ADAPTING LITERARY TEXTS AND FILM STUDIES TO TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Anca Popa, Colegiul Național Pedagogic „ Andrei Şaguna” Sibiu
Abstract: The aim of the present paper is to highlight a number of literary texts, films, videos which may serve as a starting point for a series of various communicative activities for high school students with levels ranging from intermediate to upper intermediate. Acting as modern forms of audio-visual aids, these may serve to enhance the students’ cultural awareness, develop their fluency and vocabulary, promote reading and writing skills. Literary handouts, films and other visual sources may be used at different stages of the lessons to set a variety of oral or written tasks, thus ensuring the development of both oral and written expression.
Key words: literary texts, debates, creative writing, assessment.
As John Haycraft cogently argues,“ much of what we say in any language is prompted by what we see or have seen around us”( 99). The more a student reads, the better his language level. But, nowadays, living during the past-paced digital age, teachers are faced with the arduous task of keeping up with the rhythm and curiosity of their students. Thus, they always have to set up meaningful activities, challenging learning contexts that can stir up the students’ curiosity and prompt them to produce interesting work / homework. The main focus of this paper resides in the ways in which imaginative tasks are used to develop language skills and promote critical thinking.
“ Creative writing is a journey of self-discovery, and self-discovery promotes effective learning”( Gaffield-Ville 1998 qtd in Harmer 328). Creative writing may stem from apparently simple, short tasks such as describe the sunset, describe the colour orange. As students are looking for the exact words to express their own impressions, they are actually“ tapping into their own experiences. This, for some, provides powerful motivation to find the right words to express such experience”( Harmer 328). Creative writing could arise from the students’ personal experience, from a certain event they are fully aware of, a poem, a story, a play they enjoyed. The question is how to make the students be more involved in the reading process and provide them with some materials that can actually contribute to their decision of constantly reading books in English. Creative writing is also an essential activity which is required both for everyday assessment of students’ composition skills and to prepare them for the requirements of exams and English language contests.
A wonderful occasion to provide my students with the opportunity to express themselves freely was the Skype Interactive Discussion organised by the Fulbright Commission and Teaching Assistant, Becky Bosshart, University of Las Vegas, Nevada. She had an illuminating talk on using flash fiction in class activities, during the Fulbright Think Tank Conference on 18 February 2016, and she suggested making use of the materials she handed out and have an open discussion where many students together with their teachers from high schools throughout Romania could participate in the debate and comment on a specific set text she indicated: a short story entitled Girl written by Jamaica Kincaid. The text included some advice a mother would give to a girl growing up in a poor area in Antigua. I enrolled my students from 9 th C, a bilingual class in this project as part of the events organized during“ Alternative Education Week” in April 2016. They seemed eager to express their views and answer Becky Bosshart’ s questions, a debate which reached the challenging topic of teenagers and the generation gap. They also wrote a short essay on“ Growing up”. I have also used another short story written by Jamaica Kincaid, The Letter from Home, which represents an excellent example of a succession of short actions( the past tense), but it is also thought-provoking at it includes a wonderful
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