1. II.
Literature
2. Goals of Teaching Literature
1. Develop and/or extend literary competence. Jonathan Culler defines literary
competence as the ability to internalize the ‘grammar’ of literature which would
permit a reader to convert linguistic sequences into literary structures and
meaning.
2. Develop and/or enhance learners’ imagination and creativity.
3. Develop students’ character and emotional maturity.
4. Develop creative thinking.
5. Develop literary appreciation and refine one’s reading taste.
1. Methods in Teaching Literature
1. Lecture Methods : formal, informal, straight recitation
2. Discussion Methods : pair work, buzz group, group work
3. Public Speaking Methods : memorizing, interpretive reading (Readers Theater,
Chamber Theater), debate, panel forum
4. Audio-Visual Methods : using slides, transparencies, film, vcd, dvd,
5. Project Methods : scrapbook making, exhibit/diorama, dramatization, literary
map, time line, video/audio scriptwriting
6. Field Research Methods : field trip, author interview
7. Creative Writing Methods : journal writing, closure writing, team writing,
writing workshop
2. Some Strategies and Techniques in Teaching Literature
1. Show and Tell and Blurb Writing– using the title and cover design
2. Movie Poster and Movie Trailer – transforming a literary piece into film
3. Writing Chapter Zero / Epilogue – writing a prequel or sequel
4. Mock Author Interview – assigning a student to play the role of the author
5. Biographical Montage – compiling authentic materials about the author
6. Graphic Representations – using sketching or other visual representations
7. Sculpting – making a tableau or montage
8. Creative Conversation, Speech Balloons, or Thought Bubbles – supplying
dialogues
9. Worksheets – completing grids or writing responses
10. Transforms – translating or turning a piece into another genre
1. Literary Criticism – involves the reading, interpretation and commentary of a specific
text or texts which have been designated as literature. Literary criticism is the
application of a literary theory to specific texts. Literary theory identifies what makes
literary language literary and the function of literary text in social and cultural terms.
1. Classical Literary Theory –literature is an imitation of life.
1. Mimesis (Plato) – literature is an imitation of life.
2. Dulce et utile (Horace) – function of literature is to entertain or to
teach/instruct
3. Sublime (Longinus) – style may be low, middle, high, or sublime
4. Catharsis (Aristotle) – purgation of negative emotions of fear and pity
5. Historical – Biographical and Moral – Philosophical Approaches
a. A literary work is a reflection of its author’s life and times or the life and times of the
characters in the work.
b. It emphasizes that literature functions to teach morality and to probe philosophical issues.
1. Romantic Theory. William Wordsworth articulated it in his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads
as literature which should
a. have a subject matter that is ordinary and commonplace
b. use simple language, even aspiring to the language of prose
c. make use of the imagination
d. convey a primal, simple, uncomplicated feeling
e. present similitude in dissimilitude (similarities in differences)
1. New Criticism – believes that literature is an organic unity. To use this theory, one
proceeds by looking into the following : the persona, the addressee, the situation (where
and when), what the persona says, the central metaphor (tenor and vehicle), the central
irony, the multiple meaning of words.
2. Psychoanalytical Theory – applies Freudian psychoanalytic ideas to literature.
a. It looks into the character’s or author’s motivations, drives, fears, desires.
b. It believes that creative writing is like dreaming – it disguises what cannot be confronted
directly – the critic must decode what is disguised.
1. Mythological / Archetypal Approach – is based on Carl Jung’s theory of collective
unconscious.
a. Repeated or dominant images or patterns of human experience are identified in the text.
b. It also uses Northrop Frye’s assertion that literature consists of variations on a great mythic
theme that contains the following : (1) the garden : the creation of life in paradise, (2)
alienation : displacement or banishment from paradise, (3) journey : a time of trial and
tribulation, (4) epiphany : a self-discovery as a result of struggle, (4) rebirth / resurrection : a
return to paradise.
1. Structuralist Literary Theory – comes from the linguistic theory of Ferdinand de
Saussure which recognizes language as a system or structure. To Vladimir Propp and
Tzvetan Todorov , structuralism should identify the general principles of literary
structure and not to provide interpretations of individual texts. Three dimensions in
individual literary texts :
a. the text as a particular system or structure in itself (naturalization of a text)
b. texts are unavoidably influenced by other texts (intertextuality)
c. the text is related to the culture as a whole (binary oppositions)
1. Deconstruction – interrogates our common practices in reading and exposes the gaps,
incoherences, the contradictions in a discourse and how the text undermine itself or
how a text contradicts itself. Deconstruction draws much from the works of Jacques
Derrida. The process involves
a. identifying the oppositions in the text
b. determining which member is favored/privileged and looking for evidence that contradicts it
c. exposing the text’s indeterminancy
1. Russian Formalism – led by Viktor Shklovsky – aims to establish a ‘science of literature’
and discover the literariness of a text by highlighting the devices and technical elements
used by the author. These elements should include :
2. baring the device – e.g. distorting time in various ways – foreshortening, skipping,
expanding, transposing, reversing, flashback, flashforward, etc.
3. defamiliarization – this means making strange and using fresh ways of describing
things
4. retardation of the narrative – the technique of delaying and protracting actions by
using digressions, displacements, extended descriptions, etc.
5. naturalization – refers to how we endlessly become inventive in finding ways of
making sense of the most random or chaotic utterances or discourse.
6. carnivalization – Mikhail Bakhtin used this term to describe the shaping effect of
carnival on literary texts. The festivities associated with the carnival are collective and
popular; hierarchies are turned on their heads (fools become wise; kings become
beggars); opposites are mingled (fact and fantasy, heaven and hell); the sacred is
profaned; the rigid or serious is subverted, mocked or loosened.
1. Marxist Literary Theory. It aims to explain literature relation to society – that
literature can only be properly understood within a larger framework of social
reality. Marxist literary critics would like to look at the structure of history and
society and then investigate whether the literary work reflects or distorts this
structure. They insist that literature has a social dimension – it exists in time and
space, in history and society. Moreover, writers are constantly formed by their
social contexts and social class.
2. Feminist Criticism. Branching out from Marxism, it is a political discourse; a
critical and theoretical practice committed to the struggle against patriarchy and
sexism.
a. Feminism asks why women played a subordinate role to men in society.
It studies the male-dominated canon to understand how men have used culture to further their
domination of women.
b. It studies literature by women for how it addresses or expresses the particularity of women’s
life and experience. Feminist critics insist that women’s experience is different from men’s.
1. 12. Postcolonial Criticism. Postcolonialism refers to the independence enjoyed by
Third World countries after the decline of colonial rule by imperialist powers. The many
concerns of postcolonial criticism includes the following :
a. attempt to resurrect their national culture and to combat the misconceptions about their
culture
b. dramatize the colonial experience and their response to it
c. escape from the implicit body of assumptions to which the language of the colonizing power,
English, was attached.
d. study diasporic texts outside the usual Western genres, especially works by aboriginal
authors, marginalized ethnicities, immigrants, and refugees.
e. analyze nationality, ethnicity, and politics with poststructuralist ideas of identity and
indeterminacy, and hybrid constructions (Homi K. Bhaba)
1. 13. Post Modern Literary Theory. Postmodern refers to the culture of advanced
capitalist societies, which has undergone a profound shift in the ‘structure of feeling.’
Postmodern texts have the following features :
a. fragmentation g. intertextuality
b. discontinuity h. decentering
c. indeterminacy i. dislocation
d. plurality j. ludism
e. metafictionality k. parody
f. heterogeneity l. pastiche
1. III. Linguistic Approaches to Reading
2. Bloomfield Approach – Leonard Bloomfield and Clarence Barnhart advocate that the
child should be acquainted with the letters of the alphabet at the very start. The child
should begin with capital letters and then go to small letters.
3. Fries Approach – Charles Fries’ basic concept : Learning to read in one’s native language
is learning to shift, to transfer, from auditory signs for the language signals which the
child has already learned to visual or graphic signs for the same signals for language
perception. The aim is to develop high-speed recognition responses to English spelling
patterns.
4. C. Eclectic Approach
1. Reading as interest – development of the recreational reading habit; the major
approach is personalized or individualized reading.
2. 2. Reading as language process
Language Experience Approach – a strategy which views reading as an extension of
speaking : thinking/experiencing, talking, writing, reading.
Psycholinguistic Approach – view reading as an interaction of thought and language, a
process of combining psychology and linguistics. This approach advances that reading,
like listening, is a receptive process, used to understand a written message, that readers
reconstruct the author’s meaning in their own words.
1. Reading as culture – focuses on the relation between dialect differences and the
written message as well as on one’s cultural heritage. It makes instruction relevant to
the pupil’s cultural background.
2. Reading as a learned process – emphasizes on controlled development of skills in a
structured sequence progressing from simple to complex
The Basal Textbook Approach – follows this general format : scope-and-sequence
or flow chart for all an overall view of skills; kindergarten readiness workbooks; first
grade, second grade and above skillbooks; teacher’s guides and assessment tests.
The standard basal text lesson follows these steps:
(a) background or motivation
(b) vocal development
(c) purposeful or guided silent reading
(d) discussion
(e) purposeful rereading
(f) skill instruction in word recognition, comprehension skill with the use of workbooks
(g) enrichment activities
The Linguistic Approach – look at reading as recognizing and interpreting graphic
symbols representing spoken sounds which have meaning. It stresses sound-symbol
regularity and systematic exposure to frequently used sounding patterns.
The Phonics Approach – believes that the English spelling system is essentially regular
in its correspondence between letters and speech sounds and that letter sounds can be
blended together to form words. For second language learners short phonics drills on
crucial sounds like f, v, j, sh, th, z, a and the schwa are needed.
Programmed Instruction – includes step-by-step learning, learning, immediate
feedback, regular and constant review and individual progress through materials.
The Skills Monitoring Approach – reading is analyzed in terms of skills arranged in
hierarchies. This approach entails
(1) a scope and sequence chart of reading skills
(2) a battery of tests for preassessment of reading abilities
(3) based on test results, instruction to adjust to pupils’ interest, abilities, and needs
(4) a continuous assessment using both formative and summative tests
(5) a corrective or remedial measures
(6) an adequate and challenging enrichment activities for the bright pupils.
1. IV. Stage and Speech Arts
2. Level / Context of Speech Communication
1. Intrapersonal – involves only oneself.
Internal discourse like thinking, analysis, contemplation, meditation
Solo vocal communication like thinking aloud, soliloquies
Solo written communication not intended for others like diaries, or personal journals
1. Interpersonal – involves an exchange between sender and receiver of a message. It
may be direct (face-to-face) or indirect (via telephone, e-mail, teleconference)
Dyadic communication ; two people talking
Group communication ; study group, committee meetings
Public communication ; scholarly lectures, political campaigns
1. B. The Speech Arts
1. Different types of public speech according to purpose
Informative – to present facts, knowledge, information
Persuasive – to reinforce or modify the audience’s beliefs
Occasional or entertaining – to amuse the audience
1. How the speech is delivered
Impromptu speech – delivered with little or no preparation
Extemporaneous speech – delivered with some prepared structure such as notes or
outlines
Memorized speech – reciting speech from memory
Manuscript speaking – reading the speech word-for-word from its written form or the
manuscript
1. Types of oral interpretation
a. Solo interpretation
Story telling – oral sharing of a personal or traditional story; it may be illustrative (using
drawings) or creative / dramatic (using gestures and creative movements) for
entertaining or educating
Interpretative / interpretive reading – also called dramatic reading, oral reading, or
reading aloud by using the elements of voice and diction to convey meaning and mood
Declamation – recitation of a poem from memory and is marked by strong feelings
Monologue – interpretative oral performance of prose or poetry in which the
interpreter plays a role
b. Group interpretation
Reading concert – also known as Readers Theatre- oral reading activity with speakers
presenting literature in a dramatic form
Chamber Theater – theatrical approach to performing narrative literature
Speech Choir – also choral reading, choric interpretation, vocal orchestration –
ensemble reading technique where a group of readers recite as one in coordinated
voices and related interpretation : (1) reading in unison – several voices sound like one
instrument, (2) solo and chorus – soloists recite lines and chorus recites refrains, (3)
responsive reading – lines are recited alternately by solo or chorus
1. V. Structure of English
2. Sentences. Every sentence must have both a subject and a verb.
1. Three kinds of sentences
A declarative sentence states a fact, e.g., “Connie loves Rommel.”
An interrogative sentence asks a question, e.g., “Does Connie love Rommel?”
An exclamatory sentence registers an exclamation, e.g., “Like, I mean, you know, like
wow!”
1. Three basic structures
A simple sentence makes one self-standing assertion, i.e., has one main clause, e.g.,
“Connie loves Rommel.”
A compound sentence makes two or more self-standing assertions, i.e., has two main
clauses, e.g., “Connie loves Rommel and Rommel enjoys it.”
A complex sentence makes one self-standing assertion and one or more dependent
assertions, subordinate clauses, dependent on the main clause, e.g., “Connie who has
been desiring Rommel these twelve years, loves him, and Rommel, what’s more, still
enjoys it.”
