TESL CONFERENCE NOVEMBER 2008

COMMUNICATION THROUGH LITERATURE

ROSLYN MAIAN

SAP, SQE

As educators of adults we must focus on our students’ needs to communicate. They have a lifetime of experiences, of memories-- a wealth of emotion, pain, joy, fear, and elation. The full gamut of what it means to be human.

What are experiences? They are processes, which involve doing, seeing and feeling. Our students are adults. They have done. They have seen. They have felt.

As adults they experience extreme frustration. They have so much to say, but lack the tools to express themselves, and share themselves with others. They have a natural desire to communicate. If we cannot channel this force, they will simply do what we know all our students are doing. They will go find a friend or relative or acquaintance from “home” and communicate in their native language.

So where do we come in, and what can we do? First we must remember that we are teaching communication not linguistics. All the grammar, the punctuation, the summaries, and essays are simply structures and forms within which and upon which to build communication. The message, the context, the meaning are what is important and we teach the forms and rules only to assist our students to communicate. They are an aid. We must never forget this and begin to see the lesson plans, quizzes and tests as ends unto themselves.

Our students have their own meaning and authenticity within themselves. Our role as educators is to facilitate their communication by providing materials from which they can create, materials upon which they can build what they have seen, heard, felt, and done.

We must create a classroom, which will allow them to utilize their own knowledge and feelings about people, the world, their culture, and ours.

Not every student, every time will respond to your classroom in the same way. Not every student may react as you might have anticipated. Perhaps none of your students will perform as you may have planned. However, well-chosen materials will unlock your students’ self-expression, and give results, which delight some of them, and surely make your day.

You must provide the tools. You must teach them the vocabulary of feelings and emotions and provide materials packed full of information, vocabulary, and emotion. You provide the stimulus as well as the freedom to be creative. You must provide universal topics for them, topics, which will strike a chord with students of every culture, every gender, universal themes of human emotion and experience which transcend all borders and differences.

Where will you find these magical materials? The answer is as simple as it is obvious. Look to literature. Look to the classics. To writing which has remained popular over generations, and which has cross-cultural appeal. What is classic literature? A story, an experience, which for whatever reason captivates and entrances. Books, which your mother wept over, and read to you, and which make your children weep when you read to them. A classic is always fashionable, always popular, and is proven over time and place to speak to the hearts and souls of all. It is a piece of writing of lasting value. A treasure in your classroom.

The language teaching methodology, Suggestopedia rests on the belief that the key to opening up people’s mental powers lies in achieving the right mental state. This methodology holds that people must feel happy, relaxed, and open to new experiences. If people can be brought to this state they will begin to use mental abilities they don’t ordinarily use, and their language learning will be enhanced. Music plays an important role in this teaching method, both relaxing the body and activating the brain. In short, if their spirits soar, their interest is piqued, and their emotions engaged, they will learn English. Read to them, read with them, watch movies with them, and watch how they use the stories for weaving grammar structures and exercises, and writing, and conversations about the characters who they begin to know well, and to share. Watch them relax and learn to the music of Anne Shirley or the Last of the Mohicans or the Phantom. Sit back and watch as some of them go to the library to borrow the book or movie to share at home. They’re taking English home!

Many of us teach in a classroom which is not in the Suggestopedic model. Some of us have fluorescent lights draining our souls, no windows, bare walls, and uncomfortable and crowded classrooms. What to do? Enter the world of the imagination. Vast panoramas, inspiring music, and characters and ideas which challenge your students, delight them, or remind them of someone they know, a place in their minds.

Let’s take for example, a Canadian favourite, Anne of Green Gables. Did I say a Canadian favourite? Written 100 years ago. Sold over 50 million copies. Translated into 36 different languages. According to Wikipedia, the novel is very popular in Japan where it has been on the school curriculum since 1952 and Anne is revered as "an icon." Many Japanese couples have wedding ceremonies on the grounds of the Green Gables farm in P.E.I. and some girls arrive with red-dyed hair and pigtails, to look like Anne.

Do we know why this book has this power to delight, to entrance, to excite? Does it matter? Here is a tool to use in a classroom to reach our students. To entrance them. To delight them. To excite them. To get them to arrive on time in the morning , and to laugh together and to cheer, and to weep. A pre-reading, pre-writing, pre-grammar, listening, speaking tool. A tool which will create shared thoughts and emotions within your class, a jumping off point to discussions and writing, and a fun tool for even grammar exercises.

Let me tell you how I use Anne of Green Gables…and Jane Eyre. And the Phantom of the Opera, and the Murder on the Rue Morgue, and the Hound of the Baskervilles, and the Last of the Mohicans. And all sorts of literature, stories and poems to foster communication, and to welcome our new friends into our culture.

This is a wonderful website which contains links to biographical and critical information, e-texts, and lesson plans related to specific authors (and many of them!). It even has some Penguin fact sheets for easy reader books.

This is an example of a page on the author O. Henry, and specifically the story, The Gift of the Magi.

An on-line text of the book, Anne of Green Gables. There are, of course many on-line books. Project Gutenberg has 25,000 free on-line books.

where you can download for free such books as Jane Eyre, and 25,000 others.

Jack London The Law of Life Listen and Read

Edith Wharton The Line of Least Resistance Listen and Read

The Gift of the Magi O. Henry Listen and Read

The Sweater Roch Carrier, National Film Board

My Favourites: Books and Movies

Anne of Green Gables, The Last of the Mohicans, Jane Eyre, Phantom of the Opera, etc. My future plans. Wuthering Heights. Romeo and Juliet.

Your favourites? Go rummage through your (or your children’s) bookshelf. Check out the easy reader books. Head over to the Library, or your favourite movie rental establishment. Wheel in that cranky old TV. And inspire your students to communicate.