Job Discussion Forums

[Laura C]

Hi everyone,

I find that using short paragraphs or chapters of novels in teaching can be an interesting way of illustrating a particular point I want to make. At the minute I am just starting to learn French so I have bought a copy of The Lord of the Rings in French to help me along. My reasoning (wait for it) is that since I know the book inside out and backwards, it will be interesting and useful to compare the English and French editions. The fact that it will take me a year to read is besides the point...

Anyhoo, this made me wonder: do any of you use fiction in your lessons, and which books if so?

L

PS -- apart from buying whopping great novels, just how does one start to learn a whole new freakin language anyway??

[denise]

Laura,

I sometimes use fiction to teach vocabulary. My current obsession (or one of them, at least) is weaning the students in my reading class off of their dictionaries and getting them to guess from context. I confess that I haven't given too much thought to which texts to use--I have just selected suitable paragraphs ("suitable" meaning mostly comprehensible but with a few complicated words) from books that I've been reading. My students have gotten a bit of Lewis Carroll (for anyone interested in vocab lessons, there's a great activity based on Jabberwocky in the "ideas cookbook" section here--unfortunately it went waaaaaay over my students' heads) and my fave, "The Count of Monte Cristo."

Good luck with Lord of the Rings! I read Harry Potter in Spanish for the same reason--I know the stories inside and out (should I be embarrassed?!?!? I do read "real" literature also!), so I felt that they'd be comprehensible en espanol. The problem was that I knew the stories too well--I knew exactly what was supposed to come next, so there was little challenge in actually understanding the language.

d

[Roger]

I am probably one of the most fiercely pro-literature fanatics on this board, yet I must say something in your explanation of why you want to use fiction is jarring.
You said you knew the LORD OF THE RING inside out - and that's why you are so bold as to read it in French.
The problem is you are only focusing on words, not on the semantics. You won't need to "read" the story - you just skim it for new vocables that are a little challenging. This will not help greatly.
I think if you started a work of fiction that you haven't read in your first language you you are bound to make far more progress.

Translations are almost always far less enthralling and honest than originals. Just think of how to render idioms in a second tongue... Or poems... a simple thing, rhythm in one language is nevr the same in the other.

Reading an Agatha Christie novel in German, I felt it was rather dull and wooden, the typical British humour was almost totally absent. I recently read Henry Miller's PLEXUS, which is autobiographical, in French. This was a rare excellent tanslation, partly because both English and French employ lots of vulgar idioms that the regular "literary" works and journalism shun.
Well, Lord of the RIng is not terribly difficult to read in any language - why not read a book by Tolien that you haven't read in English yet? The characters are always more or less the same.

[shmooj]

I have got to the point in my Japanese where I am ready to go out and find a book to read. I went a got a jr high school copy of a book called Shonen H which is a biography of a kid growing up in the war. It is fascinating because it provides a naive and inside view of Japan in that generation.

Like Roger [sorry wrote Laura C in her by mistake earlier], I felt that if I read a book I already knew and especially one that was written in my language anyway, I would be letting myself off the hook. And, for goodness sake, through allt he blood sweat and tears learning Japanese has cost me, what a waste if I don't use it to enter the very culture the language has opened to me.

Meanwhile back in the classroom, I have generated great interest in reading by using Longman Graded Readers, Oxford Bookworms and the Penguin Readers. Excellent excellent books.

[Laura C]

Hi Roger,

I see your point about LOTR maybe not being the best choice for me to read-- but I have to disagree. The reason I picked it is because I am pretty much a complete beginner in French so I wanted to start with something that is already familiar to me (and have been advised to do so by my teacher). I don't think it is 'bold' to do this at all!

When I am a little more competent in the language, then I will move on to books that I haven't yet read. If I'm reading in French I will probably choose French books as I have enjoyed the little bit of French literature I have already read in translation. But at the minute, the thought of learning a whole new language is pretty daunting, and I don't want to put myself off by trying to run before I can walk.

Ta for the suggestion about reading some other Tolkien. I've read in English pretty much everything he has written though, so that idea is out! And the likes of The Simarillion can be difficult enough to follow in anglais...

Denise, don't be scundered about the Harry Potter! It is precisely because you read 'literary' stuff that you can spot the HP books for the classics they are!

L

[Lynn]

I've used Aesop's fables in my advanced classes. It's interesting how different people/cultures get a different message from the same story.

[ohman]

I've used Raymond Carver, 70's and 80's minimalist. His characters often come from a lower-income, not welll educated class, so the vocabulary is simple. Also, his stories are very short. Fiction can help to generate an empathic response, a handy acquisition mechansim.

[Wolf]

In Japan, I once saw two high school girls with a copy of Lord of the Rings. When I was learning French, I began with Le Petit Prince and Le Bougeios Gentilhomme (forgive terrible bad French spelling).

I also teach literature in class (as I have a literature class.) I approach it a bit differently than just using literature in a general purpose class.

Two days ago I thought of this poem:

[Laura C]

Well said Wolf.

I love that poem you posted, it made a shiver go down my spine, which is one of the things all the best writing does...The poem is an excellent example of how to use literature in teaching English. Why use the textbook to discuss simple past and simple present when this can do it much more effectively?

L

[Kurochan]

I haven't used literature, but I have used reports from Hong Kong Entertainment News in Review (www.hkentreview.com). They sometimes have news reports about breaking scandals in the HK celebrity scene, and since my students are all Cantopop/HK movie fans, they'll have a lot to say about the issues. Basically, I'll take a report, edit it a bit, translate some unfamiliar terms, and include some questions about different points raised in the article. I parlayed a news report about the Nic/Faye/Cecilia love triange of a few years past into a really great class discussion that got really, really heated. Students started talking about divorce, sexism, double standards, etc. Voices were raised and students who would barely say a word normally got all heated up. I also used a news report about the Carina Lau photo scandal as a stepping off point in a writing class for an essay on personal privacy, press freedom, and ethics.

Of course, this kind of writing isn't classic or intellectual, but it does fire up the students, and the language is stuff they'll actually use in real converstations with foreigners (when are they going to get a chance to say, "Entry into the WTO will improve our development blah blah blah" and all the other crap from the stuff Chinese teachers give them).

I also brought a few copies of Weekly World News (it's like the National Enquirer, but worse) back from the US with me, thinking they could be useful somehow. One has a cover story about an alien named N!Gop or something like that who supposedly has an affair with Hillary Clinton.

Oh -- on a more reputable note, I did give them an interview done by Studs Terkel from his book Working. I assigned them to do an interview with a manual worker about his/her life, work and career, and told them to use Terkel's work as a model.