The use of literary texts in teaching English and the idea of language corner in optimising the teaching of literature
Introduction
Spoken stories, poems, chants and graffiti, pictures carved in caves and other form of monuments reflecting the culture of human being are seen as proves that arts and literature has been part of daily life since long ago. Literature has been discussed and studied together with the studies of languages. Literary works in the past spread from mouth to mouth and mostly unrecorded in written form of writing until modern times. Literature became a part of subjects to be thought at school since the ancient times. Moral values of human being were taught through literature.
In the old days, the study of literature in Indonesia was dominated by the elites, the kingdoms or ‘kasultanan’. The literary works in the form of ‘tembang’ or others were written by the scholars or ‘wise-men’. There was no formal school and clear system of education as we see it nowadays. The common people who want to be ‘educated’ had to ‘ngenger’ or to be servants. So the literary works and study were limited to the elite circles. The common people enjoyed literary works in the form of traditional songs (tembang-tembang tradisional), traditional performances, dances, and chants presented by those elites. Some of these were recorded in the form of written script in the local language with the local script or were not recorded at all, e.g. tribes from Papua. In short, the literary works at those times were mostly in the forms of spoken works and exposed to the public in the form of performances, rituals ceremonies and other occasions. As times passed, these traditions were influenced by other religions, cultures, beliefs brought in to the country by missionaries and traders. The schooling system under the colony of Dutch and Japan was also exclusive merely for the elite and royal families. It was almost impossible for the poor to send their children to school.
Some problems in teaching of Indonesian literature
The schooling curriculum up to this very moment is still controlled by the central government as it was in the colonized era. The ‘colour’ of the curriculum was and still is dominated by the western system of education. The curriculum is geared to science and technology, and neglecting the social sciences including the teaching of languages. The teaching of literature is always problematic up to the present time. The teaching of literature and Indonesian language undoubly is very important yet problematic. Students should not only be able to enjoy, understand and use any literary work to develop their personality, broaden their views and thoughts but also develop language skills.
It is problematic because the practice of teaching literature (SMP and SMA) in Indonesia still stresses on cognitive aspects. There are some problems in teaching the value of literary work, among others;
Ø Very small portion in the national curriculum
Ø The final test (EBTA/EBTANAS) stresses on factual knowledge of the language
Ø Teachers’ ability in literature appreciation is still low
Ø Teachers’ ability in teaching literature in an interesting way is questionable
Ø Lack of literature books in the school library
Another angle of problem in teaching literature at SMP level is also mentioned by Ermanto, in his paper entitled ‘Kondisi Pembelajaran Apresiasi Sastra Indonesia dengan Kurikulum 1994 Di SLTP Negeri Kota Padang’. The limited time allocation for teaching literature is the biggest problem. He suggested that the teaching of literature should be conducted not only in the teaching – learning hours but also in the form of other activities as extra curricular.
At the university level the failure of teaching writing skills contributes to the failure of teaching literature expressed by Alwasilah (Pikiran Rakyat, Thursday, 14 October 2004). He pointed out that the teachers only teach theory of writing not the writing skills. From his observation he also noticed that the teaching of literature stresses only in the literature theory and neglects literature appreciation. As a result the students’ appreciation to any literary work including the ‘local’ literature is also very low.
These mention problems possibly reflected that the teaching of literature emphasis on discrete-point teaching, “correctness” in grammatical form, repetition of graded structures and possibly restricted lexis. These represented a methodology unsuited to literature teaching, and were unable to accommodate literary texts.
Another blame of the failure of teaching literature besides teaching-learning process goes to the decision makers or support institutions. The curriculum and books used in schools are centralized and controlled by the government as mentioned earlier in this paper. In most cases the selection of text-books are not well planned and implemented. The planned itself might look good on paper but many problems occur in the implementation. In the case of sundanese text-books used in west Jawa, there are serious problems in the selection. Usep Ramli pointed out that the books used in teaching of sundanesse language do not meet the standard of good books. There are so many mistakes with poor quality in term of content. The editors’ names mentioned in these books as ‘pangjejer’ never really involved in the process of writing or editing of the books. ( “Bahasa Sunda, Dipelihara dan Dianiaya”, Pikiran Rakyat, Thursday, 12 February 2004). Good books suitable for SD and SMP such as ‘Si Paser’ and ‘Legok Pari’ which won award from “Rancage” foundation (a foundation which give awards to local literature writers) are not recommended by the local authority.
The complexity of the teaching and learning of literature ranges from the policy makers to the classroom activities. Many recommendations and suggestions were written to overcome or at least minimized the problems but those seem to end at level of discussion or seminars not at the implementation level. Riris K Toha Sarumpaet the head of ‘Himpunan Sarjana-Kesusastraan’ in the ‘Konferensi International Kesusateraan XV, in Manado pointed out that the quality of literature teaching can be improved by;
Ø Providing good teaching materials
Ø Literature curriculum which able to stimulate students in learning literature
Similar suggestions given by Ermanto, in his paper “Kondisi Pembelajaran Apresiasi Sastra Indonesia dengan Kurikulum 1994 di SLTP Kota Padang”;
Ø Students are not interested in literature, and this is one of the teacher’s jobs to make them interested in literature
Ø Materials development is also the teacher’s responsibility
Ø The teacher of literature should be creative and develop activities outside the teaching-learning hours
These views and suggestion on how literature teaching should be done mostly remained propaganda and failed to motivate a reasoned set of proposals as to how a literature teaching and learning could be designed. There must be a good designed literature teaching, but possibly unknown due to the centralized policy mentioned earlier in this paper.
Using literary texts for English language teaching
English are taught from secondary to university level in Indonesia yet English literature has not been given emphasis at all in the classroom. Literature is taught in university level only in departments which have language study, e.g. English literature was taught in English department and Indonesian literature in Indonesian department. Despite of this, literature is rich in nature, there are many good reasons for using literature in the classroom, among others;
Ø Literature is authentic material. It is good to expose learners to this source of unmodified language in the classroom because they skills they acquire in dealing with difficult or unknown language can be used outside the class.
Ø Literature encourages interaction. Literary texts are often rich is multiple layers of meaning, and can be effectively mined for discussions and sharing feelings or opinions.
Ø Literature expands language awareness. Asking learners to examine sophisticated or non standard examples of language (which can occur in literary texts) makes them more aware of the norms of language use.
Ø Literature educates the whole person. By examining values in literary texts, teachers encourage learners to develop attitudes towards them. These values and attitudes relate to the world outside the classroom.
Ø Literature is motivating. Literature holds high status in many cultures and countries. For this reason, students can feel a real sense of achievement at understanding a piece of highly respected literature. Also, literature is often more interesting than the texts found in course books.
In the context of Indonesia, the teaching of literature at the English department can be categorized as a literary text as a product. This means that it is treated as a source of information about the target culture. From the writer experience in taking literature class, this course often examines the social, political and historical background to a text, literary movements and genres. There is no specific language work done on a text. This approach tends to be quite teacher-centred. This situation was also expressed by a lecturer teaching English literature to S1 degree at Universitas Negeri Papua;
Ø Most students at UNIPA are used to teacher-oriented classroom setting. The teacher is only information giver and the students are just listening and taking notes.
Ø Most students at UNIPA do not like reading, and literary is always associated with lots of readings. When they first came to the class they have their mind set that literature is a very difficult subject and they will spend a lot of time reading and analysing literary work
Ø
Most students at UNIPA are lack of critical
thinking. They like making statements but most of the time are unable to
justify why that is so.
There are other possible ways of using literary text. Learners proceed through a text, they pay attention to the way language is used. They come to grips with the meaning and increase their general awareness of English. In this model of studying literature, the teacher can choose to focus on general grammar and vocabulary (in the same way that these are presented in course books for example) or use stylistic analysis. Stylistic analysis involves the close study of the linguistic features of the text to enable students to make meaningful interpretations of the text – it aims to help learners read and study literature more competently. One example of this kind was used by the writer to teach Critical Reading and Writing at School of Business and Management ITB using literary text. In this example an extract from a novel ( For Whom the Bell Tools by Ernest Hemingway) was used.
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
A critical reading and writing lesson based on an extract from a novel
ERNEST HEMINGWAY and FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
For Whom the Bell Tolls was inspired by Hemingway's experiences as a foreign correspondent in Paris and Spain during the Spanish Civil War. In 1937, Hemingway travelled to Spain to write about the war for the North American Newspaper Alliance. When For Whom the Bell Tolls was published, it was considered Hemingway's finest work, and many critics still consider it to be his masterpiece. Specifically, the literary world praised Hemingway's spare style and powerful symbolism. People still consider this book to be not only Hemingway's best, but also as one of the best war novels of all time.
It is the Spanish Civil War. In the forests of the Spanish Sierra, a guerrilla band prepares to blow up a vital bridge. Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer, has joined the small group of rebels on this mission. It is night in the rebel camp, and Pablo – one of the Spanish guerrillas – has insulted the American.
“Pablo is drunk” Primitive said. “Pay him no heed, Ingles*.”
“I do not think he is so drunk,” Robert Jordan said.
Maria was standing behind him and Robert Jordan saw Pablo watching her over his shoulder. The small eyes, like a boar’s, were watching her out of the round, stubble-covered head and Robert Jordan thought:
I have known many killers in this war and some before and they were all different; there is no common trait nor feature; nor any such thing as the criminal type; but Pablo is certainly not and some.
“I don’t believe you can drink,” he said to Pablo. “Nor that you’re drunk.”
“I am drunk,” Pablo said with dignity. “To drink is nothing. It is to be drunk that is important. Estoy muyborracho.**”
“I doubt it,” Robert Jordan told him. “Cowardly, yes.”
It was so quiet in the cave, suddenly, that he could hear the hissing noise the wood made burning on the hearth where Pilar cooked. He heard the sheepskin crackle as he rested his weight on his feet. He thought he could almost hear the snow falling outside. He could not, but he could hear the silence where it fell.
I’d like to kill him and have it over with, Robert Jordan was thinking. I don’t know what he is going to do, but it is nothing good. Day after tomorrow is the bridge and this man is bad and he constitutes a danger to the success of the whole enterprise. Come on. Let us get it over with.
Pablo grinned at him and put one finger up and wiped it across his throat. He shook his head that turned only a little each way on his thick short neck.
“Nay, Ingles,” he said. “Do not provoke me.”
* Englishman
** I am very drunk.
VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT
1. What kind of animal is a boar?
2. Pablo has a stubble-covered head. Does he have a lot of
hair or only a little?
3. What is a hearth?
4. Look at the last sentence about Pablo. Can you mime the
actions he does?
5. There are two examples of very old English expressions in
the text. Pay him no heed and Nay.
What do you think they mean?
REPORTED SPEECH
Look at this example of direct speech from the text. It has been changed to reported speech. What changes do you notice?
“Pablo is drunk” Primitivo said. ------- Primitivo said that Pablo was drunk.
Now look at the following example, using the verb “tell” instead of “say”.
“Pay him no heed, Inglés.” ------------ Primitivo told Robert to pay him no heed.
Find the other examples of direct speech in the text and change them to reported speech using “told” or “said”. What other changes did you make?
WRITING
What do you think will happen next? Write a conclusion to this extract.
WEBQUEST – ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Find out some more information about this famous American author and his work. You can use the following websites as a starting point.
www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/belltolls/about.html
www.hemingway.org
www.lostgeneration.com
www.timelesshemingway.com
1. When was the Spanish Civil War? Who fought against who?
2. Which side did Ernest Hemingway support?
3. The main character in For Whom the Bell Tolls is an American volunteer. Was this unusual in this war?
4. Hemingway was one of the authors of “the lost generation”. What was “the lost generation”?
5. Much of Hemingway’s writing was based on his adventures. What kind of adventures did he have?
This lesson combines the language and content approaches to teaching reading and writing. Students read an extract from a famous war novel and are encouraged to deduce the meaning of difficult words from their contexts. This text also serves as a vehicle for practicing reported speech (any extract with lots of dialogue is good for this kind). Finally, through a webquest, students learn more about the life and work of Ernest Hemingway. Writing could be done for homework, or in class.
This practical activity encourages the students to read authentic and meaningful texts, rich in values. By exploring the texts(from the websites given) in their own time students will be more responsible in their own learning toward independent learner. It is clear from the above description that the use of literary work gives more benefit to the students.
Despite of the benefits, there are potential problems encountered by the teacher in using literary texts. In the experience of handling Critical Reading and Writing class at Scholl of Business and Management ITB, there were two main issues;
One is overwhelming number of literary work. Of course there are lots of novels, short stories or books of poetry, but then decide the one to be used was a hectic issues. In handling this situation the use of internet is a good idea. The internet brings instant access to many works of literature. The following sites we found are excellent for book excerpts and stories and poetry for teaching English;
http://www.bookbrowse.com/,http://www.readersread.com/, http://www.blackliterature.com/, http://www.favoritepoem.org
The next one is some consideration in choosing the materials to be used. In the case of teaching Critical Reading and Writing sets of questions were considered;
Ø Do we understand enough about the text to feel comfortable using it?
Ø Is there enough time to work on the text in class?
Ø Does it fit with the rest of our syllabus?
Ø Is it something that could be relevant to the learners?
Ø Will it be motivating for them?
Ø How much cultural or literary background do the learners need to be able to deal with the tasks?
Ø Is the level of language in the text too difficult?
Another way, which is more a process-based approach, is applied at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (Alwasilah 2004). The teaching of literature encourages learners to draw on their own opinions, feelings and personal experiences. It aims for interaction between the text and the reader in English, helping make the language more memorable. Learners are encouraged to “make the text their own”. This model recognises the immense power of literary texts. The literary texts discussed can be in English or local languages.
In short there are many benefits to using literary texts in the English classroom. Apart from offering a distinct literary world which can widen learners’ understanding of their own and other cultures, it can create opportunities for personal expression as well as reinforce learners’ knowledge of lexical and grammatical structure. Moreover, an integrated approach to the use of literary texts offers learners strategies to analyse and interpret language in context in order to recognize not only how language is manipulated but also why. An integrated approach to the use of literary texts in the language classroom offers foreign language learners the opportunity to develop not only their linguistic and communicative skills but their knowledge about language in all its discourse types. The use of literary texts in the language classroom can be a potentially powerful pedagogic tool.
Language corner for improving the teaching of literature in Indonesia
This idea of language corner was inspired by Resource Centre at ITB Language Centre. The Resource Centre was established to back up the English language teaching and learning which have similar problems with the teaching of literature in term of, among others; time allocation, very small portion in the curriculum, lack of good English books suitable for ITB students in the library, not considered as important subject, and the wide range of students’ English ability.
A language corner is a physical area designed for language learning purposes it could be part of a school library. Ideally It should have the appropriate materials to enable learners to explore and work independently in a variety of configurations (individually, with partners, in small groups). The selection of materials should be done by teachers involved in teaching languages (not only English teachers). Teachers’ judgement in material selection is much better since they know what good for their students. Consultation of materials development of course is necessary at certain level of the corner development. The materials should not be limited to printed materials and should have audio and video. The materials should cover wide range of selection from classic literature (of any languages) to popular literary texts e.g. magazine, news papers etc. A language corner should have a number of characteristics. The corner reflects a planned physical environment that is conducive to learning and motivates students to read and write. In addition, corner activities should allow for open-ended inquiry and engage students in the tasks as active learners. The corner should provide students choice in their activities, have explicit and on-going routines, and maintain a strong connection between corner tasks and the language classroom tasks. Participating in corner should provide students with the collaboration and individual learning.
The ideas for possible development of language corner are endless, and staff sharing of ideas and activities is an essential part of the development of language corner. As a strat the corner can be equipped with materials arranged in folders or boxes, such as literature, poem, movie’s script, drama (sastra Indonesia, sastra sunda, sastra Inggris, etc.). Time in starting this project can be allocated for teachers to share and demonstrate the ideas of having language corner with special characteristics mentioned earlier. By having regular meetings more ideas will definitely flourish and grow according to the needs and financial support from the school. Here are some ideas that can be used to start the centre;
Ø Set of materials for working in groups (discussion) then followed by writing projects.
Ø Some videos on popular movies, performances, plays, traditional dance, rituals or classics movies if any.
Ø Some traditional music can also be used for writing, e.g. listen to the music and respond in writing.
Ø Computer with connection to the internet will be an advantage.
Language corner activities can last for longer periods of time and can be adjusted easily to the curriculum. For example, activities in writing corner can follow a process writing format as students work through drafts, edits, proofreading, and publishing. This corner can also allow for more independent study as students investigate topics of interest through a variety of resources. A language corner can be an ideal place to extend and expand student knowledge of art and of course language skills.
Modern Thought
Language corner can be a perfect place in which to integrate technology. A computer area makes a great corner as students access CD-ROM storybooks, Internet sites, and literary games that help to reinforce important language skills while enhancing technology skills. Reading and publishing student work are ideal center activities. Tape recorders and overhead projectors are important and useful literacy center tools.
In brief, language corner provides both a positive physical and social context for learning. The integration of coner’s activities in the classroom teaching program supports improvement in reading comprehension, language, and writing development. In addition, the structure and design of corner allow for the voluntary participation in cooperative literary activities by all students as well as increased appreciation for reading and writing. Participating in meaningful and purposeful literary activities on a regular basis should have positive effects on the entire education system. In addition, teacher observation of corner behaviours can provide important information about student independence, interdependence, and cooperative skills.
References
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http://www.blackliterature.com/
