Literature in the ESL Curriculum - 1859 Words

The place of literature in education Why read literature? To many of us, such a question seems as strange as asking â€Å"why breathe?† as literature has been part of our life, family, school, and community for as long as we can remember. Of course, there are those who argue that what today’s students need is preparation for the â€Å"real world,† but in the push for practical preparedness we sometimes overlook the importance of educating students’ imaginations. Literature offers windows to worlds outside students’ experience as well as mirrors onto the world they already know. Literature also prepares students for the personal challenges and moral dilemmas they are likely to face. We interpret the world constantly in all our experiences every†¦show more content†¦What can easily be tested by questions with wrong and right answers is not, typically, what is of most interest and value in the literary text. From 1939 to 1945, literature becomes â€Å"a political safeguard against indoctrination and propaganda† and as a way to know what â€Å"others† were thinking. Literature is increasingly seen from 1945 to 1957 as only appropriate to advanced level study, to which the student gains access after having mastered the linguistic structures carefully graded through audiolingual methods, a pleasurable reward for the successful, and an â€Å"entertaining supplement to audiolingual drills†. In the next period, roughly 1957 to 1979, culture becomes a more important area of study and literature is seen as reflecting a particular culture. From 1979 until the end of twentieth century literature comes to be valued in the context of the rise of communicative language teaching, as â€Å"authentic text†. Now literature gives the opportunity for vocabulary acquisition, the development of reading strategies, and the training of critical thinking. The learner is the most important in the communicative paradigm, the author, his or her intentions tend to be forgotten and the language of the text is more an inconvenient obstacle on the way to examination of â€Å"culture† and society, rather than central to those notions, and of interest in itself. A similar story emergesShow MoreRelatedEvidence Based Medicine, Literature Review1433 Words   |  6 PagesJoy Ogunmuyiwa Evidence Based Medicine, Literature Review Course Director: Heather McEwen, M.L.I.S., M.S. October 25, 2015 â€Æ' Introduction For many patients, language and culture set the background and context for the procurement and application of their health literacy skills. Health literacy is defined as the degree to which an individual is able to access, understand, and communicate information in order to promote and maintain their health [1]. However, a third of U.S. adults—77 million people—wouldRead MoreThe Learner On The Mainstream School : Discuss The Nature Of An Esl Learner And The Cultural Considerations Teachers1589 Words   |  7 PagesThe ESL learner in the mainstream school: Discuss the nature of an ESL Learner and the cultural considerations teachers need to be aware of which may impact on the learner’s second language acquisition and, therefore, inform classroom practice. As Australia continues to become a multicultural country schools and educators are getting more students who have English as a second language (ESL) in their classrooms. It is important that educators have an understanding about ESL students so they areRead MoreThe Capstone Product ( Found As An Attachment1671 Words   |  7 Pagesoverview of the project components that were incorporated into Contact, Conflict, and Cohesiveness program. 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The commonRead MoreEssay about Pragmatic Develpment in a Second Language669 Words   |  3 PagesIn line with the fact that speech acts of suggestion themselves have not been studied in the same capacity as other speech acts (Schmidt, et al., 1995), L2 pragmatics literature on suggestions is also quite limited. Only a small number of researchers have made attempts to explicitly address suggestions, how they are used in classroom interaction, and teacher-student conversations in conferences. Overall, a unanim ous agreement exists among the available research (Bardovi-Harlig and Hartford, 1990Read MoreThe Percentage Of Public Elementary And Secondary School Students1046 Words   |  5 Pagesproficiency† on standardized assessments (Section 1001, p. 15). As ELL student populations increase so does the pressure on teachers and schools to increase the numbers of ELL students who meet state-governed reading proficiency levels. A review of the literature The researchers’ in this study conclude that ELL students participating in secondary-tier interventions using curricula with a direct instruction approach and delivered in small groups presented greater outcomes in student progress on DIBELS assessmentsRead MoreMy Career Plan For Teaching English1731 Words   |  7 PagesMy degree program at UCO has been focused on teaching English as a second language to adults; however, my career plan includes teaching English literature and language at secondary level. I plan to use my degree when students who are non-native speakers of English are a part of my classes. In these cases, I will use altered mainstream curriculum to teach English, a method known as Content-Based Instruction (CBI). While observing an English composition and research class, I encountered an instructorRead MoreGraphic Novels : Are They `` Real `` Literature?916 Words   |  4 PagesGraphic Novels: Are they â€Å"Real† Literature? 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Firstly, the teacher needs to design a curriculum that includes various kinds of knowledge based