Integrating short stories and poems in developing the reading skills for 2nd year students in haiphong university part 5

Integrating short stories and poems in developing the reading skills for 2nd year students in haiphong university

Chapter I: Introduction

Nowadays, in this industrial world, a person who wants to be successful needs to have aprofound knowledge Thus, much time is spent on learning to widen and deepen theunderstanding about culture, science, technology as well as social skills It is not easy if hejust stays at home and fills himself up with thousands of books as they are only theory, inorder to get practical experiences he has to communicate, in other words, he has to knowothers and make himself known by others This can be done only if he speaks the languagethat they can understand The solution is he has to learn English.

People learn English in different ways, they try their best to master the language skillsand as teachers, we try our best to help them attain their goals Many teachers have spentmuch time on finding the ways to improve listening skills while the others focus their researchon developing students’ speaking skills, etc Being teachers of English we do want to take partin the teaching method improvement process

The fact in Hai Phong University is that the students have to cope with many difficultieswhen learning the language especially reading Most of them think that reading well meansthey have to know every word in the text and do the exercises correctly, so they spend most ofthe time looking up new words and doing exercises However, it is proved that effectivereading means there is an interaction between the reader and the text More specifically, thestudents not only have to understand the text but also response to it, thus they can get to thebottom of what they read Fortunately, we had a chance to take part in a course called“Literature in Language Teaching” delivered by Mr Brad Baurain- an English teacher andresearcher He helps us a lot to realize the values of using literary texts in language teaching.After the course the superficial thoughts about literature disappeared and we know that

literary texts are now considered the valuable authentic material, which plays a very important

part in students’ cultural enrichment, language enrichment as well as personal involvement.

The author, therefore, decides to carry out a study on the integration of literary text inlanguage teaching in order to improve students’ reading comprehension skills.

I.4.Objects

Though literature has certain positive effects on the beginners as it helps students relaxwhile learning the language, however, due to its difficult language and style, literature willwork best with students from intermediate and upper-intermediate levels up Thus, we choosethe second year students who are learning at English Department of Hai Phong University asthe subjects of this study.

The method applied in this study is quantitative method All data is collected fromquestionnaires Two questionnaires are conducted of which one investigates the students’

attitude toward different genres of literature while the other aims at collecting students’feedbacks after learning literary text using certain techniques The former is carried out at thebeginning of the study whose result is the base for the author to choose the types of literarytexts to teach in class whereas the later is conducted at the end of each lesson using shortstories and poems in reading class The data collected then is analyzed and based on thefindings, techniques in teaching reading comprehension integrating short stories and poemswould be recommended.

I.6.Design of the study.

This study is divided into five chapters:

Chapter I: Introduction: briefly presents the reasons for doing the study, its aims,

scope, subjects as well as the research methodology.

Chapter II: Literature Review: presents an overview of what is literature, its values in

language teaching and how literature relates to reading.

Chapter III: Methodology: studies the reason for choosing research methodology and

the description of the setting, subject and instrument for collecting data.

Chapter IV: Data analysis and Results: provides data description and analysis with

Chapter V: Conclusion and Recommendation: suggests teaching techniques and

Chapter II: Literature Review

The emphasis of this chapter is mainly on exploring some of the issues relevant to theuse of literature in language teaching in general and introducing the advantages of short storyand poem in ESL classroom in particular The links between literature and reading are also

mentioned However, as there are many different theories explain literature and the use of it inclassroom, the ideas generated in this chapter will not help to pinpoint an only right or correctway to understand what literature is and its roles in improving language acquisition.

II.1 Literature

II.1.1 Definition

Defining literature is not an easy task; different people approach it in their own ways.There are some definitions made by a group of teachers from all over the world Thesedefinitions are introduced by Lazar, 1993:

 Literature is ‘feelings’ and ‘thoughts’ in black and white.

 Literature is the use of language to evoke a personal response in the reader orlistener.

 Literature is the world of fantasy, horror, feelings, visions…put into words

 Literature means …to meet a lot of people, to know other different points of view,ideas, thoughts, minds…to know ourselves better

These definitions seem not scientific enough so the following is three of manydefinitions defined scientifically by researchers:

“Literature could be said to be a sort of disciplined technique for arousing certainemotion”- Iris Murdoch, 1978.

“Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possibledegree” – Ezra Pound, 1981.

“Literature is a special use of language which achieves its distinctness by deviating fromand distorting ‘practical language’”- Selden, 1989.

As far as I understand it, literature is a mean of transferring both entertainment andlesson to the reader Literature readers can enjoy the language (read, share and response) andlearn something from it at the same time as well.

II.1.2 Genres

Generally, there are three main genres of literature, which are poetry, story and drama.People define them differently and the definitions introduced here, which seem veryinteresting, are introduced by Baurain (2005)

 Poetry: “still picture”, showing a meaning.

 Story: “moving picture”, discovering meanings in actions.

 Drama: “living picture”, finding meanings in performance and dialogue

II.1.3.What makes literature distinctive from other texts?

Literature surely enough involves a special, or unusual use of language Its language hascertain features that you cannot find in any other types of language.

 Metaphor and simile: a connection made between things which are usually

considered to be unlike each other.

Eg: I think the idea is to bring Meg in as a new broom – you know, to revitalize the

department and get everything going again. Assonance: repetition of vowel sound.

Eg: Three grey geese in a field grazing;

 Alliteration: repetition of consonants

Eg: Grey were the geese and green was the grazing.

 Repetition of word or phrase

Eg: A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other.

 Unusual syntactic patterns (e.g reversing the order of subject and verb)

Eg: Grey were the geese and green was the grazing

 Double or multiple meaning of a word

Eg: Just because we’re deaf, it doesn’t mean we’ve nothing between our ears.

 Poeticism: poetic lexis

Eg: His breast of chicken with tarragon and girolles goes back to the classic French …

 Mixing of styles/registers

Eg: I had expected the usual insertion in the papers: “I, formerly known, called,addressed as…”

II.1.4 Literature and language teaching

II.1.4.1 Why use literature in language classroom.

The use of literature in language teaching had been ignored since people treated it as amean of relaxation, they just read for fun The main goal of ESL teachers is to teach thegrammar of the language, literature, due to its structural complexity and its unique use oflanguage, does very little to contribute to this goal However, recently there was a strongreawakening of interest in literature and language teaching Literary texts are now consideredthe valuable authentic material, which plays a very important part in students’ culturalenrichment, language enrichment as well as personal involvement.

Literature – valuable authentic material

Literature on the one hand provides texts of different genres like novels, short stories,poems and plays, which mainly say something about human life On the other hand, it offersculture and life styles all around the world and more than that it “transcends the time andculture to speak directly to a reader of a different country at a different period of time” (Collie& Slater, 1987) More importantly, while the other texts seem losing their relevance with thepassing of time, hardly does literature Till now, most British like Shakespeare’s plays as

much as Vietnamese like Truyen Kieu by Nguyen Du though none of the authors are aliveand all the events happened a long time ago.

Literature is not written for a specific purpose of teaching It means that, when readingliterary texts the learners are not supposed to learn grammar rules but the way to response towhat they read As literature is often written for the native speakers, there are many differentlinguistic uses as well as forms that used in their daily life, furthermore, many authenticsamples of language such as cartoons, advertisements or articles from magazine, etc areincluded Thus, the learners, through the language of literature can be exposed to a kind ofgenuine language, which is the aim of any language teacher.

Literature- cultural and language enrichment

It is said that learning a foreign language is to learn a new culture; however, the bestway to deepen the knowledge about the culture of the language you are learning is to take avisit or a long stay in the country where the language is spoken It seems to be impossible forthose who cannot afford it, so what is the solution for the problem? The key lies in literaturereading because “literary texts can serve as open windows to the target culture” (Sage, 1987).As you read literary texts you can find out much about cultural background information likelife styles, customs and beliefs as well You will know about what people think, feel, believe,fear, like… and how they behave inside doors Literature is considered as the bestcomplimentary material that helps to increase the learners’ knowledge about the othercountry.

Besides, with rich context that makes vocabulary more memorable, literature plays animportant part in the contribution to the learners’ language enrichment In literary texts therealways are different ways of expressing an idea with variety of possible structures, which canimprove the learners’ speaking skills Writing skills are also broadened as literary texts

provide various ways of connecting ideas Many stories and poems have interesting contents,which is very useful for developing intensive reading More than that, if literature isappropriately introduced and taught it can be used to promote the students’ creativity fromlower level to advanced level So, using literature in language teaching, the teacher can easilyfind out a new path way to language improvement and make the lessons more interesting.

Literature – personal involvement

Personal involvement is perhaps the strongest effect that literature has on the languagelearners When reading a literary text, the readers are said to live with the characters they like.They response to what characters says and do and keep sharing their emotion from thebeginning to the end Collie & Slater (1987) pointed out that at this time “what individualwords or phrases may mean becomes less important than pursuing the development of thestory” In other words, they are absorbed into the book and eager to find out what happensnext It is true that people are really curious, thus if the students are well motivated they’ll bewilling to take part in the journey of exploring the unknown language territory Obviously,this will create the very positive effects on the process of language learning.

II.1.4.2 Literature in the ESL classroom

Due to a long period using Translation Teaching Method in language classroom, therewas negative attitude toward the teaching of literature in foreign language classroom as it wasconsidered far removed from everyday communication and it does not contribute to ESLstudents’ practical goal of achieving linguistic proficiency However, it is proved that theinteraction of language and literature can lead to numerous advantages in language teachingand learning It helps increase all language skills, it is the link toward the culture, it gives oneawareness and human insight and guides students toward their own creativity Thus, itobviously is an effective tool in learning a foreign language.

II.1.4.2.1 Poetry in the ESL classroom

Whenever the word poetry is mentioned there appears a hesitation on the face of bothteachers and learners as:

 The language in the poem is quite difficult (metaphoric and complex)

 “Beauty is harder to analyze than truth”; “the whole poem or story says somethingthat none of its words say or can say”; “what a lyric poem ‘states’ cannot be found in any ofits sentences”; “a lyric tells its story primarily in terms of a single emotional experiences”(J.Adler & Doren,1972).

So in order to understand a poem fully and be able to interpret its inner meanings,students need a good knowledge of language and a fine experience of life.

However: “the entry into a poem, under the guidance of appropriate teaching, bringsabout the kind of participation that almost no other text can produce” (Hess, 2003) For her,when we read, understand and interpret a poem we learn language through the expansion ofour experience with a larger human reality Poem can arouse the students’ strong feeling andprovoke their positive reaction to what they read The whole poem is a picture made of words,so if the teacher exploits it appropriately he/she could involve the students into manyactivities such as reading, as well as active listening tasks and communicative activitiesintended to make learning fun and memorable

According to Nilsen, 2004: “poetry can contribute so much to making any languageclass enjoyable, but it has even more to offer the ESL classroom in terms of poetry – centeredlanguage activities” For him, those activities are student – centered and allow students toexplore the language in enjoyable ways Besides, teachers can apply them normally as theyoften do with prose texts if he/she realizes the values poetry offers and wants to take

advantage of that The learners, as a result, have a relaxed learning environment in theclassroom.

II.1.4.2.2 Short story and its advantages in language classroom

“Short stories are particularly well suited to current instructional trends in ESLclassrooms” (Harper, 1993) Most traditional short stories have a plot, it involves achronological ordering of events and there is a relationship of cause and effect between theseevents It provides authentic samples of language use, where the focus is on meaning and noton language form

According to many researchers the reading of short stories, especially the unsimplifiedones, in the second language helps to develop vocabulary and cultural knowledge, as well asgreater proficiency in critical reading and creative writing skills Harper (1990) noted that the“original version of a short story evoked more elaborate responses from adult ESL readers”

Besides, the language in a short story is somehow different from other forms ofdiscourse that it sometimes breaks the language norms, so through reading students will havea chance to approach the language outside the classroom, which not only increases thestudents’ reading skills but also helps solving the problem that a student though learns thegrammar rules very well still gets confused when talking to the native speakers It is said that“short stories are an ideal vehicle for developing automaticity in processing written languagethrough independent, sustained silent reading and for developing critical reading throughindividual and teacher – directed group interaction with texts” (Harper,1993).

II.2 Reading comprehension

II.2.1 Reading comprehension and its roles in language learning.

Goodman (1971) defined reading as “a psycholinguistic process by which the reader,reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display”

In the teaching and learning of reading it is proved that reading comprehension plays akey role as it enhances the students’ skills in extracting the required information from awritten text as efficiently as possible According to Swam (1975) “a student is good atcomprehension when he can read accurately and efficiently so as to get the maximuminformation of a text”

In addition, Richard and Thomas (1987) noted “reading comprehension is best describedas an understanding between the author and the reader” It means that reading comprehensionis the process that the readers, as they read, can not only figure out the “graphic display” ofthe text but also understand the hidden meaning implied by the writer.

II.2.2.The reader and the text

The reading process is currently seen as an interaction between the reader and the text.The reading of a text is not just to get the information but also to response to what is written.But it was implied that the meaning of a text can never be fixed or frozen because differentreaders of the same text make sense of it in their own way and there is no correct routine Itdepends much on the historical period in which the reader is living, his social position andreligious beliefs For Rosenblatt (1987), the interaction between the readers and the text is “anevent in time involving a specific reader and a specific text at a specific time and place, if anyof these are changed, there is a different event”

Thus, having an appropriate relationship with the text depends much on the reader’slanguage proficiency, motivation and interest, the cohesive and the structural qualities of thetext; and the readers’ understanding about the topic The readers have to base on theirbackground knowledge, the clues given by the author and the situational context to work outthe meaning hidden behind the text So, the more knowledge of the world the readers have themore accurate are their inferences and judgments; and naturally the closer they get to the text.

II.2.3 Students’ difficulties with reading

Students probably have far more difficulties with reading than most teaching staff areaware of Within the limitation of the study the author just focuses on the difficulties withcultural and background knowledge, which relates to the use of literature in reading

Reading comprehension is said to be a function of cultural background knowledge Itmeans that if readers possess the schemata, which is the abstract cognitive structureincorporate generalized knowledge about objects and events, assumed by the writer, they willeasily understand what is said in the text and also make the necessary inferences about what isimplicit Unfortunately, these schemata differ cross – culturally and researchers have pointedout that readers invariably interpret texts in the light of their own world-view and culturalexperience The result, obviously, leads to many problems in the comprehension of a text

English now is the language of international communication and is taught and learnteverywhere Vietnam is not an exception; however, Vietnamese students have to deal withmany problems in understanding the language because of the differences in culturalbackground knowledge between European and Asian Even the advanced language learnersfeel confused and say they cannot work out the meaning of the text even when they master themeaning of all the single words For them, learning reading when the cultural background isunfamiliar is really a hard task.

II.3 Literature and Reading

II.3.1.Some links between reading skills and literary skills

Ruth Spack, (1985) “An examination of research on the activities of reading,composing, and responding to literature reveals that these three areas of study, usually taughtseparately, can be viewed as similar processes”

In the course “Literature in language teaching” we learnt that there exist a relationship

between literature and reading It can be expressed via the following points:

 Skimming, scanning, and summarizing skills also apply to literary texts, focusing onbasic literary elements.

 Learners remember words in meaningful context, aiding vocabulary acquisition. Figurative language is a bridge from literature to both reading and writing.

 Reading literature requires imagination which can help develop the prediction skills. Analyzing features such as point of view helps develop the skills of reading betweenthe lines.

 Discussing about themes helps develop the skills of reading beyond the lines.

According to Brumfit (1986) “reading is the most autonomous and individualizableability in language work, and literature is a rich and widely – appealing source of material forreading” For him, if reading is to be viewed as an integrated process, the teaching of readingmust do more than simply exercise reading in the target language With literature, the studentsare not asked to translate the text exactly but in order to understand the text they are requiredto discuss questions which force them to see the text as a coherent piece of discourse It inturn helps develop the interaction between the readers and the text.

II.3.2 Efferent reading and aesthetic reading

There is no one way to deal with a text in the reading classroom This part focuses ondifferentiating the two methods: efferent reading and aesthetic reading According toRosenblatt (1978) efferent reading is reading in which the reader is concerned with what shewill carry away whereas in aesthetic reading the reader’s primary concern is with whathappens during the actual reading The purpose of the former is using the text to gaininformation while that of the later is exploring the language usage through the relevance to theexperience Thus, to readers in aesthetic reading the enjoyment is attained by interacting with

the text, they often relate their world of experience to the text After reading they might beasked whether something similar have ever happened to them As a result, they get involve inthe text and interact with the text by sharing their feelings or experience Furthermore, if areader in efferent reading is supposed to carry the information away, he, in aesthetic readingoften makes judgments about the characters or giving his opinion if he was the character Thisactivity helps him understand the text thoroughly or in other words, he can get to the bottomof the event.

It is true that literature to some extents is a key to motivate the students to read Besidesproviding an ideal vehicle for illustrating language use, it also offers a mean of introducingcultural assumptions But with the desire to promote truly aesthetic reading, the using ofliterature should be approached not efferently, but in a manner which establishes a personaland aesthetic interaction between a reader and a text.

Chapter III: Methodology.

The study aims at measuring the hypothesis that how effective the integration of shortstory and poem into reading comprehension class is, so the quantitative research method isused Theoretically, this method includes using questionnaires and interviews to collect data;however, the author, after considering the specific situation of the university decided tochoose questionnaires as:

Questionnaires often seem a logical and easy option as a way of collecting informationfrom people (Wisker, 2001) They gather information directly by asking people questions andusing them as data for analysis.

Questionnaires are often used to gather information about attitudes, behaviors,activities, and responses to events whereas the study aims at investigating the students’

attitude toward the use of short story and poem in developing reading skills and theirresponses to certain activities carried out in class So, it is appropriate to use questionnaires

According to Wallace (1998) using questionnaires is more economical and time savingthan interviews There is often a list of questions and respondents can complete questionnairesin timed circumstances and it is a method of gathering large numbers of responses.

Furthermore, in the English Department, Hai Phong University both students andteachers do not have the habit of teaching and learning with literary texts, thus if usinginterviews the answers may be passive and of little use.

In order to get reliable responses from students, the author has taken advice from anexperienced supervisor and pilot questions thoroughly before carrying out Following is thedescription of the university, students and the data collection instruments.

III.1.The setting

The study was conducted at the English Department, Hai Phong University where theauthor is teaching English is only one of the many subjects taught such as Maths, Literature,Physic, Music and Arts, etc The students have to go through four years learning bothbackground and specialized knowledge

In the English Department, students spend the first two years studying general Englishwhich focuses on the four language skills At this stage, most of students’ time is forpracticing the language skills in class under the guidance of teachers If they pass the tests atthe end of this stage, they will spend the last two years on subjects like Semantic, Grammar,Phonetic, Methodology, Translation, and so on At this second stage, students have to use thelanguage skills they have mastered to read a lot of materials and most of class time devotes todiscussion and presentation.

The students under investigation were in their second term of the second year They arebetween 19 and 22 including both male and female students whose background knowledge isalmost of the same level They had all passed the test of the first term and their language levelis between the upper-intermediate and advance

Students have English class every weekday and they have five hours for reading skillsper week Within each class, normally 45 minutes long, they learn and practice reading skillssuch as skimming, scanning, reading for main ideas or for specific information, etc Thereading materials mostly are taken from course books like: Think First Certificate, Reading 2,IELT Reading, Insight and Ideas, etc Some are downloaded from the Internet or taken fromnewspapers.

III.3.Data collection instruments

There are two questionnaires; one investigates the attitude of students toward theliterary texts in general and the other aims at finding out the effects of using short stories and

poems in teaching and learning reading in particular In the first questionnaire three questionsare given, of which Q1 is to get the rank of different types of literature according to students’preference Q2 focuses on the aspects that cause difficulties in reading literary texts and thepurpose of Q3 is to investigate the topics that students are interested in.

The second questionnaire is a little more complicated, it focuses on activities students doin the reading class The emphasis of most questions is on the reaction of students towarddifferent activities using short stories and poems in class reading The questions are for stagesin teaching reading like pre-reading (Q1), while-reading (Q2, Q3) and post-reading (Q4) Q3is specially divided into six smaller ones which aim at finding the effects of activities usedwith short stories and poems from the first stage to the last stage of a reading lesson To getextra information, question (Q5) is designed for suggestions and feedbacks from the students.While the first four questions are designed with multiple choices which students can choose

more than one, the last question is for open answers with suggestions like : The teachershould… and : The students should… Thus, the teacher will know what his/ her students

think and those suggestions will help teachers adjust the activities more effectively.

To prepare for the study, reading comprehension lessons integrating short stories andpoems were conducted at the beginning of the term but the data were collected just two weeksbefore the final exam By doing so, it was hoped that enough time was given to introduce thenew teaching method to the students and they could be confident when they did thequestionnaires and knew what to do and how to answer.

Chapter IV: Results and Discussion

In this chapter, data collected is described and analyzed Separate findings come afterthe discussion of each question

IV.1.Students’ attitude towards literary texts (Q1,2,3)

IV.1.1 (Table 1) Students’ preference towards certain genres of literature (Q1)

Short stories 82.5% - easy to read and understand

- interesting, relaxing and time savingNovel 57.5% - romantic, interesting and adventurous

- famous, rich content- long, thus take timePoetry 62.5% - interesting & romantic

Poetry comes after short stories with 62.5% students’ choice Although most of studentsstate that poetry is really interesting and romantic, they all agree that understanding a poem isreally difficult They need to be sensitive, imaginative and creative to discover the hiddenmeaning of the poem or let their mind fly with the pictures made of words.

Students also like reading novel (57.5%) due to its rich content The only reason thatprevents students to go to the bookshelf to take a novel is that novel is too long, reading novel

is said to be luxurious with students who always complain about lacking time for so manythings.

From the figures we can infer that it is reasonable to use short stories and poetry inlanguage classroom in general and in reading classroom in particular The burden now is onthe teacher’s shoulders as the choice of texts and the techniques be applied in class play a veryimportant part in attracting and involving students in the lesson.

IV.1.2 (Table 2) Aspects that cause difficulties when reading literature (Q2)Unfamiliar

Literary stylesand structures

According to the majority of the students (more than 70%), literature reading is reallydifficult when the text consists of too many unfamiliar words with difficult literary styles andstructures They also add up to the list some aspects such as their poor knowledge about thetheme and limited language competence Specially, many students express that they do nothave the habit of reading literature, thus they often feel frustrated when dealing with a poemor a short story This revelation is very important and necessary to teachers who want toexploit literature in the language classroom.

IV.1.3 (Table 3) Topics students are interested in

Personal relationship (love, friendship,…) 77%

Next to the personal relationship is the topic about nature and animal with 62% ofstudents interested in Topics like the mysterious and people attract quite an equal percentageof students: 52% Some other topics that students add to the list are cultures, students’ life,science and adventures

IV.2.The effects of short story and poem in teaching reading comprehension.

IV.2.1 (Table 1) Things students find most difficult when reading short stories andpoem (Q1).

- metaphor and simile

Comparing table 2 in 4.1.2 and table 1 in 4.2.1 it can be concluded that students’difficulties in reading literature generally and reading short story and poem particularly arecaused by vocabulary (73%) and the language styles (75%) This explains why most studentstend to read literature for fun rather than for improving language skills Looking up unfamiliarwords takes a lot of time and causes boredom Furthermore, foreign literature writing stylesare very different from what they get used to at school Thus, the carelessness in introducingvocabularies and guiding students with activities often leads to strange feeling in class

IV.2.2 (Table 2) Things students often do when reading short stories and poems (Q2).

Response to what the characters say and do 50%

- Translate it into Vietnamese

- Guess the meaning of words, idioms.- Think of new ideas

- Imagine to be one character

The data in table 2 show that students do different things when reading short stories andpoems They do not seem to be keen on what the author provides Just 28% note sentences orideas that they feel interested in when reading The same percentage of students looks up newwords in the dictionary 50% of students read short stories and poems for gist without caringmuch about what the characters actually say and do These students often read very fast, andalso forget as fast as they read An equal number of students answer that they like respondingto what the characters say and do So, most students choose their own way of doing thingswhen reading; this suggests that the teacher should not limit the activities to what is written inthe teacher’s book He/she should spend some time for students doing what they like and help