NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE GRADUATE SECTION \ o INtORPORIITINli lITERIITURE IN lllNliUllliE tlllffROOM TO IMPROIIE Bllflt lllNliUllliE fKlllf AN ENGLISH LITERATURE COURSE DESIGNED FOR ENGLISH MAJORS OF BENTRE COLLEGE SUBMITIED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS (TESOL) Advisor: qj)u'dJ1{f J1;?!Jc qj)ii:n[p Ph. Thesis writer: J1;?«t;in dfdnrJ qj)dm, /!7~ dil "'" I 1r:1j .- July - 2005 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled INCORPORATING LITERATURE IN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM TO IMPROVE BASIC LANGUAGE SKILLS AN ENGLISH LITERATURE COURSE DESIGNED FOR ENGLISH MAJORS OF BENTRE COLLEGE in conformity with the Requirements for Theses in Master Programmt issued by the Higher Degree Committee. Ho Chi Minh City, July 06 th , 2005 NguySn H6ng DiSm Trang RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Nguy~n H6ng Di~m Trang, being a candidate for the Degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master Theses deposited at the Library. I agree that the original of my thesis deposited at the Library should be accessible for study and research purposes in accordance with the regulations established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses.
Ho Chi Minh City, July 06 1h , 2005 Nguy~n H6ng Di~m Trang ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, to my most beloved and precious ones, who endured patiently the long periods of the devotion I spent on the production of this thesis, I am profoundly grateful for their support. Without their inspiration the thesis would not be possible. I am extremely grateful to my thesis advisor, Dr. Duong NgQc Dung for his helpful comments on drafts of this work, especially with proof reading and his assistance throughout.
My great gratitude is also due to Ms. Cao Thj Quynh Loan whose suggestions greatly helped to enlighten the approaches in my study. I am deeply indebted to Mr. Nguy€n Trung Tanh, Director of Foreign Language Center, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education for supplying me with his own course outline in Literature, and for his valuable information on the teaching of Literature to English Majors in Colleges.
I would also like to express my great appreciation to Mr. Nguy€n Huynh Dqt, Head of the Department of English Linguistics and Literature, Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, and their staff members who always showed special concern for graduate students. Finally, my special appreciation goes to my youngest sister, my relatives, my teachers and students, and all of those who are dear to me for their support and encouragement. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1.
TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages 2. EFL: English as a Foreign Language 3. TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language 4. ESL: English as a Second Language 5.
HCMC: Ho Chi Minh City 6. BTC: Bentre College 7. CLT: Communicative Language Teaching IV ABSTRACT This thesis has introduced some of the problems English Majors of Bentre College face in tackling English Literature, and has also presented solutions in the form of a course design. In the first chapter, the historical background for the need to conduct the study and to design the English Literature course was given.
As part of their overall goals to improve their proficiency in English, it was pointed out that one of the teachers' challenges is helping students to meet the demands of College work. In this section, the statement of purpose, research questions, significance of the study and methodology employed in the study were also included. The second chapter reviews factors which would enable the writer to identify the approaches to course design so as to choose the appropriate ones. In chapter three, a study was carried out to figure out the students' needs, to investigate the problems associated with learning and teaching English Literature in Vietnamese context, to establish the goals and objectives of the course.
The methods employed in the investigation include surveys and interviews with the students and teachers in charge of the course. Some teachers in charge of the subject matter in some Southern universities were also interviewed. Chapter four presents the implementation phase of the course design. The chapter demonstrates the main steps in implementing the course comprising choosing teaching methods, grading activities and tasks, organizing v content, and implementing the course.
A trial lesson plan was prepared with the suggested approaches. The last chapter deals with the evaluation process to judge the value of the suggested course from preparation to implementation. This section also confirms the right choice of the design approach. The conclusion section summarizes some guidance drawn from the experience of the writer to design and to teach the course herself.
Such a process of designing a course which has been used in the thesis is hoped to serve as a model for other EFL professionals to design and implement special courses for students of their own in their own particular institutes. vi TABLE OF CONTENT Certificate of Originality. Retention and Use of the Thesis ii Acknowledgements 1Il List of Abbreviations IV Abstract v Table of Contents VII CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1. Statement of Purpose 3 1.
Significance of the Thesis 3 1. Organization of the Thesis 6 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2. Instruments and Content Parameters 12 2. Goal and Objective Selting 16 2.
The Cultural Model. The Language Model 20 2. The Personal Growth Model 21 2. Selection of Learning Activities 25 2.
Organization of Learning Activities 28 2. Assessment and Evaluation 30 2.32 CHAPTER THREE: COURSE PLANNING 3. Methodology for needs analysis 34 3. Stage one: Exploratory Interviews 35 3.
Stage two: Survey by questionnaires 36 3. Learners' needs and goals. Background to the teaching of English language and English Literature to English Majors at Bentre College- Observation Results 54 3. Current problems associated with teaching English Literature in Vietnamese context.
Goal and Objective Setting 60 3.0bjectives 62 CHAPTER FOUR: IMPLEMENTATION 4. Grading Activities and Tasks 66 4. Point(s) of view 74 4. Follow-up activities 76 4.
Implementation: A Detailed Lesson Plan for the Trial Unit. Detailed lesson plan 92 CHAPTER FIVE: EVALUAnON AND CONCLUSION 5. Evaluation of Course Planning Step I 19 5. Efficacy of Needs Analysis 120 5.
Appropriateness of Content 121 5. Evaluation of Course Implementation Step 123 5. Conclusion and Implications 124 IX Appendices Appendix A: Interview Protocol for English Teachers Initial Step of Needs Analysis 129 Appendix B: Questionnaire 130 Appendix C: Questionnaire Results 135 Appendix D: Interview Protocol for Evaluation 141 Appendix E: Questionnaire for Students for Evaluation 143 Appendix F: Observation Checklist for Evaluation 147 Bibliography 148 x CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1. Problem Identification "Literature aims to encourage freedom and personal response, understanding and sensitivity" (Eagleston 1994).
Many literature works facilitate the creation of statements or pose questions about large issues or theme which people would like to think or discuss. Many influential literary books suggest controversial problems that can give rise to interesting debates. Because literature reflects human beings' value and preoccupations, it can, as Sage (1987) puts it, attract readers, and can be a special resource for personal development and growth. Literature has been a subject of study in many countries at tertiary or higher level, but until recently has not been given much emphasis in the EFLIESL classroom.
It has only been since the 1980s that this area has attracted more interest among EFL teachers. Maley (1990) crystallizes the argument for using literature in language classroom in his edition that: In terms of the language, literary texts offer genuine samples of a wide range of styles, registers, and text-types at many levels of difficulty. For this reason alone they are worthy of consideration.6) The approach to the teaching of literature, however, is not simple to involve an elongation of ordinary reading skills. Traditionally, literature has been used to teach language use but rarely has it been used to develop language use.
According to Widdowson (1975) "The problem in the teaching of literature is to know when and to what extent the learner can be allowed to proceed to the appreciation and evaluation of the broader aesthetic significance of literary works without running the risk of involvement in confusion" (p. So, for a literary pedagogy to be successful, the teaching must develop the literary awareness which is implicit in learners' ability to use language, and sensitize them to conventions of the literary tradition. Most EFL teachers know how difficult it is to get students to achieve fluency in English. This is mainly due to large class, limited time, students sharing the same mother tongue, and inappropriate use of materials and/or methodology.
In the last few years, EFL teachers have been exposed to the benefit of using Content-Based Instruction to give students the opportunity to use their previous knowledge to talk about academic topics. In this sense, literature has been more extensively used in language classroom. In 2003 the Department of English at Bentre College established an English program known as Intensive English Program. English Literature is one of the compulsory subjects of the whole language curriculum for English majors of Bentre College with a view to providing the learners with an introduction to English Literature on the one hand, and to demonstrating them knowledge of English culture on the other.
However, there is some interesting material, but it has been designed for ESL students. There is little work done with regard to the possible uses of literature in EFL college learners. In addition, the students in the institute are not English Literature majors, and this may confront the participants of the course in Bentre College with some considerable problems. Statement of Purpose With this thesis we would like to: Raise the problems associated with the teaching of English Literature in the Vietnamese context in general, and in Bentre College in particular.
Choose an appropriate approach to systematically design an English Literature course for English majors of Bentre College. Prove that it is advisable to combine different approaches In teaching English Literature to Vietnamese students. Significance of the Thesis Firstly, the thesis presents the process of investigating the learner's needs and expectations in relatively specific terms. Therefore, if the suggestion is achieved, it would no doubt argue for the benefits of the students involved in the course.
Secondly, choosing the best and most appropriate materials for any course is often not an easy task. We hope that the process and philosophy underpinning the choice of materials presented in the study will help to make it a little easier for the teacher in charge of the career. Thirdly, in the main section of the thesis, a proportional approach to working out the content of a course is described. These procedures can be applied to the preparation of courses and provide English Literature teachers with the skills necessary to transpose their own units into classroom-ready form.
3 Lastly, the thesis looks at some of the issues and ways in which literature can be exploited in the classroom. It is our hope that the materials will enable English teachers, at least, to start clarifying some of the many neglected problems of effective literary education. Methodology Many tools are available for gathering information. In conducting the study, the following methods of data collection are used: 1.
To obtain the existing information, including records of the existing language programme for English majors of Bentre College; the ideas about course design; the approaches to literature teaching, a literature review research tool is used. To find out the subjective needs, learning styles and other demographic data about the participants, a needs analysis through questionnaires, observations, and interviews is conducted. To evaluate the learners and the effectiveness of the course designed, a survey through course-evaluation questionnaire is carried out. In short, the procedure for designing this course consists of the following steps: 1.