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The_Philadelphianist
Joined: 07 Aug 2014
Posts: 18
Location: Little Pete's, at the counter, after midnight, w/ a steaming plate of scrambled eggs & scrapple
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 Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 6:58 am Post subject: Teaching Literature to University Students... |
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I'll be arriving in China in early September to teach literature courses to English Translation and Business English majors at a government technical university. I'll be teaching one course on the short story to sophomores and another (two semester) survey-style course on British & American literature to juniors.
I was wondering if anyone who has had experience teaching university-level lit courses (particularly to non-lit majors) in China would mind sharing some of the issues and challenges they might have encountered.
One of my main concerns is with the students' likely lack of prior experience in analyzing and writing about literature, especially literature in English. I'm also concerned with how in-depth the survey course on British & American lit should be, since the students are English majors but not specifically literature majors.
Any input, advice, anecdotes, info, etc., would be much appreciated -- thanks in advance. |
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Alien abductee
Joined: 08 Jun 2014
Posts: 527
Location: Kuala Lumpur
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| Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 7:19 am Post subject: |
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There doesn't seem to be a lot about teaching literature on here but here's something.
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=104411&highlight=literature
Scour the web for info, ppt files, youtube videos that you can download, these can all be useful in your class and can be a supplement to your text or whatever your primary teaching resources are going to be.
And maybe I can offer this piece of advice, keep it simple. |
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linchobbs
Joined: 14 Aug 2004
Posts: 10
Location: Korla, Xinjiang
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| Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:13 am Post subject: |
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Yes, keep it simple and go slowly!
I notice that many Chinese have difficulty with inference. If they can't find a direct statement in the text, they are baffled.
Eg. "Bob returned from work as he does everyday. First, he took off his muddy boots. Then, he took off his dirty overalls and stuffed them in a bag which he left beside the washing machine."
Question: What kind of job does Bob have?
Answer: But teacher, it doesn't say.
Whatever you do, be prepared to start at the very beginning. |
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The_Philadelphianist
Joined: 07 Aug 2014
Posts: 18
Location: Little Pete's, at the counter, after midnight, w/ a steaming plate of scrambled eggs & scrapple
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| Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:40 am Post subject: |
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| linchobbs wrote: |
Yes, keep it simple and go slowly!
I notice that many Chinese have difficulty with inference. If they can't find a direct statement in the text, they are baffled.
Eg. "Bob returned from work as he does everyday. First, he took off his muddy boots. Then, he took off his dirty overalls and stuffed them in a bag which he left beside the washing machine."
Question: What kind of job does Bob have?
Answer: But teacher, it doesn't say.
Whatever you do, be prepared to start at the very beginning. |
I encountered the same thing when I taught in the ROK. I'm hoping, though, that this won't be too much of an issue at my new job, at least with the English Translation majors (we'll see).
To counter this, I'm thinking of giving the survey course students a brief, quick and dirty crash course in the basic tools of interpretation (what metaphor, plot, narrative, meter, etc., are) to try and get them to think about the readings in a way that moves beyond the personal and literal.
With the short story course, I was thinking of teaching those tools in a more bottom-up, exploratory fashion as we read the texts in class together. I'd like to do that with the survey course, but we've got a thousand years of English literature to get through and only a semester to get through it, and so less time to go into greater depth with each of the readings than in the short story course. |
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buravirgil
Joined: 23 Jan 2014
Posts: 967
Location: Jiangxi Province, China
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| Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 10:47 am Post subject: |
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| The_Philidelphiaist wrote: |
I'm thinking of giving the survey course students a brief, quick and dirty crash course in the basic tools of interpretation (what metaphor, plot, narrative, meter, etc., are) to try and get them to think about the readings in a way that moves beyond the personal and literal.
With the short story course, I was thinking of teaching those tools in a more bottom-up, exploratory fashion as we read the texts in class together. I'd like to do that with the survey course, but we've got a thousand years of English literature to get through and only a semester to get through it, and so less time to go into greater depth with each of the readings than in the short story course. |
Seems a sound approach to me...here are two random, respective links...
Bud Powell swears by this, as do I.(Purdue Owl)
After informally assessing proficiency, my second order of business was explaining (reassuring) students about testing-- explaining, by example, how I would achieve a ranking and by what ratio of productive versus receptive measure I would do so. The students had some amount of expectation of this from prior negative experiences-- surprise grades.
I have to add that inference is culture specific. Sociolinguistics is well-founded, of an intellectual rigor, and fascinating. linchobbs example must be simplified a tad to illustrate what can be demonstrated to be a misgiving.
Translation is heavy into the recognition of idiom, and scholastic achievement in China is heavy into memorization. And idioms are challenging to explain as they're both literal and figurative and because cultural context is complex. How concepts are given priority over another is the stuff of a lot of dissertation. |
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jm21
Joined: 26 Feb 2008
Posts: 406
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| Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 6:02 pm Post subject: |
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If it were my students the three main problems I would be concerned about would be
1. No one wants to raise their hand or in any other way volunteer, which makes class discussion difficult.
2. Few do their homework or assigned reading properly.
3. A significant number copy homework from the internet or other students.
I would call on them at random, do in class quizzes about the factual content of the reading, and base part of the grade on class participation... but make sure that that jived with the school's grading aystem from the get go. Lots of powerpoints and maybe throw them up on the web so atudents can review if they want.
Based on my experience teaching public relations last semester. |
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Bud Powell
Joined: 11 Jul 2013
Posts: 1736
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| Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 7:45 pm Post subject: |
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I'm surprised that a Chinese public educational institution would hire a westerner to teach western literature. It would make too much sense.
What qualifications did you offer the school? Whose material will you use--- the school's or your own?
Which forms of criticism will you teach? From what I gather from reading Chinese professors' notes on blackboards, a Marxist take is the most popular, even for Shakespeare. |
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The_Philadelphianist
Joined: 07 Aug 2014
Posts: 18
Location: Little Pete's, at the counter, after midnight, w/ a steaming plate of scrambled eggs & scrapple
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| Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 3:53 am Post subject: |
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| Bud Powell wrote: |
I'm surprised that a Chinese public educational institution would hire a westerner to teach western literature. It would make too much sense.
What qualifications did you offer the school? Whose material will you use--- the school's or your own?
Which forms of criticism will you teach? From what I gather from reading Chinese professors' notes on blackboards, a Marxist take is the most popular, even for Shakespeare. |
I have a BA in English Lit, some graduate credits towards an MA in English Lit (never completed), a few publishing credits (poetry), a generic TEFL cert, and 3 1/2 years experience teaching EFL (conversation, writing, grammar, and TOEFL prep) in the ROK.
Given my quals, I was surprised, too, when they asked me, since even after they made the offer I was still under the impression that I'd be teaching EFL in addition to literature, however they said they just needed someone for the lit classes (bully for me).
The school does have literature textbooks available for use, but they're Chinese-produced and I have no way of previewing them to see what they're like before I come over, so I asked the uni if I could use my own materials and they gave their approval. I have PDF versions of the Norton anthologies of both British and American literature, so I'm thinking of posting copies of those to a Chinese file sharing site for the students to download, in addition to other class material (syllabuses, PPTs, etc.).
As for critical approaches, I'm thinking of just guiding them through the basics of close reading, with some formalism/constructivism and (new) historicism thrown in for good measure, since they're the approaches I'm most comfortable and familiar with. On the formalist side, I'd love to teach the lit survey course students the basics of meter & scansion, and maybe have them try their hands at composing something short in iambic pentameter as an alternative assignment -- I'd like to see what their English skills are like, though, before I get too ambitious.
I asked the FAO how the students' English level was, and she assured me that it was "good," but I'm going to go ahead and take that "good" with a healthy grain of salt just to be on the safe side. |
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Non Sequitur
Joined: 23 May 2010
Posts: 4724
Location: China
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| Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 5:56 am Post subject: |
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I'm surprised as my experience is that Chinese professors are proud of their knowledge of English including lit.
Sure we get to do ESL because Chinese teachers can't provide exposure to native-speaker English.
I had an English major ask me about Shylock in my second semester and up until then, I had no idea that they were studying Shakespeare.
OP keep us up to date on this as it does seem something of a breakthrough.
Best |
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The_Philadelphianist
Joined: 07 Aug 2014
Posts: 18
Location: Little Pete's, at the counter, after midnight, w/ a steaming plate of scrambled eggs & scrapple
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| Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 6:16 am Post subject: |
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| jm21 wrote: |
If it were my students the three main problems I would be concerned about would be
1. No one wants to raise their hand or in any other way volunteer, which makes class discussion difficult.
2. Few do their homework or assigned reading properly.
3. A significant number copy homework from the internet or other students.
I would call on them at random, do in class quizzes about the factual content of the reading, and base part of the grade on class participation... but make sure that that jived with the school's grading aystem from the get go. Lots of powerpoints and maybe throw them up on the web so atudents can review if they want.
Based on my experience teaching public relations last semester. |
These are concerns of mine as well. If their writing skills permit it, I was thinking of having both classes do a weekly, one to two page discussion paper on some aspect of the assigned readings and collecting them as part of their grade in an attempt to incentivize doing the readings, submitting original work, & participation in class discussions (the latter by having them summarize their papers and asking other students for feedback).
On the first day of both classes, I'm going to ask the students to provide an in-class writing sample and collect it to try and assess their writing skills and critical thinking/reading skills a bit, realizing that I may have to take things down a notch from my initial plans and try to meet them where they are if they can't meet me where I'd like them to be. |
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The_Philadelphianist
Joined: 07 Aug 2014
Posts: 18
Location: Little Pete's, at the counter, after midnight, w/ a steaming plate of scrambled eggs & scrapple
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| Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 6:23 am Post subject: |
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| Non Sequitur wrote: |
I'm surprised as my experience is that Chinese professors are proud of their knowledge of English including lit.
Sure we get to do ESL because Chinese teachers can't provide exposure to native-speaker English.
I had an English major ask me about Shylock in my second semester and up until then, I had no idea that they were studying Shakespeare.
OP keep us up to date on this as it does seem something of a breakthrough.
Best |
I think one of the reasons the admin is having an FT teach the lit courses is b/c those courses don't, to my knowledge at least, actually count as much for the English majors at this institution.
The uni primarily trains scientists and engineers. The English majors there are all English Translation & Business English majors, not literature majors, so I believe the courses I'll be teaching are among the few lit courses they'll take as part of their degree programs, their other courses focusing on their respective specializations. |
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Bud Powell
Joined: 11 Jul 2013
Posts: 1736
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| Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 8:44 am Post subject: |
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I'd skip Shakespeare altogether except for a few sonnets. If you were teaching Lit over the course of two or four semesters, you could attempt a novella, but I'd suggest short stories that reveal something about western culture.
For poetry, I wouldn't emphasize meter or form. Make them aware of it, give a few examples, and move on. Take , for example, Poe's Annabel Lee. If you were to discuss the meter of the first line, the student would be hit with anapest followed by an iamb. Do you really need to get bogged down in that?
Pick several classic stories and discuss the characterization, plot, perhaps a few devices and move on.
Certainly, make them aware of the different types of criticism such as New Criticism and New Historicism, but how about a little feminist theory?
That'll wake 'em and shake 'em up.
One more thing: I was told that I'd teach literature on my first job in China. It was a ruse to get me over there. I have an MA and an MFA. |
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jm21
Joined: 26 Feb 2008
Posts: 406
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| Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:11 am Post subject: |
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| The_Philadelphianist wrote: |
| jm21 wrote: |
If it were my students the three main problems I would be concerned about would be
1. No one wants to raise their hand or in any other way volunteer, which makes class discussion difficult.
2. Few do their homework or assigned reading properly.
3. A significant number copy homework from the internet or other students.
I would call on them at random, do in class quizzes about the factual content of the reading, and base part of the grade on class participation... but make sure that that jived with the school's grading aystem from the get go. Lots of powerpoints and maybe throw them up on the web so atudents can review if they want.
Based on my experience teaching public relations last semester. |
These are concerns of mine as well. If their writing skills permit it, I was thinking of having both classes do a weekly, one to two page discussion paper on some aspect of the assigned readings and collecting them as part of their grade in an attempt to incentivize doing the readings, submitting original work, & participation in class discussions (the latter by having them summarize their papers and asking other students for feedback).
On the first day of both classes, I'm going to ask the students to provide an in-class writing sample and collect it to try and assess their writing skills and critical thinking/reading skills a bit, realizing that I may have to take things down a notch from my initial plans and try to meet them where they are if they can't meet me where I'd like them to be. |
Grading homework drove me nuts because so many students copied their work from somewhere. In my English classes too. You would get a few papers in, think "hmm..that looks familiar..."
I will never do written homework again unless required to or for better pay. Finding out who was cheating was a huge time sink and I'm sure I missed some. I talked about it with my girlfriend and she thought it was very common in China. Plagiarism is not a big deal here.
Maybe if you plan to do a lot of assignments and hammer them early on for copying it would sink in...but then you're talking about a lot of work. I don't get paid enough for that. |
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spiral78
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 11534
Location: On a Short Leash
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| Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:36 am Post subject: |
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Free plagiarism detection systems, google-able:
Grammarly
Anti-Plagiarism
DupliChecker
Paper Rater
Plagiarisma.net
PlagiarismChecker
Plagium
PlagTracker
See Sources
PlagiarismDetector
Viper
might be useful! |
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jm21
Joined: 26 Feb 2008
Posts: 406
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| Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 12:05 pm Post subject: |
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Maybe, but not sure how much help they would be if the student grabs one written in chinese, runs it through Google translator and (maybe) pretties it up a little or adds a few sentences. Did an assignment writing press releases and you could tell that's what happened. some accidentally left links in so I could find the article but you couldn't search for them easily on Google or reverse translate and find them that way. They can also get some assignments from a Chinese textbook that is not known in the west.
Even copying from a classmate that has a different class with you, though easy to catch, can be time consuming if you have enough students. I had about 900 students and it really threw a hitch in things to notice a copy then go back through 400 assignments to find the one you remember. You read about the aunt in hong Kong cooking some dish for dinner in assignment 37 then you read it again on assignment 452 and think it's very familiar...then go back through to find the first one..argh.... |
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