Professional Documents
Culture Documents
8. Literature matters
Educational /
food for
thought
Entertaining /
food for the
soul
Literature
1. Functions of literature 4
Comedy
1.1 Personal interest Adventure
Crime
fiction
Comics
Which would you select for
teaching literature in a mixed Science
class? fiction
Human
Lyrics interest
1. Functions of literature 5
1.2 Institutional interest – the CEF
serves “educational
purposes – intellectual,
moral and emotional,
linguistic and cultural”
Council of Europe 2001: 56, 144
1. Functions of literature 6
1.2 Institutional interest – dimensions of literary
competence
Cognitive understanding & co-creation of meaning: forming mental model, filling gaps, forming hypotheses
Motivation & orientation: getting involved in a text, finding pleasure in reading, recognizing relevance of literature
Creative production through (re-)writing literary texts (narrative, performative, and poetic competence)
1. Functions of literature
2. Approaches to teaching literature – literature as communication
Subjective
reader
response Author
Expression
Discussing the question: of personal Imaginative
“What did the author want to experience transformation
tell us?” of experience
Intertextuality
& ‘The message’
sociocultural vs. personal
conventions interpretation
dynamic
interaction
» involved participant
» detached spectator
» literary critic
Readers’
roles and
teaching » subjective response (e.g., reading logs)
» open dialog, negotiating meanings
» aesthetic appreciation and criticism
of meaning
discourse generations
‘Them’
Hybrid ‘third space’
‘Us’ a contact zone; e.g.,
between the German
context and the cultures
experienced through
American, British, and
postcolonial or New
English literature
of meaning
texts are cultural: texts have ‘real’
conditions and effects
Culture as text
postmodern perspectives
culture is textual: in the sense of being
culturally significant and readable
cf. Delanoy 2007: 115-18, Hesse 2009: 89, Nünning & Surkamp 2006: 71-80, Thaler 2008: 51-52
2. Approaches to teaching literature 24
2.4 ‘Doing’ literature: Creative activities
Task-based and motivate learners to work on palpable
products
creative work
encourage aesthetic transformation of
subjective responses
The post-reading phase
creative response to Woolf’s short story “The New Dress” by Miriam Aufermann
2. Approaches to teaching literature 25
2.4 ‘Doing’ literature – functions of learner texts
Texts should….
Creative
Moti-
Inter-
vation
language
Metalin-
Compre- Positive Accurate
guistic
hensible atmos- pronun-
know-
input pheres ciation
ledge
Principles Principles
Address- Authentic
Tolerating
ing prior speech
Rich input structural
know- produc-
errors
ledge Qualifying tion Alterna-
L2
ting
communi-
cation only procee-
if necessary dings
http://www.goinggreen2014.org
3. Literature for all levels 34
Search the Internet for prizes for young adult literature, and discuss
which of the award-winning texts from last or this year would be suited
for intermediate learners (major booksellers offer the first few pages
online as a preview).
Advanced:
increase ICC and
all dimensions
Intermediate: of literary
expand ICC, competence
cognitive
understanding,
Beginners: discursive skills,
pleasure, aesthetic
enjoying reading appreciation,
creative potential
Delanoy, Werner; Maria Eisenmann & Frauke Matz, eds. (2015). Learning
with Literature in the EFL Classroom. Frankfurt a. M. et al.: Lang.
Hallet, Wolfgang & Ansgar Nünning, eds. (2007). Neue Ansätze und Konzepte
der Literatur- und Kulturdidaktik. Trier: WVT.
Nünning, Ansgar & Carola Surkamp (2006). Englische Literatur unterrichten:
Grundlagen und Methoden. Seelze-Velber: Klett/Kallmeyer.
Surkamp, Carola & Ansgar Nünning (2009). Englische Literatur unterrichten:
Unterrichtsmodelle und Materialien. Seelze-Velber: Klett/Kallmeyer.
Thaler, Engelbert (2008). Teaching English Literature. Paderborn et al.:
Schöningh.