Session 09: Teaching Literature

Question 1

What is the purpose of teaching literature?

Answer 1

• entertainment
• motivation
• interest
• information
• awareness
• action
• identity
• history
• cultural aspects
• language value
• linguistic input

Question 2

What are challenges of teaching literature?

Answer 2

• Text selection: need to be chosen of relevance and interests to the learners
• Linguistic difficutlties
• Length
• Cultural difficutly
• Cultural appropriacy

Question 3

Name questions that cope with the challenges of teaching literature

Answer 3

• is the subject matter likely to interest this group?
• is the language level appropriate?
• is it the right length for the time available?
• is it culturally offensive in any way?
• does it require much cultural or literary background knowledge?
• can it be aesily expoited for language learning purposes?

Question 4

Explain Rosenblatts approach

Answer 4

• distinguishes the efferent (information) from the aesthetic (pleasure) way of reading
• focus rather on information than on reflected experiences

Question 5

Explain New Criticism

Answer 5

• interprets texts from a rather linguistic point of view without any reference to contextual influences
• focus on close reading

Question 6

Explain reader-response criticism

Answer 6

• moves away from the objective approach towards a more subjective and open one
• focus on the dialogue between text and reader

Question 7

Outline the change of materials/texts

Answer 7

Klassiker -> Kanonisierung -> “Kulturgut” -> Analyse& Interpretation -> Schülerzentrierung

open up from a restricitve point of view to a more flexible one

Question 8

Outline a learner-centered, creative task

Answer 8

Feel like reading (inital motivation) -> get into the story (guessing, conflict, emotions) -> absence from reality (get lost in the book) -> sense of ending

Question 9

What are advantages of short stories in class?

Answer 9

• short
• offer flexibility
• easy access, direct access possible
• appropriate for different age groups
• variety of topics
• limited range of different characters

Question 10

What are possible considerations before using “Ganzschriften” in class?

Answer 10

• time management, planning, scheduling
• selecting important passages
• providing information
• thinking about grading and assessment
• which passages are teacher-centered.
  which are learner-centered?

Question 11

What defines product-based activities?

Answer 11

• see the text as the object of study
• internal aspects: setting, plot, characters, structure, message and
  external aspects: genre, context, autobiographicals
  are prioritized

Question 12

what defines process-based activities?

Answer 12

• open the text for manipulation and focus on the learner
• learners views, thoughts and interaction with the text are important

Question 13

Name possible ways of working with a text

Answer 13

z.B Wortschatzarbeit
- Learning vocab
- finding stylistic devices
- practice work with dictionary
- focus on style and register

Oder:
Grammatikarbeit
Hörverstehen
Leseverstehen
Sprechen
Schreiben
Visualisieren
Textvergleiche