Learning Paths

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Dear readers, 

     I hope you are all great! In this weeks' installment of my blog, I would like to share with you what I have learned througout this week so far. This week, we had a very enriching lesson in which we discussed many approaches and methods to teach literature in our classes. As a matter of fact, we compared and discussed Literature in the EFL/ESL Classroom by Bagherkazemi and The Role of Literature in Instructed Foreign Language Learning by Paran.

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As for Bagherkazemi, I learned the pays off from teaching and learning from literature. The ones that called my attention the most are:

• It provides meaningful contexts.
• It appeals to imagination and enhances creativity.
•  It encourages critical thinking.
•  Learning is facilitated through involvement and joy, which can be created by literary style.
•  The role of teachers as facilitators, guides and active planners is embodied in the process of
  literary work and analysis.
•  It helps language teachers foster their own cultural, linguistic and interpretive skills.
•  It encourages talking. 

 As for Paran, I got to meet some new ideas which are listed below:

• The findings on the interaction in the literature and language classroom illustrate the importance of two factors:
  the role of the teacher, and the role of the task.
• There must be effective involvement of students for a successful literature class.
• the interpretive mode centres on the appropriate cultural interpretation of meanings that occur in written and spoken form.
• All learners and teachers have different experiences with literature (there is not a single generalization about this).
• the key to the success of the telecourse has been the translation of reliable classroom practices to the virtual environment, along with an extended use of electronic and audiovisual
  educational resources.

 Also, I learned and felt identified with many situations from the studies that Paran presents. I think that there are moments in which it seems everyone feels or thinks the same, but in fact we are far from experiencing the same when implementing literature in our classes. 

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Now, I still have some questions that I really want to clear up whenever possible. I still don't get what the stylistic approach is about and if it is bad or good. I also want to know how appropiate it is to extend the curriculum, if there is a possibility of getting off topic and how can we know is that is happening. 

Probably, the line that catches my attention the most is by Paran: 

 

"...we also need
more systematic evaluation of courses, and systematic enquiries into the views of
the learners."

 

The last line does so because I feel that it is time to give students their preponderant role in the learning process and we should stop worrying about breaking paradigms and failing while trying it. Let's take risks!

 

 

             - Esteban Andrés F.