Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T20:45:41.089Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Between the lines: When culture, language and poetry meet in the classroom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2009

Charlotte Melin*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, [email protected]

Abstract

Teaching poetry in second language (L2) classrooms raises theoretical and practical questions about how best to treat literature when target language and culture is also being negotiated. Current pedagogy derives from disparate sources, including the experientially-driven practices of individual teachers, the quantitative and qualitative research methodologies of Second Language Acquisition, and the aesthetic, historical, and philosophical traditions of literature and cultural studies. This paper surveys the knowledge base that shapes literature pedagogy, examines the conceptual implications of two common approaches (close reading and genre-based treatments), and argues for new teaching objectives.

Type
Plenary Speeches
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Altieri, C. (2001). Taking lyrics literally: Teaching poetry in a prose culture. New Literary History 32, 259281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alvstad, C. & Castro, A. (2009). Conceptions of literature in university language courses. The Modern Language Journal 93.2, 170184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnheim, R. (1954). Art and visual perception. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bates, M. (1999). Chalk face muse: Poetry as a foreign language. East Linton: White Adder Press.Google Scholar
Benton, M. (1995). The discipline of literary response: Approaches to poetry with L2 students. Educational Review 47.3, 333343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernstein, C. (2007). Poetics. In Nicholls (ed.), 126–139.Google Scholar
Bredella, L. & Delanoy, W. (eds.) (1996). Challenges of literary texts in the foreign language classroom. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
Byrnes, H. (ed.) (1998). Learning foreign and second languages: Perspectives in research and scholarship. New York: The Modern Language Association.Google Scholar
Byrnes, H. (2007). Language acquisition and language learning. In Nicholls (ed.), 48–69.Google Scholar
Carter, R. (1997). Investigating English discourse: Language, literacy and literature. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Chun, D. M. & Plass, J. L. (1996). Effects of multimedia annotations on vocabulary acquisition. The Modern Language Journal 80.2, 183198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culler, J. (1997). Literary theory: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Culler, J. (1975). Structuralist poetics: Structuralism, linguistics and the study of literature. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dutta, S. K. (2001). Teaching poetry in the school classroom: An integrated and communicative approach. CAUCE 24, 519537.Google Scholar
Enzensberger, H. M. (1964). Scherenschleifer und Poeten. In Bender, H. (ed.), Mein Gedicht ist mein Messer. München: List Verlag, 144148.Google Scholar
Enzensberger, H. M. (1999). Kiosk. Transl. Hamburger, M. & Enzensberger, H. M.. Riverdale-on-Hudson, NY: Sheep Meadow Press.Google Scholar
Etienne, C. & Vanbaelen, S. (2006). Paving the way to literary analysis through TV commercials. Foreign Language Annals 39.1, 8798.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Felski, R. (2008). Uses of literature. Malden, MA: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, R. (1981). Literature as social discourse. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Gordon, T., Zaleski, J. & Goodman, D. (2006). Stories lean on stories: Literature experiences in ESL teacher education. In Paran (ed.), 59–70.Google Scholar
Hanauer, D. (1998). Reading poetry: An empirical investigation of formalist, stylistic, and conventionalist claims. Poetics Today 14.4, 565580.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanauer, D. I. (2003). Multicultural moments in poetry: The importance of the unique. The Canadian Modern Language Review 60.1, 6987.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hewitt, H. (2008). Literature as language and language as culture: The implications for literature in language teaching. Language Teaching 41.4, 587596.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunley, T. C. (2007). Teaching poetry writing: A five-canon approach. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, V. (2008). Who reads poetry? Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (PMLA) 123.1, 181187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kern, R. (2000). Literacy and language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Knapp, J. V. (2002). Teaching poetry via HEI (hypothesis–experiment-instruction). Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 45.8, 718729.Google Scholar
Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Krechel, U. (2003). In Zukunft schreiben. Salzburg: Jung und Jung.Google Scholar
Levine, G. S., Eppelsheimer, N., Kuzay, F., Moti, S. & Wilby, J. (2004). Global simulation at the intersection of theory and practice in the intermediate-level German classroom. Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German 37.2, 99116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magnan, S. S. (2004). Rediscovering text: Multiple stories for language departments. Profession 2004, 95–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maley, A. & Duff, A. (1989). The inward ear: Poetry in the language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Maxim, H. [H.] (2005). Giving beginning adult language learners a voice: A case for poetry in the foreign language classroom. In Retallack, J. & Spahr, J. (eds.), Poetry & pedagogy. New York: Palgrave, 251259.Google Scholar
Maxim, H. H. (2006). Integrating textual thinking into the introductory college-level foreign language classroom. The Modern Language Journal 90.1, 1932.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maxim, H. H. (2009). Developing advanced formal language abilities along a genre-based continuum. In Katz, S. L. & Watzinger-Tharp, J. (eds.), Conceptions of L2 grammar: Theoretical approaches and their application in the L2 classroom. Boston: Heinle, 172188.Google Scholar
McGovern, J. (1993). Understanding poetry. Language Awareness 2.1, 2534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLemee, S. (2004). Americans found to read less literature than ever. The Chronicle of Higher Education 50.45, A1.Google Scholar
Melin, C. (ed. & transl.) (1999). German poetry in transition 1945–1990. Hanover, MD: University Press of New England.Google Scholar
MLA, Ad Hoc Committee on Foreign Languages (2007). Foreign languages and higher education: New structures for a changed world. Profession 2007, 234–245.Google Scholar
Moore, J. N. (2002). Practicing poetry: Teaching to learn and learning to teach. The English Journal 91.3, 4450.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholls, D. G. (ed.) (2007). Introduction to scholarship in modern languages and literatures (3rd edn.). New York: The Modern Language Association of America.Google Scholar
Paesani, K. (2005). Literary texts and grammar instruction: Revisiting the inductive presentation. Foreign Language Annals 31.1, 1524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paran, A. (ed.) (2006). Literature in language teaching and learning. Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.Google Scholar
Paran, A. (2008). The role of literature in instructed foreign language learning and teaching: An evidence-based survey. Language Teaching 41.4, 465496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perloff, M. (1998). Poetry on & off the page: Essays for emergent occasions. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Peskin, J. (1998). Constructing meaning when reading poetry: An expert-novice study. Cognition and Instruction 16.3, 235263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peskin, J. (2000). Rhetorical and aesthetic form: poetry as textual art. In Astington, J. W. (ed.), Minds in the making: Essays in honor of David R. Olson. Oxford: Blackwell, 8097.Google Scholar
ReinartzT., Jr. T., Jr. & Hokanson, B. (2001). Learning to make meaning without making ‘sense’: New media for juxtaposing words to create imagery. Tech Trends 45.4, 2830.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenblatt, L. M. (1978). The reader, the text, the poem: The transactional theory of the literary work. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenkjar, P. (2006). Learning and teaching how a poem means: Literary stylistics for EFL undergraduates and languages teachers in Japan. In Paran (ed.), 117–131.Google Scholar
Schneider, E. & Evers, T. (2009). Linguistic intervention techniques for at-risk English language learners. Foreign Language Annals 42.1, 5576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Short, M. (1996). Exploring the language of poems, plays and prose. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Simpson, P. (1997). Language through literature: An introduction. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spinner, K. H. (1984). Umgang mit Lyrik in der Sekundarstufe I. Baltmannsweiler: Pädagogischer Verlag Burgbücherei Schneider.Google Scholar
Spiro, J. (2004). Creative poetry writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Spiro, J. forthcoming. Crossing the bridge from appreciative reader to reflective writer: The assessment of creative process. In Paran, A. & Sercu, L. (eds.), Testing the untestable in language education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 210245.Google Scholar
Stewart, S. (2002). Poetry and the fate of the senses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Swaffar, J. & Arens, K. (2005). Remapping the foreign language curriculum. New York: The Modern Language Association.Google Scholar
Thalmayr, A. (2004). Lyrik nervt! Erste Hilfe für gestreßte Leser. München: Carl Hanser.Google Scholar
University of Portsmouth (2009). Tonguefreed: Creative writing in a foreign language. University of Portsmouth. http://www.port.ac.uk/special/creativewritinginaforeignlanguage/.Google Scholar
Walther, I. (2007). Ecological perspectives on language and literacy: Implications for foreign language instruction at the collegiate level. ADFL Bulletin 38.1, 614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Widdowson, H. G. (1992). Practical stylistics: An approach to poetry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar