Extensive Reading in the EFL Classroom

Extensive Reading in the EFL Classroom[1]

Αn Integrated Approach to Teaching Literature in a Greek EFL Classroom

A Case Study: Pygmalion

Μαίρη Μαρίν

1. Introduction

Teachers often regard literature as inappropriate to the language classroom.This view reflects the historic separation between the study of language and the study of literature, which Short (1996: 7) refers to as a ‘border dispute over territory’ between linguists and literary critics. This divergence has resulted in the teaching of the two subjects as ‘disconnected pedagogic practices’ (Carter and McRae, 1996: xxiv) and has, consequently, led to the limited role of literature in the language classroom.There are others, however, who disagree with the false dualism of separating literature from language, since literature is language and language can indeed be literary. Carter and Nash (1990: 34) hold that “rather than perceiving literary discourse as separate and remote from non-literary discourse, we ought to consider the variety of text types along a continuum with some being more literary than others”. This paper is not an attempt to argue that all works of literature are accessible for use in class but it does set out to advocate the role that literature teaching might have at advanced levels.

2. Literature Review

It is undeniably true that reading has been the skill most emphasized in traditional FL teaching. However, there is often reluctance by teachers and course designers to introduce unabridged and authentic texts to the EFL syllabus. There is a general perception that literature is particularly complex and inaccessible for the foreign language learner and can even be detrimental to the process of language learning (Or, 1995). Bamford (1984: 4-7), among others has argued that “reading can be studied more effectively and enjoyably when students use easy material that they can understand and enjoy, instead of being forced to decode and translate texts hopelessly beyond their abilities”.

Indeed, it is difficult to imagine teaching the stylistic features of literary discourse to learners who have a less than sophisticated grasp of the basic mechanics of English language. This perception is also borne out by research (Akyel and Yalçin, 1990: 174-180) which shows that the desire to broaden learners’ horizons through exposure to classic literature usually has disappointing results. There is a perception that the use of literary discourse deflects from the straightforward business of language learning, i.e. knowledge of language structure, functions and general communication.

As teachers of English as a Foreign Language our main concern is to enable learners acquire communicative competence. Therefore, our teaching tends to focus on standard forms of linguistic expression. However, notwithstanding the acquisition of linguistic accuracy, EFL speakers apparently find it difficult to fully comprehend the nuances, creativity and versatility of standard and transactional forms of English. To quote Savvidou, “Communicative competence is definitely more than acquiring mastery of structure and form. It also involves acquiring the ability to interpret discourse in all its social and cultural contexts. For this reason, the use of literature in the EFL classroom can provide a powerful pedagogic tool in learners’ linguistic development” (cf. Savvidou: 2004)[2].

Today, EFL reading instruction is moving increasingly from teaching texts to teaching readers. Susser and Robb (1990)[3] surveyed the literature on extensive reading and discussed the role of graded readers and the transfer of L1 reading ability, while attempting to give a definition of "extensive reading" as a language teaching/learning procedure: individualized reading of self-chosen material for global or general understanding with the intention of obtaining pleasure from the text, which is not further discussed in class[4]. The writers agree, though, that there is no reason extensive reading should be confined to graded materials. They observe that, although graded readers are widely used, research has, unfortunately, pointed out some important problems: some of them are written in poor English or are empty of content (Davison, 1986: 20-21; Wallace, 1988: 153-154). More importantly, the process of simplification often leaves writing that is more difficult to understand than the original, because cohesion, coherence, and discourse structure are impaired (Anderson & Armbruster 1986: 154ff). In addition, some reading experts argue that denying FL learners access to complicated prose will prevent them from ever learning to comprehend it. Lautamatti (1978) believes that we cannot use graded readers because “the reading process relies on a selective use of all possible levels of the text, and it is only by giving the student material containing all the features naturally occurring in informative texts, that we can make it possible for him to learn to take advantage of these” (in Susser and Robb 1990: 104).

On the other hand, the "intensive reading procedure" which implies close study of short passages, including syntactic, semantic, and lexical analyses and translation into the L1 to study meaning is, according to Alderson and Urquhart (1984), not a reading but a language lesson, since it consists of a series of language points, using texts as points of departure. Reading texts, in other words, are sources of language exercises, rather than reading exercises. (ibid: 246-247). This view is supported by Brumfit (1984: 83) and Hyland (1990: 14). I agree with Bamford and Day (1997: 6-8)[5] who argue convincingly that extensive reading can be integrated into the second language curriculum in a variety of ways, from a stand-alone course to an extracurricular club activity.

Having decided that integrating literature into the EFL syllabus is beneficial to the learners’ linguistic development, we have to decide upon the approach that best serves the needs of EFL learners and the syllabus. Is it possible to broaden learners’ horizons through exposure to classic literature with positive results? This is what this research set out to answer.

3. Theoretical Framework : The Integrated Approach

Drawing on Carter and Long’s (1991) description of the three main teaching models of literature, Savvidou (2004) provides a rationale for an integrated approach to teaching literature in the language classroom: She suggests combining the traditional approach to teaching literature, i.e. the Cultural Model, which requires learners to explore and interpret the social, political, literary and historical context of a specific text and encourages them to understand different cultures and ideologies in relation to their own, the Language Model , an approach which enables learners to access a text in a systematic and methodical way in order to exemplify specific linguistic features and the Personal Growth Model which emphasises the interaction of the reader with the text and encourages learners to express their feelings and opinions. [6]

According to Duff and Maley (1990), the main reasons for integrating these elements are linguistic, methodological and motivational. As already stated, this paper describes how such an approach was used in a Greek high school EFL classroom in a way that made literature both accessible to learners and beneficial to their linguistic development.

4. Methodology

4.1. Participants

To research the effectiveness of the integrated approach to teaching literature, I chose to work with second grade senior high school learners of English. They all attended A’ Arsakeio Lykeio Psychikou, a semi-private school at which I have been a teacher of English for the past eight years. The reasons why they were chosen were their level of competence in the English language and their general interests and motivation for extra-curricular activities. There were eleven students in the class, aged between 16 and 17 years old, all Proficiency holders at the time the program was being put into effect. The students already had a high level of oral and written competence in English and a variety of interests. Despite the fact that they enjoyed surfing the Internet, most of them admitted to having limited time for extra-curricular reading and none of them had done any extensive reading in the English language since Grammar School. One thing they all had in common, which played a decisive role in the choice of literary material, was their love for theatre and mainly cinema, a passion I shared and a subject on which several heated discussions had preceded my decision to introduce literature into their curriculum. The program, which started in mid November 2006 and lasted five months, was inserted into their weekly two-hour English course and was taught along with their coursebook[7]. We generally devoted half of the 50-minute-period to literature.

4.2. Selection of Material

In my search for the appropriate literary material in compliance with Brumfit’s (1981: 243-248) suggested basic criteria for the selection of texts for advanced work in teaching foreign literature, i.e. linguistic level, cultural level, length, but also the pedagogical role of the text, the genre and finally classic status, and given the limited amount of time available to me, I decided to use drama: George Bernard Shaw’s famous play ‘Pygmalion’ seemed to satisfy all the presupposed criteria I was looking for. Firstly, George Bernard Shaw is considered by some the second greatest English playwright, behind only Shakespeare, with a truly massive corpus of work including about 60 plays, 5 novels, volumes of music, dance and theatrical criticism, and heaps of social commentary, political theory, and voluminous correspondence.

Secondly, one of Shaw's greatest contributions as a modern dramatist is in establishing drama as serious literature. Of all of Shaw's plays, Pygmalion,[8] for which the author won both the Nobel Prize for literature and an Academy Award for the script adaptation of the film version of 1938 is, without a doubt, the most beloved and popularly received, if not the most significant in literary terms.

The original play itself is an invaluable teaching tool since it works on several levels: it serves both as (a) a gripping story appropriate for reading, discussing and assessing in terms of literary value, structure, plot[9], characters, (b) a motive for discussion, -Shaw’s satire and harsh criticism of the social standards of his time- as well as (c) a linguistic tool -study of the phonetic, grammatical and syntactical particularities of the cockney speech[10]. In addition, several film versions have been made of the play, and it has even been adapted into a musical, which gave me the opportunity to use both recordings of the film dialogues and ultimately the film ‘My Fair Lady’ itself for comparison. It was then decided that the play would be approached act by act and not read all at once.

4.3. Procedure

The same procedure was followed throughout the first part of the program until the whole play was read, explained and fully discussed.

STAGE ONE: BEFORE READING

As a warm-up exercise, we held a discussion where I found out what the students already knew about the author and the times he was writing in, then, since there have been so many adaptations of the play, drawing on their theatre, cinema and TV knowledge, we explained in what way this piece of literature was well-known.

The students were given some background information on Shaw, the plot, the characters and the characteristics of the Cockney speech and listened to the first scene on a tape recorder to get a taste of it. Act 1 was assigned for reading. This sort of warmer helps arouse interest and fits more into the ‘cultural model’ of teaching literature which requires learners to explore and interpret the social, political, literary and historical context of a specific text.

Stage two: Understanding the text. General comprehension

It is important to let students approach a piece of literature the first time without giving them any specific task other than to simply read it. One of the aims of teaching literature is to evoke interest and pleasure from the language. If students have to do a task at every stage of a literature lesson, the pleasure can be lost. So, once students had read each scene or act once at home, we read it in class, each student undertaking a different part to “play” each time, after which, they were asked to retell the story and explain the significance of certain key words of the text or to comment on the characters, the storyline

and what they particularly liked[11]. Various drama techniques were also used, such as freeze-frame and prediction of what was going to happen next, role-play and suggesting stage directions.

Stage three: Understanding the language

At this stage, the more difficult and unfamiliar words in the text were dealt with and, given the peculiarity of the language in the first two Acts, before Eliza learns how to speak “beautifully”, all the non-standard grammatical forms were discussed and “corrected” [12]. We focused on analysing the text at a deeper level and exploring how the message was conveyed through overall structure and any special uses of language - rhythm, imagery, word choice etc. Each Act took us about three or four lessons to complete and every time it was finished and discussed in detail, we listened to the dialogues of the movie. Then the students had to write a guided summary, answer comprehension questions and characterise the main persons in the scene.[13]

This resembles the most common approach to literature in the EFL classroom, what Carter and Long (1991) refer to as the ‘language-based approach’, which is a systematic and methodical way to access a text in order to exemplify specific linguistic features. This approach lends itself well to the repertoire of strategies used in language teaching - cloze procedure, prediction exercises, jumbled sentences, summary writing, creative writing and role play, and we used them all. This stage, despite being more teacher-oriented and intensive, proved to be quite a joy for both the students and myself.