Using Literature to Teach English

Daniel Barber

Do you ever use literature with your learners? Tick the one that most applies to you.

a) fiction (novels, short stories)

b) graded readers

c) plays (or short sketches)

d) poems

e) none of the above

Literature is…

• highbrow?

• canon of literature?

• poetry, prose & drama?

• fiction?

• anything you might read?

n.b. Grammar-Translation Approach goal = study literature

Literature in the classroom can be…

• a way of learning about cultures

• a place for language to live

• a source of motivating reading & listening material

Read the text quickly. Where would you see a text like this? Type it in the chat box.

Take some ______ and ______

and let them settle… Remove the

______ after approximately ______. Add

lots of ______ to some ______, then stir

vigorously. Then take a blend of ______,

and ______, combine with some ______

and turn up the heat. Sprinkle some fresh

______ and ______ together with some

______ and ______ then add to the

melting pot.

Leave the ingredients to simmer.

Take some Picts, Celts and Silures

And let them settle,

Then overrun them with Roman conquerors.

Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years

Add lots of Norman French to some

Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, then stir vigorously.

Mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans, Dominicans,

Trinidadians and Bajans with some Ethiopians,

Chinese, Vietnamese and Sudanese.

Then take a blend of Somalians, Sri Lankans, Nigerians

And Pakistanis,

Combine with some Guyanese

And turn up the heat.

Benjamin Zephaniah,

‘The British’

• accessible, positive message

• challenging stereotype

• playful, subverts genre

• simple

• classroom topic

• transferable (reception→production)

• motivational

Literature as vehicle for cultural content

Make as many sentences as you can using only these words.

woman the nobody loves knows he

…nobody loves / knows

…the woman (that) he loves

He loves the woman nobody knows.

Duff & Maley, The Inward Ear

Why drama?

• We are already doing it!

• Words off the page

• Language as experience

Poetry

focus on language (esp. grammar & phonology)

Drama

spoken language (emotion, intonation, gesture)

Prose?

massive linguistic input!

• MACMILLAN GRADED READERS PHOTO HERE

recycling poem

[word]

[adjective] [adjective]

[question about the word]

[answer the question]

[repeat the word]

recycling poem

dodgy

informal versatile

Are you feeling dodgy?

Yes, I’ve got stomach ache.

dodgy

Bibliography

Duff, Alan & Maley, Alan, The Inward Ear (Cambridge University Press, 1989)

Collie, Joanne & Slater, Stephen, Literature in the Language Classroom: a resource book of ideas and

activities (Cambridge University Press, 1987)

Wessels, Charlyn, Drama (Oxford University Press, 1987)

danieljamesbarber72@gmail.com