, learning English through literary
works provides L2 learners with the enjoyment of learning English.
Notes
1. In this study, the term ‘second language (L2)’ is used in a sense, encompassing:
a language that is taught as a school subject but is not used as a medium of
instruction in schools nor as a primary language of communication within that
country (see Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics,
4th edn, (2010)).
38 Kazuko Takahashi
References
Aebersold, J. A. and Field, M. L. (1997) From Reader to Reading Teacher: Issues and
Strategies for Second Language Classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Asano, H. (1996) ‘Ôsentikku na Kyôzai towa Nani ka: Sono Mondaiten to
Ichizuke. [What Are Authentic Materials?: Their Problems and Roles]’, The
English Teachers’ Magazine 45 (9): 8–10.
Association of English Text Publishers (2009) Kyôkasho Kensaku [Search Window
for English Textbooks], http://daieikyo.jp/aetp/modules/bmc/texts.php
(accessed 23 April 2009).
Association of English Text Publishers (2010) Kyôkasho Kensaku [Search Window
for English Textbooks], http://daieikyo.jp/aetp/modules/bmc/texts.php
(accessed 30 January 2010).
Association of English Text Publishers (2011) Kyôkasho Kensaku [Search Window
for English Textbooks], http://daieikyo.jp/aetp/modules/bmc/texts.php
(accessed 28 March 2011).
Association of English Text Publishers (2012) Kyôkasho Kensaku [Search Window
for English Textbooks], http://daieikyo.jp/aetp/modules/bmc/texts.php
(accessed 31 March 2012).
Association of English Text Publishers (2013) Kyôkasho Kensaku [Search Window
for English Textbooks], http://daieikyo.jp/aetp/modules/bmc/texts.php
(accessed 18 February 2013).
Association of English Text Publishers (2014) Kyôkasho Kensaku [Search Window
for English Textbooks], http://daieikyo.jp/aetp/modules/bmc/texts.php
(accessed 14 February 2014).
Carter, R. and Nash, W. (1990) Seeing through Language: A Guide to Styles of English
Writing. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Cook, G. (2000) Language Play, Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Erikawa, H. (2004) ‘Eigo Kyôkasho kara Kieta Bungaku [The Disappearance of
Literature from English Textbooks]’, The English Teachers’ Magazine 53 (8):
15–18.
Literary Texts as Authentic Materials 39
Nakamura, K. et al. (1984) The New Crown English Series 3, rev edn. Tokyo:
Sanseido.
Nakamura, K. et al. (1987) New Crown English Series 3. Tokyo: Sanseido.
Nakamura, K. et al. (1990) New Crown English Series 3, new edn. Tokyo: Sanseido.
Nakamura, K. et al. (1993) New Crown English Series 3. Tokyo: Sanseido.
Qiping, Y. and Shubo, C. (2002) ‘Teaching English Literature in China: Importance,
Problems and Countermeasures’, World Englishes 21 (20): 317–324.
Richards, J. C. and Rodgers, T. S. (2001) Approaches and Methods in Language
Teaching,
g 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Savignon, S. J. (2001) ‘Communicative Language Teaching for the Twenty-
First Century’, in M. Celce-Murcia (ed.) Teaching English as a Second or Foreign
Language, third edn, 13–28. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
Schultz, J. M. (2002) ‘The Gordian Knot: Language, Literature, and Critical
Thinking’, in V. M. Scott and H. Tucker (eds) SLA and the Literature Classroom:
Fostering Dialogues, 3–31. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
Simpson, P. (1997) Language through Literature: An Introduction. London:
Routledge.
Takahashi, S. et al. (2012) New Crown English Series 3. Tokyo: Sanseido.
Widdowson, H. G. (1978) Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Yada, H. et al. (2012) Total English 3, new edn. Tokyo: Gakko Tosho.
3
Bridging the Gap between
L1 Education and L2 Education
Aiko Saito
1 Introduction
This chapter examines how L1 education in Japan has dealt with litera-
ture, and how English as a foreign language education can learn from
it. Despite sharing the common ground of language education, teachers
of L1 and L2 in Japan spend little time studying each other’s fields
either during or after their training periods. Furthermore, they belong to
different professional and academic groups, and rarely have opportuni-
ties for learning from each other’s practices. This study aims to bridge
this gap.
The main body of the chapter examines how Japanese as L1 (hereafter
JL1) learners encounter literature before and after elementary school,
the contents of government-approved textbooks and pedagogical prac-
tices using literature within and outside JL1 classes. The last section of
this study examines how EFL teaching can apply those practices.
Before entering elementary school, learners all over the world most likely
become familiar with orally told stories. Since Bookstart was introduced
from the UK to Japan in 2000, babies and their carers have been invited
to share enjoyable quality times over picture books through gift book
packages and storytelling corners at medical institutions where they visit
for infants’ periodical check-ups (NPO Bookstart, 2010). Since the 1960s,
preschool and elementary school children in Japan have enjoyed book
reading and storytelling theatres not only at public libraries but also at
more than 3,000 private libraries run by volunteer staff (‘Senri Nyutaun
41
42 Aiko Saito
Figure 3.1 The proverb ‘seeing is believing’ written in Classical Chinese with
decoding guide marks. Small marks to the left of the Chinese characters show the
order of reading; the marks on the right indicate parts of speech.
JL1 textbooks for elementary schools and high schools include literary
texts, essays and descriptive texts. The literary texts cover literature in
four types of Japanese: Modern Japanese, which was established after
the 19th century; Classical Japanese, which has co-existed with Modern
Japanese in phrases and expressions in daily language as well as in litera-
ture; Classical Chinese, with guiding marks to be decoded into Classical
Japanese as shown in Figure 3.1; and translated texts from other
languages into either Modern or Classical Japanese.3 Poems and short
novels appear complete, while longer ones are represented by selected
chapters and abstracts. Essays and descriptive texts deal with topics such
as natural science, domestic social issues, and children’s life in foreign
countries. Most JL1 textbooks provide supplementary reading texts and
lists of recommended books.
Different publishers often use the same literary works in JL1 text-
books. Gongitsune [Gon, the Fox], a story of a fox and a hunter, first
appeared in a JL1 textbook in 1956, and every government-approved
textbook for (aged 10–11) Year 5 pupils since 1989 has included this
story (Tajika et al., 2014). The story presents dramatic character devel-
opment, absurdity in life, an unforgettable tragic ending, visual descrip-
tions that hold cultural information, and various types of mimesis and
onomatopoeia in six scenes. Teachers have repeatedly studied this mate-
rial in research groups and shared ideas after open classes, and countless
lesson plans are available (Abe and Kobayashi, 2008; Aoki, 2012; ‘Gon
no Kimochi’, 2013; Zenkoku et al., 2009).
Good translations are considered as valuable as authentic texts in
JL1 education. Foreign literary works with universal human themes are
Bridging the Gap 45
to grasp the structure of the plot, reconstruct the story from different
viewpoints, and change the styles and modes of language. As Kamijo
notes, business people have widely used such tools for brainstorming
and presentations.
The PISA shock also brought attention to the practices of celebrated
JL1 teachers in the past. As early as the 1940s, Hama Ohmura (1906–
2005) and Takeshi Hashimoto (1912–2013) had raised students’ reading
literacy and promoted independent learning while appreciating litera-
ture. Both teachers used real life materials like newspapers and adver-
tisements as well as classic literature. Their practices included extensive
reading, portfolios, group research projects, dramatization of a narrative
story, translation of classic poetry into Modern Japanese, cross-subject
studies, use of visual tools and many other ideas that Japanese researchers
in later times often considered to be so ‘new’ or ‘advanced’ when they
first heard about similar practices in other countries and misconsidered
that they had to go abroad to ‘discover’ the ideas (Ito, 2010; Kariya,
2010; Kuroiwa, 2011; Ohmura, 1968; 1981).6
Even though many of Ohmura’s and Hashimoto’s students went on to
make significant academic achievements in higher education, their prac-
tices were considered exceptional for decades. One reason Ohmura and
Hashimoto were not so influential despite their educational successes
is that neither of them used government-approved textbooks. Ohmura
was part of the committee responsible for producing the first national
educational guidelines after WWII. And she provided three different
sample lesson plans for each article in a new government-approved
textbook to invite teachers, who have to teach under the brand new
national policy after the war, to be bold to try out new approaches and
create the fourth lesson plan as their own. Nevertheless, she preferred
to select original materials for her classes at a public high school rather
than using a ready-made textbook (Kondo, 2005). Hashimoto, too,
developed various stimulating lessons out of Gin no Saji, a short autobio-
graphical novel published in 1935 by Naka. Hashimoto taught the same
group of students for three years in a private high school, and he used
the novel as a source of the JL1 class for those three years, introducing
cultural studies and multidisciplinary learning on words and scenes
from it. His students acquired the research skills and competence to
read other literary works (Ito, 2010; Kuroiwa, 2011). Not many teachers
are able to follow all these examples, yet Ohmura and Hashimoto have
attracted educators’ attention beyond JL1 teachers’ circles. Taking the
successful teaching methodologies of Ohmura and Hashimoto into
consideration, further research on, and an examination of, outstanding
48 Aiko Saito
The first three items in this list bring literary texts back into oral culture.
Choral reading exercises in class provide the basis of not only daily oral
communication but also artistic poetry recitation at school events. In
many cases, at elementary school graduation ceremonies, students in
grade five perform group recitations of poetry and music for the gradu-
ating sixth graders. Items (4) and (5) above turn writing and memorizing
exercises in class into real life culturally sophisticated communication
with others.
Hyakunin Isshu is a card game in which players listen to the first part
of a classical Japanese poem, or Waka, and then try to be the first to
pick cards with the second half of the poem written on them while
the ‘caller’ finishes reading the whole poem. Most elementary school
pupils learn the 100 standard classical Japanese poems inherited from
the 13th century as elements of games. In Shijo Elementary School in
Osaka, which the author visits regularly, students first learn ten poems
by heart so that they can start enjoying the game. The caller reads all the
poems used in the game, so pupils can review poems they are learning
every time they play the game. Week by week, they stretch their compe-
tence with more poems. By the time students have learned the full set of
poems, they have become familiar with the formal patterns and rhetor-
ical phrases of Classical Japanese.
The game has been popular for centuries, and playing it is still a tradi-
tion in some homes during winter holidays. Advanced players learn
phonetic conditioning, the subtle sound difference influenced by adja-
cent segments. Many sets of poems start with the same sound or sounds,
so players who can respond at the quicker stage have the advantage. The
caller at the competitive match read out each poem slowly like songs,
making it easier for the players to tell the vowels getting slightly longer
or shorter, or darker depending on the next consonant of the poem.
The Japanese public TV network broadcasts exciting matches during
the national Hyakunin Isshu tournament. Nowadays you can find local
50 Aiko Saito
Figure 3.2 Outline of transdisciplinary lessons for the fifth graders at Shijo
Elementary School, Japan
they review their notes. In the Arts and Crafts class, they reproduce a
micro-assembly line with paper model cars. Students first ‘operate’
their factory without verbal communication for ten minutes, count the
number of ‘products’, discuss how to cooperate more efficiently, and
then try for another ten minutes. Each group reports their Kaizen proce-
dure (the continuous improvement system of Plan-Do-Check-Act) and
their results to the rest of the class.9 Then they write a class newspaper
featuring the field trip, using the vocabulary they have accumulated
through the lessons, with announcements from the class committees
they belong to, and a Senryu corner to entertain the readers who share
their recent experiences. These steps require different elements of JL1
knowledge, skills and awareness of literary culture, which function
better when practiced holistically.
A more straightforward input of model JL1 outside the JL1 class hour is
extensive reading (hereafter ER) (see Chapters 17 and 18 in this volume).
According to a 2010 survey by the Ministry of Education (MEXT, 2011),
the great majority of compulsory level public schools (96 per cent of
elementary, 87 per cent of junior high) allow time for ER outside the
JL1 class.10 Over 80 per cent of elementary schools conduct ‘the whole
school 10 min. reading time’ before the first class (Hayashi, 1997). Typical
practice involves no comprehension check, obligatory compositions or
credits as rewards. It may not sound as educational as intensive reading
in class, yet it is successful in securing time for all students to focus on
reading whatever they like, and opportunities to encounter favourite
books. Teachers also find that students cannot help telling each other
when they find exciting books (Hayashi, 1997).
52 Aiko Saito
training, which helps students move out of their usual comfort zone
and challenge new strategies.
L1 education outside the L1 class is as valuable as it is in the L1 class.
Students acquire both skill and knowledge through intensive reading in
the subject lesson. Then they practise choosing appropriate styles and
modes of writing and speaking in cross-subject activities. In the informal
community outside subject lessons, learners treat literature as a source of
delight to share, and as a model to compete with.
audience, you will consider how to present the scenes or to control the
information release. Planning a production requires multiple points of
view and an effective combination of talents. With reference to Rakugo
theatre techniques (see Section 3.3), students in my EFL class were asked
to produce a short opening talk called Makura in order to ‘warm up’
their audience of the day which help them extend their imagination
with ease and enjoy the following comic performance. Amazingly,
each student came up with a totally different opening talk for the same
main Rakugo script, as they chose different elements associated with
the key factors in the plot. Through this creative process, the activity
became partly the memorization of a traditional Japanese literary work
in English translation and partly oral presentation practice and, more
essentially, a means of entertaining an audience with literature through
communication in EFL.
Basic conversation analysis on literary texts gives students objective
tools to appreciate the texts in depth, and to mediate between the L2 text
and L1-speaking audience. Learners can integrate their analytical reading
ability with writing for the target audience through activities such as
making a film trailer based on a novel. Translation exercises become
interpersonal activities when given certain conditions: for example the
maximum number of letters per scene when writing viewer-friendly-
length subtitles for a film or a TV drama; and the listener-friendly word
choice for dubbing the same material. The difference in media of informa-
tion determines the priorities when translating the linguistic material.
Completely creative writing is hard to achieve in the FL setting. In
most cases, learners need to learn to compose accurate comprehen-
sible L2 before entertaining others. Teachers find it hard to distinguish
students’ experimental use of L2 from their mistakes. It is debatable
how much class time should be allocated to artistic creative writing in
school L2 education. To substitute for this, however, students can edit
L2 literature to produce original versions of the text. It helps them with
accuracy, while dealing with literature as a model of writing in L2 (see
Chapter 13 in this volume). Cross-subject learning at high school EFL
become possible by cooperating with other subject teachers. Every time
I facilitate a local high school teacher’s workshop, participants who
teach various subjects successfully brainstorm joint lesson plans with
no difficulty.
Another challenge is how to construct an informal community
outside the teacher-oriented EFL class (for more information on reading
circles and reading communities, see Chapters 14, 16, 17 and 18 in this
volume). ER in L2 functions as in L1. Providing a wide range of books,
Bridging the Gap 55
6 Conclusion
This chapter has examined the practices of JL1 education and the roles
of literature there, to find out what teachers can apply to EFL educa-
tion. Government policy, textbook publishers and copyright issues
inevitably influence choices of literary works in school textbooks and
exams. Meanwhile, there are ways to guarantee a good supply of litera-
ture to learners after subject class. Both input and output opportunities
56 Aiko Saito
Acknowledgement
Notes
1. Written Modern Japanese consists of Kana phonograms and Kanji logograms.
Each Kanji character usually has more than two pronunciations depending on
its environment, though it keeps its core meaning.
2. Tamayo Ohtsuka and other San’yukai members work with the Shiozaki Otogi
Kamishibai Museum in Osaka, Japan:
http://www.gaitoukamishibai.com/museum/aisatu1.html.
3. Classical Chinese has been the major foreign language for the Japanese since
the eighth century. It was a language of scholars, who studied to read and
write formal Classical Chinese with documents written in the target language.
Those elite learners added guiding marks on the Chinese text for their own
reference, which helped later students to decode the script quickly and convert
it into Classical Japanese without mastering the grammar or pronunciation of
Classical Chinese.
Bridging the Gap 57
4. It is not clear, however, whether the declining PISA result was due to the
traditional JL1 teaching and/or the national curriculum at the time, ‘Yutori
Kyoiku’, which had downsized core contents of each subject and aimed
at mastery of the minimum basic knowledge. Yutori Kyoiku (2002–2006)
was a backlash to the previous education trend that stressed rote learning
massive amounts. Yet the beneficiaries of the demanding curriculum
before Yutori, who were also taught to appreciate rather than analyse
literary texts, scored the best in literacy at PIAAC, the International Survey
of Adult Skills (OECD, 2014).
5. The shift in the Japanese government’s education policy and JL1 teachers’
practice seems to have succeeded in regaining the reading literacy scores in
PISA. Those who had been educated in the new policy for at least three years
scored 520 points, eighth out of 65 nations, which was almost as high as the
score in 2000. In the 2012 exam, Japanese students scored 538 points on
average and were fourth out of 65 nations.
6. Both Hashimoto and Ohmura experienced an inevitable paradigm shift
during and after WWII. Japanese schools faced first the government’s and
then the occupation force’s control over education, a shortage of textbooks
and trained teachers, and students who had little learning time during the
war. Teachers of Ohmura’s and Hashimoto’s generation created teaching
materials and school education for the new era.
7. As is the case with textbook editors, educational institutions must comply
with copyright regulations. Using part or all of a published text for an exam
is possible without agreement in advance, but this does not apply to the
publication (in print or online) of exam papers containing extracts from
literary texts. After lawsuits around 2005 over the secondary use of literary
property in entrance exams and textbooks, the unauthorized use of literature
and other texts by certain authors can incur considerable expenses for insti-
tutions (Benesse, 2005; JVCA, 2014).
8. Japanese authentic Haiku requires a word which reflects one of the 24 parts
of the year. These ‘season words’ are often taken from the social events
and natural elements. Some season words are considered fit to refer to
the particular time of the year even though the event may occur in other
seasons as well: ‘a cat in love’ is for early spring, while ‘mirage’ is for late
spring.
9. Kaizen literally means ‘improvement’ in Japanese, but the term refers to the
continuous improvement system. Toyota, the car-maker of Japanese origin,
became internationally famous for its culture of bottom-up Kaizen and its
efficient production in the 1980s. It involves all employees in the PDCA
process.
10. The proportion of senior high schools that carry out school-wide ER projects
is 41 per cent according to the 2010 survey. Senior high schools tend to focus
on fostering individual reading rather than setting collective ER time (MEXT,
2011).
11. From an early stage, Taniguchi and his study group members have been
using the internet to show the book review talks for a wide audience who
missed the chance to see the event live. Video-sharing on the net is a part of
Bibliobattle culture.
58 Aiko Saito
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index/html.
NIER [National Institute for Educational Policy Research, Japan] (2014) http://
www.nier.go.jp/kokusai/pisa/
NPO Bookstart [Japan] (ed.) (2010) Akachan to Ehon wo Hiraitara [The First Decade
of Bookstart in Japan]. Tokyo: Iwanami.
Oba, H. (2012) Hanashiai de Tsukuru Bungaku no Jugyo no Kanousei [Literature in
the JL1 Class]. Tokyo: Ikkousha.
OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] (2014) ‘OECD
Skills Surveys’. http://www.oecd.org/site/piaac/surveyofadultskills.html.
Ohmura, H. (1968) Yasashii Bunshou Kyoushitsu [Essays on Writing for Junior High
School Students]. Tokyo: Kyobunsha.
Ohmura, H. (1981) ‘Kodomoni Tanoshii Kokugo Kyoushitsu wo’’ [A Lecture at
a JL1 Education Conference], in (2004) Hito to Gakuryoku wo Sodaterutameni
[[Raising Young Learners and their Academic Abilities]. Tokyo: Futousha.
Ohtsuka, T. (2010) ‘Gaitou Kamishibai.’ Lecture with performance. International
Association of Performing Languages. The Third Conference. Setsunan
University, Japan. 6 August.
Saito, A. (2013) ‘Toujou Jinbutsu no Shiten de Monogatari wo Rittaika Shiyo’, in
T. Yoshimura et al. (eds) Literature as Inspiration in the English Language Classroom
(published in Japanese), 152–161. Tokyo: Eihosha.
Sanmori, Y. (2006) Gaikokugo de Hassousuru tameno Nihongo Ressun [Critical
Thinking in the JL1 Class]. Tokyo: Hakusuisha.
60 Aiko Saito
‘Senri Nyutaun ni Ikite’ [A Private Library for Young Readers in Japan Since 1973],
Shihou Suita, September 2012: 4–6.
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Conference Proceedings: 1103–1114. Tokyo: JALT.
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Kyouiku no Kai (2014) Bungaku no Kyouzai Kenkyu [Literature in the JL1 Class].
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Motomerareru Bungaku no Jugyoryoku [The L1 Class with Literature]. Tokyo:
Toyokan.
1 Introduction
The ELT ‘reform’ in Japan from the 1970s to the turn of the millen-
nium was conducted on the assumption, theoretically questionable but
untested for a long time, that ELT in Japan had languished because of its
excessive emphasis on rote-learning-based grammatical understanding,
reading comprehension, translation and, above all, literary apprecia-
tion. This assumption has been challenged and partially invalidated by
some of the latest studies by Japanese ELT scholars and practitioners
in language teaching methodologies (Hiraga, 2007; Saito, 2003; 2012;
2014; Takahashi, 2009; 2013; Yoshimura et al., 2013), with the result
that literature is now widely regarded in Japan as a rich source of ELT
materials. One explanation for this large-scale revaluation of literature
in the ELT context is that many of these scholars and practitioners are
also students of English linguistics and literature and are therefore well
attuned to the ideas of British pedagogical stylistics, which have played
a central role in bringing literature (back) into the language classroom.
This also explains why they have explored the potential of literature
as an educational resource largely along the lines suggested by British
pedagogical stylistics; that is to say, they have pursued ways of using
literature, on the basis that it is a huge mass of created texts, as an
activator of reading-based classroom activities with varying emphasis
61
62 Yoshifumi Saito
Over the last few years there has been a resurgence of interest in the
use of literature in language teaching, and a number of the contribu-
tions to this volume reflect this. Stylistic analysis has been of partic-
ular concern to the foreign-language learner as it has been seen as a
device by which the understanding of relatively complex texts can be
achieved. This, coupled with a general interest in English literature,
has led to the stylistic approach becoming more and more popular in
the EFL context. (Short, 1989: 6)
From this stage on, pedagogical stylistics has developed in two general
directions. On the one hand, it has expanded its theoretical and meth-
odological scope in a well organized system of collaboration and serial
publication (Burke et al., 2012; Carter and Nash, 1990; Carter and
Simpson, 1989; Nørgaard et al., 2010; van Peer, 1988; Watson and
Zyngier, 2007; the Routledge ‘Interface’ series with Carter as series
editor). On the other hand, corresponding to, or even propelled by, the
leading stylisticians’ involvement in the National Curriculum Project,
many others have produced textbooks for classroom use (Beard, 2003;
Carter and Long, 1987; 1991; Collie and Slater, 1987; 1993; Freeborn,
1996; Haynes, 1995; Lott, 1986; Saito and Nakamura, 2009; Walker,
1983; etc.). As the greatest concern of stylistics is to provide linguistic
explanations of literary texts and their intrinsic values, pedagogical
stylistics has been theorized, quite naturally, as an application of text-
based analysis to language and literature education, as Short’s remark
above suggests. By the same token, not surprisingly, these textbooks
are so designed as to provide students first with reading materials and
then with a variety of follow-up activities for deepening their under-
standing of them. It is assumed that students should accept each of
those materials as the final realization of the author’s literary ‘inten-
tion’ without considering the possibility of the text being written
in any other way. If it contains some unconventional linguistic or
stylistic forms, they should be understood as ‘intentional deviations’
that are designed to create some effect(s) on the reader.
Provided the author’s literary designs are known to the reader,
however, it is also possible to discuss whether or not the author has
constructed the language of the text efficiently or to argue that he or
she could have chosen some other linguistic forms to realize them. This
line of argument serves as the basis of the design for the bridge between
literary appreciation and creative writing.
64 Yoshifumi Saito
3 Creative stylistics
The second of these aims was also suggested by Pope (1995; 1998) and
more recently by Scott (2012; 2013), who explains how a stylistic approach
to the teaching of creative writing differs from others as follows:
a. readiness: the (would-be) author is ready for literary creation and has
something to write about;
From Reading to Writing 65
The texts finally produced through this process of planning and stylistic
choices are autonomous by themselves and open to appreciative and/or
critical reading. They can also serve, provided they are well written, as
model pieces of student writing to be read and discussed at the begin-
ning of another creative writing session.
66 Yoshifumi Saito
[A] Well, but God’s will must be done! and so comes the comfort,
that I shall not be obliged to return back to be a burden to my dear
parents! For my master said, ‘I will take care of you all, my good
maidens; and for you, Pamela,’ (and took me by the hand; yes, he
took my hand before them all), ‘for my dear mother’s sake, I will be a
friend to you, and you shall take care of my linen.’
[B] Through the fence, between the curling flower space, I could see
them hitting. They were coming toward where the flag was and I
went along the fence. Luster was hunting in the grass by the flower
tree. They took the flag out, and they were hitting. Then they put the
flag back and they went to the table, and he hit and the other hit.
[C] I turned to find the young Mr Cardinal beaming happily at me. I
smiled also and said: ‘Fish, sir?’
‘When I was young, I used to keep all sorts of tropical fish in a tank.
Quite a little aquarium it was. I say, Stevens, are you all right?’
I smiled again. ‘Quite all right, thank you, sir.’
‘As you so rightly pointed out, I really should come back here in
the spring. Darlington Hall must be rather lovely then. The last time
I was here, I think it was winter then too. I say, Stevens, are you sure
you’re all right there?’
‘Perfectly all right, thank you, sir.’
‘Not feeling unwell, are you?’
‘Not at all, sir. Please excuse me.’
I proceeded to serve port to some other of the guests. There was a loud
burst of laughter behind me and I heard the Belgian clergyman exclaim:
‘That is really heretical! Positively heretical!’ then laugh loudly himself.
I felt something touch my elbow and turned to find Lord Darlington.
‘Stevens, are you all right?’
From Reading to Writing 67
Then the students will be instructed to read them quickly to work out and
discuss with other students what kind of text they are, who is speaking to
whom, and what the situations are. It will not be very difficult for them
to find that they are taken from fictional writings (they are, respectively,
from Samuel Richardson’s Pamela [1740], William Faulkner’s The Sound
and the Furyy [1929], and Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Dayy [1989]).
What the students will possibly figure out for themselves is: that, in Text
A, the character named Pamela is talking rather appreciatively about her
master’s special regard for her; that, in Text B, the narrator uses unusu-
ally simple grammatical structures in describing the scene to the extent
that they suggest his or her limited understanding of the situation; and
that, in Text C, something is critically wrong about the way Stevens, the
narrator, looks.
This will be just the point where the teacher is advised to provide some
basic information concerning the three texts, putting emphasis not so
much on literary history or the biographical details of the authors as on
the narrative structures and stylistic features of the texts and especially
on the irony of the narrators disclosing by their words more than they
are aware of: Pamela at this point does not realize that her seemingly
friendly and benevolent master has taken a fancy to her and is trying
to draw her into the private part of his life, which shrewd readers will
associate with the word ‘linen’; Benjy Compson, a 33-year-old man with
mental retardation, who is the narrator in Text B, is simply describing
what is going on before his eyes without understanding that it is a
game of golf; and Stevens, butler to Lord Darlington, believes that he is
serving his guests normally, right after his visit to his father who has just
suffered a serious stroke and is in a critical condition, but unwittingly
reveals (as Ishiguro presumably intends him to) that he is emotionally
disturbed to the extent of looking strange to other people.
This kind of irony is well known in the theatrical arts as ‘dramatic
irony’, which is defined by the OED as ‘the incongruity created when the
(tragic) significance of a character’s speech or action is revealed to the
audience but unknown to the character concerned; the literary device so
used’. Whether in drama or in fiction, creating ‘dramatic irony’ requires
one crucial condition among others, which is satisfied by the narrative
structures of the three texts above, and this condition can be the next
topic for in-class discussion. What is the condition common to all the
three texts we have just read under which the above-mentioned irony
occurs? What is the common feature in all of them in comparison with
other types of fictional discourse, say, in Pride and Prejudice, Tess of the
d’Urbervilles or Ulysses? Here, it is hoped, many students will notice that
68 Yoshifumi Saito
the stories in the three texts are all narrated by character-narrators. (In
this discussion I would avoid the use of such familiar but tautological
terms as ‘first-person narrator’ or ‘I-narrator’, all stories by definition
being told in the first person, whether or not the narrators refer to them-
selves as ‘I’; see also Saito, 2001.) Depending on how students under-
stand the narrative mechanism of dramatic irony in fiction, the teacher
can further expand on it by asking them whether or not dramatic
irony occurs when the omniscient narrator tells us, for example, that
a couple of killers are hiding behind the curtain trying to murder our
ignorant hero. At this point, it is hoped again, most of the students will
understand that dramatic irony is only possible when the story is being
told by one of the characters, in most cases the protagonist, who has a
limited range of information concerning the situation he or she is put
in. After making sure that all the students have understood the point,
the teacher is now advised to switch the classroom practice from reading
to writing.
a. readiness:
c. text type:
As we have seen in the previous section, dramatic irony can occur not
only in playwriting but also in some fictional texts, under certain condi-
tions. Since our aim is replicate the mechanism of dramatic irony as seen
in the fictional texts we analysed, my choice is a text of prose fiction,
more specifically a short story, considering that it must be completed
within a semester.
Here we have to start thinking about the ‘story’ with dramatic irony as its
core motif. The basic setting for realizing the motif as well as the theme
of communication breakdown is a language situation which can possibly
emerge in Japan in some near future if the language policy which is
being adopted by an increasing number of educational institutions and
companies is pursued to an extreme: the situation where English is used
as the primary medium of education and everyday communication. The
critical point in my short story is a moment of verbal contact between
two Japanese, who, being separated widely in terms of age, have experi-
enced totally different language situations and systems of school educa-
tion, and consequently have little common ground in terms of linguistic
culture to share with each other. This literary design will be activated
along the following story line: a young man makes a spring trip to the
village where his mother was born to see his maternal grandparents after
a long interval, but, having been exposed to more English than Japanese
since childhood in communicating with friends and teachers, is unable
to understand many of the things his grandparents say, thereby embar-
rassing them unwittinglyy at every turn of communication.
70 Yoshifumi Saito
These two stylistic elements, narrative structure and point of view, are
most closely related to the argument in the previous section concerning
the basic condition under which dramatic irony occurs: that it occurs
when the story is told by a character-narrator who is not (fully) aware of
what is happening around him/her. It is not impossible, of course, for
a character-narrator to tell a story from the omniscient point of view,
as is the case with David Copperfield, who is able even to describe how
his mother is feeling right before his birth, but, in order not to spoil the
effect of dramatic irony, my narrator – preferably the young man who
visits his grandparents – needs to have a limited human point of view.
Although the story is set in the future – some time in the 2030s – where
the Anglicization of language policies in Japan can be assumed to have
accelerated, I use the preterite as the basic tense of narration. Most pieces
of fiction whose stories are set in the future adopt the past tense, and
there is no reason why my story, with its realistic setting and linear story
line, should deviate from it.
Considering the motif, theme, and message of my story, the best policy
of stylistic selection at this level is to think of some element of language –
word, phrase, idiom, etc. – that will enhance the effect of dramatic
irony in the climax. Since the point of the irony is that the protago-
nist, though Japanese by race, fails to understand, without noticing the
failure himself, some of the basic assumptions which Japanese people
of the older generations take for granted in communication, the most
suitable form of language may be some Japanese expression which liter-
ally denotes one thing and conventionally means another. The language
From Reading to Writing 71
element with which I think I can most effectively spice up the irony is
a pair of culture-specific Japanese metaphors, sakura saku (cherry blos-
soms bloom) and sakura chiru (cherry blossoms fall), which are respec-
tively used to refer to success and failure, with special reference to an
entrance examination. I will use this pair of metaphors in my short story
to create a context where a communication gap opens up between the
old couple’s metaphorical well-wishing and the narrator’s literal under-
standing of it. This sakura metaphors will be further exploited in the
title of my short story, ‘The Country of Fallen Blossoms’, which on the
one hand implies Japan’s failure in its misdirected attempt at ‘globaliza-
tion’ and on the other is intertextually related to the 11th chapter (‘The
Village Where Blossoms Fall’) of Japan’s canonical work of literature The
Tale of Genji. The flower metaphor is also used in Japanese in the phrase
hanashi ni hana ga saku (literally ‘the conversation is in bloom’) to refer
to a lively conversation.
Less important symbolism is exploited in the naming of the protago-
nist. His name Eigo sounds highly familiar as a male name in Japan
(though there are many homophonic variations depending on the
combination of Chinese characters), but it also has the same sound as a
Japanese word for the English language: eigo. It is hoped that this pair of
homophones will evoke the irony of a Japanese boy, born and bred in
Japan, being far more proficient in English than Japanese and thereby
unable to communicate even with his grandparents.
6 Created text
For want of space, this section first presents a brief summary of my short
story up to the point where the verbal communication between the
narrator and his grandparents finally and critically fails, and then gives
the full text of the last scene.
Eigo, the 18-year-old protagonist-narrator of the story, after failing the
entrance examination of a prestigious university, makes a spring trip to
the village where his mother was born, intending to refresh himself for a
renewed attempt at the examination the following year as well as to visit
his grandparents whom he has not seen since childhood. They all rejoice
72 Yoshifumi Saito
7 Conclusion
References
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5
Unpacking and Evaluating
Properties in Conceptual
Metaphor Domain Mapping:
Cognitive Stylistics as a
Language Learning Tool
Michael Burke
1 Introduction
75
76 Michael Burke
2 Conceptual metaphor
For thousands of years, metaphor has been seen as language that is crea-
tive and striking. This can be traced from Aristotle’s works on poetics
and rhetoric right up to I. A. Richard’s notions of ‘tenor’ and ‘vehicle’
described in the first half of the 20th century (Richards, 1936). The
advent of conceptual metaphor appears to have put an end to this view.
Conceptual metaphor theory is a central concept in cognitive linguistics.
It first came to light when Lakoff and Johnson published Metaphors We
Live Byy in 1980.1 As the title suggests, whereas metaphor had primarily
been dealt with in the domain of literary and poetic language, i.e. some-
thing unique in the sense of being highly wrought, it now became part
of general linguistics. This meant that examples of metaphor abound
in everyday utterances and written texts of all types and genres. Almost
every sentence is replete with metaphors, or so the argument goes. A
central claim made by Lakoff and Johnson is that metaphor is a basic
pattern that is grounded in bodily experience, which underlies human
thought and human language. Put another way, conceptual metaphor
can be seen as a mapping across domains via language.
Conceptual metaphor theory is thus concerned with the notion of
mapping between two domains. Mapping refers to a set of organized
metaphorical correspondences between closely related entities or ideas.
The two domains that are operational in the process of conceptual meta-
phor mapping are known as ‘source’ and ‘target’. So in the sentence
‘Achilles is a lion’ the qualities that are mapped are aggression, fear-
lessness, dominance, independence, pride, etc. rather than qualities
like shaggy-mained, four-footed, warthog-eating, lazy, etc. The source
Unpacking Properties in Conceptual Metaphor Mapping 77
The LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor here is alluded to in the first line: del
cammin di nostra vita. Here the road represents the journey. The metaphor
is also fleshed out in the PATH section of a SOURCE–PATH–GOAL image sche-
matic structure by reference to the ‘dark forest’ that is located midway
on that road.2 These days we would perhaps refer to this impediment as
some kind of mid-life crisis (spiritual, marital, mental, physical, etc.). In
abstract cognitive terms, there is an obstacle that one has to overcome.
In this case, the ‘blockage’ is not something entirely concrete or phys-
ical, but is a combination of darkness and a disorientating wood. So we
could say that what is needed, in order to circumvent the ‘hindrance’, is
a guide and some light.
Examples like the one above abound in literature. Take a look at the
opening lines of Robert Frost’s poem ‘The Road Not Taken’:
Here, life is not just a single journey but a number of possible journeys –
in this case, two. In the rest of the poem it becomes clear that there is on
the one hand the well worn path, frequented by the many, and on the
other the seldom trod trail taken by the few. The speaking persona in the
poem eventually chooses the latter.
The examples we have seen so far have been at the micro, textual
level. There are also well-known LIFE IS A JOURNEY stories that operate at
a macro-textual level. A famous example in English literature is John
Bunyan’s late 17th-century tale The Pilgrim’s Progress. The narrative in
this work is simple. The protagonist, called Christian, has to journey
from his home town, called ‘the city of destruction’ (representing earth),
to ‘the celestial city’ (representing heaven). On this life’s journey he is
confronted by a number of obstacles, which he needs to deal with. For
example, he has to pass through ‘the slough of despond’ on the way to
‘the wicket gate’, which will eventually lead back to the straight and
narrow path. There are many other hindrances on this journey in the
form of temptations that might lead him ‘astray’ including ‘the delec-
table mountains’ and the infamous ‘vanity fair’.
The LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor is not limited to canonical literary texts;
it also occurs in other creative texts. Consider, for example, the lyrics of
Tom Buchanan’s 1990s song ‘Life is a Highway’:
From a formal, linguistic, point of view, this text has the structure of a
simile; an explicit comparison. However, the underlying cognitive structure
is still metaphorical. A much more complex account of the same metaphor
can be found in the Beatles’ hit song ‘The Long and Winding Road’. In the
opening verse to that song the speaking voice focuses on the destination,
but suggests that she/he has successfully travelled this path before.
The GOAL part of the PATH metaphor can often refer to death in such
metaphoric structures. In the opening lines of Dylan Thomas’s famous
poem we are encouraged not ‘to go gentle into that good night’ but
rather to rage and rave on until the very end. Such metaphors are not
limited to the literary domain. When someone dies in real life, we might
say ‘he has passed away’, ‘he has gone to the other side’, ‘he is in a better
place’. All of these represent some kind of LIFE(/DEATH) IS A JOURNEY struc-
tural metaphor – or at least the GOAL part of it. Interestingly, cognitive
patterns of thought tend to structure the way we discuss death. Even
an odd-sounding expression like ‘he has kicked the bucket’ ties into the
80 Michael Burke
CONTAINER
R schematic structure, whereby a container filled with liquid
is knocked over and the liquid spills out, emptying the bucket. Think
about it for a moment. If someone has died, would you be able to say
something like: ‘he’s eaten the pastrami sandwich’ or ‘he’s decorated
the bedroom’ or ‘he’s mopped the linoleum’? Probably not. The reason
for this is that these utterances do not have a recognizable underlying
conceptual image schematic structure.
GOOD/HAPPY/MORE IS UP
● She is on a high
● I got the thumbs up
● That victory really boosted my spirits
● The more, the merrier
BAD/SAD/LESS IS DOWN
● Failing exams depresses him
● She has come down with the flu
● Her mood sank when she heard the news
● My expectations fell on seeing my grades
There is also a literal physical basis for many of these expressions. When
you are feeling good, parts of your body respond. Your eyes widen and
Unpacking Properties in Conceptual Metaphor Mapping 81
Above we saw how spatial orientation provides a rich basis for under-
standing metaphors in experiential terms. However, our experience of
physical objects and physical substances also gives us an extra dimen-
sion to understand metaphors that go beyond orientation. What we are
trying to understand here is how our bodily interaction with an object or
process provides us with a basis for ways of viewing activities, ideas, etc.
Let us start by looking at one of the default ontological conceptual meta-
phors that Lakoff and Johnson provide us with: THE MIND IS A MACHINE.
If we first stop and think what kind of qualities might be mapped from
source to target, we might come up with things that represent both the
positive and negative qualities of a machine. The former might include
the notions of repetitiveness, productivity, stability and cost-efficiency,
while the latter might include the need for regular human intervention/
maintenance and the danger that it might break down at any time. The
metaphor finds form in everyday utterances such as:
The human mind and/or brain can have other underlying ontological
cognitive patterns. One that abounds in the contemporary intellec-
tual and business world is encapsulated in the metaphor THE MIND IS A
COMPUTER. In many ways this is the modern counterpart of the MIND IS
A MACHINE metaphor. Another example that is decidedly different is THE
MIND IS AN OCEAN. Here, we might expect that what will be mapped from
the source (ocean) to the target (mind) could include the notions of
fluidity, dynamism, rhythm, depth, profundity, unboundedness, etc.
Consider the following everyday utterances.
● Her thoughts drifted back to a time she wished she had forgotten
● My mind has been awash with memories all day
● Once it hit him, he sank into deep thought
● She trawled the depths of her memory but couldn’t recall the
incident
Unpacking Properties in Conceptual Metaphor Mapping 83
In the foregoing sections we have looked very briefly at how all three
types of conceptual metaphor are used in literary and other texts. A cogni-
tive stylistic analysis of one single text will now be conducted, focusing
on conceptual metaphor as the main analytical tool. The analysis will be
interspersed with hands-on learning activities. The text in question is a
poem by William Blake called “Ah! Sun-Flower”, from the book ‘Songs of
Experience’ (Blake, 1977). William Blake was an English poet, painter and
engraver who lived in London from 1757 to 1827. He was a forerunner of
English Romanticism and the themes in his work are often religious. He
was, and indeed still is, viewed as a kind of spiritual visionary.
Ah! Sun-Flower
Ah, Sun-flower! weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun,
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller’s journey is done:
Where the youth pined away with desire
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow
Arise from their graves, and aspire
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.
Activity 1
Before starting the analysis in earnest, ask your students to identify the basic
syntax of the poem. Questions you could pose include:
Once your students have identified the main constituent parts, ask them
to write the poem out as if it were prose discourse. This ‘recasting’ or ‘trans-
posing’ is an exercise that goes back to the progymnasmata rhetorical
schools of the ancient classical Roman world.5 Such an exercise will offer
your students an alternative view and also allow them to experience the
poem in a different setting, which should stimulate their critical thinking
capacities through their experience of a mild cognitive dissonance.
Activity 2
Your students should have been able to work out that despite the poem
being made up of two four-line stanzas, it is a single sentence with numerous
sub-clauses. This makes it somewhat difficult to read and understand – even
when recast in prose form. Your students will probably be a little confused
by the text. They may be wondering whether it is semantically logical or
not. To discover whether the text makes sense, ask your students to break
it up into smaller units, based on the prose version, and then comment
briefly on those units one by one. To show you what I mean, I have listed
below how I divided the text and how I commented on them.
In the first unit, above, we can see that the sunflower is the most impor-
tant referential noun in the first half of the text. Here, the sunflower has
become fatigued by time, seemingly through spending all day counting
the steps of the sun. The expression ‘weary of time’ means more than
simply being exhausted; it arguably means being tired of life itself. This
becomes clear in the next textual unit:
• Unit 2
2: seeking after that sweet golden clime, where the traveller’s
journey is done:
Here we see how the sunflower is longing for that sweet place where
there is no more travelling to be done. The word ‘golden’ arguably
Unpacking Properties in Conceptual Metaphor Mapping 85
Activity 3
• Unit 3: where the youth pined away with desire and the pale virgin
shrouded in snow, arise from their graves, and aspire where my
sunflower wishes to go.
The nymph Clytië was in love with the sun-god Helios, but he rejected her advances
and took another lover, a girl called Leucothoë. Clytië then schemed against
Leucothoë, which led to her death. As a result, Helios’s attitude towards Clytië hard-
ened. Clytië then took herself away from him and sat on the cold ground without
food or water except for her own tears and the morning dew and spent her days
watching Helios ride in his chariot across the sky, from sunrise in the east to sunset
in the west. She looked at nothing else except the sun. After nine days of this pining,
her limbs became rooted to the ground and her face slowly turned into a flower. And
now when the sunflower follows the sun in its course across the sky, it is not merely
some elegant yellow bloom that takes this daily path, but Clytië, still pining for her
lost love, Helios.
If we take this as the basis for Blake’s story, then the youth and the virgin
both appear to refer to Clytië. But this is not possible in the poem, since
the poet uses the word ‘their’ in the poem instead of ‘her’ in the line
‘arise from theirr graves’. There is another problem. How can they be both
aspiring to be at the end of the journey and, rising from their graves, there
already? Added to this, we have the confusion that the word ‘aspire’ also
means ‘breathe’ as in ‘aspiration’, meaning the act or process of drawing
breath, from the Latin word aspiratus. The notions of breathing and death
or afterlife somehow sit uncomfortably together. We have to conclude
that there is a kind of ‘hole’ in the time framework and as a result a
kind of ‘fault’ in the JOURNEY. Whether the grammar is flawed or whether
the poet has consciously played with a sense of openness is something
we cannot know. We can, however, conclude for the time being that
although the LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor has not been completely under-
mined by the inconsistencies in the text, it has been placed on somewhat
shaky ground.6 As a result of the above discussion, we can see another
structural metaphor emerging, namely LOVE IS A JOURNEY.
Activity 4
● Can you think of three examples (short sentences) from everyday English
that embody the above conceptual metaphor? Here is an example to get
you going: Their marriage had reached a dead end.
● Now think of at least two everyday examples (short sentences) like this in
your own language.
● Do the words used in the sentences fit well into either the source or target
domains?
● Do the words representing ‘journey’ differ at all across your examples? If
so, how?
Unpacking Properties in Conceptual Metaphor Mapping 87
We see here clearly how LOVERS ARE TRAVELLERS embarked on the same
journey. They have shared goals, namely a destination to be reached and
goals to be achieved on that journey. They travel together, as one, using
an unspecified mode of locomotion, but there are all kinds of impedi-
ments lying in wait that may bring the journey to a halt. Reflecting on
this, we see that our particular LOVE IS A JOURNEY metaphor involving
Clytië and Helios in the text is not the default kind, since there are a
number of inconsistencies. For example, although our two individuals
in the poem do indeed travel at the same speed and along the same
trajectory, from east to west, they do not travel in proximity but distally.
Other discrepancies include (i) the love is not mutual, (ii) the journey is
repeated on a daily basis, and (iii) the goals are not shared. We can there-
fore conclude that although the metaphor is most certainly activated at
the conceptual level it is not fully sustained in the language of the text.
It is helpful at this stage to step back and reflect on the fact that the
conceptual metaphorical notion that the movement of the sun in a day
can represent a life is not a modern or contemporary idea. The lines
below are written by the first-century Roman poet Catullus:
This poetic fragment, originally in Latin, with its key reference to the
sun setting and rising again, shows us the diachronic nature of concep-
tual metaphors in poetry and in doing so supports the cogent argument
of underlying their embodied nature.
Let us return to the journey of our sunflower. There is a paradox in this
passage: although the sunflower takes part in the travelling, from SOURCE
along the PATH to GOAL, it is only her head that moves. Her ‘feet’ remain
rooted to the ground (literally) and in this sense there is no movement
and arguably no real journey, since journeying involves locomotion, not
simply looking. In literary texts, however, and in other everyday imagi-
native texts, creative licence is often taken, consciously or otherwise,
and, as a result, unusually foregrounded noun–verb juxtapositions can
occur. Of course, such juxtapositions are not limited to these two parts of
speech, but can involve adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions,
88 Michael Burke
etc. The lines below are from Jack London’s short story ‘A Day’s Lodging’.
They illustrate how the boundaries between two concepts, in this case
‘vision’ and ‘locomotion’, can be purposely blurred.
Again her eyes travelled around the room, and the terror in them
leaped up at sight of the other bunk
Here it is the eyes that do the travelling, not the legs – just as, in our poem,
it is the head of the flower that is in motion. But let us put our investiga-
tion into this structural conceptual metaphor on hold for a moment and
explore some of the main orientational conceptual metaphors in the text.
It will be recalled how GOOD IS UP and BAD IS DOWN are central embodied
phenomena in the way situations are envisioned and also realized through
linguistic expressions, especially in the West. The poet has to maintain
a strong sense of hope at the end of the poem, but he is faced with a
challenge, since the sun in its daily cycle does not only rise, but also
descends. Hence, that ‘sweet golden clime, where the traveller’s journey
is done’ can only be arrived at after a descent. In short, the end point in
the journey is the joint lowest point in the journey. As we have seen, BAD
IS DOWN, and if Blake were to have made literal mention of this descent in
the poem, he would surely have challenged the natural embodied view
of the world that his readers possess. So how does Blake get around this
obstacle? Well, he appears to use two linguistic devices. Consider again
the lines below.
In these opening lines we learn from the poem’s speaker – who must be
close to the bloom or some pictorial representation of it in view of the
use of the interjection ‘ah!’ – that the sunflower is weary of time. If it is
weary, then it is probably starting to droop and if it is drooping, then
its body language is communicating to its viewer in paralinguistic terms
the BAD IS DOWN orientational metaphor. But there is an inconsistency
here as the head of the sunflower must remain erect and follow the
sun. Perhaps then it is the stalk and leaves that show signs of fatigue?
Whatever the reason, this Weltschmerz appears to be a direct result of the
head of the sunflower counting the steps of the sun.
Unpacking Properties in Conceptual Metaphor Mapping 89
Now ask yourself the following question: when you first read these lines
earlier in this chapter did you comprehend those steps as being counted (a)
upwards, (b) downwards, or (c) upwards and then downwards? Perhaps,
like me, when I first read the poem several years ago, you chose option
(a), namely ‘steps go up’. As a result of our embodied cognitive view of the
world, a word such as ‘steps’ or ‘stairs’ triggers the orientational metaphor
GOOD IS UP in the majority of readers. Blake, however, must be referring
to option (c) if he is remaining true to the movement of the sun across
the sky in its daily pattern. However, he appears to have cleverly evoked
the GOOD IS UP metaphor in us by limiting the information we are given,
i.e. he makes no explicit mention of the descent of the sun. The second
linguistic device Blake uses to help us to experience the GOOD IS UP meta-
phor is in his use of the word ‘clime’, a poetic word, meaning region or
place. Phonologically, the word ‘clime’ and the word ‘climb’ (meaning
‘to ascend’) are homophones. This means that they have the same sound
when spoken aloud. It is arguably this that persuades us to read the steps,
referred to in the previous line, as going upwards, not up and then down.
This is plausibly how a modern reader will experience it.8
Let us now reflect on the main points of this cognitive stylistic analysis.
We have thus far encountered a number of inconsistencies that appear
to question the validity of our overriding LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor.
Through the intervention of competing alternatives at the linguistic
level, the notion of LIFE IS A JOURNEYY, and its contextualized parallel meta-
phors A DAY IS A HUMAN LIFE and/or THE DAILY MOVEMENT OF A SUNFLOWER
IS A HUMAN LIFE CYCLE, somehow becomes jarred. This partial blockage
allows a complementary, rather than competing, structural conceptual
metaphor to emerge, namely LIFE IS A CIRCLE. This idea of circularly is
supported by the textual evidence, not least by the idea that the youth
and the virgin are paradoxically born from the grave.
So, to sum up this analysis, unfortunately for the sunflower, the LIFE
IS A JOURNEY metaphor – with the kind of delimited SOURCE–PATH–GOAL
structure that applies to us all – has become a LIFE IS A CIRCLE experience.
This is backed up literally in the opening line with the reference to being
‘weary of time’ and indeed the very utterance ‘Ah!’, which is not merely
the opening word in the opening line of the poem, but also the opening
word in the poem’s title as well. LIFE IS A CIRCLE can be a curse, a living
hell – as Prometheus knew all too well, and as did the protagonist played
by Bill Murray in the film ‘Groundhog Day’. Clytië, our sunflower girl,
appears to be caught in this pattern. However, it can in a way also be a
blessing. The notion of renewal and rebirth is the basis of some of the
major religions of the world, such as Hinduism and Buddhism. It is also
90 Michael Burke
group of two or three students and then the whole class can comment,
adding and subtracting properties. A lively critical debate among your
students is what you should be aiming for. Now ask them (a) to do the
same for the three invented conceptual metaphors below, and (b) to
come up with three of their own (or cite them from a poem or piece of
prose). This can be set for homework but should be discussed in class the
week after within the framework of a critical dialogue.
8 Conclusion
Notes
1. It has been observed that these ideas pertaining to conceptual metaphor theory
are not as new as Lakoff and Johnson thought and that many writers and
philosophers before them, including Bacon, Vico and Nietzsche, had made
similar arguments (see Wales’ discussion of ‘conceptual metaphor theory’
(2011: 65) for more on this).
2. Image schemas are recurring structures within our cognitive processes that
establish patterns of understanding and reasoning. They are formed from our
bodily interactions (from linguistic experience) and from historical context
(see Johnson, 1987). Categories include ‘force’, ‘spatial motion’ and ‘balance’.
The ‘spatial motion’ group contains such schemas as ‘containment’, ‘path’,
‘blockage’, ‘centre–periphery’, ‘cycle’, ‘cyclic climax’ and ‘source–path–goal’.
92 Michael Burke
References
Blake, W. (1977) The Complete Poems. Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics.
Boers, F. (2000) ‘Metaphor Awareness and Vocabulary Retention’, Applied
Linguistics, 21 (4), 553–571.
Burke, M. (2004) ‘Cognitive Stylistics in the Classroom: A Pedagogical Account’,
Style 39 (1), 491–510.
Burke, M., Csábi, S., Week, L. and Zerkowitz, J. (eds) (2012) Pedagogical Stylistics:
Current Trends in Language, Literature and ELT. London: Continuum Press.
Carter, R. and McRae, J. (eds) (1996) Language, Literature and the Learner. Harlow:
Longman.
Chen, Y.C. and Lai, H. L. (2011) ‘The Effects of EFL Learners’ Awareness and
Retention in Learning Metaphoric and Metonymic Expressions’, Proceedings
of the 25th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation.
http://aclweb.org/anthology/Y11–1058.
Clark, U. and Zyngier, S. (2003) ‘Towards a Pedagogical Stylistics’, Language and
Literature 12 (4), 339–351.
Deignan A. H., Gabrys, D. and Solska, A. (1997) ‘Teaching English Metaphors Using
Cross-Linguistic Awareness Raising Activities’, ELT Journal 51 (4), 352–360.
Freeman, D. (1995) ‘“Catch[ing] the Nearest Way”: Macbeth and Cognitive
Metaphor’, Journal of Pragmatics 24, 689–708.
Unpacking Properties in Conceptual Metaphor Mapping 93
1 Introduction
94
Playing with Words and Pictures 95
I have already mentioned some of the reasons why the use of picture
books with teenage or adult learners has been overlooked. One central
objection is that picture books feature child protagonists and the implied
reader is a child. However, as we shall see, if carefully selected, certain
post-modernist picture books circumvent this issue as they feature
some child protagonists, but they also feature adult and non-human
protagonists. More importantly, the sophisticated way in which they
play with multi-vocal narrative and literary conventions suggests that
the implied reader is not only the child, but the adult reading the book
with them. In fact, some commentators argue that picture books no
longer represent a genre exclusively directed at small children. Bjorvand
(2010), for example, mentions the Norwegian picture book Sinna Mann
((Angry Man), which is directed at both children and adults. The book
was written in response to the request by a counsellor who wanted a text
that could be used as a therapeutic tool, both with children living with
violence in their families and with violent parents. In any case, it has
been pointed out that for many writers and illustrators of picture books,
98 Gillian Lazar
the question of what audience they are writing for is often seen as irrel-
evant. Salisbury (2008), himself an illustrator, emphasizes that a number
of highly original artists, among them the Australian Shaun Tan, have
chosen to work in the medium of picture books. In answer to the ques-
tion ‘Who do you write and illustrate for?’, Tan says that ‘It’s a little
difficult to answer, as it’s not something I think about much when I’m
working alone in a small studio, quite removed from any audience at
all’ (Tan; cited in Salisbury, 2010: 38). This emphasis on the creation of
the picture book as an expressive object is borne out by Zipes (2002: 43),
who states that, in common with all authors, authors of children’s books
‘write primarily to conceptualize and materialize, through symbols and
signs, experiences and psychic fantasies, what their existence is and
why, and whether it is meaningful.’ Consequently, it can be argued that
a picture book, communicating the vision of its creator emotionally
and aesthetically, should be seen as an ‘art object’, rather than as just a
pedagogic tool, aimed specifically at children in order, for example, to
teach them how to read. In that sense, using a well chosen picture book
means exposing learners to an authentic text from which they can derive
aesthetic pleasure and emotional engagement and which is often more
motivating than the fabricated language and rather contrived narratives
which may be found in English language textbooks.
In addition to their use in exposing learners to an authentic cultural
product, many post-modernist picture books can be used to facilitate
language acquisition. Many of them are short, which means that their
language load is not overwhelming for lower-level learners, in terms of
either reception or production. As Enever (2006: 60) puts it, ‘meaning
is carried by pictures, so there is less need for elaboration.’ The value of
using visual images alongside literary texts is mentioned in Chapter 11
of this volume, and picture books clearly have an advantage in this
regard, particularly for students who are non-readers, in both English
and their mother tongue. Encouraging such students to work with
picture books could be the first step in a graduated syllabus, which moves
towards using more complex literary texts. On the other hand, while
the language load might be fairly simple in picture books, the complex
interaction between image and text will require high-level interpretive
work, engaging the reader in a process of inferencing and making inter-
pretations based on both visual and verbal evidence. In an empirical
study, Sipe (2008: 234) concludes that a cohort of young children accom-
plished ‘a great deal of interpretive work’ in a class discussion of a post-
modernist text, David Wiesner’s The Three Little Pigs. Interestingly, this
conclusion chimes closely with Widdowson’s view that using literary
Playing with Words and Pictures 99
later on, The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon, takes as its starting
point the children’s nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle. Students would
need to be familiarized with this nursery rhyme before they can begin
to make sense of the text itself.
It is something of a truism now to say that the internet is exposing
language learners to a plethora of multi-modal texts, incorporating
both written and spoken texts, as well as all manner of visual signs
and images. Given that readers in the contemporary world need to be
critical of verbal, visual and auditory material, developing a critical
response to visual images should also be considered an educational
goal. Close reading of post-modernist children’s books in class might
be one way of recognizing that nowadays our learners are frequently
multimodal readers, who need to interpret and evaluate both verbal
and visual texts.
Finally, using post-modernist children’s books with language learners
offers many opportunities for classroom creativity. As we have seen,
such books are often seen as incorporating a high level of playfulness,
both verbally and visually. Play is generally identified as an activity for
children, facilitating their emotional, cognitive and physical develop-
ment. Yet exposure to playful texts can be a way of generating an expan-
sive creativity in learners of all ages, encouraging them to experiment
with language and take risks in trying out new grammar structures or
new vocabulary.
their dogs Victoria and Albert. While neither adult interacts with the
other, the dogs play energetically with each other. After a tentative start,
the children also play happily with each other, until Charles’s mother
cuts short their games, as she does not want her child to play with ‘a
very rough-looking child’ (Browne, 1998). This seemingly simple narra-
tive thus provides ‘multiple perspectives on social stratification and the
resulting economic inequalities’ (Lehr, 2008: 165).
Each voice in the narrative is richly conveyed through specific
linguistic choices. Stephens (1999: 73) has argued that ‘the most perva-
sive concern of children’s literature is the representation of SELF’, the
subjectivity of which is conveyed through the narrator in the text.
According to Stephens, this subjectivity can be analysed through
stylistics. Thus, Charles’s mother, the first voice, uses a formal, rather
old-fashioned register throughout and a lexicon that conveys strong
disapproval of Smudge, her father and their dog, who are described as
‘frightful types’ and ‘a scruffy mongrel’. In a telling linguistic reversal,
she uses the type of command given to a dog when addressing her son
Charles, telling him to ‘sit’. In contrast, the language used by Smudge’s
father is colloquial, personal and affectionate towards his daughter.
Moreover, the personalities and emotions of the different voices are
conveyed not only linguistically but also visually, the pictures for each
voice employing a very different visual style, as well as typeface. Thus,
Charles’s story is communicated in a simple grey font while the pictures
in his story are initially lacking in colour, until his increasing confi-
dence and happiness while playing with Smudge are signified through
delicate pastels. In contrast, the pictures for Smudge’s voice are exuber-
antly colourful while her story is told in a black, rather spiky typeface.
This interweaving of language and visuals creates complex meanings.
For example, while Charles’s mother claims that Albert is a ‘horrible
thug’ who chases Victoria all over the park, it is clear from the pictures
that Victoria is equally happy chasing Albert. The book thus affords
many opportunities for interpretive engagement, as students attempt to
decode how language is used to represent each character, and how visual
images are utilized to either reinforce or contradict the text. An addi-
tional element is Browne’s hallmark: the use of surrealist images, often
borrowed from the works of Magritte, such as lampposts, bowler hats
and trees in strange shapes. These playful images draw the reader into
a magical but perplexing world, inviting multiple interpretations about
the meanings of the images. While a plethora of activities could be used
with this picture book, those itemized below focus on close stylistic
analysis of the text and close visual analysis of the pictures.
Playing with Words and Pictures 103
Figure 6.1 Third Voice (Charles) from Anthony Browne’s ‘Voices in the Park’
Pre-reading activity
1. Students are given the opening lines of each voice in the park. For
example, Charles’s mother says, ‘It was time to take Victoria, our
pedigree Labrador, and Charles, our son, for a walk.’ Smudge’s father,
on the other hand, says: ‘I needed to get out of the house, so me and
Smudge took the dog to the park.’ In groups, students discuss the
following questions: Who do you think is saying these words? What
kind of person do you think they are? Why? What differences in
language do you notice between these characters? What do you think
is the relationship between them? Why?
104 Gillian Lazar
Figure 6.2 Fourth Voice (Smudge) from Anthony Browne’s ‘Voices in the Park’
While-reading activities
2. The teacher reads the story aloud once and asks students to confirm
their predictions about the characters. Then it is read again, this time
pausing to discuss every page in detail, focusing on the relationship
between text and image. Possible questions are: What does the char-
acter say? What can you see in the picture? What colours are used?
Playing with Words and Pictures 105
What does the body language of the characters in the picture show?
What is the composition of the picture? Do you notice anything
strange or unusual? What typeface is the text written in and what
does this signify?
3. While the text is read aloud again, the students are asked to write
the words used to describe the dogs in the story. Who uses them and
what do these words tell us about that character?
Post-reading activities
4. Students discuss the text in groups, using these questions: How are
the lives and relationships of Smudge and her father different from
those of Charles and his mother? What do you think this tells you
about modern British society? Could a similar story take place in your
home town/city? If not, why not?
5. Students are asked to choose their favourite ‘voice’ in the story and
explain why. Using this voice, they should write a short story about
what happens the next day.
Pre-reading
1. The students read and discuss the English nursery rhyme Hey Diddle
Diddle. They are asked to discuss similar nonsense rhymes in their
own language and why they are popular with children.
2. As the main protagonists in the narrative are crockery and cutlery,
the teacher reviews this lexical area in English with the students,
perhaps by bringing in real examples. This may also lead to an inter-
esting discussion about the different eating utensils used in different
parts of the world and how this might relate to the different kinds of
food eaten.
3. The students are given photocopies of two visual side-panels from the
book, showing the Dish and the Spoon arriving in New York Harbour
in front of the Statue of Liberty and living the high life. In pairs, they
are asked to make predictions about the story.
While-reading
Post-reading
7. Students could be asked to come up with a ‘moral’ for the story, which
encapsulates key themes, such as ‘Crime never pays’, ‘You only live
once’ or ‘Love never dies’.
8. Students could be asked to consider any (line from a) children’s song
or rhyme in their own language that has the potential to kick-start
a narrative. In groups, they then write the story before reading it to
the class.
6 Conclusion
The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon (Translation of a rhyme from
the Japanese, followed by story writing)
‘Even picture books can tell us something. I could think while reading.’
‘I couldn’t imagine the story from the rhyme. It was an interpreting
story because I couldn’t guess what the story was about from glancing
at the first illustration.’
‘I enjoyed thinking how to translate the rhyme I used to like. It was
very enjoyable for me to create my own story and it made it possible
for me to observe rhyme from various points of view.’
‘Translating the Japanese nursery rhyme revealed that the translation
means the same but it doesn’t sound right in English. But translation
helped me analyse the meaning of the rhyme deeply.’
‘I enjoyed it very much and learned from classmates, who presented
rhymes and created interesting stories.’
Note
1. I would like to express my deep appreciation and thanks to Professor Yuka
Kusanagi for piloting some of my ideas for activities with her students,
and for allowing me to include her students’ comments in this chapter. I
would also like to thank the students for participating in this preliminary
study.
References
Arizpe, E. (2010) ‘“All this book is about books”: Picturebooks, Culture and
Metaliterary Awareness’ in T. Colomer, B. Kümmerling-Meibauer and C. Silva-
Diaz (eds) New Directions in Picturebook Research, 69–82. Oxford: Routledge.
110 Gillian Lazar
Bjorvand, A. (2010) ‘Do Sons Inherit the Sins of Their Fathers? An Analysis of the
Picturebook Angry Man’ in T. Colomer, B. Kümmerling-Meibauer and C. Silva-
Diaz (eds) New Directions in Picturebook Research, 217–231. Oxford: Routledge.
Brumfit, C. J. and Carter, R. A. (1986) Literature and Language Teaching. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Carter, R. and McRae, J. (1996) Language, Literature and the Learner. Harlow:
Longman.
Duff, A. and Maley, A. (1990) Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Enever, J. (2006) ‘The Use of Authentic Picture Books in the Development of
Critical Visual and Written Literacy in English as a Foreign Language’ in J.
Enever and G. Schmid-Schönbein (eds) Picture Books and Young Learners of
English, 59–60. Munich: Langenscheidt.
Hall, G. (2005) Literature in Language Education. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ho, L. (2000) ‘Children’s Literature in Adult Education’, Children’s Literature in
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Kiefer, B. (2008) ‘What is a Picturebook, Anyway?: The Evolution of Form and
Substance through the Postmodern Era and Beyond’ in L. R. Sipe and S.
Pantaleo (eds) Postmodern Picturebooks: Play, Parody and Self-Referentiality, 9–21.
Oxford: Routledge.
Lehr, S. (2008) ‘Lauren Child: Utterly and Absolutely Exceptionordinarily’ in L.
R. Sipe and S. Pantaleo (eds) Postmodern Picture Books: Play, Parody and Self-
Referentiality, 164–179. Oxford: Routledge.
Lewis, D. (2001) Reading Contemporary Picturebooks: Picturing Text. London and
New York: Routledge.
Martin, I. (2006) ‘Terms of Integration: Educating Primary EFL Teacher Learners’ in
A. Paran (ed.) Literature in Language Teaching and Learningg, 87–100. Alexandria,
Virginia: TESOL.
McNicholls, S. (2006) ‘Using Enchantment: Children’s Literature in an EFL
Teacher Education Context’ in A. Paran (ed.) Literature in Language Teaching and
Learning,
g 71–85. Alexandria, Virginia: TESOL.
Meek, M. (1992) ‘Children Reading – Now’, in M. Styles, E. Bearne and V. Watson
(eds) After Alice, 172–187. London: Cassell.
Nikolajeva, M. (2010) ‘Interpretative Codes and Implied Readers of Children’s
Picturebooks’ in T. Colomer, B. Kümmerling-Meibauer and C. Silva-Diaz (eds)
New Directions in Picturebook Research, 27–40. Oxford: Routledge.
Painter, C., Martin, J. R. and Unsworth, L. (2013) Reading Visual Narratives: Image
Analysis of Children’s Picture Books. Sheffield: Equinox.
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in L. R. Sipe and S. Pantaleo (eds) Postmodern Picturebooks: Play, Parody and Self-
Referentiality, 238–255. Oxford: Routledge.
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in L. R. Sipe and S. Pantaleo (eds) Postmodern Picture Books: Play, Parody and Self-
Referentiality, 1–8. London: Routledge.
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Playing with Words and Pictures 111
Picture books
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Dahle, G. and Nyhus, S. (2003) Sinna Mann. Oslo: Cappelen.
Grey, M. (2006) The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon. London: Random
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Macaulay, D. (1990) Black and White. Boston: Howard Mifflin Company.
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Part II
Empirical and Case Studies
7
Achievement Tests for Literary
Reading in General EFL Reading
Courses
Takayuki Nishihara
1 Introduction
First of all, some testing conventions for general EFL reading courses in
Japan should be described. The following conventions are often applied
to the administration of achievement tests at junior high schools, high
schools, and universities.1
115
116 Takayuki Nishihara
Reading passages used in a test are usually not new to learners: typi-
cally, the main texts used in class are re-used. Even the test items which
learners have examined in class are repeated; however, some new test
items are added. Learners have come to expect these types of tests and
understand that reviewing the course contents can help them get good
scores on achievement tests. Therefore, the possibility persists that
learners may receive good scores in reading achievement tests merely by
memorizing the course contents (Paran, 2010).
Achievement tests for reading courses often include multiple-choice-
type and descriptive-type test items. Typically, the latter items invite
learners to write answers in Japanese, to avoid having students’ limited
English writing proficiency negatively impact their scores. They are
usually not open-ended questions: each item has one correct answer.
Schauber and Spolsky, 1986); or too general, not covering the genre-
specific traits of literary reading (for example, Hawkey and Rezk, 1991;
McRae, 1991). Also, the description of literary competence differs mark-
edly from one model to another. As a result, teachers are at a loss as to
which model should be chosen when designing a test. Moreover, models
of literary competence do not explain its relations to other relevant
constructs such as linguistic competence or communicative competence.
Culler (1975) and Schauber and Spolsky (1986), for instance, recognize
their interrelation, but they fail to define it clearly.
Traditional ideas about and conventional administrations of testing
with literary texts might also invite the underuse of literary texts. Literary
reading has been regarded as advanced or ‘luxurious’ reading. Therefore,
it has been argued that it should be allowed only for advanced learners.
For instance, Henning (1992) insists that novice-level learners on the
literary interpretation scale must reach an intermediate high level on the
scale for general reading skills. In addition, as Carter and Long (1990)
and Spiro (1991) suggest, the test-item types used in literature testing
have little variety: in most cases, they are mechanical comprehension
questions or open-ended descriptive questions. Consequently, teachers
have only a few test-item models.
Previous studies on literature testing may also discourage teachers
from constructing tests with literary texts. First, no balance for handling
different traits of literary reading in one test has been presented.
Researchers often fail to regard this balance, especially when they
insist on covering the new traits which previous studies have missed
considering. Secondly, recent studies do not deal with literary reading
itself, but instead treat its performance in more integrative linguistic
activities, which include literary reading as a component: writing abil-
ities about literary texts (Brumfit and Killam, 1986; Hanauer, 1996;
Paran, 2010) or creative ability (Spiro, 2010). These recent enterprises
do not show how well learners can read literary texts. At any rate, liter-
ature testing is ‘a thin and surprisingly under-researched area’ (Hall,
2005: 148), for which testing methodologies have not been established
(Carter, 2007).
As discussed above, teachers have been deterred from composing tests
with literary texts for various reasons. At the moment, using literary
texts for this purpose might be risky in Japan. Although Saito et al.
(2004) have noticed the problem that Japanese teachers of English do
not know how to teach using literary texts,3 a more serious problem
might lie on the testing side. Therefore, even passionate teachers who
have used literary texts in class tend to avoid them in tests.
118 Takayuki Nishihara
In the tips above, historical and socio-cultural traits are not consid-
ered because improvement in such knowledge is not a primary goal in
the general EFL reading course. Although such content might pique
learners’ curiosity, dealing with such content would be more meaningful
in professional courses for literature majors, such as courses on British
and American literature targeted at students of letters, as described by
Teranishi in Chapter 11.
thanks to Hirvela (1996), teachers now agree that those emotions and
experiences should be respected. Questions such as ‘which scene do you
like best?’ or ‘what would you do if you were in the character’s situa-
tion?’ are often asked of learners in class. Unfortunately, however, these
questions are rarely included in tests because it is almost impossible to
evaluate their answers objectively and teachers cannot but accept any
answer. Responses to literary texts are an essential part of literary reading.
Eliminating them from testing can give learners a mistaken notion that
literary reading should not be affective or imbued with personal mean-
ings. This chapter presents the argument that achievement tests for
literary reading should include a few specific test items for this aspect.
5 Testing practice
Their ages were 19–21 years. Nineteen learners had taken a TOEIC Test
(a general English proficiency test) during the semester. Their scores
ranged between 400–835 (TOEIC Test scores are 10–990). Therefore,
learners with very different English proficiency levels were enrolled in
this course. Their levels of interest in English also differed individually.
Some were planning to major in English in the future, but others were
more interested in studying Japanese, Chinese, or Korean. Although
their literary experiences in English were quite limited, they were more
or less intent on improving their literary reading proficiency in English
by taking this course.
Following the second tip, most of the test items were targeted at literal
meaning comprehension of the text. At the same time, based on the
last three tips, a few test items for interpretation, creative language, and
personal responses to the text were included. In addition, grammatical
items were added because they had been covered in class. The other two
test sessions were organized similarly.
Achievement Tests for Literary Reading 123
G LMC I CL RT Total
Full 6 22 4 2 4 38
Lowest 1 4 0 0 4 13
Highest 6 22 4 2 4 37
Mean 3.7 15.9 2.9 1.6 4 28.1
Standard Deviation 1.4 4.2 1.0 0.6 0 5.7
G LMC I CL RT
test items for LMC. The achievement test for literary reading requires
specific test items for these genre-specific traits.
Secondly, the test items for RT elicited learners’ individual ideas. For
Question (15-ii), six learners who responded to Question (15-i) that they
would feel happy emphasized that the husband’s decision does not mean
that he does not love his wife (‘because the husband’s consideration for
the protagonist is still real’ (translated by the author)). Most of the other
learners who answered Question (15-i) contrarily emphasized the point
that the protagonist’s freedom is violated (‘no matter how much I were
cherished, I would not want to be shut in a room’). It is particularly
noteworthy that some of the latter learners wrote interesting answers
such as ‘My husband tells me to stay in the room because he worries
about my health. However, I would still want to go out. So I would
feel sorry for him.’ or ‘I would feel that my husband might be feeling
shameful about me and want to hide me from his neighbours.’
Nevertheless, this test presented some difficulties in marking. First,
it was difficult to assign a zero grade to the test items for CL because
what learners addressed were literary readings’ actual effects on
them. In the marking procedures, I awarded all the learners at least
one point as far as they wrote something about the linguistic effect.
Secondly, I was not able to rate learners’ answers for the test items for
RT because their answers also reflected their actual literary engage-
ment. As Table 7.1 shows, full points were given to all the learners.
Although it is difficult to grade the learners by these test items, it is
important to have learners understand that CL and RT are significant
aspects of literary reading.
Regarded comprehensively, this end-of-term exam (and teaching
as well) gave the learners some pointers about how to tackle literary
texts in English. They were encouraged to engage in the passage from
various perspectives because the test required them not only to show
literal meaning comprehension of the text, but also to exhibit interpre-
tation of the passage, sensitivity to linguistic creativity, and personal
responses to the text. In addition, this test gave all learners opportuni-
ties to present their own ideas about the passage. As exemplified above,
they were willing to answer the test items.
8 Conclusion
This chapter has suggested five tips for constructing achievement tests
for literary reading. These tips are intended to incorporate in a test
literary reading which L1 readers often practice, and to handle its multi-
farious traits with a more appropriate balance. Obviously, teaching and
testing are two sides of the same coin and both sides must be inves-
tigated equally. However, compared to teaching methodologies, the
testing methodologies for literary reading have remained inadequately
examined. It is to be hoped that this chapter will contribute to better
126 Takayuki Nishihara
testing practices and induce teachers to use literary texts in general EFL
reading courses.
(a)I
don’t know whyy I should write this.
I don’t want to.
I don’t feel able.
And I know John would think it absurd. But I mustt say what I feel and
think in some way – it is such a relief!
But the effort is getting to be greater than the relief.
(b)Half the time now I am awfully lazy, and lie down ever so much.
John says I mustn’t lose my strength, and has me take (c)cod liver oil and
lots of tonics and things,
g , to say
y ( A ) of ale and wine and rare meat.
Dear John! He loves me very dearly, and hates to have me sick. I tried to
have (d)a real earnest reasonable talk with him the other day, and tell him
how I wish he would let me go and make a visit to Cousin Henry and Julia.
But he said (e)I wasn’t able to go,
g , nor able to stand it after I got
g there; and I
did not make ( B ) a very good case for myself, for I was crying before I had
finished.
It is getting to be a great effort for me to think straight. Just this nervous
weakness I suppose.
And dear John gathered me up in his arms, and just carried me upstairs and
laid me on the bed, and sat by me and read to me till (f)it tired my head.
He said I was his darling and his comfort and all he had, and that I must
take care of myself for his sake, and keep well.
He says no one but myself can help me out of (g)it, that I must use my will
and self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with me.
There’s one comfort, the baby is well and happy, and does not have to
occupy this nursery with (h)the horrid wallpaper.
p p
If we had not used it, that blessed child would have! (i)What a fortunate
escape!
p Why, I wouldn’t have a child of mine, an impressionable little thing,
( C ) in such a room for worlds.
I never thought of it before, but it is lucky that John kept me here after all,
I can stand it so much easier than a baby, you see.
Of course I never mention it to them any more – I am too wise, – but I keep
watch of it all the same.
Achievement Tests for Literary Reading 127
There are things in that paper that nobody knows ( D ) me, or ever will.
Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day.
It is always the same shape, only very numerous.
(j)And it is like a woman stooping p g down and creeping
p g about behind that
p
pattern. I don’t like it a bit. I wonder – I begin to think – I wish John would
take me away from here!
* * *
(k)It is so hard to talk with John
J about my y case, because he is so wise, and
because he loves me so.
(l)But I tried it last night.
g
It was moonlight. The moon shines in all around just as the sun does.
I hate to see it sometimes, it creeps so slowly, and always comes in by one
window or another.
John was asleep and I hated to waken him, so I kept still and watched the
moonlight on that undulating wallpaper till I felt creepy.
The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted
to get out.
1. Choose the best answer for each parenthesis in the passage. [1 for
each]
( A ): (i) something (ii) nothing (iii) anything (iv) everything
( B ): (i) up (ii) away (iii) out (iv) with
( C ): (i) lives (ii) live (iii) to live (iv) lived
( D ): (i) or (ii) but (iii) and (iv) however
2. Despite the utterance marked as underlined position (a), why did
the narrator decide to write it? [2]
3. During the time designated at underlined position (b), what was the
narrator doing? [2]
4. Why did the narrator’s husband give the narrator the foods speci-
fied at underlined position (c)? [2]
5. What did the narrator specifically say to her husband in the conver-
sation marked as underlined position (d)? [2]
6. Reconstruct the utterance which the husband actually said to the
narrator by changing the expression at underlined position (e) into
a direct speech form. [2]
7. To what does ‘it’ at underlined position (f) refer? [2]
8. To what does ‘it’ at underlined position (g) refer? [2]
9. Why did the author describe the wallpaper as ‘the horrid wallpaper’
at underlined position (h)? [2]
10. To what does ‘fortunate escape’ at underlined position (i) refer in
this passage? [2]
128 Takayuki Nishihara
11. (i) To what does ‘a woman’ at underlined position (j) refer? (ii) Also
provide the reason why you think so. [2 for each]
12. What order from the husband led to the narrator’s idea presented at
underlined position (k)? [2]
13. What was the outcome of the event designated at underlined posi-
tion (l)? [2]
14. What effects do the ill-formed paragraphs and sentences (for example,
their extreme shortness and excessive use of ‘and’) achieve? [2]
15. If you were in the narrator’s shoes with the same husband, (i) would
you feel happy? (ii) Also provide the reason why you feel so. [2]
16. Is the sentence True or False? [1]
Q. It is becoming harder and harder for John’s wife to think
straight.
17. Choose the best answer for the following question. [1]
Q. How did John express his love for his wife?
(i) He said his wife was all he had. (ii) He said his wife was his relief.
(iii) He said his wife was his fancy. (iv) He said his wife was what he was.
Notes
1. Reading in English is not a goal for education in elementary schools in
Japan.
2. Spiro (1991) offers the most comprehensive literary competence model to
date.
3. In this sense, the Japanese contributors to this volume are exceptional teachers
in Japan.
4. Miall and Kuiken (1999) showed that encounters with linguistic creativity in
literary texts transform or modify readers’ conventional feelings.
References
Alderson, J. (2000) Assessing Reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bachman, L. F. (1990). Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Bachman, L. and Palmer, A. (2010) Language Assessment in Practice. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Bierwisch, M. (1970 [1965]) ‘Poetics and Linguistics’, trans. P. H. Salus, in D. C.
Freeman (ed.) Linguistics and Literary Style, 96–115. New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston.
Brumfit, C. (1991) ‘Testing Literature’, in C. Brumfit (ed.) Assessment in Literature
Teaching,
g 1–8. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Brumfit, C. J. and Killam, G. D. (1986) ‘Proposed Examination Paper’, in C. J.
Brumfit and R. A. Carter (eds) Literature and Language Teachingg, 253–255.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Achievement Tests for Literary Reading 129
1 Introduction
In this section, two terms, ‘reading’ and ‘reading strategy’, are examined
for theoretical preliminary consideration, and then the characteristics of
reading digital texts are summarized. First, the process of reading consists
of two aspects, decoding and comprehending. Decoding is the process
of reading physical letters, and comprehending is the process of getting
information from those letters. The top-down approach and bottom-up
approaches are complementary ways of processing a text as a whole.
In top-down processing, readers can make use of all that they bring to
the text such as their world knowledge, common sense and personal
131
132 Soichiro Oku
4 Methodology
4.1 Participants
One hundred and twenty-four undergraduate students at an interme-
diate proficiency level and sixty undergraduate students at an advanced
proficiency level participated in the study. The average age of the partic-
ipants was 19. All participants were born in Japan and Japanese was
their native language. They all had personal computers, and used them
intensively.
These approaches still lack any direct practical applications that could
be used by EFL teachers. However, the tasks in this investigation focus
on the combination of stylistic approaches and language awareness in
the EFL classroom. While identifying the writers’ craft through stylistic
analysis, teachers encourage students to acquire language knowledge. It
is a valuable exercise to analyse language from a stylistic point of view.
Furthermore, it is a preliminary step in the appreciation of literary texts
as well as non-literary texts.
Tasks are divided into three types: scanning to find repetition and
rhymes, checking linguistic knowledge, and comprehension. Although
scanning tasks are seemingly to related to cognitive load, it is easier for
users of digital texts to scan objectives because of zooming functions.
4.3 Tasks
Task 1: The 124 participants were divided into two groups: Group A (49
students) and Group B (75 students) according to their proficiency. Each
group was given 20 minutes to read the initial part of the picture book
The Little House by Virginia Lee (1942), Group A in print and Group B
in digital format, and then answer questions. In EFL classrooms, picture
books are often used as basic reading materials, because the readers have
a visual context with the verbal text. On completion of the task, both
groups completed the same paper-based questionnaire. The questions
were as follows:
Task 2: Another sixty EFL students were divided into two groups; Group
C (30 students) read a printed text and answered a paper-based quiz.
Group D (30 students) read a PDF file on screen and answered the same
paper-based quiz. The following instructions were given to the students.
Read the first page of The Remains of the Dayy by Kazuo Ishiguro (1989).
Within 20 minutes, answer the following questions on the paper.
100
91
90 86
82 81
80 75
74
Q1
70 65
Q2
60 52 Q3
% 50 Q4
40 Q5
30
30 Q6
20
13 13
11
10
0
PDF P
PAPER
100 94
90 89 87 86
80 78 78 79
74 75
69
70 Q1
61 62 62
60 Q2
54
% 50 49 Q3
Q4
40
30 Q5
30
Q6
20
Q7
10
Q8
0
PDF on the screen P
PA
PAPER
format, the percentage of the scores of all participants’ answers has been
calculated.
From an examination of these two figures, no statistically significant
difference was found between the two formats. However, differences
between the print and digital formats were found in the comprehen-
sion questions (Task 1 Q5, Task 2 Q5, 6, 8). When reading digital texts,
readers are likely to jump from text to text because of its legibility, so
then they have enough time to consider or construct the content texts
produce. Apart from the texts themselves, readers can comprehend
the textual contexts. Thus readers modify their reading strategies for
comprehension in the time duration. Despite the reports on differences
between print and digital reading, our findings clearly suggest that there
is almost no performance difference between the reading of print and
the digital formats. Rather, digital texts facilitate comprehension and are
therefore more effective for language learning.
5 Conclusion
In the EFL classroom, young Japanese readers are likely to overcome the
cognitive load, the legibility of digital texts. They are growing accus-
tomed to using digital appliances, so they can modify their reading
strategies.
According to the study by the UK’s National Literary Trust of the
reading habits of almost 35,000 eight- to sixteen-year-olds in the UK
(Coughian, 2013), high levels of access to mobile phones, computers
and tablets now means that reading is an activity more likely to be
conducted on screen than on the printed page. Not only British but also
Japanese students are becoming ‘digital natives’, and they are learning
how to deal with the additional cognitive load involved in digital
reading. These findings can be considered as evidence to support the
results of this study.
More research on print versus digital reading in the EFL classroom
is necessary in order to clarify the nature and implications of today’s
emphasis on digital reading. Furthermore, teachers should take the
distinctive aspects of digital reading and reading strategies into consid-
eration to make stylistic-based tasks more effective.
References
Armitage U., Wilson, S. and Sharp, H. (2004) ‘Navigation and Ownership for
Learning in Electronic Texts: An Experimental Study’, Electronic Journal of
E-Learningg 2 (2): http://www.ejel.org/volume-2/vol2-issue1/issue1-art17.htm
A Stylistic Approach to Digital Texts 139
Brown, R. (2008) ‘The Road Not Yet Taken: A Transactional Strategies Approach to
Comprehension Instruction’, The Reading Teacherr 61 (7): 538–547.
Coughian, S. (2013) ‘Young People “Prefer to Read on Screen”’, BBC News
Education and Family, 16 May. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
education-22540408 [accessed 16 May 2013].
Eshet-Alkalai, Y. and Geri, N. (2010) ‘Does the Medium Affect the Message? The
Effect of Congruent Versus Incongruent Display on Critical Reading’, Human
Systems Managementt 29 (4): 243–251.
Evans, M. A., Charland, A. R. and Saint-Aubin, J. (2009) ‘A New Look at an Old
Format: Eye-tracking Studies of Shared Book Reading and Implications for
eBook and eBook Research’, in G. Bus and S. Neuman (eds) Multimedia and
Literacy Development,t 89–111. New York: Routledge.
Morineau, T., Blanche, C., Tobin, L. and Guéguen, N. (2005) ‘The Emergence of
the Contextual Role of the E-book in Cognitive Processes through an Ecological
and Functional Analysis’, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 62:
329–348.
Rouet, J. F. (2000) ‘Hypermedia and Learning – Cognitive Perspectives’, Journal of
Computer Assisted Learningg 16: 97–101.
Sigal, E. and Yoram, E.-A. (2012) ‘Print Versus Digital: The Effect of Format on
Performance in Editing Text’, Proceedings of the Chais Conference on Instructional
Technologies Research 2012: Learning in the Technological Era, 13–21.
Van den Broek, P., Kendeou, P. and White, M. J. (2009) ‘Cognitive Processes
during Reading: Implications for the Use of Multimedia to Foster Reading
Comprehension’, G. in Bus and S. Neuman (eds) Multimedia and Literacy
Development, t 57–74. New York: Routledge.
9
The Effects of Literary Texts on
Students’ Sentence Recognition:
Translation Tasks and
Comprehension Tasks
Tomohide Ishihara and Akira Ono
1 Introduction
140
Effects of Literary Texts on Sentence Recognition 141
3 Method
3.2 Participants
The participants in this study were 141 Japanese university students
majoring in law, economics and business administration. According
to their scores in the TOEIC test, one of the most widely used English
proficiency tests in Japanese universities (shown below), their English
proficiency was from novice to pre-intermediate level. Many first- and
second-year Japanese university students who are not majoring in
English fall into this range.
Students were divided into two groups: seventy-three students were
assigned a literary text and the remaining sixty-eight a newspaper article.
The average TOEIC test scores were 354.46 (SD = 62.17; n = 65) for the
literary group, and 354.10 (SD = 68.29; n = 61) for the expository group,
with 15 students’ scores not available. The tt-test showed that there
was no significant difference between the two groups: t(124) = 0.37,
p = .98.
After the tasks, 19 students who had scored below two points out of
five on the comprehension task (see Section 3.4) were excluded from
the analysis because of their insufficient understanding of the passage.
Thus, the number of participants was 63 for the literary text and 59 for
the newspaper article.
3.3 Texts
The texts used in the study were (1) ‘The Old Bus’(1971), a short story
written by the American novelist Richard Brautigan, and (2) a news-
paper article ‘“Crunch time” prompting many firms to get into the
power game’, from The Nikkei Weeklyy on 4 June 2012.
Effects of Literary Texts on Sentence Recognition 145
Brautigan is one of the most widely read American novelists from the
1970s, and ‘The Old Bus’ is one of his 62 short stories that appear in
Revenge of the Lawns: Stories 1962–1970. As Fujimoto (2008) states in her
post-edit comment, Brautigan successfully describes the feelings of occlu-
sion and stagnation in America at the time as well as his own sense of
alienation. Particularly with his unique metaphorical expressions, he
succeeds in evoking rich images and unique feelings in his readers. We
identified ‘The Old Bus’ as one of his most successful short stories and we
anticipated that the study participants would enjoy reading it. The story
contains 481 words (34 sentences), which means that it is short enough to
be read by novice Japanese EFL students in a reasonable amount of time.
The newspaper article is about the shift from using electricity gener-
ated by nuclear power plants to using renewable energy in the wake of
the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that struck the northeastern
coast of Japan. The Nikkei Weeklyy is an established economic newspaper
in Japan, and the topic of the article was expected to be familiar to
participants and easy for them to read. The passage contains 444 words
(24 sentences), which was considered to make it a good companion to
the Brautigan text.
3.4 Tasks
The participants were assigned tasks during and after reading the texts.
There were two types of while-reading tasks: English-Japanese transla-
tion and true-or-false (T/F) comprehension questions. The after-reading
task was a sentence recognition task. These tasks are explained below.
true or false, but also to correct the statement if they believed it was false
and to cite the line number of the information in the passage if they
believed it was true.
Table 9.1 Examples of the three types of sentence in the sentence recognition
task
(a) Correct The same sentence as in the She had a large purse and white
passage (i.e. target sentence). gloves that fit her hands like
the skins of vegetables
(b) Paraphrased The meaning of the target She had a large purse and white
sentence is retained while gloves that fit her hands tightly
the surface structure is
changed.
(c) Incorrect The meaning of the target She had a large purse and white
sentence is changed. gloves that didn’t fit her hands
at all
Effects of Literary Texts on Sentence Recognition 147
3.5 Procedure
The research was conducted in December 2012. We explained the aim
of the research to the participants, gave them instructions and handed
out the reading material; however, we left them uninformed about the
recognition tasks to be performed after the reading task. Subsequently,
students were given the option not to have their data used by writing
‘not participate’ on the handout before submitting it.
Before the while-reading tasks, we explained to the participants that
their scores on the task would not affect their grade in the class; the time
allowed for the task would be 40 minutes; and the use of dictionaries
would not be allowed. After the task, we conducted the after-reading
task. We handed them a sheet with the six sentences and asked them
to judge whether each sentence was in the passage they had just read.
After we were sure that all the participants had completed the task, we
collected the material for the recognition task.
Table 9.2 shows the descriptive statistics for the sentence recognition
task.
The results of a 2 (text type: Brautigan, Nikkei) × 2 (task type: transla-
tion, comprehension) × 3 (sentence type: correct, paraphrased, incor-
rect) ANOVA show that there is no significant interaction among the
three factors, F (1.87, 224.54) = 0.60, p = .541, partial η2 = .005.
Although a 2 (text type) × 2 (task type) ANOVA does not show statistical
significance, F (1, 120) = 2.09, p = .151, partial η2 = .017, a 2 (text type) ×
3 (sentence type) ANOVA and a 2 (task type) × 3 (sentence type) ANOVA
show significant interaction between the factors, F (1.90, 228.18) = 7.27,
p = .001, partial η2 = .057; F (1.87, 224.54) = 34.12, p = .000, partial
η2 = .221, respectively.
Sentence type
The main effect of the text type is not significant for the correct
sentence condition, F (1, 120) = 0.10, p = .751, but is significant for the
paraphrased sentence condition, F (1, 120) = 4.12, p = .045. The main
effect of the task type is significant for both the correct sentence condi-
tion, F (1, 240) = 258.52, p = .000, and the paraphrased sentence condi-
tion, F (1, 120) = 53.37, p = .000.
In summary, the statistical analysis shows that (1) students who read
the literary text were less likely to misrecognize paraphrased sentences
and (2) sentences that were assigned to translation tasks were recog-
nized better in both the correct sentence condition and the paraphrased
sentence condition. These findings imply that a literary text and/or
translation task draws students’ attention to the surface structure of the
target sentences. Although the implications for EFL classrooms still need
to be discussed, it seems that the findings can be applied to facilitate
students’ vocabulary learning or to improve and develop their language
awareness as a literary text and/or translation task draws students’ focus
to the target vocabulary or grammar and also these items can be effec-
tively remembered.
5 Further research
This study empirically shows that the way EFL students read a literary text
is different from the way they read a newspaper article. Furthermore, it
illustrates that translation tasks are different from comprehension tasks
in that students focus on the sentences’ surface structure. While these
findings are encouraging and may provide guidance to language educa-
tors interested in using literary materials with lower-level EFL learners,
there remain two things that require further research.
First, it is necessary to clarify the relationship between the focus of
attention on sentence structure and L2 language acquisition. Research
on L2 acquisition has demonstrated that noticing is essential to learners’
acquisition of new linguistic items. However, few empirical researches
have been conducted on such issues as learning new vocabularies or
grammatical items by reading literary texts. In addition, applications to
the L2 classroom – that is, specific tasks or teaching materials – should
also be developed.
The other topic to be studied further is how these students’ focus
on sentence structure and linguistic features can be connected or
expanded to the interpretation of the text itself. From the perspective
of bottom-up stylistics approaches to literature, noticing text features
is the first step towards text interpretation, although the development
Effects of Literary Texts on Sentence Recognition 149
References
Cook, G. (2010) Translation in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Fujimoto, K. (2008) ‘Post Translator’s Comment, Again’ (published in Japanese),
in R. Brautigan (ed.) and K. Fujimoto (trans.) Revenge of the Lawn: Stories 1962–
1970. Tokyo: Shinchosha. (Original work published 1971.)
Fukuda, Y. (2009) ‘Do We Read Texts Precisely and Thoroughly?: The Perspective
of Shallow Processing Toward the Reading Comprehension Model’ (published
in Japanese), Bulletin of the Faculty of Letters, Hosei University, 58: 75–86.
Hall, G. (2005) Literature in Language Education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hanauer, D. (1999) ‘Attention and Literary Education: A Model of Literary
Knowledge Development’, Language Awareness 8 (1): 15–29.
Hanauer, D. I. (2001) ‘The Task of Poetry Reading and Second Language Learning’,
Applied Linguistics 22 (3): 295–323.
Kimura, Y. (2012) ‘Effects of Reading Goals on Narrative Theme Comprehension’,
ARELE (Annual Review of English Language Education in Japan) 23: 233–248.
Kimura, Y. (2013) ‘The Process of Thematic Inference Generation in EFL Reading:
Focusing on Context and Readers’ Proficiency’ ARELE (Annual Review of English
Language Education in Japan) 24: 125–140.
Kosako, M., Seta, Y., Fukunaga, T. and Wakimoto, K. (eds) (2010) New Challenges
Toward English Education: From an English Teacher’s Perspective (published in
Japanese). Tokyo: Eiho-sha.
Lin, H. (2010) ‘The Taming of the Immeasurable: An Empirical Assessment of
Language Awareness’, in A. Paran and L. Sercu (eds) Testing the Untestable in
Language Education, 191–215. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Miall, D. S. and Kuilen, D. (1994) ‘Foregrounding, Defamiliarization, and Affect:
Response to Literary Stories’, Poetics 22: 389–407.
Miall, D. S. and Kuiken, D. (1995) ‘Aspects of Literary Response: A New
Questionnaire’, Research in the Teaching of English 29 (1): 37–58.
Muramoto, T. (1994) ‘The Effects of Descriptive Forms of Speech Act in Stories on
Recognition Memory’ (published in Japanese), The Japanese Journal of Psychology
65 (1): 47–53.
Muramoto, T. (1998) Cognitive Psychological Studies on Sentence Comprehension
(published in Japanese). Tokyo: Kazama shobou.
Muramoto, T. (2000) ‘The Effects of Second-Language Proficiency on Text
Comprehension’ (published in Japanese), The Science of Readingg 44 (2): 43–50.
150 Tomohide Ishihara and Akira Ono
1 Introduction
151
152 Tetsuko Nakamura
For a second, Mr. Dursley didn’t realize what he had seen – then he
jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing
on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn’t a map in sight. What
could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light.
Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. (Rowling, 1997: 7–8)
ǢǔόǾƖƞ 䁅ƍƜƅǂƕ
scarf dato hanashite kureta.
[is (a) scarf] [told (to me)]
Although the English translation includes ‘it was a scarf’ in the past
tense and ‘my father had bought her’ in the past perfect, the original
Japanese keeps the former in the present tense and the latter in the past
tense. In fact, since the Japanese language does not have perfect tenses,
‘sanjunen-mae ni’ is equivalent to both ‘30 years ago’ and ‘30 years
before’. In addition, the verbal phrases ‘katte kureta’ and ‘hanashite
kureta’ do not specify whom the actions are directed at, which can only
be inferred from the context. As a result, indirect speech in Japanese
sounds very similar to direct speech.
In the context of English–Japanese literary translation, Mano (2010)
points out that indirect speech in the original English should be presented
154 Tetsuko Nakamura
to read the original carefully to appreciate the full effect of the presen-
tations. Also, using more than one translation of the original can help
learners to enhance both their language awareness and their literary
appreciation. This comparative approach is especially worthwhile when
the interpretation of texts revolving around free indirect thought is not
straightforward. Teachers should, therefore, carefully explore ways to
make efficient use of translations, while always bearing in mind that
the main goal is to help learners to read and appreciate the texts in the
original language.
All of these novels have one or more than one available Japanese
translation, and Pride and Prejudice and Emma have Korean translations;
students were free to choose whichever suited their own needs or
preferences.
Evaluation of the students’ progress was based mainly on their term
papers, in which they were requested to analyse speech and thought
presentation in any British novel. They could also submit, as an optional
task, samples of their own writing containing examples of free indirect
discourse together with any other mode of speech and thought presenta-
tion. This task was intended to gauge to what extent the students had
mastered the mechanisms of discourse and the use of free indirect style.
In the following sub-sections, I will discuss a step-by-step pedagogical
approach to Austen and Eliot that helps novice students to develop their
understanding of the mechanisms of speech and thought presentation
and to improve their literary appreciation of the text.
‘My dear Mr. Bennet,’ said his lady to him one day, ‘have you heard
that Netherfield Park is let at last?’
Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
‘But it is,’ returned she; ‘for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told
me all about it.’
Mr. Bennet made no answer.
‘Do not you want to know who has taken it?’ cried his wife
impatiently
p y.
‘You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.’
This was invitation enough.*
Benefits of Teaching Speech/Thought Presentation 157
‘Whyy, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is
y
taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England;
that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place,
and was so much delighted with it, that he agreed with Mr. Morris
immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and
some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week.’
‘What is his name?’
‘Bingley.’
‘Is he married or single?’
‘Oh! single,
g , my
y dear,, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or
five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!’
‘How so? how can it affect them?’
‘My dear Mr. Bennet,’ replied his wife, ‘how can you
y be so tiresome!
You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.’
‘Is that his design in settling here?’
‘Design!
g nonsense,, how can y you talk so! But it is very likely that he
mayy fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him
as soon as he comes.’2 (Austen, 2012: 2, 4; underlining and bold
emphases are mine)
Since the underlined inverted sentence shows a stark contrast with the
previous simple explanatory ‘and she read it again’, the students could
intuitively sense the difference in tone. The following rhetorical ques-
tion also helped them to understand the stream of Elizabeth’s thoughts,
and attention was also directed to the function of the dashes frequently
used. Focusing on this type of shift in thought presentation, teachers
can comfortably introduce students to free indirect thought. In this
passage, the students were also expected to notice the transition from
free indirect thought to indirect thought; the second that-clause
t in the
last sentence (‘She felt that …’) clearly indicates it to be an indirect
thought presentation.
By the use of separate excerpts from Pride and Prejudice, beginning
with grammatically simple speech representations significantly asso-
ciated with character development, I proceeded to deal with thought
presentation, including free indirect style. In order to ensure students’
understanding of this approach, I next employed an excerpt of the
conversation between Miss Bates and Emma (Vol. II, Ch. 1) in which
the former endlessly speaks and the latter shows some reluctance to
continue the conversation. The character contrast is as intriguing as that
at the beginning of Pride and Prejudice.
reach the Chase again till nearly five, when Hetty would be safe
out of his sight
g in the housekeeper’s room; and when she set out
to go home, it would be his lazy time after dinner, so he should
keepp out of her way y altogether. There really would have been no
harm in being kind to the little thing, and it was worth dancing
with a dozen ball-room belles only to look at Hetty for half an
hour. But perhaps he had better not take any more notice of her;
it might put notions into her head, as Irwine had hinted; though
Arthur, for his part, thought girls were not by any means so soft and
easily bruised; indeed, he had generally found them twice as cool
and cunning as he was himself. As for any real harm in Hetty’s
case, it was out of the question: Arthur Donnithorne accepted his
own bond for himself with perfect confidence. (Eliot, 2008: 115–116;
underlining and bold emphases are mine)
I did not recognize any particular differences between the Japanese and
Korean students. Their native languages share features related to tense
and person, as a result of which they showed similar comprehension
difficulties in their papers. The main problem for all of the students was
polyphonic representations of speech and thought, but some of them
were conscious of the narrators’ use of speech and thought presentations
to develop characterization. The student who wrote about Mansfield
Park appropriately referred to the narrator’s sarcastic voice embedded in
a free indirect speech presentation of Mrs Norris’s words.
The difficulties surrounding free indirect discourse demonstrated in
the term papers were also seen in the optional writing tasks submitted
by six of the students. All six included direct discourse and free indi-
rect discourse, and also, interestingly, free direct discourse in their
passages, but only one incorporated indirect discourse. This limited
use of indirect discourse is largely explained by the fact that, in
Japanese, direct discourse is preferred to indirect discourse, which
essentially does not sound natural. The students’ preference for free
direct discourse, on the other hand, can probably be largely explained
by the fact that there is no mode equivalent to free indirect discourse
in Japanese; students are not used to employing the tense/person shifts
necessary to write free indirect discourse in English. Therefore, they
tend to produce free direct discourse when they should write free indi-
rect discourse. Here is a typical example (the protagonist has received
a gift): ‘A brown stuffed rabbit appeared on wrapping paper. It was
smaller and dirtier than in her memory. But how can she mistake her
best friend! It is Mimi. Memories in her childhood were revived’ (the
underlining is mine). The underlined part is free direct speech; since
the student’s writing includes only one very short sentence of free
indirect speech, these two sentences are likely to have been intended
as examples of free indirect speech, the inclusion of which was a main
requirement.
It is understandable that all six of the students’ passages included
free direct discourse maintaining the present tense, as seen in Japanese
translations of free indirect discourse in English. Certainly, the students
were not very conscious of the importance of tense sequences. On the
surface, many of the free direct discourse examples included in the six
passages demonstrate simple mistakes in English verb tense sequencing;
however, the fundamental problem is rooted in differences between
English and Japanese, and maybe between English and Korean. Again,
I did not observe any particular differences between the Japanese and
164 Tetsuko Nakamura
Korean students in this task. I should point out, however, that neither
the intentions of the students in using free direct discourse nor the
influence of the Korean language on the Korean students’ writing are
examined here.
In terms of teaching speech and thought presentation, then, teachers
should understand the differences between English and learners’ native
languages and teach them the appropriate mechanisms for carrying out
various kinds of discourse. In this respect, non-native English teachers
familiar with stylistics certainly have an important role to play in
teaching English language and literature.
6 Conclusion
Notes
1. Soga (1983) provides the whole picture of the grammatical frameworks of
tense and aspect in the Japanese language; Kuno’s discussion (1976) aids
understanding of person in constituent clauses in Japanese.
2. From the pedagogical point of view, annotated editions of novels are helpful
to EFL learners.
References
Austen, J. (2012) The Annotated Pride and Prejudice, ed. D. M. Shapard, Revised and
expanded edn. New York: Anchor Books.
Eliot, G. (2008) Adam Bede, ed. C. A. Martin, Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Fludernik, M. (1993) The Fictions of Language and the Languages of Fiction: The
Linguistic Representation of Speech and Consciousness. Abingdon: Routledge.
Hagenaar, E. (1996) ‘Free Indirect Speech in Chinese’, in T. A. J. M. Janssen and
W. Van Der Wurff (eds) Reported Speech: Forms and Functions of the Verb, 289–298.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Herman, L. and Vervaeck, B. (2007) ‘Ideology’, in D. Herman (ed.) The Cambridge
Companion to Narrative, 217–230. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jo, Mi-Jeung (1976) ‘The Retrospective Suffix and Speech Level of Narration in
Korean’, Applied Linguistics, 8 (1): 57–79.
Kuno, S. (1976) ‘Subject Raising’, in M. Shibatani (ed.) Japanese Generative
Grammar, r Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 5, 17–49. New York: Academic Press.
Leech, G. and Short, M. (2007 [1981]) Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to
English Fictional Prose. Harlow: Pearson Education.
Lodge, D. (1990) After Bakhtin: Essays on Fiction and Criticism. London: Routledge.
Mano, Y. (2010) Eigo no Shikumi to Yakushi-kata [The Structure of English and
Japanese Translation]. Tokyo: Kenkyusha.
Marshall, J. B. (1997) ‘Gossip, Metaphor, and Intimacy: Narrative Syntax in the
Treatment of Hetty Sorel’, in P. Gately, D. Leavens and D. C. Woodcox (eds)
Perspectives on Self and Community in George Eliot: Dorothea’s Window, 125–162.
Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.
Nakagawa, Y. (1983) Jiyukansetsu-waho: Eigo no Shosetsu ni Miru Keitai to Kino
[Free Indirect Speech: Its Forms and Functions in English Novels]. Kyoto:
Apollon-sha.
Nakamura, T. (2016) ‘Characterisation and the Modes of Communication and
Reflection: A Stylistic Analysis of George Eliot’s Adam Bede’, forthcoming.
Nakano, K., trans. (2003) Koman to Henken [Pride and Prejudice], by J. Austen,
2 vols. Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo.
Nakazatomi, S. (2011) ‘Chugoku-go no Jiyukansetsu-waho ni tsuite [Free Indirect
Discourse in Chinese]’, Journal of East Asian Cultural Interaction Studies (Kansai
University) Suppl. 7: 123–139.
Rowling, J. K. (1997) Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. London:
Bloomsbury.
Soga, M. (1983) Tense and Aspect in Modern Colloquial Japanese. Vancouver:
University of British Columbia Press.
166 Tetsuko Nakamura
1 Introduction
This chapter has two main aims: one is to clarify what EFL students
can and should learn from authentic English literary fiction. For this
purpose I shall consider specifically the extent to which English litera-
ture and language studies can collaborate. My second aim is to examine
whether the teaching of literature should be incorporated into foreign
language education: should students learn literature exclusively through
instruction in their native language, or could reading and studying liter-
ature in English facilitate greater depth in learning? To answer these
questions, data has been collected from students enrolled in an English
literature course at a Japanese university. This chapter will present the
methodology behind the course and show an analysis of student data;
furthermore, the pedagogical implications of English language and
English literature education working in concert, both in classrooms in
Japan and around the world, will be considered.
167
168 Masayuki Teranishi
Catherine received the young man the next day on the ground she
had chosen – amid the chaste upholstery of a New York drawing-
room furnished in the fashion of fifty years ago. ... What Morris had
told Catherine at last was simply that he loved her, or rather adored
her. (James, 2007 [1880]: 56–57)
The next day Morris came to the house. He told Catherine that he
loved her. (James, 1999 [1880]: 15)
from English novels have been employed in my own lessons; the details
will be described below.
3 Content of lessons
3.2 Students
Students enrolled in the course described above are second- and third-
year students at a Japanese public university that offers an interdisci-
plinary programme where the relationship between the environment
Teaching English Novels in the EFL Classroom 171
3.3 Goals
As Figure 11.1 shows, the abilities or skills that EFL students should learn
through reading English literature can be divided into two categories:
language skills (practical communication skills in particular) and literary
skills (critical ability, awareness of literariness, creativity, etc.).
While the two kinds of skill are located at opposite ends of the scale,
they never contradict but often reinforce each other. Between the two
categories are some abilities and skills that can be improved ‘incidentally’
by reading literary texts, such as critical thinking and the deepening
of knowledge of culture and society. Since few students in the course
plan to become translators or English teachers, or professional writers
or literary critics, gaining advanced skills and knowledge in English
language or literature does not strongly motivate students, whereas
improving such ‘incidental’ skills and knowledge may be regarded as
more important. Considering students’ aptitude, as well as their plans,
several goals have been set for students to achieve through my lessons,
from basic to advanced.
• to appreciate life
• cross-cultural
understanding
Skills for: Skills for:
• interpreter Language aspects Literary aspects • writer
• translator • literary critic
• knowledge of society
• critical thinking
These goals are considered achievable for students who attend lectures
regularly and engage with course materials.
The intermediate to advanced-level goals include:
with basic knowledge of the terms (Realism, Modernism, etc.). They were
also presented with introductory ideas on the narratological and stylistic
features characterizing the different modes of fiction. Subsequently, the
students themselves read and analysed selected texts to check for rele-
vant features.
In the lectures, several seminal and introductory books, such as
Bradbury and McFarlane (1976), Brooker (1992), Childs (2000), Lodge
(1977), Malpas (2004) and Morris (2003), were referred to. Childs (2000),
for instance, explains Modernist theories and writings by focusing upon
people, scientific theories and discoveries, and the philosophy which
contributed to changes in the concept of ‘reality’. He focuses upon six
key persons who influenced the Modernist movement: Marx, Darwin,
Freud, Nietzsche, Saussure and Einstein. To provide an example of how
these ideas were incorporated into the lessons, it may be instructive to
describe how I introduced Einstein in the literature classroom.
One of the most significant features of Modernist fiction is ‘[t]he
tendency towards narrative relativity’ (Childs, 2000: 66), as shown in
the prevalence of multiple viewpoints and unreliable narrators. In this
connection, Einstein’s scientific findings are particularly significant
because the possibility of two contradictory truths being existent is
scientifically proved. In the lecture, the concept of narrative relativity
was introduced in connection with Einstein’s theory of relativity so
that the students could realize that seemingly strange narrative struc-
tures and literary devices of Modernist fiction are connected to such a
groundbreaking idea. This introduction was followed by a discussion
of the difference between the Realist novel, in which ‘[r]eliable, objec-
tive narrators encompassed the single perspective of a world governed
by consistent, dependable scientific laws’, and Modernist fiction,
in which time was expressed as ‘moving in arcs, flashbacks, jumps,
repetitions and, above all, subjective leaps and swerves’ and ‘[s]pace
was compressed, oppressive, threatening and subjectively perceived’
(Childs, 2000: 67).
In the lecture on Postmodernism, another elusive term, several key
words were focused upon: ‘temporal disorder’, ‘pastiche’, ‘fragmenta-
tion’, ‘looseness of association’, ‘paranoia’ and ‘vicious circles’ (Lewis,
1998: 124–131). Among several features of Postmodernist fiction, a
detailed explanation of ‘language disorder’ (Lewis, 1998: 132) or ‘schizo-
phrenic subjectivity’ (Malpas, 2004: 25) was given, partly because this
Postmodernist feature is remarkable not only in English fiction (e.g.
John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969)) but also in some
contemporary Japanese novels.1
174 Masayuki Teranishi
After such basic knowledge had been presented, the students read extracts
from the novels generally considered as belonging to the different modes
of writing. The chosen texts included passages from Jane Austen’s Pride
and Prejudicee (1813), Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldierr (1915), Katherine
Mansfield’s ‘The Garden Party’(1921), Virginia Woolf’s ‘The Mark on the
Wall’ (1922) and John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Both inside
and outside the classroom, students were required to read, analyse and
interpret some of these passages by focusing upon how the features of
different modes of writing are reflected in their narratological and stylistic
features. Students were also encouraged to apply their learned analytical
framework to the reading of other English or Japanese novels.
3.5 Quizzes
While lectures and instruction are essential to teach basic background
knowledge, students tend to be passive or even bored during the teach-
er’s talk. An effective device to avoid this and to stimulate students’ curi-
osity and motivation is in-class quizzes. Quizzes also encourage students
to create meaningful interactions with their classmates or teacher, and
to take part in the lecture actively and reflectively.
Therefore, at the beginning of the first lecture, students were given
a quiz in which they were asked to associate some examples of paint-
ings, titles of novels and features of novels with Realism, Modernism
and Postmodernism. For example, the titles of novels were: Charlotte
Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847), which is the protagonist’s name and may
reflect Realism, D. H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow w (1915), which is symbolic
and may reflect Modernism, and Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 (2009–2010),
which is a pastiche of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-fourr (1949) and
may therefore be regarded as a Postmodernist novel.2 As features of
novels, terms such as ‘closed ending’, ‘open ending’ and ‘contradic-
tion’ were provided for students to choose as labels for the endings of
different kinds of novel. Students were also shown three famous paint-
ings: Millet’s ‘The Gleaners’, Munch’s ‘The Scream’ and Picasso’s ‘Three
Musicians’. In addition to this, students were asked to define each term
in their own words. In the process of answering these questions, the
students shared their answers with each other and discussed what they
were expected to learn in my lessons.
There was another merit to implementing this quiz: to check students’
preliminary knowledge. Since the same questions were asked at the end
of the last lesson, they also became a significant instrument to check
what students learned from my lessons. Students’ answers were analysed
to check their understanding and to get hints on how to improve my
Teaching English Novels in the EFL Classroom 175
lessons and the course as a whole. The results are illustrated and analysed
in Section 4.1 below.
of writing and what they learned by reading them, and (2) whether the
goals of the lessons shown in 3.3 were achieved or not.
Time of
quiz
Note: Students were asked to associate the works and the features in the left column with
‘Realism’, ‘Modernism’ or ‘Postmodernism’. Their answers are based upon a graded scale
(from 1 to 3). If a student regards ‘Open ending’ as the strongest characteristic of Modernism
and the weakest characteristic of Postmodernism, for instance, s/he should write ‘3’ under
Modernism, and ‘1’ under Postmodernism and ‘2’ under Realism.
In ‘The Mark on the Wall’ and Mrs Dalloway, even narration (the part
where quotation marks are not employed) is filled with characters’
emotions. By introducing characters’ perspectives Woolf creates a
new world which cannot be described by the ‘omniscient’ narrator.
(Translated into English and emphasis provided by Teranishi)
There were other similar comments which focused upon stylistic devices
and narrative structures employed in the Modernist novels. The students
seem to have learned how to analyse literature to arrive at a deeper level
of interpretation.
This student argued that the lyrics are semantically anarchical and frag-
mentary. On the other hand, phonetically the lines listed above keep cohe-
sion: the first syllables of each line (a ka sa ta na ha ma ya ra wa) construct
the first line of the systematic table of the Japanese kana. Those loose
unities are, she argues, prototypical characteristics of Postmodernism. In
this manner, triggered by the reading of English literature, the student was
able to recognize a creative usage of language in a familiar pop song and
re-interpret it more deeply. The fact that the lyrics of English pop and rock
music can promote EFL students’ learning has already been confirmed
both in Japanese and other EFL/ESL classrooms (see Edmondson, 1997).
This student’s reaction may also suggest that EFL students can become
more sensitive to creativity and literariness in their own language and
180 Masayuki Teranishi
Notes
1. Yasutaka Tsutui’s Dancing Vanityy (2008) is a prototypical Postmodernist novel
in this sense and, not surprisingly, several students attempted to identify
Postmodernist aspects of this novel in their essays.
Teaching English Novels in the EFL Classroom 181
2. For the relationship between literary modes of writing and the titles of the
novels, see Carter and McRae (2001).
3. For the issue of creativity in non-literary language, see Swann et al. (2011).
References
Boase-Beier, J. (2014) ‘Stylistics and Translation’, in M. Burke (ed.) The Routledge
Handbook of Stylistics, 393–407. London: Routledge.
Bradbury, M. and McFarlane, J. (1976) Modernism 1890–1930. London: Penguin.
Brooker, P. (ed.) (1992) Modernism/Postmodernism. London: Longman.
Carroli, P. (2008) Literature in Second Language Education: Enhancing the Role of
Texts in Learning. London: Continuum.
Carter, R. and McRae, J. (1996) Language, Literature and the Learner: Creative
Classroom Practice. London: Longman.
Carter, R. and McRae, J. (2001) The Routledge History of Literature in English: Britain
and Irelandd (2nd edition). London: Routledge.
Childs, P. (2000) Modernism. London: Routledge.
Edmondson, W. (1997) ‘The Role of Literature in Foreign Language Learning and
Teaching: Some Valid Assumptions and Invalid Arguments’, AILA Review w 12:
42–55.
Gower, R. (1986) ‘Can Stylistic Analysis Help the EFL Learner to Read Literature?’,
ELT Journal 40 (2): 125–130.
James, H. (1999 [1880]) Washington Square, retold by Jane Rollason. Edinburgh:
Pearson Education.
James, H. (2007 [1880]) Washington Square. London: Penguin.
Krashen, S. D. (1982) Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Krashen, S. D. (2004) The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research. Westport:
Libraries Unlimited.
Labov, W. (1972) Language in the Inner City. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press.
Lewis, B. (1998) ‘Postmodernism and Literature’, in S. Sim (ed.) The Routledge
Companion to Postmodernism, 121–133. London: Routledge.
Lodge, D. (1977) The Modes of Modern Writing. London: Edward Arnold.
Malpas, S. (2004) The Postmodern. London: Routledge.
Morris, P. (2003) Realism. London: Routledge.
Swann, J., Pope, R. and Carter, R. (eds) (2011) Creativity in Language and Literature:
The State of the Art. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Teranishi, M. (2008) Polyphony in Fiction: A Stylistic Analysis off Middlemarch,
Nostromo, and d Herzog. Oxford: Peter Lang.
12
Using Short Stories in University
Composition Classrooms
Kyoko Kuze
1 Introduction
Literature was once at the centre of English teaching in Japan, but over
the last few decades it has been marginalized.1 Even after literature came
back into language teaching in the United Kingdom and the United
States in the 1980s, it was not sufficiently reconsidered or re-evaluated in
Japan. One reason why using literature in EFL classrooms is challenging
may be due to the teaching methodology used. In Japan, literature
has traditionally been read in English classrooms using the Grammar-
Translation Method,2 which was believed to be the only possible method
of utilizing literature. This preconception has led many people to link
literature with this particular method, and thus to consider the use of
literature to be out-of-date and inefficient for fostering the development
of communication competence (Kuze, 2012).
To explore the potential of literature in language learning, this
chapter will focus on English composition classes using short stories at
a Japanese university over the course of four years. The classes used four
short stories: ‘Désirée’s Baby’ by Kate Chopin, ‘The Birds Poised to Fly’ by
Patricia Highsmith, ‘Eveline’ by James Joyce and ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’
by Roald Dahl, in conjunction with writing activities derived from the
field of pedagogical stylistics. Illustrating this project, the chapter will
give examples of literature-based activities that provide learners with
opportunities to write creatively in a foreign language, to read texts
actively as an impetus to that writing, and to enjoy interpreting texts on
their own, rather than simply accepting someone else’s interpretation.
The current study implements a qualitative analysis of teaching proce-
dures used with Japanese EFL students, their writings, and their percep-
tions and attitudes regarding literature-based writing. It is also inspired by
182
Using Short Stories in University Composition Classrooms 183
3 Methods
3.1 Methodology
To examine the possibility of using short stories in compositions in
the context of Japanese university EFL classrooms, the current study
describes classroom procedures, evaluates student compositions and
analyses student attitudes toward these literary materials and related
activities. It is designed to use ‘several methods in triangulation to try
Using Short Stories in University Composition Classrooms 185
3.2 Participants
This study was conducted in four compulsory English composition
classes for second-year students at a private university in Tokyo over
four consecutive academic years, starting in 2010. Students enrolled
in a course on academic writing for one year participated in this
study in the last one or two sessions of the course. The course coor-
dinator in the university language centre had recommended that the
instructors of these classes implement some optional writing activities
besides academic writing, such as writing book reports or news articles.
Reading was another instruction area that was intended to be covered
in the course.
All of the students belonged to the university’s Department of
International Studies, and their first language was Japanese. Their
English proficiency level was intermediate, with scores of approxi-
mately 500–530 points on the TOEFL-ITP. The number of students in
the participating class was 20, 20, 16 and 19 in 2010, 2011, 2012 and
2013, respectively.
3.3 Materials
Kate Chopin’s ‘Désirée’s Baby’ (henceforth ‘Désirée’s’) was used in 2010,
Patricia Highsmith’s ‘The Birds Poised to Fly’ (‘Birds’) in 2011, James
Joyce’s ‘Eveline’ in 2012, and Roald Dahl’s ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’
(‘Lamb’) in 2013. Each story is ten pages or less, and each was chosen
by the instructor based on a subjective assessment of how it was not
too difficult but very engaging. The possibility of drawing personal
connections between the lives of the main characters and those of
the students was also considered an important factor because building
personal connections is believed to be linked to active engagement in
language learning (Kim, 2004; Kuze, 2011). In addition, the advice of
Carter (1996: 150) that ‘texts with a strong plot component, where the
next step in the action can be significant, do force readers to predict’
186 Kyoko Kuze
was taken, especially when the first two stories for prediction exercises
were chosen.
G1: Plot is developed naturally from the preceding part of the story.
G2: Personality of each character is considered.
G3: Social and cultural backgrounds of the work are reflected.
G4: Writing style and mood are imitated.
G5: There are few grammatical or lexical errors.
In the second two years, students read the complete stories and rewrote
the texts from different perspectives. Students in the class of 2012 were
asked to read ‘Eveline’ before the class, and then completed some pre-
writing tasks for use with short stories, presented in Lazar (1993), before
writing a letter or a diary entry in class. In the task, students filled
in a table about the personalities of the characters and their relation
to Eveline by choosing the most appropriate statement from a set of
options, and thereby learned some expressions presented in the state-
ments describing the characters. In the fourth year of the study, 2013,
students read ‘Lamb’ and were asked to write a diary entry from the
perspective of the main character, Mary Maloney. For class management
reasons, the students were permitted to start writing before class and
keep writing for 40 minutes in class. For the ‘Eveline’ and ‘Lamb’ writing
activities, the following guidelines were given to the students and used
for subsequent evaluation:
Using Short Stories in University Composition Classrooms 187
4 Findings
Despite the fact that very similar instructions were provided to the two
groups and that they had the same amount of time, 40 minutes, for
writing, the average number of words in their writings was quite different
across the stories: they wrote 168 words on average for ‘Désirée’s’ and
247 for ‘Birds’. Across all criteria, scores are consistently higher in ‘Birds’,
with the exception of G5, which is only slightly higher in ‘Désirée’s’.
Thus, it is obvious that ‘Birds’ was able to engage the learners more in
the activities and motivate them to write longer compositions.
With regard to the scores for each criterion, students earned relatively
high scores in G1 in both stories, but the difference between ‘Désirée’s’
and ‘Birds’ becomes noticeable in G2 and G3. These results show that
these students are generally good at developing the plot naturally from
the part they have read, which proves, in a sense, that they are reading
the stories precisely enough to grasp the extent of the plots. However,
they had a harder time writing predictions for ‘Désirée’s’; this is perhaps
because of its different social and cultural setting, since it is based in
the 19th-century American South, as opposed to ‘Birds’, which is set in
modern New York City.
The following example is the latter half of one student prediction,
which earned more than 4 out of 5 points on each criterion. In addition,
this is one of only two compositions which scored 4.5 on G4. The eval-
uator commented that this response successfully imitated the writing
style of the original writer.
Don noticed the difference. He was sad when the letter didn’t come
from Rosalind. It was because he loved Rosalind, not Edith. He under-
stood how much he loved Rosalind.
He wrote a letter to Rosalind again. He wrote his real feelings for
her. He decided he would continue to write letters until Rosalind
answered. He loved her very much. It would not be long before his
love for her was realized.
[The total number of words was 257. Only crucial errors have been
corrected.]
Using Short Stories in University Composition Classrooms 189
The most impressive thing I remember about that night is the feeling
of the chilly leg of lamb. At that time, I couldn’t think normally.
The next moment, I found he was lying on the floor with his head
bleeding. And then, suddenly, I came around. What I had to do was
to make a perfect alibi and destroy the murder weapon ...
[The total number of words was 188. Only crucial errors have been
corrected.]
Table 12.3 What do you think about the use of literary materials in English
classes? (n = 75)
(Reasons)** (Reasons)
Enjoyable (34) Difficult (4)
Helpful to promote cultural understanding (33) Not motivating (3)
Helpful to develop language skills (29) Not useful (3)
Good for personal growth (8) Not helpful to develop language
skills (0)
Other (6)
Table 12.4 What do you think about the use of short stories in composition
classes? (n = 75)
(Reasons)** (Reasons)
Enjoyable, interesting (21) Not logically structured (2)
Different from materials for Reading was difficult (1)
academic writing (10)
Helpful to develop reading skills (3) Different in style from
academic writing (1)
Table 12.5 What do you think about the effects of literature-based writing on
English ability? (n = 75)
(Reasons)** (Reasons)
Learning a wide variety of expressions (14) Unsuitable for practical use (1)
Learning to writing creatively (5) Not logically structured (1)
Practising both reading and writing (4) Rewriting someone’s work is
Motivating (4) difficult (1)
5 Discussion
The results of a close examination of the data show that writing about
short stories is a valuable activity for EFL students in university composi-
tion classes. On the basis of their writing and questionnaire responses,
there is no doubt that students became deeply involved in these activi-
ties. They needed to read the texts attentively as an impetus to writing,
and their predictions, letters and diary entries were sufficient in terms of
both quantity and quality. The students also acknowledged that reading
short stories and writing creatively about them were enjoyable activities
and had positive effects on their language learning.
Using Short Stories in University Composition Classrooms 193
practices using four different stories and described how each of them was
incorporated. Although the possibility of drawing personal connections
was specially considered in selecting materials, it has become apparent
that primary emphasis should be put on selecting texts on the basis of
linguistic difficulty. Moreover, stories with unfamiliar social and cultural
settings were more challenging for students to write about than other
stories. Taking all of these factors into consideration, instructors should
plan suitable practices, including pre-writing activities, within the time-
frame of the class. It also might be of interest to investigate the influence
of media on students’ writings in this context, for example, by showing
a film or television adaptation of a story when one is available, as in the
case of ‘Lamb’.
On the whole, this study supports the conclusion of Hirvela (2005) that
literary texts, used as a complement to other text types, may provide ESL
students with a viable means of facilitating their writing development.
Furthermore, it shows that literature-based writing can be received posi-
tively in EFL composition classes, provided that careful consideration
is given to appropriate text and task selection and teaching procedures,
including how often literary texts should be used in class.
6 Conclusion
Notes
1. See also Chapter 2 in this volume.
2. In this method, literary texts are usually read in the students’ native language
along with grammatical exercises and vocabulary drills. See also Chapter 11 in
this volume.
Using Short Stories in University Composition Classrooms 195
References
Belcher, D. and Hirvela, A. (2000) ‘Literature and L2 Composition: Revisiting the
Debate’, Journal of Second Language Writingg 9: 21–39.
Carter, R. (1996) ‘Study Strategies in the Teaching of Literature to Foreign
Students’, in J. J. Weber (ed.) The Stylistics Reader: From Roman Jakobson to the
Present,
t 149–157. London: Arnold.
Carter, R. (2007) ‘Literature and Language Teaching 1986–2006: A Review’,
International Journal of Applied Linguistics 17 (1): 3–13.
Carter, R. (2010) ‘Issues in Pedagogical Stylistics: A Coda’, Language and Literature
19 (1): 115–121.
Carter, R. and Long, M. N. (1991) Teaching Literature. Harlow: Longman.
Chen, Y-M. (2006) ‘Using Children’s Literature for Reading and Writing Stories’,
Asian EFL Journal 8 (4): 210–232.
Chopin, K. (1893) ‘Désirée’s Baby (The Father of Désirée’s Baby)’, available at:
http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/ChoDesi.html [accessed 1
December 2010].
Collie, J. and Slater, S. (1987) Literature in the Language Classroom: A Resource Book
of Ideas and Activities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dahl, R. (1953) ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’, available at: http://www.classicshorts.
com/stories/lamb.html [accessed 7 December 2013].
Hall, G. (2005) Literature in Language Education. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hess, N. (2006) ‘The Short Story: Integrating Language Skills through the Parallel
Life Approach’, in A. Paran (ed.) Literature in Language Teaching and Learningg,
27–43. Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.
Highsmith, P. (2011) ‘The Birds Poised to Fly’, in Eleven. New York: Grove Press.
Hirvela, A. (2004) Connecting Reading and Writing in Second Language Writing
Instruction. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
Hirvela, A. (2005) ‘ESL Students and the Use of Literature in Composition
Courses’, Teaching English in the Two-Year College 33: 70–77.
Iida, A. (2012) ‘Writing Haiku in a Second Language: Perceptions, Attitudes,
and Emotions of Second Language Learners’, Sino-US English Teachingg 9 (9):
1472–1485.
Joyce, J. (2000 [1914]) ‘Eveline’, in Dubliners, ed. J. Johnson. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Kim, M. (2004) ‘Literature Discussions in Adult L2 learning’, Language and
Education 18 (2): 145–166.
Kuze, K. (2011) ‘Bungaku Kyozai wo Mochiita Jyugyo [Classes Using Literary
Texts: Case Studies of University EFL Classrooms]’, Language and Information
Sciences 9: 63–79.
Kuze, K. (2012) ‘Communication Noryoku Ikusei ni Tsuiteno Ichikosatsu [A
View Regarding the Development of Communication Competence: From EFL
Classrooms Using Literary Texts]’, Language and Information Sciences 10: 73–89.
196 Kyoko Kuze
Lazar, G. (1993) Literature and Language Teaching: A Guide for Teachers and Trainers.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Paran, A. (2008) ‘The Role of Literature in Instructed Foreign Language Learning
and Teaching: An Evidence-based Survey’, Language Teachingg 41 (4): 465–496.
Paran, A. (2010) ‘Between Scylla and Charybdis: The Dilemmas of Testing
Language and Literature’, in A. Paran and L. Sercu (eds) Testing the Untestable in
Language Education, 143–164. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Spiro, J. (2010) ‘Crossing the Bridge from Appreciative Reader to Reflective Writer:
The Assessment of Creative Process’, in A. Paran and L. Sercu (eds) Testing the
Untestable in Language Education, 165–190. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
13
Translation of Japanese Poems
into English: Literature in the
First Language as a Motive to
Communicate in a Second
Language
Kiyo Sakamoto
1 Introduction
197
198 Kiyo Sakamoto
1
Communication
Layer I
L2 Use Behaviour
2
Behavioural
Layer II Willingness to Intention
Communicate
Desire to 3 4
Communicate State Situated
Layer III
with a Communicative Antecedents
Specific Person Self-Confidence
5 6 7
Interpersonal Intergroup L2 Motivational
Layer IV
Motivation Motivation Self-Confidence Propensities
8 9 10
Affective-Cognitive
Layer V Intergroup Social Communicative Context
Attitudes Situation Competence
11 12
Social and Individual
Layer VI
Intergroup Climate Personality Context
in detail before they read and analysed Scottish poems. In this way, the
Bulgarian EFL learners had a chance to appreciate their own literary and
cultural tradition, were prepared to read poems in English, and could
appreciate the latter more deeply through comparison and contrast with
Bulgarian poems. In his ‘Preface to the Japanese Translation’ of Stylistics
and the Teaching of Literature, Widdowson (1989) suggests another activity
for Japanese EFL learners: he proposes comparison between a Japanese
haiku by Matsuo Basho and an English poem by Robert Frost as a way
for students to investigate the use of language in literature through the
translation and rewriting of these poems.
Inspired by these ideas, the following case study investigates whether
Japanese EFL students can be sufficiently motivated by traditional
Japanese poetry to engage in communicating their interpretation of
poems in English.
4 The class
first few lines and connects it to the main image or idea of the poem by
simile or the same sound.5 Third, these poems often use omission and
indirect expression, leaving the reader to find the missing piece of the
puzzle. For example, a poem may talk about plum blossoms in a spring
night and how the darkness cannot hide their scent, but the poem may
actually allude to a maiden jealously watched by her family, with whom
the poet is in love (the maiden is the plum blossom, which was thought
to be the most attractive of all flowers in those days, and her family is
the darkness that tries to conceal her from frivolous suitors). Finally,
images from nature are frequently used to express human feelings. This
poetic tradition has developed sensibility to natural features of the
seasons, such as flowers and blossoms, the migration of birds, names for
subtle differences in rain, snow, wind, and so on. Such features in nature
are suggestive of certain human sentiments: the singing of insects in
autumn reminds people of their mortality and loneliness, and the moon
on a summer night is both a relief from the heat of day and the symbol
of lovers’ brief encounters and transient dreams. This tradition of abun-
dant images of nature is found in haiku as well. These characteristics
of traditional Japanese poems make them unique and captivating, and
hence at the same time make their translation challenging.
Although these traditional poems have a 1,400-year history, they are a
living tradition with millions of active amateur poets. Their works cover
a whole page of national newspapers every week. Since the occurrence
of the Great East Japan Earthquake on 11 March 2011, and the following
nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, many people have found solace
in writing and reading waka and haiku on the tragedies. At school, chil-
dren are taught to recite famous waka, and to write haiku after school
excursions. Thus, the rhythm, images and techniques of traditional
Japanese poems are familiar to Japanese EFL students.
to an e-learning site. At each class, students were given the chance to read
or listen to other students’ translations and comments, and share their
opinions about the poems in small-group discussions. As a term project,
students were to discuss a topic of their choice connected with poetry in
Japanese literature, translate some poems related to this topic and add a
short comment on their translation, explaining what they had done to
convey the meaning of the poems. At the end of the term, the students
were asked to fill in a questionnaire to reflect on their learning. Fifty-two
students submitted the end-of-term paper and completed the course,
including six foreign students enrolled at the university.
Three kinds of data were collected in the class: students’ translations
of poems (in the weekly assignments and the term paper), students’
reflections on the class at the end of the term, and students’ comments
on their chosen poems and their translations (written at the end of
each class and in the term paper). Some of the comments were written
in Japanese, in which case the quoted texts have been translated into
English by the author.
5 Results
The two translations show great diversity, which both surprised and
pleased the students. Every week, they were given some of their peers’
translation as a handout, discussed them in a small group and wrote
their comments. As will be seen from their comments below, it was a
quite popular activity for the students.
Q1: What has made this class interesting for you, if anything? (n=45;
free writing)
Q2: How did you feel about translating Japanese waka and haiku into
English? (n=45)
Here again, the enjoyment was not due to the activity’s simplicity, but
rather the fact that it posed a challenge or the possibility of free inter-
pretation. In fact, ten students’ answers overlapped: seven answered ‘it
was difficult but fun’, two said ‘it was difficult and fun’ and one wrote
‘it was fun but difficult’.
Some students made reflective comments on the activity:
6 Discussion
opinions about a literary work with several other people to enrich our
sensitivity.’ Here, empathy-driven communication appears to be one of
the keys to encouraging Japanese students to experience interaction in
English.
Finally, this case study was limited in several ways. The sample size
was not large enough to generalize the results. Also, since the class was
not a regular EFL class, the attitude and motivation of the students may
have been somewhat different from those found in the L2 classroom. As
is discussed in Chapter 9 by Ishihara and Ono, more research is required
to develop methods to investigate the significance of L1 literary texts in
the L2 classroom, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Further experi-
mental investigation is needed to estimate the effects of such materials
on learners’ willingness to communicate in a foreign language and on
the development of their language awareness.
7 Conclusion
Notes
1. Lazar (1993: 101–113), for example, offers two tasks that underline the
‘unusual language features’ of a poem, which could let students become more
aware of the conventions of English as well.
2. See Kawamoto (2000 [1991]) for a clear and comprehensive discussion on the
poetics of traditional Japanese poetry.
3. Since the Japanese language has relied heavily on numerous kanji (Chinese
characters) to increase and develop its vocabulary, and yet has kept its rather
simple sound system, there are a great number of words with identical sounds
in Japanese, hence innumerable puns available. For example, nagame can mean
both ‘a long spell of rainy weather’ and ‘to look pensively’, thus conveying the
feeling of a woman vacantly and vainly waiting for a visit by her lover.
4. Chihayaburu (powerful and fierce) is the pillow word for kami (gods), for
example.
5. For example, the first half of a waka may create the image of a long, drooping
tail of a pheasant living deep in a mountain, which is transferred in the second
half of the poem to the image of a man who spends a long and lonely night all
by himself.
6. The first three lines are jokotoba, whose purpose is to introduce the idea
‘concealed’ in the fourth line, and at the same time, to set the whole atmos-
phere of the poem: the rampant growth of summer grass (and human youth),
the bright orange of the star lily (and intense love), and so on.
References
Apple, M. T., Da Silva, D. and Fellner, T. (eds) (2013) Language Learning Motivation
in Japan. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Benesse Educational Research and Development Institute (2009) ‘Basic Research
on English in Junior High School – Research on Students, Vol. 1’. Available
at: http://berd.benesse.jp/berd/center/open/report/chu_eigo/seito_soku/pdf/
data_00.pdf [accessed 1 May 2014].
Collie, J. and Slater, S. (1987) Literature in the Language Classroom. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Dörnyei, Z. (2009) ‘The L2 Motivational Self System’, in Z. Dörnyei and E. Ushioda
(eds) Motivation, Language Identity and the L2 Selff. 9–42. Bristol: Multilingual
Matters.
Gardner, R. C. (2010) Motivation and Second Language Acquisition: The Socio-
Educational Model. New York: Peter Lang.
Translation of Japanese Poems into English 211
1 Introduction
212
Reading Circles and Essay Activities for Medical Students 213
5 Statement of purpose
6 Methodology
6.3 Instruction
The course was divided into two phases. First, a ‘warm-up phase’ involving
a short lecture in the first session on the competences tomorrow’s doctors
will need and on types of communication and discourse (including narra-
tive), followed in subsequent sessions by instruction using four simpli-
fied short stories2 from Bookworms Club Diamond: Stories for Reading
Circles (Furr, 2009). The themes of the stories are not directly relevant to
bioethical questions; however, they introduce different types of narrative
expressing various perspectives or feelings (Goals 1 and 2). A total of eight
lessons were used for this purpose. These linguistically controlled stories
were chosen to prepare students to read the novel Never Let Me Go by
Kazuo Ishiguro (2005) during the second phase (see below).
Two lessons were devoted to each story. On the first day, a short lecture
and several pre-reading activities were devoted to each story (covering its
theme and socio-cultural context, a biography of the author, etc.). The
activities required students to answer questions, read short texts, watch
part of a film,3 write notes and check new vocabulary. Then students
read the story, and prepared for a reading circle. On the following lesson
day, students participated in a reading circle, during which I circulated to
help groups promote discussion if necessary. The reading circle sessions
ended with my feedback and students’ self- and peer reflection. Students
Reading Circles and Essay Activities for Medical Students 217
6.4 Data
The data, which was collected at the end of the term, consisted of three
types of written narrative: (1) open-ended reflective comments on Never
Let Me Go; (2) short book reports (200–250 words) on Never Let Me Go;
and (3) a student questionnaire. Book reports were written in English
and comments in either English or Japanese according to students’
preference. Questionnaire questions and instructions were written in
Japanese to avoid any misunderstanding.
Content analysis (Dörnyei, 2003) was conducted on the reflective
comments and book reports. Distinct content elements were identi-
fied within the comments, categorized into themes, and counted. If
a student claimed two (or more) different learning experiences (e.g.
‘interesting’/‘difficult’), two content elements were extracted from that
single account. To illustrate students’ learning experiences, some repre-
sentative or significant excerpts are presented below.
218 Yuka Kusanagi
7 Findings
I loved Never Let Me Go. I do not think this kind of transplanting system
would exist in the real world. Believing so, I never thought [about
what would happen] if such a system existed or thought about donors’
feelings, education and so forth. Some donors appeared in this story.
Nobody had the same ideas or feelings. Although I have a lack of imagi-
nation by nature, I could imagine the donors’ feelings as real. This book
is not only good for learning English but is also good for learning about
medical ethics. We future doctors will certainly face problems due to a
shortage of organs and donors. Thinking over the issue before being a
doctor will be beneficial. (Student 1) (Translated by the author)
Reading Circles and Essay Activities for Medical Students 219
Themes Instances
Interesting/Marvellous 26
Made me think deeply 9
Difficult but worthwhile reading 5
Got absorbed in the story 5
Read it more than once 4
Want to watch the film 3
Fired my imagination 2
Brought new insights 2
Liked the narrative 2
Want to read it again 2
Bought the translation/DVD 2
Want to read other works by Ishiguro 1
Read another work by Ishiguro 1
Want to read more books 1
Felt that something was missing 1
Some students (n=5) said the novel was challenging but worthwhile.
The story itself was interesting but it was much harder to read it in
English than in Japanese because of the difficult themes; however,
the story was a medical science-fiction. So it made me think. For
this reason, the story raised my motivation to read English. (Student
2) (Translated by the author)
Several students (n=9) said that the story made them consider the issues
it explored.
I could not understand the situation while reading. I had many ques-
tions, like, ‘Who is a donor?’, ‘Organ donation? It can’t be true.’ I
could not stop reading. ... This book made me read it again and again
because the desire to make an observation from Tommy’s or Ruth’s
points of view emerged into my mind. I did not like the story so
much when reading it the first time, but I really appreciate your
giving me a chance to read the story now. It is a thought-provoking
book. (Student 3) (Translated by the author)
Several students (n=5) got absorbed in the story and could not stop
reading it. The story lingered in students’ minds: some students (n=4)
reread the story, and three others bought the book in translation or
a DVD of the film, or read another work by Ishiguro. A few students
220 Yuka Kusanagi
(n=2) showed interest in reading the story again, and another student
expressed her desire to read another book by Ishiguro.
Only one student commented that he felt something was missing at
the end of the story because he was expecting some kind of explanation
of key points. Nevertheless, he also responded that eventually he was
drawn into the story thanks to its nature; an interpretation is unfolded
to readers.
In this story, they [Kathy, Ruth, Tommy] were treated as if they were
objects. However, they have minds and a right to live as people.
Everyone must know this but they never face their knowledge. That’s
because everyone wants to live longer. If they are suffering from a
serious illness, they are sure to receive a transplant from donors. It is a
great thing. Today in Japan, transplantation is very rare. Many people
have died waiting for a donor. Transplantation without waiting for
a donor is a great thing. However, we must not kill people to get
donors. Student 4)
Themes/Headings Instances
Cloning/transplant 12
Love 10
Emotions 7
Mystery/horror 6
Friendship 6
If I were ... 4
Medical ethics 2
Life/death 1
Mind and body 1
Identity 1
Sex 1
Bullying 1
Socialization/Education 1
Reading Circles and Essay Activities for Medical Students 221
I also think that not only human cloning but also all the other tech-
nologies that seem to show human arrogance are dangerous. I knew
that most of the technologies are designed to improve human lives,
not to destroy others’ lives, but is that really so? (Student 5)
Related topics such as medical ethics (n=2) and life and death (n=1) were
also identified.
In relation to cloning, some students reacted to the horrific aspect of
the narrative (n=6).
At first, I couldn’t guess what the genre of this story is. However, I
began to realize the terror of this story as I read the book. In this story,
Hailsham is a symbolic place. A lot of readers must feel like fearing or
avoiding the world. However, let’s try to think about it from a different
point of view. Why did Ishiguro use the idea of Hailsham? ... Aren’t
we in Hailsham? Hailsham is closed and that is similar to our world.
Hailsham is not so far from our world. (Student 6)
I think that the characters in the novel are metaphors for us. Though
they are fated to die by donating their organs, we are also fated to die
anyway. In the limited time before death, they try to express their
love and friendship, the significance of their existence, and so on.
Our lives are the same as these things they try to do. ... We may be
able to prolong our lives by medical treatment. In the novel, the char-
acters are sacrificed for someone else’s life. I think we must recognize
that we are living at the cost of someone else’s sacrifice. I [also] think
that a love triangle and friendship between Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy
may be the kind of thing that happens every day. We will have to
think about these general ideas during our lives. (Student 7)
The readers identified a variety of themes in the novel and for some felt
that it was confusing (n=5).
A lot of questions occupied my mind and they were not resolved [for]
a long time ... . After I read it once, I wanted to read it once more to
know the situation and I read it again. For the first reading, I didn’t
222 Yuka Kusanagi
care about Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth much because I was interested in
the situation of the story. So the second reading gave me a lot of feel-
ings. Anyway, this story is a hopeless and painful story. (Student 8)
Questions n Mean
… in this story, they [the characters] do not seek a way to escape from
their fate (to die) after discovering that there is no hope. I found it
interesting, although I thought it was scary. What is horrifying in this
story is that everyone questions the circumstances but accepts their
doom. This is the reason I feel this way [horrified]. We tend to remain
silent even though we feel something is wrong. I thought that if the
condition of transplant were driven to its extreme, the world would
become like the one described in the story. (Student 10) (Translated
by the author)
I suppose the big thing about Never Let Me Go is that they never rebel,
they don’t do the thing you want them to do. They passively accept
the programme in which they are butchered for their organs. I wanted
226 Yuka Kusanagi
a very strong image like that for the way most of us are, in many ways
we are inclined to be passive, we accept our fate. ... I suppose ulti-
mately, I wanted to write a book about how people accept that we are
mortal and we can’t get away from this ... . (Matthews, 2009: 124)
The mixed results of this study indicate that my students were in the
process of learning how to employ literary texts for learning. If a literary
text matches students’ interests, it triggers motivation to learn, provides
exposure to authentic English and expands their knowledge of English
(Lazar, 1993). However, their strong interests may also draw impres-
sionistic responses from students without necessarily engaging their
linguistic knowledge (Lazar, 1993). Balanced instruction is needed for
success, and I therefore suggest that educators should follow the text
selection criteria recommended by Lazar (1993: 52–55): students’ cultural
background, linguistic proficiency, literary background, length of text,
exploitability and fit with the course syllabus. Using literary texts in this
way will help students to transfer from ‘learning to use the language’ to
‘using the language to learn’.
9 Conclusion
This chapter sought to illustrate one way of integrating literature into EFL
education for Japanese medical students. The findings cannot be gener-
alized wholesale into other classroom or cultural contexts. However,
this case study suggests that language educators may usefully adopt
similar approaches, particularly when the educational goal has untest-
able elements. Literature is a resource that helps students’ transition from
teacher-directed learning to student-directed learning. Such learning
experience promises improvements in language fluency and communi-
cative competence, and raises awareness of other people and society.
Notes
1. The average TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) scores
of Japanese first-year undergraduate and graduate students in 2012 were 412
and 496, respectively (Institute for International Business Communication,
2013).
2. Millie and Her First Ball by Katherine Mansfield, Men and Women by Claire
Keegan, and Mr Sing My Heart’s Delightt by Brian Friel. These short stories were
graded for learners at Oxford Bookworms Stage 5 (1,800 headwords).
3. Pride and Prejudice (2009, DVD, directed by Joe Wright, Tokyo: Geneon
Universal Entertainment) was used to introduce the concept of a ball for Her
Reading Circles and Essay Activities for Medical Students 227
References
Benesse Cooperation (2012) Dai Nikai Daigakusei no Gakushū Seikatsu Jittai
Chōsa [The Second Report: Research on University Students’ Learning and
Life (Digest)]. Available from: http://berd.benesse.jp/berd/center/open/report/
daigaku_jittai/2012/dai/pdf/daigaku_dai.pdf [accessed 1 June 2014].
Bruner, J. (1986) ‘Two Modes of Thought’, in J. Bruner (ed.) Actual Minds, Possible
Worlds, 11–43. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. (1990) ‘Entry into Meaning’, in J. Bruner (ed.) Acts of Meaningg, 67–97.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Carroli, P. (2008) Literature in Second Language Education: Enhancing the Role of
Texts in Learning. London: Continuum.
Daniels, H. (2001) Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in Book Clubs and Reading
Groups (2nd ed.). Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
Dörnyei, Z. (2003) Questionnaires in Second Language Research: Construction,
Administration, and Processing. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Furr, M. (ed.) (2007a) Bookworms Club Reading Circles Teacher’s Handbook. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Furr, M. (2007b) ‘Reading Circles: Moving Great Stories from the Periphery of the
Language Classroom to its Centre’. The Language Teacherr 31 (5): 15–18.
Furr, M. (ed.) (2009) Bookworms Club Diamond: Stories for Reading Circles. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
GMC [General Medical Council] (2009) Tomorrow’s Doctor. Available from: <http://
www.gmc-uk.org/TomorrowsDoctors_2009.pdf_39260971.pdf.> [accessed 1
June 2014].
Grabe, W. (2009) Reading in a Second Language: Moving from Theory to Practice. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Hall, G. (2005) Literature in Language Education. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hayashi, A., Ishii, H., Ito, K., Shiina, K., Iwatsubo, S. and Yagi, H. (2005) ‘Igakubu,
Igakudaigaku No Igakuka ni Okeru Nyūshi no Arikata ni Kansuru Chōsakenkyū
[What Medical School Entrance Examinations Should Be: Research]’. Daigaku
Nyūshi Center Kenkyū Kiyō 34, 89–120.
Institute for International Business Communication (2013) TOEIC ® Program
Data & Analysis 2012. Available from: http://www.toeic.or.jp/library/toeic_
data/toeic/pdf/data/DAA2012.pdf [accessed 1 June 2014].
Ishiguro, K. (2005) Never Let Me Go. London: Faber and Faber.
Lazar, G. (1993) Literature and Language Teaching: A Guide for Teachers and Trainers.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
228 Yuka Kusanagi
Matthews, S. (2009) ‘“I’m Sorry I Can’t Say More”: An Interview with Kazuo
Ishiguro’, in S. Matthews and S. Groes (eds) Kazuo Ishiguro, 114–125. London:
Continuum.
Mezirow, J. (1991) Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
National Federation of University Co-operative Associations (2014) Campus Life
Data 2014. Available from: http://www.univcoop.or.jp/press/life/report.html
[accessed 1 June 2014].
Paran, A. (2008) The Role of Literature in Instructed Foreign Language Learning
and Teaching: An Evidence-Based Survey, Language Teachingg 41 (4), 465–496.
Polkinghorne, D. E. (1988) Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences. Albany:
State University of New York Press.
Riessman, C. K. (1993) Narrative Analysis. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Rosenblatt, L. M. (1995 [1938]) Literature as Exploration. New York: The Modern
Language Association.
15
The Role of Literature in Foreign
Language Learning
Masako Nasu
1 Introduction
2 Background
229
230 Masako Nasu
Based on his detailed research, Saito (2003) stresses that reading exten-
sively is crucial to mastering English:
He pays special attention to the fact that Japanese masters of English read
numerous works of English literature, arguing that this enabled them
to use sophisticated English, comparable to that of a native speaker.2
This assumption is supported by Erikawa’s (2012) research, in which he
examined 59 ‘masters of English’ in the Meiji and Taisho eras, providing
statistical evidence that extensive reading was the most frequently prac-
tised English learning strategy (see also Chapter 17 in this volume).
Given the great differences between the two languages, Japanese
learners of English in Japan must make a great deal of effort to become
skilful bilingual communicators. This coincides with the fact that only a
few native speakers of English residing in Japan ever manage to master
Japanese. Considering that the English learning environment in the
Meiji and Taisho eras was inferior to the present one, being plagued by
a lack of quality dictionaries, studying devices, learning materials and
opportunities to meet native speakers, the achievements of people like
Nitobe and Okakura were all the more remarkable. In parallel, it can be
inferred that reading, both intensively and extensively, is an efficient
and effective means of acquiring a high degree of English proficiency for
both practical and academic purposes.
the past and the present, such as how the popularization of English
learning, changes in lifestyles and the advancement of technology have
influenced students’ styles of studying, learning and self-motivation.
It is hoped that the careful examination of some successful learners’
language learning processes will provide useful reference data for EFL/
ESL teachers and students.
5 Seminal works
The number of instances where the oral history method has been applied
to foreign language studies is not large, although several pieces of research
are worth noting as they involve Japanese EFL learners. Torikai (2007),
for instance, interviewed five leading interpreters with work experience
in international settings in order to collect detailed biographical infor-
mation regarding their acquisition of high English proficiency. Although
the number of participants is limited, they are professional interpreters,
and the training they underwent should have some pedagogical impli-
cations for foreign language learners – particularly Japanese EFL learners.
However, it is uncertain whether data collected in a specific field such
as interpretation is applicable to EFL learners in general. In my study,
the interviewees’ specializations vary; they include interpreters, busi-
nesspersons, researchers and students.
Takeuchi (2007; 2010) interviewed 18 ‘masters’ of English. Involving
a comparison between results of the interview analysis with those of a
questionnaire administrated to a larger number of subjects (including
the aforementioned 18), his study is methodical enough for the inter-
viewees’ testimonies to be deemed reliable both qualitatively and quan-
titatively. However, the role of literature is not specifically dealt with in
the study, which therefore provides limited insight into the validity of
Saito’s findings or the current chapter’s assumption.
From a global point of view, Benson and Nunan’s (2005) collection
of nine original studies is a seminal work in this field, which analysed
the narratives and biographies of EFL/ESL learners to identify individual
differences in language learning. The researchers clarified how learning
234 Masako Nasu
6 Interviews
1. They were born in a place where the foreign language learned was not
spoken on a daily basis.
2. They commenced regular and formal lessons of the language at the
age of 12 or older.
3. They learned the language primarily in Japan; if the individual lived
abroad, the period of time and circumstances surrounding it should
be insufficient to practically master the target language.
4. They do not speak the foreign language domestically on a daily
basis.
5. They are currently employed in an occupation requiring the acquired
foreign language’s use.
6. They can be objectively considered highly competent in the target
language.
Reference Name and position Mother Target Target language proficiency Overseas experience
tongue language
Oral history 1 MITANIHARA Masako Japanese English TOEIC score of 990 Stayed in the USA for five
(instructor at an English years (studied at a community
conversation school) college for four years and
worked for a company a year)
Oral history 2 HIRAI Mari (Japanese Japanese English Grade 1 in the EIKEN Test in Resided in the USA from age
high school student) Practical English Proficiency3 six to eleven
Oral history 3 *Japanese scholar of Japanese English Grade 1 in the EIKEN Test in Studied at a British university
English Practical English Proficiency for two years
with distinction; has published
books and papers in English
Oral history 4 *Japanese translator Japanese English Works as a professional English Studied at a British university
to Japanese translator for one year
Oral history 5 KATO Ayano (fourth Japanese English TOEIC score of 780 None
year university student)
Oral history 6 Tom Gally (Professor at English Japanese Has published papers and books Resided in Japan for more
the University of Tokyo) in Japanese; communicates in than 30 years, beginning at
idiomatic Japanese the age of 26
Oral history 7 KAWAI Tomohiro Japanese Chinese Uses Chinese and English for Studied at an Australian
(Japanese master of the business university for three years
Chinese language)
*These two interviewees agreed to disclose their oral histories on condition of anonymity.
238 Masako Nasu
Testimony A
I like reading so I read books both in Japanese and in English very
often. While staying in the United States, and also after I returned to
Japan, I read a large amount of paperbacks including authentic litera-
ture written in English. I read a few books a month, and I felt that
my English knowledge and skills were firmly established as a result of
such extensive reading. (Translated into English by the author)
Although some of her Japanese colleagues also lived abroad for long
periods, Masako’s English proficiency is superior, according to her
colleagues who are native English speakers.
Testimony B
While living in the United States, I was deeply impressed by picture
books that I found at my local primary school library, which
The Role of Literature in Foreign Language Learning 239
At eight years old, Mari read for 15 minutes each day at school, where
she encountered many interesting books. At the time of the interview,
she was reading A Tale of Two Cities and Romeo and Juliett with a private
native-speaking English tutor. Although there are several interviewees
who have lived overseas for five years or more, Mari is the only indi-
vidual to have acquired such an advanced level of English proficiency.
Testimony C
As a third-year university student, I began to seriously consider stud-
ying abroad. It was at that time I started to learn English in earnest.
My English reading began with English newspapers because I didn’t
like literature so much, even in Japanese. I was good at grammar, but I
needed a larger vocabulary to read authentic English texts; I consulted
a dictionary almost every time unknown words appeared, which
worked very well for me. After I became accustomed to authentic
English, I began reading classic British and American novels. One of
the most impressive books I encountered was A. S. Byatt’s Possession,
which I read as a postgraduate student just before studying at a
British university. Although it was a difficult book, requiring literary
knowledge, I felt a sense of accomplishment after completing the
original version of a long English novel. My experience of reading
English literature made me realize the pleasure of reading literature.
(Translated into English by the author)
Testimony D
I found literature and philosophy very interesting to read because they
have profundity in content and meet my intellectual and academic
needs. As for the advantages of reading literature and philosophy,
they can be useful for those who need to write in English. Reading
many books written in English provides not only an opportunity to
learn grammar and vocabulary, but also a way of thinking unique to
English. Since I wanted to write English in a more refined manner, I
realized that I needed to produce material that is written in a charac-
teristically English way. Furthermore, the writers of classics generally
choose words and expressions carefully to represent their ideas. In
that sense, reading masterpieces while learning English as a foreign
language is a good practice that facilitates the development of a
keen sense of language, and the ability to identify delicate shades of
meaning. (Translated into English by the author)
Testimony E
For me, extensive reading is the best learning method I have ever
utilized. So far, I have read many books written in simple English,
including simplified versions of British and American literature. The
total number of words I have read exceeds a million. Usually I spend
three hours reading daily, and I did this in the five months leading up
to March 2011. Generally, I chose books with around 10,000 words
so that I could finish them in one day. When I read a book in English
on the train, silently, it provided me with no practice for speaking
English. However, thanks to my extensive reading practice, I can now
respond in English automatically. In fact, I found it easier to speak
English than I expected since I had accumulated numerous phrases
and sentences through extensive reading. Furthermore, I can now
read English more efficiently than before, and my listening skills
have also improved. (Translated into English by the author)
Testimony F
A novel provides the reader with room for the imagination to roam,
and it makes the process of reading fun. A literary work also contains
a wider range of vocabulary than other types of reading materials.
In a newspaper, for example, there is almost no spoken language or
The Role of Literature in Foreign Language Learning 243
Reading literary works also helps you understand the cultural back-
ground of the language you are reading. Although my Japanese
reached a higher level and I was able to understand the Japanese
language itself better than before, I still had difficulty in under-
standing what and how Japanese people thought. For example,
if their aged parents became ill and needed care, how would they
cope? If you find that situation described in a Japanese novel or short
story, you can get some idea of how Japanese people think about
such problems. In a literary work, a novelist can present the idea of
‘death’ through the experiences and thoughts of the characters, while
in daily life topics such as death and nursing care for older people
are often too personal to talk about with someone you don’t know
very well. Such delicate topics are for close friends only. In this sense,
reading Japanese literature, especially modern works, really helped
me get a better understanding of how Japanese people think about
such sensitive situations.
Professor Gally has lived in Japan for more than 30 years, and although
there are many foreigners who have lived in Japan for a long time like
him, most have become proficient in daily conversation at best. As an
interviewer, I realize that his idiomatic Japanese is underpinned by his
understanding of Japanese culture and people, which he cultivated
through his reading of Japanese literature.
Testimony G
I don’t think I am really able to speak a high standard of educated
Chinese when I have meetings with inspection parties from the
central government of China. It is customary among Chinese people
to use many yoji-jukugo, especially when speaking in a refined and
educated manner. From early childhood, Chinese people learn idio-
matic compounds and are taught how to use them in either formal or
informal speech. In general, they prefer to express themselves using
these idiomatic compounds. A person who is quite familiar with clas-
sical Chinese literature uses four-character idioms in their speech
more frequently. That is the sort of style that they [Chinese people]
believe characterizes well educated speech. As for me, I’ve had no
formal instruction in Chinese, but learned the language through
conversations with native speakers. I feel embarrassed that I lack a
formal education in Chinese, although my proficiency is sufficient
to conduct business with Chinese speakers both overseas and in
Southeast Asia. However, if one wants to associate with high-level
officials in the Chinese government and educated people like profes-
sors or governmental officers, it is mandatory to speak Chinese in a
cultured manner. Those socially respected people, especially govern-
ment officials, are well grounded in classical Chinese literature and
philosophy. Accordingly, possessing knowledge of classical Chinese
literature is a requirement for speaking Chinese in a more refined
way. (Translated into English by the author)
8 Conclusion
authentic literature may be one of the best ways to further improve one’s
targeted language regardless of time or place.
Notes
1. Since Saito (2000) used this term in his Japanese book ‘Eigo Tatsujin’ (which
literally translates as ‘Masters/Experts of English’), it has been commonly used
by Japanese scholars and teachers of English.
2. Saito (2003) also argues that, along with extensive reading, reading aloud and
grammatical analysis of quality English passages are essential for Japanese EFL
learners who wish to become masters of English (see also Spolsky’s (1989)
conditions for second language learning).
3. Although it is difficult to compare English proficiency tests, Grade 1 of the
EIKEN Test in Practical English Proficiency is comparable to a TOEFL score of
91–120 or 104–110 (see http://www.eigodejuken.com/level.html and http://
eq-g.com/article/exam/exam-hikaku/, respectively).
4. For references to reports on the effectiveness of extensive reading in Japan, see
http://jera-tadoku.jp/papers/index.html (accessed 5 March 2014).
References
Benson, P. and Nunan, D. (2005) Learners’ Stories: Difference and Diversity in
Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Charon, R. (2008) Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Erikawa, H. (2012) ‘Nihon Jin no Eigo Gakushū Shi Kara Manabu [Learning from
the History of Japanese English Learning]’, available at: http://blogs.yahoo.
co.jp/gibson_erich_man/30573583.html, accessed on 17 March 2014.
Johnson K. E. and Golombek P. R. (eds.) (2002) Teachers’ Narrative Inquiry as
Professional Development. Cambridge: Cambridge Language Education.
Kramsch, C. (2009) The Multilingual Subject: What Foreign Language Learners Say
about Their Experience and Why It Matters. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Plummer, K. (2001) Documents of Life 2: An Invitation to a Critical Humanism.
London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage.
Saito, Y. (2000) Eigo Tatsujin Retsuden [Stories of the Japanese Masters of English].
Tokyo: Chukoshinsho.
Saito, Y. (2003) The English Masters’ Self-Study School (published in Japanese).
Tokyo: Chuokoron-Shinsha.
Spolsky, B. (1989) Conditions for Second Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Takeuchi, O. (2007) ‘Tatsujin’ no Eigo Gakushû-hô [The Methods of Masters’
Learning of English]. Tokyo: Soshisha.
Takeuchi, O. (2010 [2003]) Yoriyoi Gaikokugo Gakushu-hô wo Motomete:Gaikokugo
Seikô-sha no Kenkyû [Looking for a Better Learning of Foreign Language: The
Studies of Successful Learners]. Tokyo: Shohakusha.
Thompson, P. (1978) The Voice of the Past: Oral Historyy (3rd edition). Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
The Role of Literature in Foreign Language Learning 247
1 Introduction
248
The First Step towards a Critical Perspective 249
As was made clear by the results of the 2003 PISA (the Program for
International Student Assessment), Japanese pupils in compulsory
education have a low level of reading literacy, which implies that
they have little reading experience. It can also be argued that Japanese
university students in general have not had enough exposure to written
texts. Furthermore, more and more university students consider reading
or studying literature to be of almost no use for their future careers.
There also seems to be a growing tendency for the younger generation
to eschew classical works of literature, which deprives the students of
opportunities to learn from the literary legacy. It goes without saying
that reading affects cognitive function, meaning that students on
liberal arts courses generally have not had sufficient opportunities to
develop cognition and a critical perspective. I have found all these prob-
lems among the students in my university when tutoring and helping
students to complete graduation theses. They are good at obtaining
information from articles they read and summarizing it, but they cannot
read critically to identify a problem in a text, develop an original point
of view on it, or state their views logically. Therefore, most of them have
great difficulty in the discussion section of their theses. Sometimes the
students only respond to a given problem subjectively, and cannot give
any evidence-based explanation.
In the face of current issues in higher education in Japan, the Minister
of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, in a 2008 report
entitled ‘Higher Education in Japan’, claims that the university puts
much stress on the liberal arts, and also demands that ‘logical thinking
and problem solving skills’ should be cultivated in undergraduate study.1
These skills should be honed through reflection on one’s own thinking
250 Hiroko Sugimura
As stated above, there are two aspects to this study: the reading of literary
texts, and discussion using evidence-based explanation. For the former,
my reading community is presented with nothing other than 19th-cen-
tury and early 20th-century British and American literature. The first
reason for choosing such texts was that students are unlikely to choose
The First Step towards a Critical Perspective 251
9% 32%
Strongly Strongly
disagree agree
34%
Disagree
25%
Agree
7%
Strongly
disagree
32%
9% Strongly
Disagree agree
52%
Agree
10%
Strongly
disagree 15%
Strongly
agree
11%
Disagree
64%
Agree
Near the end of the story, the American woman repeats ‘please’ seven
times, which sounds to me as if she had gone mad, and says madly
‘I’ll scream’ after the man’s words ‘I don’t care anything about it’. But
she seems to pull herself together soon and to smile at both the man
and the bar woman. I did not understand why she would change her
mood so quickly.8
This comment shows that the student had failed to identify some clues
to the sudden change of Jig’s emotional state in the text because the
clues to meaning are often implicit in this story. Therefore, it was also
difficult for the students to explicate the arguments over the ending
of the story: how the couple will end up. In fact, this problem was not
explored enough by the students. Another student said, concerning the
difficulty of the text, ‘There are many pronouns in the text, for example
‘It’ in ‘It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig’ (52). It sounds ambig-
uous, so I did not understand what operation they meant’. Thus, for the
first half of the session the following point was focused on: what kind
of operation the woman is persuaded to have. One of the male students
mentioned the possibility of Jig’s pregnancy, against which one female
student said, ‘The woman drinks a lot at the bar. Usually a pregnant
woman avoids drinking. That’s why I did not think that she was having
a baby’. The male student answered that alcohol was significant because
the very strong absinthe might have caused Jig’s accidental pregnancy.
The First Step towards a Critical Perspective 255
I think there is a strange gap between these two lines: ‘Yes, with water.’
[by the man to the bar woman] (51) and ‘It tastes like licorice’ [by the
woman to the man] (51). The narrator depicts the exchanges between
the man, the woman and the bar woman before the couple put in
their drinks order, Anis del Toro. And then, abruptly, the woman
states her impression of Anis del Toro, immediately after ‘Yes, with
water’.
One of the participants pointed out that the words by the bar woman
‘Four reales’ (51) were also significant in relation to what was described
and what was not: ‘If the author intentionally chooses what is needed
for his writing, then “Four reales” should be there in spite of being not
apparently loaded with meaning. But I do not know why’. This why-
question kindled the exchange of ideas on ‘Four reales’ as follows:
Student A:
Examining the connection of the words ‘Four reales’ with the
guy’s ‘Listen’, I think that the former prevents a natural flow of
conversation.
Student B:
From their conversation we know the guy wants to order drinks, and
regard his word ‘Listen’ as a gesture of that. But the bar woman, out of
this context, understands the man’s ‘Listen’ as his asking for a bill.
Student C:
So the words ‘Four reales’ symbolize ‘misunderstanding’ or ‘disagree-
ment’. It would work as a predominant principle over the text, or it
might prefigure the trouble that the American couple have.
This reading may not hold water. However, the important thing is that
the students tried to formulate interpretations based on evidence, refer-
ring to the ‘textual gap’ in the story, as can be observed in the above
thread of the discussion.
provide some insight into the educational benefits of this project. The
survey consisted of the following questions:
Through the reading sessions, have you come to consider
Strongly agree 0 2 3 3 4 4
Agree 8 3 4 4 5 4
Disagree 2 3 2 3 0 2
Strongly disagree 0 1 1 0 1 0
The First Step towards a Critical Perspective 257
Most students came to realize that they need to read dialogue carefully
to understand characters’ behaviour or feelings. Question (b) might
have been a complicated item for the student who did not answer. One
student, who might have been the one who gave no answer to (b), said
that he had not discussed literary texts in terms of the reliability of
the narrator before. In the reading session on ‘Louise’, I asked if they
thought the narrator ‘I’ told everything about Louise objectively. In fact,
the narrator has a bias against Louise, which may have an influence on
the way she is observed and described. However, the students did not
perceive this view of the narrator, and it was quite difficult for them to
know whether the narrator was reliable or unreliable. The choice of texts
that I made for this analysis item might have been inappropriate.
7 Conclusion
This study found that most of the students in the book club are achieving
my primary educational goals: to form an opinion on a literary text and
then identify textual evidence to explain it; to review and reconsider
that opinion through discussion with peers; and to modify it if needed.
Students now seem to keep in mind the analytical items when reading,
gradually moving away from only following the story. Although their
discussion is not always to the point, the club members seem to have
acquired the skill of giving some evidence whenever they state their
views on a shared literary text. Despite some problems – such as the fact
that one reader sometimes interrupts another or dominates the discus-
sion and then modest ones take back what they have said or don’t say
what they were going to say – group discussion does provide an oppor-
tunity to learn from the views of others. Thus, reading literary texts in
258 Hiroko Sugimura
Notes
1. For the report ‘Higher Education in Japan’, see the following website: http://
www.mext.go.jp/english/highered/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2012/06/19/
1302653_1.pdf, accessed in May 2014.
2. According to Fischer (2011: 2), Dewey uses ‘reflective thinking’ as synonymous
with critical perspective, and considers it as ‘an “active” process’ in contrast
to ‘the kind of thinking in which you just receive ideas and information from
someone else’.
3. The purpose and design of the questionnaire are simple: a four-point Likert-
style scale with an open-ended question such as ‘What kind of books do you
read?’ following the question ‘Do you think you read much?’ The purpose is
to know the students’ interests in reading and what genres they read.
4. This is almost what Rosenblatt calls ‘efferent reading’, which focuses on ‘what
will remain as the residue afterr the reading’ or ‘the information to be acquired’
(Rosenblatt, 1978: 23).
5. These focus points are mainly based on Hawthorn (1985), and also on New
Criticism for symbol and image and on narratological theories, such as reli-
ability of narrator (e.g. Booth, 1983), perspectives (e.g. Fowler, 1977) and
focalization (e.g. Bal, 2010; Genette, 1980; Rimmon-Kenan, 1983).
6. Although the Zyngier and Fialho model has ‘creation’ in it, the students are
exempted from creative writing because it is not directly related to my primary
objective of this study.
7. Almost all the pupils or students in elementary school or junior high school
are required to read one book and to write a book report on it as homework
in summer holidays. Some schools select several books to read, from among
which the students choose. In Japan writing a book report is usually consid-
ered as kind of subjective writing: writing one’s impression in particular,
which should not always be supported by any textual evidence.
8. All the discussions were in Japanese; comments have been summarized and
translated into English by the author.
References
Bal, M. (2010) Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. 3rd ed. Toronto: University
of Toronto Press.
Booth, W. C. (1983) The Rhetoric of Fiction. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Boud, D., Keogh, R. and Walker, D. (eds) (1985) Reflection: Turning Experience into
Learning. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Dewey, J. (1933) How We Think. rpt. Chicago: Regnery.
The First Step towards a Critical Perspective 259
1 Introduction
Language teachers both inside and outside Japan who believe in the
pedagogical effectiveness of reading literature share a serious problem:
fewer and fewer young people read books, especially literature. Bruns
(2011: 2) offers an example of a college student who called literature
‘crap’ and ‘contended that all the literature he’d read in school was just
a waste of time’. She continues:
260
The Use of a Literary Text in an ER Programme 261
results: the percentage of Japanese people not reading a single book per
month has increased from 37.6 in 2002 to 47.5 in 2013. Moreover, 44.7
per cent of the respondents who answered that they had not read a book
per month also indicated they would not like to increase the number of
books they read (Agency for Cultural Affairs, 2014).
In this context, the survey results released in 2013 by the National
Institution of Youth Education (NIYE) in Japan encourage teachers of
language and literature to ‘hang in there’ for a little while. The NIYE
conducted a national survey and research (among 21,168 junior and
senior high school students and 5,258 adults in their twenties to sixties)
on the state of L1 reading activities during respondents’ childhood and
their impacts and effects on their later lives. Respondents were asked to
indicate the number of books they read per month, the amount of time
per day they spent on reading, their current attitudes towards reading,
and the reading activities they had experienced during childhood (NIYE,
2013). One noteworthy finding from the survey results is that there is
a correlation between respondents’ childhood experience of L1 reading
and their reading amount and reading time in L1 at the time of the
survey. The results for both (junior and senior) high school students and
adults showed that the more reading activities they had experienced
in childhood (reading chapter books/picture books/comics, borrowing
books from the library, doing research at the library, listening to folk
tales/stories read by parents/librarians/teachers), the more books they
were reading per month and the more hours per day they were spending
on reading at the time of the survey. The results also showed that both
high school students and adults who had ever encountered an unfor-
gettable book were reading more books per month and spending more
hours per day on reading than respondents who answered that they did
not have any unforgettable book. Given that this correlation might be
applied to EFL reading as well, it might be assumed that EFL readers read
longer and more if they have an unforgettable book in EFL.
Smith (1985: 129) argues that ‘[t]he implicit knowledge of how to read
that experienced readers have acquired has been developed through
reading, and not through exercises or drills.’ Grabe (2009: 328) further
states that ‘for programs that expect students to develop reasonably
advanced academic reading abilities, there is no escaping the simple
fact that one learns to read by reading (and by reading a lot)’. Previous
empirical studies on extensive reading (henceforth ER) have shown that
reading extensively in an L2/FL improves learners’ attitudes towards
reading in the L2/FL (for example, Cho and Krashen, 1994; Fukaya,
2011; 2012; Takase, 2007) and has positive effects on the development
262 Motoko Fukaya
well known novelist and a teacher of English and literature, also recom-
mended reading English books extensively without using a dictionary, but
what he meant by ‘English books’ was no doubt unabridged originals.
On the contrary, Kobayashi (2012) argues that the recent popularity
of ER in Japan comes from its practicability in EFL classrooms. One of
the biggest sources of momentum for the popularization of ER in Japan
has been the ‘Three Golden Rules for achieving the goal of reading one
million words’ advocated by Sakai (2002) and the SSS (Start with Simple
Stories) Extensive Reading Group (2004): (1) no dictionaries while
reading; (2) skip over difficult words and phrases; (3) quit reading when
the book is difficult or boring. While these three rules partly overlap with
the ten characteristics of successful ER programmes (Day and Bamford,
1998), the crucial difference between them is that the ‘Three Golden
Rules’ are generated on the basis of the common belief that Japanese
English learners have a habit of translating English into Japanese and
that this hinders them from reading fluently or enjoying reading in
English (Sakai, 2002; Takase, 2010).
The SSS method is another pillar of ER in Japan (SSS Extensive Reading
Study Group, 2004; Furukawa, 2010). The basis of the SSS method is quite
similar to Krashen’s (2004: 37) input hypothesis: ‘we acquire language in
only one way: by understanding messages, or “obtaining comprehensible
input” in a low-anxiety situation’; however, it also aims to free Japanese
learners from ‘English-phobia’, caused by the habit of word-by-word
translation and the pressure to memorize all the unknown words encoun-
tered in order to get a good score on tests or to pass the entrance exami-
nations of Japanese universities. With the SSS method, learners are told
first to extensively read simple stories written in easy English. As a result
of obtaining a large amount of ‘comprehensible input’ using these easy
books, they learn to read English without translating it into Japanese.
Over the last decade, a number of empirical studies on ER using the
‘Three Golden Rules’ and the SSS method have reported that these
approaches are effective in motivating Japanese students to read more
and enjoy reading more in English (for example, Kobayashi et al., 2010;
Nishizawa et al., 2010; Takase, 2008). It must be noted that not a few
of these studies targeted unmotivated, reluctant learners at Japanese
universities. For example, Takase and Otsuki (2012: 91) conducted
research among 81 remedial students ‘with various levels of English
ability (their TOEIC scores range between 190 and 625)’ and concluded
that ‘learners who ha[d] negative experience in studying English could
not only develop their English proficiency through ER but also enjoy
reading English extensively’.
264 Motoko Fukaya
3 What is reading?
1. a rapid process,
2. an efficient process,
3. a comprehending process,
4. an interactive process,
5. a strategic process,
6. a flexible process,
The Use of a Literary Text in an ER Programme 265
7. a purposeful process,
8. an evaluative process,
9. a learning process, and
10. a linguistic process.
4.1 Participants
The participants in the present study were 56 first-year non-English-
major students (35 male, 21 female) in two EFL classes at a university in
Japan. They participated in an ER course titled ‘Active Reading: Enjoy
Reading Books in English’ for two terms. At the beginning of the course,
they took a placement test developed by the Edinburgh Project for
Extensive Reading (EPER) (Hill, 1992), which determined their English
level to be upper-elementary to upper-intermediate.
Fukaya (2011) and Mizuno (2005) similarly show that adding a group
activity to the solitary task of ER has a positive effect on learners’ attitudes
towards reading. Tanaka et al. (2011) also indicate that inferential questions
on a literary text discussed in groups could increase learners’ interest in EFL
reading as well as foster understanding of the text. (See Chapter 16.)
The World Café is a unique approach to group discussion developed
by Brown et al. (2005). Its seven principles – (1) set the context, (2)
create hospitable space, (3) explore questions that matter, (4) encourage
everyone’s contribution, (5) cross-pollinate and connect diverse perspec-
tives, (6) listen together for patterns, insights and deeper questions, and
(7) harvest and share collective discoveries – plainly demonstrate that
the purpose of the World Café is to foster open conversation between
participants with different backgrounds and ideas in order to exploit
collective intelligence. If SF is combined with a World Café model of
cooperative reading/learning activity, students should be able to share
their reactions to the story with their peers in a relaxed manner, encour-
aging comprehension and critical evaluation/interpretation of the text.
According to Brown et al. (2005), the procedure employed by the
World Café is as follows. Participants form into groups of four or five and
sit at tables in their groups. They engage in three rounds of conversation.
After the first round, at their ‘home’ table, they move to any other table
The Use of a Literary Text in an ER Programme 269
in order to talk to new people; one person stays at the original table as
a host to welcome new guests from the other tables. The key point is to
make notes on big sheets of paper spread on the tables, so that the guests
can see what has been previously discussed at their new table. Round 1
is devoted to raising relevant issues, and round 2 is for linking, cross-
pollinating and building on these ideas. For round 3, participants return
to their home table, ‘sharing the ways their original thinking has been
enriched by their learning visits and considering the linkages between
their ideas and those of other teams’ (Brown et al., 2005: 119).
In the present study, the participants were required to prepare several
materials at home: specifically, they were asked to compose two infer-
ential questions that they wanted to ask their peers, identify the most
impressive passage they found in the text, and outline their evaluation
of the text. Then, in the World Café, they were expected to start a casual
conversation on these ideas and to enrich their thinking by learning
new ideas from their peers. These interactions with the text and with
peers can be a key to enhancing the evaluative process of reading. The
discussion was done in their L1 in order not to disturb their free conver-
sation in a relaxed mood.
Activities Questionnaires
QN1 QN2
2 QN3
level and the content of the GR easier to understand than those of SF.
Then, between QN2 and QN3, scores increase in lines 1 and 5 and drop
in line 3, with statistical significance. This implies that the World Café
discussion improved the participants’ reading speed and understanding
of the content of SF.
272 Motoko Fukaya
4.5
3.5
3
1
2.5 2
Means
2 3
4
1.5
5
1
0.5
0
QN1 QN2 QN3
4.5
3.5
3 6
2.5 7
Means
8
2
9
1.5 10
1 11
0.5
0
QN1 QN2 QN3
In Figure 17.4, the six lines move in the same pattern: scores improve
from QN1 to QN2, with statistical significance, and remain steady
between QN2 and QN3. This clearly shows that intensive reading of
SF and the discussion in the World Café enhanced evaluative reading.
The participants’ responses to Q6 to Q11 on QN2 and QN3 were all
positive (that is, the means were more than 3.00). This implies that
The Use of a Literary Text in an ER Programme 273
4.2
3.8
12
Means
3.6 13
14
15
3.4
3.2
3
QN1 QN2 QN3
Mean SD t
Table 17.3 The most impressive text read in the whole programme
Note: n=56.
GR SF RA EPER Mean SD
Note: n=56.
6 Conclusion
Acknowledgement
Notes
1. See ‘M-Reader’ available at http://mreader.org/mreaderadmin/s/html/about.
html, accessed on 3 December 2014, for details on Moodle Reader.
2. Although most of the Japanese researchers mentioned in this chapter did
not introduce reading-related activities in their ER programmes (for example,
Furukawa, 2010; Sakai, 2002; Takase, 2010), Fukaya (2010; 2011; 2012) and
Kobayashi et al. (2010) show that they are effective in improving learners’
attitudes towards EFL reading.
References
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan (2014) ‘Heisei 25 Nendo
Kokugo ni Kansuru Yoron Chōsa no Kekka no Gaiyō [Summary of the Results
of the Annual Survey on Japanese Language 2013]’, available at: http://www.
bunka.go.jp/tokei_hakusho_shuppan/tokeichosa/kokugo_yoronchosa/pdf/
h25_chosa_kekka.pdf, accessed on 10 June 2015.
Brown, J., Isaacs, D. and the World Café Community (2005) The World Café:
Shaping Our Futures through Conversations that Matter. San Francisco: Berrett-
Koehler Publishers.
Bruns, C. V. (2011) Why Literature?: The Value of Literary Reading and What it Means
for Teaching. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group.
Cho, K. and Krashen, S. (1994) ‘Acquisition of Vocabulary from the Sweet Valley
Kids Series: Adults ESL Acquisition’, Journal of Readingg 37: 662–667.
Day, R. R. and Bamford, J. (1998) Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Elley, W. B. and Mangubhai, F. (1983) ‘The Impact of Reading on Second Language
Learning’, Reading Research Quarterlyy 19: 53–67.
Erikawa, H. (2012) ‘Nihon Jin no Eigo Gakushū Shi Kara Manabu [Learning from
the History of Japanese English Learning]’, available at: http://blogs.yahoo.
co.jp/gibson_erich_man/30573583.html, accessed on 17 March 2014.
278 Motoko Fukaya
1 Introduction
This chapter will show different ways that graded readers, hereafter
referred to as GR, can be used to increase English language learning moti-
vation, deepen knowledge of specialized content and refine discussion
skills among higher-level learners. The benefits of using graded reading
to provide input to second language learners may be well known to
language educators and researchers in various fields. ‘Language acquisi-
tion comes from input, not output; from comprehension, not produc-
tion’ (Krashen, 2004: 136). Furthermore, upper-intermediate books from
GR series can be used to provide motivated higher-level learners with
background information and contexts in the form of challenging and
interesting content that can facilitate deeper thinking and discussions
about culture, history and literature, i.e. the very types of exchange that
literature students take part in.
This study focuses on three approaches to the use of GR, which were
adopted in three courses at a Japanese university; its central purpose is
to examine how the use of such texts can motivate learners, build confi-
dence, foster positive feelings towards reading and act as a bridge to the
study of authentic texts and critical thinking about language use and
literary materials. The two higher-level courses discussed in this study
are attempts to teach students challenging content, but not without
second language support. This practice is viewed by Hammond (2006)
as a valuable means to support linguistically diverse learners.
Much has been written about the successful use of graded reading in
various settings to support lower-level learners in compulsory courses
280
Increasing Motivation with Graded Readers 281
(Day and Bamford, 1998; 2000; Grabe, 2009; Helgesen, 1997); the focus
of this study will be on first-year university students in compulsory
English communication courses, and second-, third-, and fourth-year
students in more challenging elective English courses. While the courses
that this study discusses are taught at a Japanese university to English as
a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, the rationale, methodology and ideas
used to implement the course plans and activities are by no means exclu-
sive to Japanese tertiary-level teaching contexts; language and literature
instructors with students at various levels from around the globe, and in
any number of academic settings, may find inspiration from the ideas
presented in this study. For ease of reference, Table 18.2 below lists the
graded reader assignments, materials, aims and methodologies used in
each course discussed in this study.
some central ideas pertinent to all three courses, as well as other courses
in which promoting literature and language education are goals. The
instruments used in this study include: (1) a survey for each group of
students on each course that examines the specific benefits of GR in
relation to the course content and goals; (2) a survey for all students
that collected information about general perceptions of reading and its
role in education and life; (3) post-lecture and post-term student inter-
views about learning experiences as well as student perceptions of their
own academic and personal growth. With a limited number of student
responses, this study is by no means definitive; however, it is hoped
that this representative sample will provide insights into the impact
that activities related to the use of GR in various language courses can
have on students in similar contexts, as well as in other learning envi-
ronments. For ease of reference, a table listing the courses and research
questions has been provided below (see Table 18.1); the last three items
in the table are the common questions posed to all students. To provide
information about student English levels in each of the courses, student
scores from standardized tests have been entered in the last section of
the table.
English Oral Communication Survey of British Literature course English Diploma course
course (reading circles)
Have graded reading assignments Have GR assignments changed Have graded reading assignments
improved student confidence? students’ views on the study of improved student confidence?
[see Table 18.3] literature and their view of it as a [see Table 18.12]
subject worth studying?
[see Table 18.6]
Have GR assignments motivated Has student motivation to read more Was student enjoyment of reading
students to study English? literature been facilitated through fostered as a result of the
[see Table 18.4] the use of GR as course texts? assignments; did students enjoy the
[see Tables 18.7 and 18.8] GR assigned?
[see Tables 18.10 and 18.11]
Do students view GR as a means to Will students continue to study Have graded reading assignments
develop speaking skills? literature after the course ends? motivated students to study
[see Table 18.5] [see Tables 18.7 and 18.8] English?
[see Table 18.13]
Do students view GR as a means to
develop speaking skills?
[see Table 18.14]
Do students think reading is Do students think reading is Do students think reading is
important for academic growth? important for academic growth? important for academic growth?
[see Table 18.15] [see Table 18.15] [see Table 18.15]
Do students think reading is Do students think reading is Do students think reading is
important for personal growth? important for personal growth? important for personal growth?
[see Table 18.16] [see Table 18.16] [see Table 18.16]
Continued
Table 18.1 Continued
English Oral Communication Survey of British Literature course English Diploma course
course (reading circles)
Have student attitudes toward Have student attitudes toward Have student attitudes toward
reading improved as result of the reading improved as result of the reading improved as result of the
graded reading assignments? graded reading assignments? graded reading assignments?
[see Table 18.17] [see Table 18.17] [see Table 18.17]
Student TOEIC Bridge scores from April TOEIC scores by students on the TOEIC Speaking and Writing test
averages for 2013 [n = 26*] course from 2012 to 2013 [n = 56*] scores from January 2013 [n = 17*]
each course high: 144 points high: 845 speaking high: 140
based on low: 124 points low: 345 [CEFR level B1]
standardized (scores in comparison with the average: 591 speaking low: 80
test scores TOEIC test = approximately *two students did not have TOEIC scores [CEFR level A1]
and CEFR 310 to 400 points) writing high: 160
mapping *two students did not have TOEIC [CEFR level B2]
Bridge scores writing low: 100
[CEFR B1]
*one student did not have a TOEIC
Speaking and Writing test score
Increasing Motivation with Graded Readers 285
Assignment Students read at least 15,000 words Students read four GR over 15 weeks. The Students read three GR over 15 weeks.
in the spring term (first term of the reader levels were intermediate and upper The reader levels were intermediate
academic year) and at least 20,000 intermediate. Students answered survey and upper intermediate. Students read
words in the autumn term (second questions related to their understanding a section of each book and prepare a
term of the academic year) from of the texts. Students prepared worksheets role sheet that requires them to act
the GR library at the university. to be used for group discussions. as discussion leader, or to present on
passages, vocabulary, cultural issues or a
summary of the reading assignment.
Materials Simplified versions of novels Four simplified versions of novels lectured Three simplified versions of novels
and works of non-fiction from on in the course. The books are purchased lectured on in the course. The books
Level 1 to 6: beginner to upper- by students as required course texts. are purchased by students as required
intermediate. Students borrow the course texts.
books from the university library.
Assignment aims To increase students’ motivation to To help students understand the stories and To introduce students to different literary
read and learn English through content discussed in the course. To make genres, Western culture and popular
exposure to ‘comprehensible British Literature more accessible. To fiction. To promote academic discussion
input’ (Krashen, 2004). To improve encourage students to read more literature of literary works. To develop higher-
reading fluency. To encourage and discuss literary works using literary level discussion skills.
reading for pleasure. terms.
Methodologies Students practise sustained silent Students read simplified novels for Students learn academic discussion
reading, write short reflections homework while also receiving lectures etiquette. Students complete different
on the books they read, keep a that provide background and details role worksheets each week that promote
vocabulary journal and complete about the novels and writers. Students vocabulary learning strategies, instruct
worksheets to stimulate discussion complete worksheets and take part in them in how to make cross-cultural
of the books. discussion activities about the writers and connections and help them to perform
novels. Students learn literary terms and close readings of passages.
ways to discuss literary works.
Increasing Motivation with Graded Readers 287
instructors opt to use modified English versions of the texts that have
been made suitable for EFL students. Instructors who choose this option
should be aware of the differences between these texts and the originals:
as Teranishi states, ‘a huge gap between original and retold versions may
cause scholars, teachers and even students to doubt that they are reading
“literature” [ ... ] not only vocabulary and syntax but also literary tropes
are simplified or cut’ (see Chapter 11 in this volume). Bearing the above-
mentioned issues in mind, I designed a course to provide students with
knowledge about British literature and have them take part in a number
of activities that students of literature in their native languages in other
academic settings regularly engage in, but with the linguistic safety net
of simplified reading materials. Combining specialized content and EFL
support is considered a constructive way to create better learning experi-
ences for students (Adamson, 2006; Balik and Greig, 2009).
While some purists may argue (and rightly so) that shortened, summa-
rized versions of canonical literature deprive learners of a number of
reading experiences and exposure to authentic works, a compromise
had to be made based on the logistics of the course and the English
proficiency level of the students. Table 18.1 above shows the TOEIC
scores of students enrolled in the course and reflects a range of student
levels between low-intermediate and high-intermediate. As a result,
this course can be viewed more as a bridge to the study of literature,
and a means to heighten student interest in classic works and English
literature. The course took place over 15 weeks, with students meeting
for 90 minutes each week. Course content included canonical authors
and literary eras taught in chronological order, starting with the Anglo-
Saxon era and finishing with post-modernism. Because it was a survey
course, the focus of the content was more on breadth than depth. Each
week students studied a particular era and a notable author and literary
work from that era. Authors and works studied in the course included
Beowulf,f Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare and Henry V,
Swift and A Modest Proposal and Gulliver’s Travels, Defoe and Robinson
Crusoe, Shelley and Frankenstein, Dickens and Oliver Twist, t Stoker and
Dracula, Woolf and Mrs. Dalloway, Eliot and ‘The Waste Land’, Golding
and Lord of the Flies, and Orwell and 1984. To supplement course lectures,
students were assigned four GR to be completed as homework at set
times throughout the term. Students read abridged versions of Gulliver’s
Travels, Frankenstein, Oliver Twistt and 1984, and the reading assignments
coincided with the lectures given on the same content. The level of diffi-
culty of the readers progressed from lower-intermediate to upper-inter-
mediate during the term. This was done intentionally as a way to build
Increasing Motivation with Graded Readers 289
and stories was the primary goal. GR helped to accomplish this end,
and it is believed that this methodology can be successfully repeated in
a similar course, or in any other course where authentic content may be
out of reach to second language learners.
What can be understood from this data is that students at all levels
need a base to study from, and they also need to find ways to push them-
selves beyond traditional EFL courses. That is why engaging students in
reading circles is important. Assigning students specific roles and giving
them clear guidelines for discussion enabled them to generate more
productive language output. Furthermore, the course atmosphere was
more relaxed, since the reading circles were modelled on book clubs
where like-minded people read and chat about literature. That is not
to say that students did not struggle with some of the content in the
upper-intermediate books. Teaching students to talk about literature
using literary terms related to plot, setting, character, style and autho-
rial intent was a challenge; nonetheless, the exercises helped students to
talk about texts on a more intellectual level than the lower-level learners
in this study. As a result, the author, as well as others who have written
about the benefits of reading or literature circles, can conclude that
these activities are an excellent way to engage higher-level learners and
improve their critical thinking skills as well as to inspire a passion for
reading and enjoying literature.
strongly agree 63
agree 31
undecided 3
disagree 2
strongly disagree 1
strongly agree 64
agree 31
undecided 3
disagree 2
strongly disagree 0
excellent 12
good 49
undecided 37
poor 1
bad 1
296 Mark D. Sheehan
that the attitudes to reading of 61 out of the 100 students changed posi-
tively as a result of reading English books in their university courses.
Overall, these findings are positive and show that the fertile minds of
the students on the courses described above were ideal subjects for more
innovative uses of GR.
7 Conclusion
This chapter has sought to outline some of the ways in which GR can
be used to support student learning in three different contexts and with
three different types of learner with distinct needs and of varying L2
proficiency levels, ranging from lower-intermediate to upper-interme-
diate. While limited space prevents more detailed explanations of course
content, it is hoped that the ideas put forth, as well as the survey results
provided, will aid and inspire language and literature instructors in their
efforts to foster motivation, increase confidence and develop a love of
reading in their charges. It is well known that GR can be used in exten-
sive reading programmes; however, when that option is not feasible,
instructors can still promote graded reading in various types of compul-
sory English course in a general education curriculum. In addition, it is
hoped that the non-traditional courses described here, where the focus
is on more than just language skill building, will provide useful ideas for
ways to support learners and build a bridge to content, close reading and
higher-level discussion.
Having received positive responses from the students enrolled in the
courses in this study, I will continue to explore the best methodolo-
gies to get students to read and think critically about English literature,
and eventually to discuss content that enriches not only their academic
experience, but also their lives.
Note
1. Declamation exercises consisted of assignments that required students to
memorize texts and deliver them in class. In the Survey of British Literature
course, students memorized and delivered part of a poem or a short passage
from a novel.
References
Adamson, J. (2006) ‘From EFL to Content-based Instruction: What Teachers Take
with Them into the Sociolinguistics Lecture’, The Asian EFL Journal 10: 171–179,
available at: http://asian-efl-journal.com/teaching-articles/2006/02/05/from-
Increasing Motivation with Graded Readers 297
efl-to-content-based-instruction-what-english-teachers-take-with-them-into-
the-sociolinguistics-lecture/#thethe-tabs-1–1, accessed on 4 February 2014.
Balik, C. and Greig, J. (2009) ‘Improving the Academic Outcomes of Undergraduate
ESL Students: the Case for Discipline-based Academic Skills Programs’, Higher
Education Research & Developmentt 28: 401–416.
Bamford, J. and Day, R. (2004) Extensive Reading Activities for Teaching Language.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Collie, J. and Slater, S. (1987) Literature in the Language Classroom: A Resource Book
of Ideas and Activities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Daniels, H. (2002) Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in Book Clubs and Reading
Groups. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.
Day, R. and Bamford, J. (1998) Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Day, R. and Bamford, J. (2000) ‘Reaching Reluctant Readers’, English Teaching
Forum 38: 12–17.
Dörnyei, Z. (2003) ‘Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations in Language
Learning: Advances in Theory, Research, and Applications’, Language Learning
53: 3–32.
Furr, M. (2004) ‘Literature Circles for the EFL Classroom’, Proceedings of the 2003
TESOL Arabia Conference. Dubai, UAE: TESOL Arabia.
Furr, M. (ed.) (2009) Bookworms Club Stories for Reading Circles: Teachers Handbook.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Grabe, W. (2009) Reading in a Second Language: Moving from Theory to Practice. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Hammond, J. (2006) ‘High Challenge, High Support: Integrating Language and
Content Instruction for Diverse Learners in an English Literature Classroom’,
Journal of English for Academic Purposes 5: 269–283.
Helgesen, M. (1997) ‘What One Extensive Reading Program Looks Like’, The
Language Teacherr 21 (5): 31–33.
Krashen, S. (2004) The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research. Englewood, CO:
Libraries Unlimited.
Lao, C. and Krashen S. (2000) ‘The Impact of Popular Literature Study on Literacy
Development in EFL: More Evidence for the Power of Reading’, System 28:
261–270.
Ohata, K. (2005) ‘Potential Sources of Anxiety for Japanese Learners of English:
Preliminary Case Interviews with Five Japanese College Students in the U.S.’,
TESL-EJ, J vol. available at http://www.cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/tesl-ej/
ej35/a3.html, accessed on 5 March 2014.
Richards, J.C. (2001) Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Tamo, D. (2009) ‘The Use of Authentic Materials in Classrooms’, Linguistic and
Communicative Performance Journal 2: 74–78.
Yashima, T. (2002) ‘Willingness to Communicate in a Second Language: The
Japanese EFL Context’, The Modern Language Journal 86: 54–66.
19
Pedagogical Stylistics in
an ELT Teacher Training Setting:
A Case Study
Marina Lambrou
1 Introduction
The sound
d of spoken language; the way words are pronounced phonology; phonetics
The patterns of written language; the shape of language on the page graphology
The way words are constructed; words and their constituent structures morphology
The combination of words into phrases and sentences syntax; grammar
The words we use; the vocabulary of a language lexical analysis;
lexicography
The meaningg of words and sentences semantics
The way words and sentences are used in everyday situations; the pragmatics; discourse
meaning of language in context analysis
298
Pedagogical Stylistics in an ELT Teacher Training Setting 299
Given that the components of language are clearly at the core of stylistic
analysis, taking a stylistic approach to literary texts would seem suit-
able as a method of English language teaching. Specifically, learners of
English have to engage with understanding language forms and their
function, and a pedagogic stylistic approach to texts makes available the
same linguistic categories for language learning. In other words, language
learners can improve their competence in the language using litera-
ture as an alternative resource to EFL books, which also gives students
insights into (different) cultural values and allows them to engage with
historical and current social, political, ethical and other themes. As
Povey (1972: 187) argues, literature helps to extend linguistic knowl-
edge ‘by giving evidence of extensive and subtle vocabulary usage, and
complex and exact syntax’. Similarly, in his discussion of the advantages
300 Marina Lambrou
2 Aims
Figure 19.1 The intersection of literature and language learning showing focus
of study
Source: Adapted from Paran (2008).
The two axes create four quadrants that represent to what extent litera-
ture and/or language are the focus of the learning. The ideal scenario
for language through literature is quadrant 1, where language learning
interacts with a language focus so that ‘literary knowledge and skills are
focused on, but there is also a conscious focus on the lexis, grammar,
etc.’ (Paran, 2008: 471).
The sample lesson below shows some of the teaching materials devel-
oped and presented in Week 2 on lexis and syntax using an excerpt from
Roddy Doyle’s (1993) novel Paddy Clarke: Ha Ha Ha as the literary text
for the language focus:
ELT activity: What additional tasks could you set, e.g. for advanced learners?
5 Results
Continued
308 Marina Lambrou
i. You were asked to choose one of four texts given in the guidance to
prepare an 8–10 minute presentation and consider the following as
part of your planning:
● Age
● Level of students
● Learning context
● Aims
ii. You were asked to use your knowledge of English language teaching
pedagogy and stylistics to develop suitable teaching materials for
your learners and asked to use Simpson’s (2004) levels of language
study to help you.
13. Do you feel more or less confident about More___x8____ Less __x2_______
undertaking the assignment (- to produce a set of Can you say why?
teaching materials for a sequence of three hours, • Good opportunity to stage a lesson around a text
based on a literary text, with a critical reflection) • How to use literature creatively to teach language
• good preparation for the assignment
• I became aware of different teaching techniques from watching other
students’ present
• Literature can be used to focus on meaning and language
• It’s a big challenge but in a position to produce my own lesson and proud of it
• Still less confident as I have to find literature that I can understand fully
14. How has a pedagogical stylistic approach • I’m happy to be taking this module – in the future, I’d like to study story
to English language teaching changed the way telling for young learners
you think about using literature in the language • English is always taught in Saudi Arabia from commercial text books; new
classroom? method will add much more to teaching the language
• I learned how literature can be used to teach different cultures, language skills
and to motivate learners.
• Enhances interaction and expand language awareness; literature educates us
as a whole – to revisit values and opinions in the societies we live in
• You can teach literature in English lessons without boring learners
• Now I understand how literary texts can be used to teach any aspect of
language
• Stylistics is interesting but a hard subject to access – literature is couched in
archaic and specific terminology which makes it hard to reference and teach
312 Marina Lambrou
6 Conclusion
APPENDIX 1
(My original hand-out was designed with images and colour for each
text to encourage students to be creative in their own materials design
and make them attractive and engaging for their learners. Only the
literary texts are reproduced below.)
References
Badran, D. (2007) ‘Stylistics and Language Teaching: Deviant Collocation in
Literature as a Tool for Vocabulary Expansion’, in M. Lambrou and P. Stockwell
(eds) Contemporary Stylistics, 180–192. London: Continuum.
Burke, M., Csabi, S., Week, L. and Zerkowitz, J. (2012) Pedagogical Stylistics:
Current Trends in Language, Literature and ELT (Advances in Stylistics). London:
Continuum.
Carter, R. (1996) ‘Study Strategies in the Teaching of Literature to Foreign
Students’, in J. J. Weber (ed.) The Stylistics Reader,
r 149–156. London: Arnold.
Carter, R. (2014) ‘Stylistics as Applied Linguistics’ in P. Stockwell and S. Whiteley
(eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Stylistics, 77–86. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Clark, U. and Zyngier, S. (2003) ‘Towards a Pedagogical Stylistics’, Language and
Literature 12 (4): 339–351.
Doyle, R. (1993) Paddy Clarke: Ha Ha Ha. London: Vintage.
Pedagogical Stylistics in an ELT Teacher Training Setting 315
Histories
In the early part of the 20th century, in many parts of the world, learning
a foreign language meant a close study of the canonical literature in that
language. In the period from the 1940s to the 1970s, as the learning of
a foreign language, especially the learning of English internationally,
literature came to be seen as extraneous to language teaching and to
everyday communicative needs and as something of an elitist pursuit
and was replaced by more functional concerns. However, in the 1980s
and 1990s the growth of communicative language teaching methods
led to a reconsideration of the place of literature in the language class-
room with recognition of the primary authenticity of literary texts
and of the fact that more imaginative and representational uses of
language could be embedded alongside more referentially utilitarian
concerns. There continue to be some divisions, differences of opinion
and distinctions in theory and in practice between those principally
concerned with ‘relevance’ and ‘utility’ (mainly language teachers) and
those principally concerned with literature, culture and ‘significance’
(mainly literature teachers), limiting in the process opportunities for
bridge-building teaching and learning. In the 21st century, however, it
is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain such divisions, as education
through English is re-conceptualized as the study of a wide variety of
texts. Analysis has been extended to all texts as cultural products, with
the notion of culture seen as increasingly dynamic and co-constructed
interactively, as an emergent and specifically linguistic process rather
than as a completed product. One main outcome of this development,
316
Epilogue 317
as we see in this volume, has been the growth of analysis and explora-
tion of all texts, not simply or exclusively ‘literary’ texts, and the re-inte-
gration of the traditionally separate domains of literature and language
study, often with process-based (rather than product-based) pedagogies
at their heart.
This book continues a now well established tradition of publication
across the interfaces between language and literature studies and their
associated pedagogies. One of the reasons why there is continuing interest
in and commitment to this field is that it has a particular resonance for
students and teachers of English in contexts of language learning. The field
of stylistics, in particular, continues to grow internationally as a result of
the efforts over many years by many in this field to demonstrate its rele-
vance to language and literature study in both first and foreign language
education. Landmark volumes such as Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature
and Practical Stylistics (Widdowson, 1975; 1992), Reading, Analysing and
Teaching Literaturee (Short, 1989), Literature in the Language Classroom (Collie
and Slater, 1987), Language, Literature and the Learnerr (Carter and McRae,
1996) and Literature in Language Education (Hall, 2005/2015), and, more
recently, volumes such as Paran’s collection with a TESOL focus (2006) and
Watson and Zyngier’s Literature and Stylistics for Language Learners (2006)
have productively extended the field in both theory and practice. Special
issues of journals such as Language and Literaturee have also been dedicated
to this topic (for example, Burke (ed.) 2010).
The Present
Of course, many of the questions first raised 30 or more years ago are
still being asked today, in many cases with greater sharpness and rele-
vance to the design of today’s curricula in language and literature. Some
of the questions are epistemologically fundamental: What justifications
are there for the inclusion of literature in the L1 and L2 English language
learning curriculum? What is literature for, how can it be justified and
will these justifications not be different in L1 and L2 or EFL teaching
situations? What are the differences and distinctions between L1 and
L2/foreign language environments? Is there such a thing as a canon of
texts for teaching in these different situations? Are students motivated
to read them and, if so, are they differently motivated in the learning
of a foreign language by exploring literary texts in classroom language
learning? What role can translation play in the teaching of literary texts
to foreign language learners? To what extent should literatures in English
be included and according to what criteria?
318 Ronald Carter
This book looks back and acknowledges histories in the field; but it also
looks forward to new challenges. In many parts of the world, the growth
of the discipline of stylistics and of explorations across the domains of
language and literature study have led to an enhanced understanding
of responses to literature and language in the classroom and point to
the need for further empirical research into student experiences, moti-
vations and learning experiences. A number of chapters in the book
outline and illustrate possibilities for further qualitative classroom
research and there is little doubt that this focus needs to continue to
provide further evidence for refinements of existing paradigms and
the development of new paradigms in pedagogy. The role of creative
writing practices and their integration with more traditional stylistic
and process-based pedagogies is a good example and is explored in this
volume. Quantitative studies investigating the possibilities of enhanced
language learning performance as a result of literature programmes are
much more challenging and run the risk of enforcing instrumentalist
paradigms but at the same time such research directions should not be
foreclosed. A further major challenge is to link the points of entry to
texts provided by many of the approaches illustrated in this volume to
the broader etymological, historical and cultural research undertaken
within traditional literary criticism.
Epilogue 319
The classrooms of the future are taking shape, with a growing emphasis
on digital texts and on new technologies in support of learning. There
have been pioneering developments in web-based courses in stylistics
which point us in this direction (see Short et al., 2006 and the associated
website http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/projects/stylistics). The growth of
distance learning courses supported by internet-based communication,
video-conferencing and new picture- and image-based technologies
imparts a different character to communication and teaching in a recon-
figured language and literature classroom. The ease of access to spoken
data and digital sound files together with such technologies as Skype,
FaceTime and related visual interaction programmes enhance learning
through different text types while simultaneously liberating language
and literature teaching from an over-concentration on and privileging
of certain types of written discourse. And there is a growing recogni-
tion that the field of stylistics, with its recent distinctly cognitive turn
(Stockwell, 2002), is better placed than many to explore the challenge
of new media and to investigate the literary in terms of the multimodal
creation of virtual worlds, drawing on students’ own now differently
ordered experience of representational and poetic clines across fiction
and reality, speech and writing, texture and visuality. Literature and
Language Learning in the EFL Classroom points the way in theory and in
practice to such pedagogic futures and makes a distinctive and original
contribution to the continuing history of interfaces between language
and literature and pedagogy.1
Note
1. This epilogue draws in part on a previously published paper: Carter, R. (2010)
‘Issues in Pedagogical Stylistics: A Coda’, Language and Literature 19 (1):
115–122.
References
Burke, M. (ed.) (2010) Special Issue Language and Literature 19 (1).
Carter, R. and McRae, J. (eds) (1996) Language, Literature and the Learner: Creative
Classroom Practice. London; New York: Longman.
Collie, J. and Slater, S. (1987) Literature in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: CUP.
Hall, G. (2005/2015) Literature in Language Education. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Kramsch, C. and Kramsch, O. (2000) ‘The Avatars of Literature in Language
Study’, Modern Language Journal 84: 533–573.
Paran, A. (2006) Literature in Teaching and Learning: Case Studies in TESOL Practice.
Alexandria, VA: TESOL.
320 Ronald Carter
321
322 Index
intensive reading, 8, 51, 53, 116, 167, The Journal of Literature in Language
267, 269–70, 272, 273–4 Teaching,g 14
internet, 20–2 Joyce, J., 182, 185, 195n3
interpretation, 4, 5, 7, 34–5, 45, 46,
95, 120, 298, 300 Kaizen, 51, 57n9
intertextuality, 99 Kamishibai, 42–3
Ishiguro, K., 216, 225–6 Kanji, 42, 52, 56n1, 210n3
Kawabata, Y., 178
Jacobs, G., 268 ‘Kataude’ (One arm)’, 178
James, H., 169 Kobayashi, M., 263
Washington Square, 169 Korea, access to English literature in,
Japan 27
elementary school, 41–3 Krashen, S., 168, 263
L1 education in, 3–4, 41–56 Kuiken, D., 119
L2 education in, 53–5
literature in, 43–50 L1 education, 3–4, 7
teaching methods and approaches, elementary school, 41–3
45–8 in Japan, 41–56
testing conventions in, 115–16 L2 education and, 53–5
tests in, 48–50 literature in, 43–50
transdisciplinary activities, 50–3 outside language class, 50–3
Japanese EFL classroom, 2 teaching methods and approaches,
Japanese English education/teaching, 45–8
28–37 tests in, 48–50
creative stylistics in, 61–72 L1 literature, translation of, 197–210
curricula, 28–30 L2 education
digital texts in, 131–8 cognitive stylistics in, 75–91
ER programmes in, 262–4 factors influencing willingness to
graded readers in, 280–96 communicate in, 198–200
history of, 229–30 L1 education and, 53–5
interpretation of authentic materials use of literary materials in, 140–9
in, 35–7 use of picture books in, 94–109
L1 education and, 53–5 use of poetry in, 200–1
marginalization of literature in, L2 motivation, 198
30–1, 34–7 Labov, W., 169
for medical students, 212–27 Lakoff, G., 76, 78, 82, 91n1
present status of, 28–31 language
reform of, 61 Chinese, 122, 154, 243
speech/thought presentation, European languages, 154
151–65 Korean, 122, 154, 163–4
textbooks, 31–4 Japanese, 42, 45, 69, 122, 153, 154,
use of literary materials in, 3, 26–37, 207, 208, 210n3, 243
116–18, 140–9, 167–80, 182 language, vs. literature, 302–3
use of poetry in, 200–1 language acquisition, 69, 75–7, 98,
use of short stories in, 182–96 100, 141, 148, 168, 213
Japanese English textbooks, 31–4 language awareness, 7, 62, 134–5, 142,
Japanese masters of English, 229–46 148, 149, 151–64, 178–80, 198,
Japanese poetry, 201–10 209
Johnson, M., 76, 78, 82, 91n1 Language and Literature, 14
Index 325