Job Discussion Forums

[sww]

I am interested in any experiences teachers have had teaching American literature in China. I'd like to know the title of the textbook you used, the school you taught/teach for, whether you or the school prepared the syllabus, the number of AML offerings, etc. The university I'm at this year only provides a survey of British and American literature, which is better than nothing. Thank you.

[arioch36]

The one experience I had with British Lit, I think, sounds similar to yours. It wasn't really a lit course, but a history course, where students had to memorize lots of facts. And you couldn't stray much, because the stuents would be tested on these facts at the end of the semester. Virtually no readings of literature possible. You would have a better chance discussing literature in Oral English class, where you can do as you please.

That was my first semester in China when i still had naive ideas about teaching Shakespeare and the like.

[Roger]

I taught English Literature at a normal school (college) many years back, and I doubt things have changed for the better in the meantime.
According to my contract, I was to teach American Literature in the second term of my one-year contract.
My stint ended before the second semester began. I had a falling-out with one of the principals. The reason is unimportant, but I wish to emphasise it wasn't my fault, really.
Anyway, it's not going to be a piece of cake. Students patently lack analytical skills, not to mention their English comprehension not being up to scratch. I am saying this of future ENGLISH TEACHERS!

You want to know what kinds of textbooks were used:
I still have HISTORY AND ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE
(published in China), but I am afraid I can't tell you much except that it consists of authors' biographies and an excerpt from one of their works. Unfortunately, the copy in my possession is tattered, with some pages (including the table of contents) missing.

I only covered the British part of my job; note that they expected me to teach both literatures in ONE YEAR!
I remember my performance and some results quite vividly. The textbook had some 10 to 12 excerpts, roughly one per two weeks (I thought). The period covered included the 18th to 19th centuries. Bernard Shaw was added as an illustrious writer from the 20th century, not much else as it might have been tricky for the censors to agree to having anything else published as it had to corroborate the Party thoughts.

The most daunting challenge came from the totally disinterested students who were only used to memorising questions and answers. Actually, some one quarter of each class was outstandingly good (they did try, and often succeed, in interpreting a passage), but the sheer weight of the majority soon deflated their performance. The laggards never read up, never listened to what I was saying, failed to bring their books to class, and some I caught looking at their comic strip magazines while class was in progress. There were 60 students to one class - imagine that!

It was the slackers who initiated my exit. They complained I was subjecting them to too much pressure; the principal was easily swayed by them. She told me that "you only need to tell them which author was the best in the 17th century, the second best, the third best, down to the 20th century..."
Sorry, but I thought such things do not take place in REAL schools. And I told her so. I also added that students came equipped with comic strip literature. She pointed out that Mao had said, "if a student doesn't like his teacher's choice of a textbook, he is free to choose another one!"

An unforgettable experience!

[Chairman Roberto]

I just finished teaching a course I created called "Techniques of Western Literature" at a normal college. I taught two classes of 3rd year students, one with 30 students, the other with 42. Here's a few thoughts and suggestions:

Like Roger, I found my students' reading comprehension, analytical skills, and interpretative abilities to be more or less non-existant. Roger's right...students here are taught NOTHING in the way of guessing a passage's vocabulary or gist, much less the critical thinking skills needed to make opinions and interpret an author's intent.
It was a long haul, with mixed results. The "techniques" I taught about included Imagery, Levels of Meaning, Plot, Symbolism & Allegory, and Characters. Unfortunately, I couldn't get to Irony, as the school swept away a month's classes without informing me.
I created my own textbook, from the internet and books I brought. I chose the following passages:
"The Red Wheelbarrow", "This is Just to Say" William Carlos Williams
"Stopping at Woods on a Snowy Evening." Robert Frost
"The Monkey's Paw." W.W. Jacobs
"The Killers" Ernest Hemingway
"The Lottery" Shirley Jackson
"My Papa's Waltz" Theodore Roethke
(I intended to use "Ozymandias" and "The Guest" for Irony, alas).

I chose these passages for two essential reasons. One, they're standard canon in literature courses in the States. Two, the language of these poems and short stories are fairly simple...not too much slang and big words.
I at least THOUGHT the language was simple, but I found myself with students (again, like Roger) who simply couldn't be bothered with reading the work at home and could barely understand the passages.

Things improved considerably in time, once the students understood what the hell I wanted from them. Everyday, I repeated the same thing: I will only help you with vocabulary, grammar, idioms, and background. YOU have to provide the interpretation. (I ended doing most of the analysis). After my analysis or walkthroughs, I asked them for interpretations, followed by my mantra: "Wo bu zhidao...NIMEN zhidao!" (I don't know. YOU know!)

Having never been asked for their own opinions, the students didn't know what to do. I had to explain in crystal clear language the concept that literature belongs to the individual reader, and that each reader's interpretation was as valid as the next fellow's, INCLUDING the teacher. It was very slow-go at first, as I discovered this ISN'T the way Chinese literature is taught. In their other lit classes, the teacher lectures, the students absorb, and there is only ONE correct interpretation. I did my best to undermine this robotic approach to literature.

I did get wonderful results for the last two passages, once the students got used to my bizarre, unheard desire for them to think for themselves. My exams were take-home tests. A few of the students attempted to take advantage by copying each other's exams word for word, and they got zeros for their effort. The answers to my take-home final exams were all different as a result!

I also made it a point to jot down the names of students who volunteered interpretations during class. Once students realized that the more I jotted down their names, the higher their grade would be, everyone wanted to give their two kuai worth. It led to some good debates and wild interpretations, including my favorite, the Marxist Perspective.

After each exam, I listed on the blackboard the different interpretations students gave for a couple of the questions. With one passage, I recorded 20 different interpretations. After I wrote the list, I heartily praised the students for their variety of opinions. Again, this is rocket science, and I believe the students were more amazed with themselves than with just a typically wacky foreigner.

So, Sww, my advice is to lecture very early on the concept of individual interpretation, and also make it clear that there is no right or wrong interpetations. The only thing that is important is that they back up their opinions with material from the story or poem. Your students are just going to stare at you and wait for Your Wisdom On High. It's your job to empower them with the authority to interpret the passage. And it's not easy. They're gonna complain! "Oh, this passage is too hard!" "I don't understand this!" "This story is too long!" But in the long run, you're going to turn their whole concept of Reading upside down...at least for those students that are dedicated. I hope your success rate is better than Roger's quarter! Me...eeeh, I would say I reached about half the class, or a bit over that. Good enough for government work. I'm happy.

Good luck!
Roberto

[davis]

Well done, Chairman.

[Burl Ives]

Here's what I do, technically as a Literature course:

First, lecture on basic structuring via argumentation (thesis, supporting
points, supporting examples) and then lecture on the creation of rebuttals
to argument. Two weeks, if you do it fast and dirty because you get
tired of looking at the blank faces.

Second, hand out a passage and include a simple question that would
allow someone reasonably skilled to write an essay in which he or she
could assess the whole of the passage. Tell the students to write the
essay.

(In past versions of this I've had allotments of time devoted to pair work
discussion of the text, followed by note taking and essay plan writing.
These days I find it easier to cut to the chase. However, I still include
the idea of cooperative work by letting students work with a partner.)

At the end of class time, take up the essays, groan, and then go home to
mark them. My marking system has two distinct parts: cryptic scrawls
all the way through the text indicating the general nature of whatever
grammar or punctuation error is made, and some score for the
substance of the argument produced by the student. It's important that
the grammar correction be a guide and not a direct answer, partly
because the errors are often systemic and a simple replacement answer
is impossible but mostly because in this exercise, it should be the student
who corrects herself. Because...

Next week, hand back the marked up paper and require the students
to rewrite. Two weeks of rewrites is about as far as you can go.

(Technical point: score each essay and pay attention to consistency of
effort otherwise when the students figure out they have to rewrite, they'll
save their strength for the last one and give you a boring two weeks
marking.)

Since you are asking for rewrites it is possible to insert brief lectures
at the beginning of each class on things like essay plans and note taking
as helpful devices. I find it is necessary to hammer on the point that
interpretation requires evidence from the text. If there's time, I
sometimes like to do a thing which would work only in China: tell the
students to leave their papers on their desk and go for a walk and look
at the writing of others. It's a quick way of showing the students what
kind of writing gets the high marks. (It also tends to generate somewhat
uniform interpretations of the text but at this stage it's the argumentation
that counts.)

That's the framework. The "literature" aspect of the course depends on
what passages one chooses. As the students become more sophisticated
one can begin to reveal the broader themes and issues one has in mind
given the passages. One can then ask to see development of those
issues and themes in later essays.

And one has a ready way of generating compliance: each week or so
there is an observable score given. Warn the students repeatedly that
their final score comes from a compliation of the weekly scores and not
from a final cram exam.

I do it this way because it needs less force from me. I don't believe homework to be useful at least because the Chinese way of homework
seems not to involve any particular learning. If the students know that
the only work needed is within the distinct beginning and ending points of
the timetabled lessons, then, in the end, they work. After a while, they
even become enthusiastic.

[Chairman Roberto]

My conclusion with regards to teaching literature in China is that colleges and middle schools have yet to make any connection between writing and literature and English fluency. I think China is doing a fair enough job of emphasizing oral English, under the circumstances. They're dropping alot of dough on bringing foreigners into classrooms to give the students the benefit of hearing natural English. Granted, often the conditions are less than ideal (how the hell do you teach 70 or more students Oral English?), but they're trying. The result, at least at my school, speak for themselves. The incoming freshmen at my college are better than previous classes. With 3 years of foreign oral English classes, their spoken English won't be half bad.

But their English will continue to be a hodgepodge of Chinglish, inappropriate phrases, and confused grammar without writing and literature courses. There is a DIRECT correlation between oral and literature/writing English. The more you TRULY read and write, the better you can speak. The more you speak, the better you can read and write. ("Truly" means analyzing and interpretating literature). What literature and writing does is makes the student THINK in English, rather than think in Chinese (which Oral English does not wholly address). Literature I believe is the most effective cure of the uttery hokeyness that plauges oral English here.

Unfortunately, what literature the students read is a joke...unknown authors relating hokey, wholesome adventures, with dialouge straight out those "good personal habits" films they used to show kids in the 1950s. Writing isn't even touched upon until the 3rd year. As the result, the students never really learn to think in English, which is crucial for true fluency.

I hope someday that Oral English classes will eventually evolve into writing and literature courses, at least by the second year of college. Without literature and writing, oral English is seriously hobbled.

[Burl Ives]

[Roger]

I am so glad to note I have erroneously thought of myself as a lonely fighter for English Literature in Chinese classrooms - I do think that would help them the most.

When asking my Literature students to answer questions on test papers, I allowed them, in fact BEGGED THEM to bring along their textbook AND A DICTIONARY, so they could QUOTE, and look up the spelling of words ("Luddites").
But I never allowed students to write on the same topic; each row of students would have different questions so that not any two could copy from each other.
While my one-quarter of excellent students sounds a wee bit on the low side, I hasten to add that there were at least another one quarter or possibly more that did reasonably well too, though not excellent; however,
there was a minority of persistent failures and flunkers and cheats.
One of them was a boy (most boys were poorer at English than girls). This guy had the nerve to come to my home every evening of two weeks, usually after ten p.m., to "talk about my exam". He thought he was "losing face" and his "family have paid so much, they would be angry if I did not get my certificate!"
He even went on to say "I am a good student. I came to your home many times..."
Yes, he did. But he invariably flunked tests because he never prepared anything for the lesson.

[arioch36]

The thing I like is that you can do pretty much whatever you want in oral english, break those pair of dimes!

My students this semester were a bit surprised when i gave them two pages of writing every week, but they didn't complain. They enjoyed being challenged. They know...they know they are wasting there minds and their time in many classes.

I never really thought about adding some lit. i think it's a great idea but problematic to find material, with enough copies for everyon (much les finding even one copy in China)

No way they can read the American or British English of hundreds of years ago. I enjoy Captain Courageous (bought it in Shanghai recently), but it's hard for me to read.

[Burl Ives]

[Chairman Roberto]

Assign a whole book, an actual NOVEL? Now there's a wild fantasy I would love to indulge. Actually, I do have a good number of students who would be up for it, but unfortunately the ridiculous "whole class takes the same course" scheduling system here prevents it.

If you could assign a novel, what would it be? Taking into consideration their reading level...?
I wouldn't mind trying out "Animal Farm" by Orwell...but I seriously doubt that would be allowed! Another possible candidate: "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding. Or maybe I'm being too ambitous...perhaps these students are better suited for "young adult" novels, such as those by Judy Blume or Robert Comier. Whaddya think?

just daydreamin',
The Chairman

[Burl Ives]