Teaching English Through Novels

Betul ALTAŞ
• Use of literature plays an important role in
EFL/ESL classrooms:
authentic
pleasurable
cultural material (Hall, 2005)
• Literature has a powerful role in teaching the
four skills.

• It enables the development of linguistic and

communicative skills.
 The reason for the interest in the use of
literature in EFL/ESL

• The rising popularity of cognitive approach

overthrew the dominance of behavioristic
approach.
• Then, it formed the basis of communicative
methodology in language learning.
 Use of literature
• Meaningful rather than mechanical practice.

• In comparison to mechanical nature of market

driven course books, use of literary texts offers
 a more realistic learning
context
• Referential language (mainly informational)
a mechanical framework.

• Representational nature of literary texts

stimulation of emotions along with cognitive faculties
(McRae, 1994).
According to Obediat (1997), literature enables
learners:
 to acquire a native-like competence

 to find a platform to voice their ideas

 to be familiar with the idiomatic
expressions
 to be familiar with modern English
 to be critical, analytical and creative
• All of the sources, teaching English through novels is
probably one of the most challenging.

• It can be difficult to integrate the novel into

curriculum.

• Some teachers believe that it can be time/energy

consuming to use novels based on the outcome.
 Discussion questions

1. How does the use of novels contribute to

the proficiency level of students?
2. Does the use of novels provide learners with
a meaningful context in language learning?
Benefits of teaching English through novels

Implicit meaning provided with literary text

invites learners to go beyond the text
• cultural knowledge
• language enrichment
• sensitivity to language
• inferential understanding
• perception of social status
 Use of novels in EFL/ESL classrooms

• stimulates students’ imagination/creativity

• enables learners to identify the emotions of
the characters
• enables learners to master skills (Helton,
Asamani & Thomas, 1998).
• empowers oral and written skills
• presents a unique way of reading
• motivates learners to become a lifelong
learners
• stimulates learners’ critical thinking abilities
• reflects the importance of sociolinguistic
aspect of target language (sociolects, regional
dialects, jargon, idiolects and so on)
• develops learners’ sociolinguistic competence
• helps learners to be exposed to the ways of
target culture (Helton, Asamani & Thomas,
1998).
• Literary texts are representational (MacRae,
1994).
• Function of representational language in
novels is more elaborate than referential
language.
• It involves emotions, imagination and
creativity as well as the use of cognitive skills.
• The use of novels improves learners’ four language
skills.

• The study of the conversational discourse through

novel aims to contribute to speaking skills which
will be reinforced by activities such as:
 classroom discussions
 role-playing
 dramatization
 improvisation
Difficulties and risks of teaching English through novels

• Before 1970s, language teaching was

dominated by structural methods.
• Using literary texts was perceived as useless
• The main argument was that use of literature
was challenging in terms of:
linguistic
cultural difficulties
 Most common arguments against the use of
literature in EFL/ESL setting

• Primary purpose of teachers is to teach

grammar (McKay, 1982).
• Studying literature will not enable learners to
fulfill their academic/occupational objectives.
• Specific cultural views embedded in literary
text will make the language learning process
harder (McKay, 1982)
 Another argument
• Students with low proficiency level may have
difficulty in understanding the literary
elements such as:
allusions
ironies
metaphors
 Some examples
* Allusion
eg: Don’t act like Romeo before her.
* Ironies
eg: My grave is like to be my wedding bed.
* Metaphor
eg: “she is all states, and all princes, I.”
What we need to take into consideration
while selecting literary texts

Grammatical
Lexical
Syntactical
Needs
Interests
Expectations
Age
Gender
Culture (cultural content and appropriateness)
Lenght of the text
 How to eliminate the problems of linguistic
and cultural complexity

• Using simplified texts

• Using more comprehensible texts
• Using young adult texts
 How to use a novel
• Classification of reading activities proposed by
Lazar (1993) is listed as follows:
pre-reading
while-reading
post-reading
Pre-reading Activities (a warm-up stage)

• Guessing the subject matter of the story,

based on pictures
• Classroom discussions, regarding the title/first
paragraph of the novel
• Assigning mini-projects to groups (such as
poster, essay, a talk)
 While-reading activities
• The main focus is generally on reading and
writing skills.
• Comprehension check questions
• Asking a concise summary of the novel/story.
• Providing learners with jumbled sentences and
asking them to re-order them.
• Sentence completion activities which enables
them to make “cause-effect” relationship.
 Post-Reading stage

• Listening
• Speaking
• Reading integrated manner

• Writing
 What we need to take into consideration
while choosing a novel

• Proficiency level
• Age
• Gender
• Interest
• Course objectives
• Suitability of content
• Themes
• L1 culture
• L2 culture
• Availability of time
• Literary background of the learners

(Note: These factors may serve as a checklist)

How to determine the range of vocabulary

• The average number of vocabulary items is

generally between 250-300 words per page
(Nation, 2001).

• The number of unknown vocabulary items

allowed per page is 5 or 6.
• The other way to determine the amount of
new vocabulary items is to use:

Krashen’s i+1 input hypothesis

 Creating a timeline

• Length of novel
• Proficiency level of students
• Course objectives
• Activities and tasks

(A novel can be used for time periods which

range from a couple weeks to a full term
study.)
 Grammar
1- Close reading word choice
sentence construction
punctuation

2- Transformation Drills active to passive

3- Cloze exercises finding out missing words

4- Recognition of specific grammatical patterns
5- Identifying sentence/clause types

Vocabulary
1. Guessing the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary
2. Determining vocabulary meaning using :
contextual clues
reference sources
prefixes and suffixes
using Latin and Greek roots
 Reading
List of strategies used to improve reading skills
of students:

• Skimming a text for the main ideas

• Scanning a text for the specific details
• Drawing conclusions
• Making inferences
• Predicting
• Sequencing, identification of the components
of a story
• Previewing a text for an idea of what the text
is about without reading the main body.
• Establishing a purpose for reading
• Adjusting purposes for reading
• Adjusting reading rate based on purpose of
reading
 Listening

•Students acquire a great deal of language by listening to

recorded material (Lazar, 1993).
•Most Common listening activities are:

* Listening for the main idea

* Note taking
* Summarizing the passage
* Predicting content
* Listening for specific information
* Retelling the passage
 Speaking
• Role-playing
• Discussion
• Oral reading
• Dramatization
• Improvisation
• Presentations
 Writing
• Writing the end of a novel (from characters’
point of view)
• Reconstructing a specific set of events based
on a different scenario
 Writing activies used in the EFL/ESL
classroom

1. Controlled writing :

intended level: beginner/elementary level

focus is on grammatical structures and
correct use of language patterns
discussions/debates
group/individual brainstoming
Clustering
• Conference
• Generating wh questions related to target
topic
• Role-plays

2. Guided Writing
 intended level: intermediate level

 focus is on planning,organization
content
Independent learning
Use of a shared approach
Acronyms reminders of different text structures
Templates outline for a piece of writing
Writing frames outline of a planned text

3. Reproduced Model:
Paraphrasing
Summarizing
Adaptation