17 Literature and EFL, Criteria for Text Selection.pdf

1991/2 Journal of Human Sciences İnsan Bilimleri Dergisi zyxwvutsrqponm Off priııt I Ayrıbasım MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OUT A TICIİM T TVIIMİII i'll\Th7VDChrıG.Cir Joumai of Numan Sciences, zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGF Xİ2, (1991) (47-55) Language Teaching LITERATURE AND EFL: CRITERIA FOR TEXT SELECTION Yusuf ERADAM Department of American Culture and Literature Ankara University This art/de lists the main pedogogical criteria, linguistic and non-linguistic, for the selection of literary texts to be taken to EFL classes. Linguistic level: This can be measured in lexical or syntactic terms. However, as Brumfit points out (1981:198) "no descriptive linguistic model can measure significance in literary terms"; i.e., a literary text which is linguistically simple (most of Blake's poems and Hemingway's works) may cause problems in literary terms. We suggest that a literary text to be taken to a language classroom (a) must have almost no archaic language, as it is a motivation breaking factor for most non-native speakers who are struggling to make sense of everyday English; (b) must not have a linguistic !eve! too high for the target learners (see Sheils 1988:19-20). When we draw attention to the difficulty of a text, we do not mean simple texts should be chosen. We believe that "simplicity is difficult" (Davies 1984:181) as, in order to achieve it, one needs to concentrate a lot of experience, thought and emotion in a melting pot, and express the outcome in the most YUSUF ERADAM 3 If Only My Body Si seulement mon corps LITERATURE AND EFL: CRITERIA FOR TEXT SELECTION 49 individually. In the middle of the study of a play, the teacher can bring in a tiny poem, or perhaps a different point of view or mood on the same theme, or topic and so on. If only my body Did not have a need For your hand In order to learn Its own shape and rhythm (c) Authenticity: The text should have a local content. Teachers should not forget that they are educators "with a responsibility to the humanities"(Nostrand 1989:50), and therefore, they must not select texts that would not match the integrated cultural system that is already in the learners mind, so that the texts do not "appear against a (Cloutier 1989:812) false context, as though reflected in a distorting mirror" (Nostrand 1989:51). 'Authenticity', therefore, refers to the capacity of a text to However, with some texts, for pedagogical reasons, we do not "regulate interaction and relate to everyday life of the foreign simplification, which entails ivocate simple or simplified language but zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA socio-cultural setting" (Sheils 1988: 18) and "to provide direct ıd refers to 1) "the selection of a restricted set of features from the information about an aspect of the foreign world" (Sheils 1988:19), the II range of language resources for the sake of pedagogic efficiency" kind of text that would stimulate learners' involvement and provoke >avies 1984: 183), 2) to achieve this, he development of strategies to positive reaction. [Sheils quotes from Morrow and Schocker (1987) ıpe with texts so that the learners' good reading habits can be fostered four kinds of reaction: (1) informational, (2) emotional, (3) opinion, (4) ee Sheils 1988:142); character behaviourl Hence, the text should enable the learners to (c) must be stylistically appropriate and not too complex for the "extend their knowledge of the world at large and of themselves" arner to grasp in the first year of his university education. They will (Hirvela 1988:43). exposed to works with unique or peculiar styles in the later We believe that authenticity is to be found in the learner's ıdergraduate years and/or post-graduate years. ;The texts style must response. As Davies states, authenticity is "a matter of the "capable of providing a link with everyday language" (Littlewood involvement of the audience. It is not that a text is understood when it )75:181). In the first year, in-class activities should aim at feeding relates to common areas of human experiences, and universal topics like arners' functional linguistic competence love, hate, loneliness and so on (see Maley and Moulding 1985). It is not (d) should coincide with and reinforce the linguistic knowledge a teacher's job, therefore, to simplify or to authenticate a text. ıth on a usage and a use levet (see Widdowson 1978: Chapter 1) However, it is part of a teacher's job to enable the learners to listen, ıerefore, it is necessary for the teacher to know which text to use at read, speak and write, to give the learners the proper incentives, or of the learning process of a certain linguistic piece of e end skills that "would help learners develop skills for particular aspects of ıowledge. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA real-world listening" (Poipoi 1988:29) and also to identify "sources of difficulty in comprehension" and to devise "strategies to combat these" Non-linguistic level: (Poipoi 1988:29). This takes us to the next criterion, which is (a) Length is stili a very important factor. Teachers must avoid ngthy texts unless they can be divided for indıvıdual, pair and/or oup work. (d) Relevance to the learners' communicative needs: "in the teaching of reading as in alt language teaching," states Davies, "the fundamental task of the teacher is that of selection or of judging - -1. k OR A • 10.,1 1 YUSUF ERADAM LITERATURE AND EFL: CRITERIA FOR TEXT SELECTION situations might the learner encounter? 1. What zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA 2. What language activities is the learner most likely to take part in? 3. What functions of language are likely to be most useful? 4. What topics are likely to be important? 5. What general notions are likely to be important? (1981:82-84) Such questions will help the teacher to predict the learners' needs ıd expectations from the course. 51 The cultural specific features do not necessarily have to be known by the learner in advance but they need to be comprehensible and serve our objectives set for in-class activities: The crucial factor is the extent to which the reader can enter the world as an ınvolved 'onlooker', for which there must be no cultural barriers, and the experience portrayed in the work must make contact with the pupil's experience at some point. (Littlewood 1975:181) Another, and perhaps the most important, reason for our advocating non-native literatures is our intention to create "whole individuals" out of our learners. For this, teachers must be very careful (e) Cultural level/relevance: The text must reflect something with texts that deal with themes which carry an inappropriate moral ıout the "particular culture of society" into which our learners were value or belief. For instance, we do not agree with Brumfit (1981), Hill ırn and in which they grew up (Brumfit and Carter 1986:17). As (1986) and Golle and Slater (1987) in that literary works like Golding's .umfit observes, that we are all in the twentieth century does not Lord of the Flies and Orwell's Animal Farm would be useful in language ean that a work, for example, of an experimentalist writer should classes. That a novel's main characters are children and that an island is ıpeal to the cultural and social expectations of different groups of always an appealing setting to trigger the imagination of a learner does arners. "For example, nineteenth-century literary modes are not make Lord of the Flies an ideal piece for study before the learner has ılturally closer to the reading experi9nce of relatively had access to certain knowledge of psychology (Freud, Jung, etc) and a ısophisticated readers than are many comtemporary works," which level of maturity to appreciate the violence that takes place in the true for the readers of almost all Third World countries, as "local novel. Animal Farm, on the other hand, has become more popular ıciey is stili (just) pre-industrial" (Brumfit 1981:189). This especially since a cartoon feature film of it was made. We find this stifies our decision to include selections from the literature of novel an inappropriate choice for political and pedagogical reasons, as it ıird World countries, i.e. we agree with Brumfit; however, instead injects in immature brains that "nothing is certain and worth fighting limiting the text selection to British and American nineteenth for, as whoever we fight for and with will one day be the same as (if ntury works, we suggest that translations of the works of similar not worse than) the previous ruler(s)". Golle and Slater advocate the ın-native cultures should be used, of course, in addition to the study of both novels and advise teachers to emphasise the moral of )rks from British and American literatures. One of the reasons for Animal Farm, which is, very ironically, uttered by the donkey: "Things ir proposition is that the coherent understanding of a literary text never change". This is a moral judgement teachers should refrain from volves: inflicting upon the readers. The judgement, we believe, only justifies why it is uttered by a donkey. Such texts, we have observed, help make The culture's 'ground of meaning": its system of major the Third World readers more inhibited, less confident, indifferent and values, habitual patterns of thought, and certain prevalent passive herds, not whole individuals. Hence the connections that the assumptions about human nature and society which the learnpr makpc hotım4,on litırtril rn Anrııı ıntpr shnııld b nrçınargırf tn zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA foreioner zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA YUSUF ERADAM LITERATURE AND EFL: CRITERIA FOR TEXT SELECTION 53 Brumfit and Carter call non-native literatures as "contact The last reason for our selecting from non-native literatures, zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA literatures" and state that they "exhibit stylistic and discoursal avoid lated to the cultural level and relevance, is a nesessity to zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA characteristics" (1986:19). Besides a non-native writer may have ıltural imperialism. We agree with Hirvela's definition of cultural "nativised" English (see Kachru 1980 for devices used for nativisation). iperialism in our Context, that it refers to "the process in which the That many non-native authors write in English only proves that they erature of one culture is used to shape the individual and national either see English as part of their culture (so do learners says Kachru ıages of people from another culture" (1988:40). History has proven 1980:148), or they find most comfortable when expressing their ideas, at French, Spanish and English have been used by the colonisers at emotions in English or they have something to say to the rest of the 'st merely for imperialistic purposes. By the hep of over-zealous world. Even though the use of non-native literatures provides a achers the culture of the target language has been imposed on the challenge to non-native teachers and learners, knowing that English has arners. Hirvela has observed a variety of reasons that led to his fact: now become the lingua franca of the world, and since it would be futile and pointless to search for another common one-world language, it is 1. the innocent pedagogical language is necessary to fully high time that other non-native countries made some effort to ender, understand and manipulate the language (1981:41), whereas it English more. We therefore suggest that every non-native country was the native speakers (colonisers) who manipulated the where English is a second or foreign language should contribute to resources of their colonies; English in order to communicate to the rest of the world their cultural 2. a misguides sense of nationalism, that by learning the- culture nuances, a process which has already started. Only then the of the target language one can irnprove the underlying traits of 'similarities' between cultures will emerge. For instance, when we his own culture, which reflects a sense of inferiority on behalf learned that 'millet' in Swahili meant a kind of grain people in Africa of the non-native speaker; make bread from, we wanted to know how the same word, with the same spelling and a slightly different pronunciation, came to mean 3. narrow-minded and religious fervour; and "nation" in Turkish. Since 'millet' is an Arabic word used in Turkish, a 4. excessive devotion to a political ideology. curious linguist might like to study the history, of such linguistic similarities between different languages and cultures. In Kenya (again In each of these scenarios, the text is used so as to indoctrinate Swahili) 'baba' means 'father', and the same word with the same iarners in favour of values, attitudes or customs which are part and spelling and pronunciation means the same in Turkish. In Baoule, a arcel of the host culture, Le. as "an instrument of cultural language used by the Akan people in the Ivory Coast, 'nana(n)' means nperialism" (Hirvela 1988:41). 'grandmother' and in Turkish it is 'nene'. What is strangely delightful is that we found out these similarities in Scotland, a totally foreign setting Most textbooks, as Nostrand observes, conveys culture "in an to all non-native speakers involved, where the medium was English. necdotal non-reflective manner" (1989:82). Literature is, by nature, Hence, English was used as a means of communication that led to the ulturally biased; therefore, non-native literary texts should be used in satisfaction gained by the feeling that we are all citizens of one world. FL/EL classes with appropriate activities that enable learners to The learners would only be delighted to experience the same feeling by ompare and constrast, understand and reflect rather than to judge one studying non-native literatures. As they are learning a second/foreign ulture and adopt a trait of the culture of the target language. Teachers of becoming language, the learners are also portraying "the subtle social learners would resist the idea hould not forget that most stratification, and religious and ethnic pluralism," making what is a part assimilated into the culture of the target language" (Brumfit 1985: 4). YUSUF ERADAM J attempts to transfer native humour and attitudes into English" 180:148) is not only a necessity for the learner, but a must for the -ichment of English so that it can be used more for cross-cultural rımunication. Hence, acculturation of English is inevitable and ;ential and the process of teaching English to other peoples of the rd which started purely for imperialistic aims can be directed ıards th creation of one language on earth, a 'World English'. REFERENCES LITERATURE AND EFL: CRITERIA FOR TEXT SELECTION 55 Littlewood, W. (1975) "Literature in the School Foreign Language Course." in Literature and Language Teaching. (Eds) C.J. Brumfit and R. Carter. Oxford: OUP, 1986:177-83. Maley, A. and Moulding, S. (1985) Poem into Poem: Reading and writing poems with students of English. Cambridge: CUP. Nostrand, H.L. (1989) "Authentic Texts and Cultural Authenticity: An Editorial," The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 73, No. 1, Spring 1989:49-52. Language and Literature Teaching. London: umfit, C.J. (1985) zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Poipoi, M. (1988) "Making authentic oral material comprehensible to Pergamon. the language learner," Language lssues Vol. 2, No. 2, Autumn/Winter 1988/89: 27-34. umfit, C.J. (1981) "Reading Skills and the Study of Literature," in Literature and Language Teaching (Eds) C.J. Brumfit and R. Shells, J. (1988) Communication in the Modern Languages Carter. Oxford: OUP. 1986, 87: 187-90. Class-room. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. and Carter, P. (1986) (Eds) Literature and Language umfit, C.J. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Teaching. Oxford: OUP. Widdowson, H.G. (1983) "Talking Shop: H.G. Widdowson on Literature and ELT," Interview. ELT Journal, Vol. 37/1 Jan 1983. outıer, C. (1989) "If only my body," in Longman Anthology of World Literature by Women: 1875-1975. (Eds) B. Arkın and B. ; Shollar. New York: Longman. Widdowson, H.G. (1978) Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford: OUP. ıllie, J. and Slater, S. (1987) Literature in Language Classroom: A resource book of ideas and activities. Cambridge: CUP. ıvies, A. (1984) "Simple, simplified and simplification: What is authentic?" in Reading in a Foreign Language. (Eds) C.J. Alderson and A.H. Urquhart. London: Longman, 181-195. J. (1986) Using Literature in Language Teaching. London: Macmillan. rvela, A. (1988) "Cultural imperialism and the misuse of literary texts," Language Issues Vol. 2, No. 2, Autumn/Winter 1988/89: 40-45. B.B. (1980) "The non-native literature as a resourse for language teaching," RECL Journal 11/2. 1-9.