the role of literature in teaching english as a foreign language(gabriella lengyel)

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THE ROLE OF LITERATURE IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGEAuthor(s): Gabriella LengyelSource: Angol Filológiai Tanulmányok / Hungarian Studies in English, Vol. 9 (1975), pp. 59-70Published by: Centre for Arts, Humanities and Sciences (CAHS), acting on behalf of the University ofDebrecen CAHSStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41273703 .

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AngolilologiaianulmanyokX. Debrecen,975Hungariantudiesn nglishX Hungary

Gabriella Lengyel

THE ROLE OF LITERATURE IN TEACHINGENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

My purposen thispaper s to discuss he role of iteraturen teaching nglish s a

foreign anguageat thebeginning nd intermediateevels. shallfirst onsider hetraditionalractice nd thenwhat thinkwould be a better pproach.My remarks

will be basedonmyexperiencess a high-schooleachernHungary swellas on myknowledge f teaching racticesn other ountries. maymention ertain roblemsthat are not universal.However,since studentsregardlessf theirorigin do not

basically iffern intelligencend their ttitudes owards tudy, nd since teachersnone countryrenotconsiderablyessqualifiedhan n another,mostoftheproblemsI shall reat represumablyommon ll over theworld.

The subject hat s usually ntroducedt thehigh-schoolevelis officiallyntitled

English Languageand Literature. lthough here s nothingunusualabout this

title,t turns utto be a telling ne.An analysis f the tems his ubject ncompassesgives ise o at east woquestionshat ts eachingoses 1 What smeant y literature ,and2. wheredoes anguage nd and iteratureegin

In traditionaleaching ractice,iteratureas beengiven belletristicnterpretation.Thisapproachnforeign-languageeachingmaydatefrom heperiodwhenthe choolswereexpected o givethestudents firm asis n grammar, eading, nd translation.

However, hosewhothen eceived high-schoolnduniversityducation ould afford

privateutorswho were

native peakersf

the foreignanguages aught t school.Thus the poken anguagewas acquiredoutsideschool,veryoften n the countrywhere twasspoken.At the ame timeforeign-languageeaching ouldafford avingstrictlycademicgoals,confiningtself o thetreatmentf literatures belles-lettresEven though imes nd circumstancesave changedconsiderably,his treatmentfliteraturenEFL classeshas survived hroughout ungary.While theemphasiss on

enabling he student o communicaten theforeign anguage, hetextbooks eingused ontain umerousassages romiterary asterpiecesany fwhichhavenothingto do with hepresent-daypokenanguage as ifonly eachingiteratureould ustifyteaching foreignanguage.Thisattitudes alsoattestedythefact hat nlythefirst

59







Franklinrom heGeneral rologue o TheCanterburyales. The passage which hestudentsreexpected ounderstandnd translate contains umerous nfamiliarordsand expressions:felicity ,in hearty tyle , to be a man ofweight , tc.We also

teacha sonnetby Shakespeare, passagefrom Macbethpoemsby RobertBurns,and extractsrom ighteenth-ndnineteenth-centuryovels.As a result, now andthenhearmystudentsse thefollowingentencepenings to thebestofmyknow-

ledge , ifmymemory oesnotfailme , to mymind , I cannotbut feel ex-

pressionshat re acceptablen certain ontents ut ludicrous n discussionsf trivial

topics. urther, ystudentsometimespeakof heaving bigsigh nd descendingthe tairs o the alon. The problems less erious, fcourse,ftheteachers a native

speakerfthetargetanguage rhasa verygood command f t.Thushe cancorrectnotonlygrammaticalrrors utalso nconsistenciesnd nfelicitiesnusage, one, ndlevel fformality.nder verage onditions,owever,most tudentsannot se iterary

vocabulary ithout ften iolatingherules fusageandcultivatingkindofarchaicstyle.n order o avoidthis,we coulduseabridged ndsimplifiedassagesndworks.

Byabridgingndsimplifyinghem, owever,we woulddestroyreciselyhose eaturesthatmakethem iterary asterpieces.hus we would be better ffwithdocumentarywritingsndgood expositoryroseon everyday opics. t is questionablewhetherstudentanlearn complex ndexactsyntax hroughhetraditionalxposure o lit-erature. s DonaldM. Topping2notes: Ifourpurposesto teach control f tandard

Elnglish yntax,ncluding ompound nd complexconstructions,henwe are doingourstudents terrible isservicey asking hem o imitate hose rchaicwriters ho

practicewfulviolations ymodern tandards f thesyntacticules. He also doubts

whether eadingiteraturenthetarget anguagewill improve hestudent'sspeaking,listening,ndwritingbilityo thepointwherehewouldactually se the iteraryan-

guage.Formy part, do not thinkhat he tudentsexpected ogo this ar, nyway.Reading literaturen thetarget anguagewill certainlynrich he learner'spassivevocabularynd inthiswayalsoincrease isunderstanding.ndoubtedly, ewillalsobecomemore ensitiveo literarytylesn general nd differentaysofusing he an-

guage.However, oppingssrightnnotinghat he tudentmust avea firmlinguisticbasisbefore enturingnto the realmofliterature. prematurexposure o the an-

guageof iteratureanonly onfuse imas to theuseof exical tems ndgrammaticalconstructions.

Povey'ssecondgeneral aim is concernedwiththe cultural spectof teachingliterature:3Literatures a link towards heculturewhichsustains heexpressionf

any anguage.Americaniteratureillopenupthe ulturefthis ountryotheforeignstudentna mannernalogous o the extension fthenative peaker'swn awarenesstohis ownculture. ndoubtedlyiteratureeflectshoughts,eelings,ndactionshatare theproducts f the writer's ulture. till I wouldnot assert hat literaturegi-

2M.Topping,inguisticsr iteratureAnApproacho anguage,ESOLQuarterly,.2,95-100.968.3Povey,p. it.

61







ves or purports o give a realistic ccountof culture nd society. If it does, t is

documentary riting atherhan iterature.) iteratures primarilyn art; consequ-ently,treflectsealityn an artistic ay by reducing, rdering,nd enhancingbut,

in a factual ense,distorting)t according o theauthor'smaginativeision, he de-mandsofhis iteraryenre, ndhiswritingbility. o isolate, efine,nd analyze he

historical,ocial, r personal eality nderlyingnywork of literatureequires peci-alizedknowledgendtechnique.donot hinkhat heforeign-languageeachershouldbe responsibleorthe spreading f suchknowledge nd technique. eachers f his-

toryndthe ocial ciencesremuchbetterquippedto describe nd compareforeignculturesnd societiesn adequatedetail and withall thenecessaryualifications.tis obviousthatcertainaspects f culturewill inevitably e touchedupon duringthe study of literaturen a foreign-language class, and that literaturemayreveal theseaspectsmore vividly,and memorably han scientificxposition ver

could.The teacher, owever, hould warnstudents hat hisknowledge f both theliteraturend the culture s likely o remainimited t thisevelof tudy,ndthat heyshould efrainromhastyunwarrantedeneralizationsbout either. or a superficialknowledgeof a foreign iteraturean lead onlyto false ssumptionsnd false deas

(notably,tereotypes)bout he ociety ndculturet reflectsnd saddressedo. Othersources f misconceptionsre differencesn cultural eritagendbackground. hisis

whyunderstandinghe denotation fa word or expressions not thesameas under-

standingtsfull ange f connotationsn the ontext fsociety nd of culture.xpres-sions ike beingon themove , frontierpirit ,nd the American ream do notmean muchto

peoplewho ivein a small

ountryndhave

perhapspentll their ives

in oneplace.Lengthy xplanations ouldbenecessaryoclarifyhe onnotationsfthe-se phrases o mostHungariantudents.notherwords,we would have to interprethe

special anguage f foreignulturen ts anguage ta moment hen hestudents*now-

ledgeofthat anguage s at a rather lementaryevel. t would be like definingnunknown erm n unknownterms a procedurewhich s,aswe allknow,unpeda-gogical.

Povey'sthird eneral aim pertainso an all-inclusiveenefit:4We must cknow-

ledgethe ndefinable,hough ll important,oncept hat iteratureivesoneawarenessofhuman nsight.n thisrespect reat iteraturean be justifieds one could assert

the value of isteningo a major ymphony. givequalifiedssento this statement.

Great iteraturendoubtedly ivesus insightnto humannature.Thus theeffect

greatworkof literatureas on competentnd sensitiveeadersn equal to thatof a

major symphonyn similarlyualifiedisteners. tillthere re significantifferencesbetween nderstandingusic ndunderstandingiterature.f purelymusicalwork anbe saidtoexpressnything,texpressesmotions ymeans f natural nd conventional

symbols f sound hat epresenthenature,ntensity,nd flowof these motions. husa pieceofmusic, ranscendingrontiersnd languages,s readily omprehensiblend

4 bid

62







enjoyableoqualifiedistenershroughoutn nternationalutcommonmusical ulture.

Literature,n theotherhand,expressesmore than mereemotions,nd whatevert

expressessconceptualizedythewords nd entenceonstructionsf specificanguage.

If a literarywork exceeds he linguistic nowledgeof tsreaders,tisneitheromp-rehensibleorenjoyable othem.And if heyhave to devotemuch ffortodecipher-ing ts anguage, hey annot eally njoy tas a work of art.Consequently,ne cannotunderstandndenjoyforeigniteratureithout verygoodcommand f the anguagewhileone can bothunderstandndenjoy he ymphonyfa foreign omposerwithout

trainingnmusic.

Povey'sfourthaim 5 nteachingiteraturenthetarget anguage s thepromotionof creativewritingn that anguage.He mentions ndiaand Nigeria,wherewritingfictionnEnglishs notunusual. would be curious o know the diomaticndstylisticquality andhence hevalue beyond xpressionstherapy) of this rose iction rit-

tenbystudentst the ntermediateevel nthese wocountries.n anycase,we cannotgeneralize romthe experience f these two countries, hereexceptional istoricalcircumstancesave resultedn thewide-spreadse ofEnglish s the anguage fhighereducation, ommerce,ndpolitics.IndianEnglish,n fact, s sometimes lassifiedsa dialect fEnglish thoughtmay nthecourse ftime easetobeone f t sreplacedbyHindustanis the inguaranca f the ndian ubcontinent.)

Teaching iteraturen thetarget anguage as ithasbeendone traditionallydoesnotsatisfynyof thepartiesnvolved.tgives heteachernespecially ard ime, incehestrugglesnvain oexplain literary ork ohispupilsnwords hey anunderstand.Thisstrugglessimilar o theprocess ftranslatinghe ecture fa well-knowncholar

into child'sanguage.t alsofrustrateshepupilswhocan neither nderstandheworknorexpressheir houghtsbout t. Finally,t defeats heaimof the writerwho, ac-

cording o Bradford rthur,6ssumes hathisreader willbe able to understandheliteralmeaning f thewords hathe isusing.To be sure, hereadermayfrom ime otime un cross nunfamiliarord,but this houldnotslow himdown. . The authoralso assumes hathisreaderwillbe able to understandhe structurefsentences sedin thestory. . More subtle, utnonethelessmportant,re theassumptionshat heauthormakes abouthis reader'sunderstandingf culture. f thestudent an meetthese equirements,hereading f iteraturean be an end n itself.fnot, tisneither

languagenor iterature

earning.And ifa teacher

ersistsn

tryingo teach

anguageand literaturet thesametime,he mayend up teaching either fthem ffectively.Thus themost mportantuestion o answer s: How soonshallwe start eachingit-erature? dgarWright7tatesn this onnection: No studenthouldbe pushed nto

literary ork untilhe has sufficientinguistic nowledge o understand,njoy,and

appreciatehe iteraryext hathewillbe studying.Whileeverybodyanagreewith

5 bid6Arthurradford,eadingiteraturendearningSecondanguageLanguageearning,8. ,199-210.968.7Edgar right,he ther ay ound,ESOL uarterly,.2,101-107.968.

63







thisstatement,t does notgiveus anyclue as to whatconstitutesufficientinguisticability.Whose linguisticbility houldbe accepted s the norm? How manyyears f

study re needed foracquiring henecessaryackground orthestudy f literature

I think he astquestion s impossibleo answer, incethere renumerousubjectiveandobjective actorso affectheprocess.Among hem re themotivationndaptitudeof thepupils,the knowledge f theteacher, eaching ides,the facilitiest school,etc. One possible olutionwould be to drawthe ine on the basisof the number fclassmeetings erschoolyear.Accordingly,nHungary,we would endupwith hreedifferentroups

1. those tudents ho have about 68 classmeetings erschoolyear,2. those tudents ho have about 99 classmeetings,nd3. thosewho have198classmeetings.The lastgroup s theso-called English-sectionlass. n the case of thefirst wo

groups, hequestion houldbe,not how oon iteraturehouldbe taught, utwhetherit shouldbe taught tall Personally,would be inclined o say no , since considerit more importantorthe students' uture eeds to teachthempractical,verydayexpressionshat hey an use in their urthertudies. hey discuss oreignwritersntheirnative-languagelasses, nyway.With theEnglish-sectionlass,the situationsdifferent.n two years hisgroupcoversthe material hatthe other wo groupsdoin fouryears.t s true hat iterature akes ponepart fthematerial; et hemembersof thisgrouphave moreopportunitieso acquirethespoken anguage han hemerenumber f classmeetings ay mply.After hefirstwoyears heresalways consider-able improvementn their poken nglish.Duringthefirst hreemonths f thethird

year tudentsre able to master he morecomplicated rammaticaltructuresndtheuse of phrases ather han ndividualwords. Theircompositionkills lso improve,so that hey re able to expressdeas n simplebutunderstandableanguage.At this

pointthey ould be introduced o modern uthors.However,even fwe introduced

changeswhilekeepingthe traditionalramework,heproblemwould be farfrom

being olved.Wewould still e teachingiteraturenthe everserder:proceedingsay)fromShakespeareo modernwriters- progression hich s historicallyorrect ut

pedagogically nacceptable.In order o do awaywiththe confusionhe traditionalreatmentf literatureas

broughtbout n EFL

teaching,he

following hangesre

necessary:. a redefinition

ofliteraturenEFL teaching, . the formulationf clear-cut riteria or electinghe

teachingmaterial, . instructionn suitable eachingmethods t all levelsof teacher

trainings wellas atworkshopsor n-serviceeachers,nd4) the ntroductionf newtexts tall levels f anguage nstruction.

In redefiningiteraturen EFL teaching, new terminology ould be desirable.Thus theterm readingmaterial nterpretednthebroadsensewould leaveusmuchfreedom s to what we considerppropriatet a given eveloflanguage nstruction.

64







Furthermore,t would be necessaryo redefine he content nd thedifficultyf read-

ingmaterial t each evelby taking he students' nowledge f thelanguage s wellas ourteaching bjectivesntoconsideration.onsequently,he onger heperiodof

timefor anguage tudy he more definitionsre needed.At theverybeginning,hestyle evelofreadingmaterial ouldbe defined nJamesHeaton's words8 s a stylelevelwhich esembleshat fspoken nglish . ater hedefinitionss well asthe elected

passages houldgradually eflect hedistance etween poken nd writtenanguage.Literaryndscientifictyles ouldrepresenthe ast tagenthe ontinuum.achstageshouldbe carefullyocumented,rthe tudy f thehighestorms fwrittenanguagewill neverbecomemorethanan exercisen translation. he numberof stageswetreatwould be decidedbyreferenceo thenumber fclassmeetings e have for he

teaching fEnglish erweek.Consequently,ome classeswouldneverbe introducedto whatJooscalls thefrozen tyle while otherswouldgo all theway.

In selecting eadingmaterial e should bserve tleast hefollowingriteria: . thenumber f classmeetingshestudents aveperweek as well as their uture eeds, .their ge andsex,3. thecomplexityfgrammaticaltructuresnd thecomplexityf

ideas, nd4. whetherhematerial resentsniversallyhared xperiencesnd estheticvalues.

The number fclassmeetingstudentsaveperweek sa very ood indicatorfwhat

purpose he anguage erves n their ives.Thus twomeetings erweekmeanthat heyspecializen anotherubject ndthereforeexpect o learn nough omakethemselvesunderstoods tourists.heyalso expect o acquire he basictechniquesftranslationwhichwillprove obe usefulntheir urthertudies. tudents ho have threemeetingsperweekhavepracticallyhe ameexpectations.owever, tudents ho study nglishin special lasses6 12 meetings erweek)havesignificantlyifferentbjectivesndneeds.Theyhave taken p the anguage norder omajor nit attheuniversityrtouse t as a major ool intheir urthertudies.n both cases heywantto communicateinitfluently,swellas to read t with ase. For them fullprogrammustbeplanned.Sincestudents iffern their bjectivesnd expectations,he samebooks shouldnotbe used n all classes.Doublingor reducing hetime forlanguage tudy nlytakescareofquantitativespects.

The students'ge doesnot causespecialproblemswithin class;studentsoingtothe same class reofthesame

age.ButasW. S. Fowler9

points ut,the students'ex

mustbe taken ntoconsideration: . . .the story houldnotbe too specialized r itwill boreone sexorthe othern mixed lasses. huswe arebetter ffwithmaterialsthat ppealto a certainge groupratherhan certain ex.

*Jameseaton,electionndditingor eginningiterature,lt, 3. ,6-64. 968.*W. S.Fowler,iteratureor dulttudentsf nglishs Foreignanguage1/ rescribedooksn heowerExaminationLT, 6. ,84-90. 971.

5Angolilol6gia 65







Complexity fgrammaticaltructuresnd thatof ideas do notalways go hand nhand.Arelativelyimple toryanbevery ifficulto readbecauseof ts tyle rgram-matical tructure.AlicenWonderland,orexample,s noteasyreading)whileprofound

thoughtsan be expressednsimple anguage Hemingway's heOld Man and he ea,forexample).Thusselecting assages romAlice nWonderlandorbeginnerss as un-

pedagogical s attemptingo teachdifficultentence onstructionsnd the character-istics f a complex tyle yreferenceo TheOld Manandthe ea.

Ideas that students annotrelate o emotionallywill not challenge hem.Conse-

quently,uch deasdonotprovide goodtopicfor lassdiscussions. n the therhandstudentswill find t easyto discussworkswritten n commontopics,whether hetreatments national r international.have also observed hat tudents re more n-terestedn learning ew words to discussnew concepts han n learning ew lexicalitems o discuss ssues hat hey eel retypically ungarian.

Methodsofteachingiteraturenforeign-languagelasseshave not beengivendueattentionn scientific esearch nd hence n teacher raining.Most practice eachersof foreign anguages re expectedto teach readingmaterialwithspecial ttentionto new grammatical evices nd new lexical items. Those who feel thata passagerequiresspecial treatment orrow categoriesand methods of literary nalysisfrom their teachersat the universityevel. Discouraged by the poor results,however, ome of themuse the iterary iecesto practice ranslation;r they eachnewgrammaticalevices ndlexical tems ut readanddiscuss hepassage nthe tu-dents'native anguage. Again,others ead thepassage n theoriginal anguagebutdiscuss t in the students' ative anguage. In myexperience,here s nothingmore

discouragingnd ineffectualhan the continuous lternation etween he native an-

guageandthetarget anguages,ndI shun hispracticeiketheplagueandencouragepracticeeachers ndermysupervisiono do likewise.)

The numberof classmeetings er week as well as the students' utureneedsshoulddecidewhatkindof material houldbe used; i.e., whetherwe should mploylessonswrittenyapplied inguistsndlanguage eachers r ntroduceexpositoryroseand literatureirstn the broad and later n the belletristicense.Since do not thinkthat iteratureelongs o the curricula f other han pecialforeign-languagelasses*myproposed electionfmaterialsmeant or hem.

InHungarian igh chools,

would ntroduceheteaching

f iteraturen thetargetlanguageduring he fourth earof anguage nstructionthere eing t least ix classes

a week and no morethan15-18studentsnonegroup).By this ime he tudents ave

acquired fairknowledge fEnglish ndAmericaniteraturentheirworld-literatureclasses aught n theirnative anguage.Naturally,n thisclass, heyhave dealt with

EnglishndAmericaniterary orks hat remasterpiecesn the trictense ftheword.For this eason lone,theseworks houldnot be included ntheir nglish eadingma-terial tthis tage. nstead, wouldemphasizehe culturalspect nd introducetoriesin thechronologicalrder nwhich childwho is a native peaker fEnglishwouldencounterhem. uchanorderwouldnotconflict ith heprinciplesfcontemporary

66







criticism, hich according o GeorgeV. Santoni10 would allow us to chooseliteratureor urcourseswithoutfollowinghechronologyfhistory.

BradfordArthur11uggestshat n presenting storywe shouldtake ntoaccount

thewaya child earns hemn hisnativeanguage eventhough emaynotunderstandsomewords,he will be able to understandhestory s a whole. The child or the

foreignearner finds onverbal luesveryhelpfuln understandingnystory. hesecluescan be soundeffects,ictures,cting ut,etc.For thisreason, singdramatizedversions f children's tories s very nstructive.uchmaterial s easily vailable nddoesnotpresentopyright roblems.Naturally,heteacher asto decidehow farhecan let the studentsguess hemeaning funfamiliar ords, ndwhen t is necessaryforhimtogiveanexplanation. lso,hemustnotforgethat,whilethenative peakerisnotconscious fthefamiliarexical tems n the tory,heforeignearnersre con-scious fthe exical tems ndgrammaticaltructuresheyhavealreadyearned. hus,

even withthehelpofnonverbal lues, heir hances orguessinghemeaning f un-familiar ords re somewhatimited.

Children's tories ave at east wopropertieshatmakethem eryuseful nforeign-language eaching: . theyuseeverydayxpressions,nd2. theyprovide mplerepe-tition. o illustratehe atter oint,BrucePattison12 entions oldilocksndtheThreeBears.Thoughit does not contain nyunfamiliar ords forfourth-yeartudents t

high-school,his tory ffords good exercise n theuseofthepresent erfectense.

(This s especiallymportantn thecaseofHungarian peakers,inceHungarian acksthis emanticndgrammaticalategory.) he storysrepletewithsuchrexpressionssWho hasbeensleepingnbybed ? ThePokey ittlePuppiess anideal text or eview-

ingtheuse ofEnglish repositions:Theywent s far s they ould,overthebridge,uptheroad, hroughhemeadow ndunder hefence. Winniehe ooh stoo sophis-ticated orchildren nder enyearsof age who cannotappreciate hesubtle ronyunderlyingheportrayalfultimatelyniversal umanqualitiesnd weaknesses.his,aswell sOscarWilde's TheSelfish iant,s a fascinatingeading ven forcollege tu-dents.One summer had a groupofforeigndultswho wished o learnHungarianfrom heHungarian ranslationfWinniehe ooh.)

The nextstepcould be the introductionf shortpoemsin the target anguage.Discussing oems n theforeign anguage s all themoredesirable; or, s Santoni12

pointsout,in

poetryinternal

oherence nd significanceependsolely I wouldsay chiefly ) n thelanguage,whereas hecoherence nd significancef a novelmaydepend lso uponchronology,lot,characters,nformationboutsociety, tc.The poemsto be introducedouldrangefromnurseryhymeso poemswritten ywell-knownpoets.Forpedagogical easons,hese oems houldneithere too oldnortoo modern. n thefirstase,theywould contain oo manyunfamiliar ordsmany

10Georgesantoni,ethodsf eachingiterature,LA, .5,432-441.972.11Bradford,p. it.12 ruceattison,he iteratureesson,LT,18. ,59-62.964.

67







ofwhich re no longerused; nthe econd ase, he trangessociationsnd theuseof

symbolism,s well as otherpoeticdevices,wouldmakeunderstandingerydifficult.Thuswe would have toselectmainly wentieth-centuryoems.Teaching hakespeare,

themetaphysical oetsof the seventeenthentury,r the beginningsf Americanpoetryhouldbe an objective t theadvanced ollege evel.

The teaching fpoetry emandsmuchtime ndpatience s well as theknowledgeofappropriateechniquesn thepartof theteacher.n discussing poemtheteachershould roceed tep ystepnorder o make ure hat hestudents nderstandach dea

expressedn t. Translationnto henativeanguage annot yanymeans e a substitutefortheoriginal ext not even as a time-savingevice since t destroyshepoem.Listeningo poemsrecited y actorsdevelopsunderstandingnd a feel forrhythmand intonationn thetargetanguage.The memorization fpoemsshould lwaysbe

preceded yselectiveistening,incereciting poem,without nowinghow to do it

properly,oesmoreharm hangood.At this tageof foreign-languageeaching, assagesfrommodernplaysseem to

be in order.Reading plays especiallymodernones) certainly elongs o a foreign-languageprogram; or,despite,rtistichaping nd pointedness,hey xemplifynd

approximatehe vernaculars itmaybe usedby flesh-and-bloodeoplein real ife.For practical easons, would exclude absurddramabecause ts languageeschewsconventional orkday ommunication,hich we are tryingo teach n theforeignlanguage.Also, since t would be impossible o study whole playbecause of theshortnessftime, electing assages romplays hat he students avestudiedn their

native-language orld-literaturelass or seenin filmversions eems to be thebest

solution. nowing hewholeplay, he tudents ould notfind passage utofcontext;

theywould alsobe aware of its cultural nd social mplications.efore eaching ach

passage, short ummaryf theplay n thetarget anguage shelpful.For somereason, hort tories ave alwaysbeen the favoritesf foreign-language

teachers.wo common rgumentsor ncludinghem nthereadingmaterialre that1. the tudentsreferhem ospecial anguage essons,nd2.they renot ime-consum-

ing.The latterrgumentlso mplieshat, ince shorttoryanbe treatedsa separateunitwithin relativelyhort ime, hecompletionf theunitgives he tudentssenseofhaving aken significanttep owards heir inal oal.Psychologically,his rgumentis

undoubtedlyalid.

Yet, ookingtthe

waysshort tories re

beingusedand abused

in foreign-languagelasses, newonderswhetherhey rereally o useful.

Partly ecauseof the shortnessf time ndpartly ecauseof the evel ofdifficulty,manytextbooks resenthort toriesn abridgedversions.Unfortunately,s JamesHeatonpoints ut,short tories re commonly nd inappropriatelybridged n thebasisof 1. thenumber f unknownwords and2. theirength. hisapproachgnoresthefact hat yntacticonstructions,ontent,nd culturalmplicationsreate t leastas manyproblemss the ength fthestory r the number funknownwords.Ob-

viously, n abridgmentarried ut according o these uantitativeriterias likely odistort r destroyheveryfeatureshatmakea short torygreat iterature.hus if

68







short tories elongto thecurricula f EFL teaching as I think heydo we mustfindwaystoworkwithunabridgedditions.

The students'nabilityo understandnd to discuss nabridgedhort toriesn the

targetanguage ndicatesither hat heshort tories elected re not appropriateortheir evel oflanguageproficiencyr that heyhave not beenpreparedinguisticallyfor he tudy fsophisticatediterature. istakes oncerninghe selection fmaterialscan be easily orrected.nsufficientinguisticnowledge n thepartof the students- provided hat he eachingmaterials ogicallytructuredis a more erious roblemindicatingither hattheindividual eacher as beennegligent r thatthe studentsarenot ble tocopewith herequirementsfa higherndnoticeablymore omplicatedlevel oflanguage tudy. hismayhappen f thestudentsreadmitted o theforeign-language lasswithout iscrimination.ndernormal onditions,owever,hey houldbe able to understandertainhort tories fter avingfinished hestudy f certain

passages romplays.Short stories elected orforeign-languagelasses houldbe relativelyhort nd

within hestudents' raspof ideasand language in the ense fbothvocabularynd

syntax).f a short tory ails o meetone of these hree riteria,t shouldbe excluded

regardlessf its literarymerits. or practical easons,worksby twentieth-centurywriterseempreferable.

The introductionfshort torieswould meanthe endofthe iteraturerogramn

highschool.Long poemsand novelsbelongto the curriculumfforeign-languagemajors.

Literaturen foreign-languageeaching erves ur purposebestat thehighschool

and beginning ollege evels f t is viewed notas an end-in-itselfutas a meanstodevelop anguage kills. hus allthewrittenndunwrittenawsof anguagenstructionshouldbe observed ere, oo. The most mportantaw to observe s thatnew lexicalitems ndnew grammaticaltructureshouldnot be taught ogether ith actualex-

plication, tylisticnalysis,r estheticppraisal.t is desirablehat hestudents e in-troduced onewvocabularynd newpoints fgrammar rior o thestudy fa pieceofliterature.hustheremustbe closecooperation etween heplannersf languagelessons nd grammatical rills, n the one hand,and thosewho select hereadingsmaterial or heclasses, n the other.This kindofcooperation as beenconspicuous

byitsabsence.

ndeed,therehas not been

enough cooperationven

among peoplewhoplanthe eachingmaterials ordifferentevels.Thusa grammarhat sbeingusedata higherevelmaynotsufficientlyuildon those hatwereused atthe ower evels.

A literaryassage hould irstfall be treated s an arrangementf inguisticormsthat onveymeaning o thosewho arefamiliar iththeformal nd semantic ules fthe language.Consequently, linguistic-semanticnterpretationhouldbe the first

step owardshediscussionftheworkas a pieceofart.This snot talleasy orealize;therewillalwaysbe impatienteachersndstudents ho wouldlike to riseup to thelevelof pure deasby short-changingheir erbalexpression. ne can onlyagreewithSantoni's emark: Impatienttudentskippreliminaryrocedures hichwould

69







allow more horoughomprehensionn order o reach he evelof deasor to formulate

opinions fan esthetic ature. husideas andopinionsmayquiteoften e weak, m-

precise, ebulous, aving osolidfoundationndexpressedrobablyn . . the tudents'

native anguage. After literary orkhasbeenexplicated,t mustbe interpretednthe context f real life. n attemptinguchan interpretatione mustbuild on thestudents'ife-experience,ultural ackground,nd valuesystemswellas on universalvalues.Finally,we maydiscuss he work on the evelofwhatever bstractdeas orestheticmeritstmayhave,but we mustdo so on a levelthe tudentsan understandand operateupon intellectuallynd linguistically.e mustnot look, at all cost,for

symbolicmeaningsndhidden alues ecause heremight otbeany.We should speci-allyrefrainromllegitimatepeculationsboutthewriter'sntentionpart romwhatthe workclearlynddemonstrablyeans.Overzealous eachers avedestroyedmanygood stories uring lassroom iscussionsy asking he students o figure ut what

thewriter asthinking uring heprocess fcomposition.n otherwords, hey erpe-tuate ntheir racticehe ntentionalallacywhichhasbeenpointed ut and condem-ned nthetheory f iteraryriticism.Upon reading n outlandish riticalpeculationaboutwhathethoughtodoinoneofhisworks, anosArany,an utstandingineteenth-

century ungarian oet,wroteonlyone remarkn themargin: The devilthoughtthis... )

The roleof theteacher uringdiscussionsf literatures farfrom asy.When andhow shouldthegrammaticalmistakes e corrected If he interruptshestudent, e

destroyshe rain fthoughtnd thus isturbshediscussion;fhe waits ntil he tudent

finishes,e violates heruleof mmediate einforcementndbydoing

so lets heclassabsorb hemistakes.do notknowofanymagic echniquesnthis espect. sa generalrule, thinkheteacherhouldbefirm bouthis tudents'ollowingherules fgram-mar;hecanbeliberalndgivethe tudents uch reedomnthe nterpretationf deas.After ll, a workof artmay egitimately eanslightlyr greatly ifferenthings odifferenteaders,ependingn its omplexityfmeaningsnd on the eaders'ategoriesandmethods fanalysis.

In summary, recommendhatwe teach iteratureo foreign-languagetudentstthehigh-schoolevelonly n specialclasses.The materialwe use shouldbe carefullyselectedest, ryingo teachboth anguage ndliterature,e endup teaching either

of them.Also,teacherst bothhigh-schoolnduniversityevels houldtryo work

outbetterechniques.hushigh-schooleachers ould havebetter esultsnduniversityteachers ewermistakeso correct.

13Santoni,p. it.14bid

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the role of literature in teaching english as a foreign language(gabriella lengyel)

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