LiteratureasContent for ESL/EFL

il qffi SANDR LA EE MCKAY

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In"Literature asContent for ESUEFL," McKay argues that using literature ascontent provides three major benefits for learners: (l) it demonstrates the importance of authors'choice of for:m to achieve ,ommunicative goals, (2) it is anideal resource for integrating the four sl<ills, and(3) it raises turalawareness. Example classroom activities aredeveloped based on two shortstories. JCTION lture in ESL/EFLclasses? Thereare tion,theygenerally lackthispurpose. Ratheq their aim is to convey individual awareness of reality" "an

that Lintain due tothe speciar nature,(Y*LTinl,tjl;:;lll"H":*":]f:1l:'-l: uruque ls lnatln ilterature tnewnatano nowol tnc
.ts,litcraturecan contributetittie to ning (seeMclhy t1982l for a sum: argurrerrts). However, in thischapIt usingliterature ascontentin ESL/ lrovides three m4jor benefits. First, ry textsdependon how the languags reate a particular effect, literature for learners the importanceof form communicative goals. Second, pecific re ru content in the t2 classrooms ideal basisfor integrating the four rd, in an erawhenEnglishis usedin , of crosscultural encounters, literary and teachers' rblein raisingstudentsl (See awareness. alsoHinkel'schapter in this volume,) ral communication openswithan,examinationofwhatis :ary Theneachadvantage texts. listea ng liLterature is examinedin detail. exampres of classroom the r:hapter, providedto showhow suchactivities Led. textareinseparable' As wddowsonputsit' An understandingof what literature communicates necessarily involvesan understandingof how it communicates:what and how are not distinct, It is for this reasonthat literary worla cannotbe satisfactorily paraphrased or explained by any singleinterpretation: ambito do sois to recasltheir essential of convenguif into the definite shape The basic tlonal statemenl. problemin the teachingof literature is to develop in the student an awareness of the what/how of literary communicatiog and this can only be doneby relatingit it into, normal to, without translating (1975, uses of language p, 70). The fact that in worksof literature the "whatand how are not distinct" makesliterature valuable that how they for extendinglearners'awareness say somethingis important in two ways.First, how something is said often contributes to

Literaryrexts of

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Kramsch (1993) offers a simple illustration a message guageis,used to conve)a informaof,the importanceof form in conveying nformation. Although literary texts the sheattended, Workshop rer fbaturesof normal communica- , tion. At a conference

linguistA. L. Beckeraskedthe participantsto describe in one sentence what he wasabout to do. He then walkedup rhe sreps to the podium and laid a book on the desk.Followingthis, he asked a variety of participantsto read their descriptions. After several peoplereadtheir sen_ tences, it wa," clear that evenin describing such a simple act, each text provided a uniqu-e perspective on what had been observed. \,Vheieas some participantsreferred to Beckeras ,,alin_ guist," others referred to him as ,,the man,,, "yo,r," or "he."Whereas somestated that Becker "put" the book on the podium,othersstated, that

more comfortable seating,which slates ,,Relief from aches on planes," or an advertisement for the Swiss chocolaLe bar Toblerone,which reads

Literary Texts and the Reader

ing up the steps") (p. 107). Whereas Wddowson, Kramsch, andCarterdefine literary texb by their unique form, Rosenblatt (1978)definesliterary rexrsprimarilyin terms of how readersinteract with them, She rnaintains that the common way of distinguishingliterary worksof art from other tfpes of textshasbeen to examinethe text itself. For Rosenblatt, a text is merelyan objectof paperand ink until a reader interacts with it. Hence the question of defining literarytextsdoesnot dependon examining how literar-yand nonliterary texts differ, but rather dependson considering what a reader does in thesedifferentkinds of reading. According to Rosenblatt, readersperform verydifferentactivities during aesthetic and nonaesthetic reading.To illustratethese d.ifferences, she relates the exampleof a motherwhosechild hasjust swallowed a poisonous liquid and is frantically readingthe label to discover what course of actionto follow.The mother's main concernis to get the essentialinformation in the text.; Rosenblatt describes the typeof readingin which the -mainpurposeof the reader is to d.ecipher what message can be carried awayfrom thc text as efferent, from the Latin, effure"to carry away." In efferentreading, the reader focuses on the message of the text. In contrast, in aesthetic reading, 'lthe reader'sprimary concernis with what happensduringthe readingprocessi' (p.24) The distinction behveenefferent and aes-,

pantswroterather thanspokeaffected the shape of their text. 'fhe choiceof grammatical foim enabledthem to relate the act to a particular time and place and to definewhatwasnew and old information.Perhaps most significantly, the participants had a choiceof what to say and what not to say..For Kramsch, the particulariry of lir erarytextsrestson an author'suseof six aspects of text development. Specifically, in ...uting u literarytext, authorsshapethe medium of wrif ten texts,make grammatical and lexicalchoices

and leavemanythingsunsaid.It is these Suage, dimensionsof literary texts that contribute to the "what/how of literary communicatioft,,, makingthem dfficult to paraphrase.

events in the externalworld.; it displays and crepatternsits discourse 4tivelir ln suin:a wayas to

a literary text aesthetically so that his or her "attentionis centereddirectly on what he for shel is living through during his relationship with that particulartext" (p. 25) or he or she could read it efferently by garhering specific information.For ll.osenblatt, too often literature classrooms focuson the latter typeof readingin that they analyze the form of the text and thus reduce learners' engagementwith literature. This concern with conscious attentionto form in a literature classreflects an ongoing debate amongteachers of literature. There aremanywho arguethat stylistics, or literarytext,analysis, can be of greatvalueto languagelearners (e,g.,Widdowson1975; Carter 1996). Carter,for example,summarizes the advantages of using stylistics in languageclassroomsin the followingway: (i) stylistics provides students with a method t'way of scrutinizingtexts, a in" to a text, opening up starting points for fuller inrerpretation. ... (ii) basinginterpretationon systemaric verbal analysis reaffirms the centrality of language asthe aasthetic mediumof literature. (iii) non-native students possess the kind of conscious, systematic knowledgeabout the language whichprovidesthe bestbasis for stylistic'analysis. In many respects, therefore, non-native students are oftenbetter at stylistic analysis (1996, thannative speakers pp.5-6). Others,however, argue thata focus on stylisticsundermines the readingof a literary text for enjoyment,fbr an aestheticexperience. Gower(1986),for e-xample, poses the following 'lCan question: we,then in anysense, saythat 'stylistic analysis' helps the EFL student,when its declared aim is to illuminatethe 'mechanism' of a'text' underthemicroscope . . . ?This,asI have said,is a.very different thing from reading: the students operateon the 'text' rather than let a poem or novelspeakto them" (pp. 129-130). Gower, like RosenblatL, believes that literarytexts

stylistics entailsmereanalysis of literatureto support one centralmeaningof a text, usuallyone arrived at by so-called literary scholars,then there is little possibilitythat this will engagelanguagelearnersor contributeto their enjoyrnent of reading a literarytext. Il on the other hand,, stylistics provides learners with the toolstojusti$r their own opinionsof a text, then the analysis of the text can be related to the student,s own aesthetic readingof it. Widdowson (IggZ) terms this approachone of practicalstylistics in which the goal is "to stimulatean engagement with primary texf.s, to encourageindividual interpretation while requiring that rhis should be referred back to featuresof the text" (p. xiv). Carter (1996) makes a distinctionbetween what is traditionally thoughtof assrylistics andwhathe terms a language-based apl2roach to literature. For Carter, a language-based approach is student centered, activity based, and process orientedin that classroom tasks help students supporttheir interpretationof a text by engaging them in the process of meaning-maldng. How then can languageanalysis be productivelyusedinL? classrooms to enhance students' enjo;.nnent in reading literatureanddevelop their awareness of language ?

USINGLITERARYTEXTS TO DEVELOP LANGUAGE

ComparingTwo Short Stories
In order to illustratehow literarytextsmight be approachedin L2 classrooms, let us compare how two short storiesthat recount the experience of young adolescents in their schoolenvironment might be used ("Eleven"by Sandra Cisnerosfan excerpt from her novel entitled Woman Hollning Creek] and "Out of Order" by "Eleven" Wjlliam Saroyan). tells the story of Rachelon her eleventh birthday. The storytakes pl4cea.t school where the teacher, Mrs. Price, asks who in the class ownsa rgd sweater that has been "sitting in the coatroomfor a month." No one in the ciass.says it belongsto them.untilsuddenlyone of the students, "I SyMaSaldivar, says,

,,Of states that it is not hers,the teacher answers, courseit's yours.. . . I remember you wearingit once.r'When Rachelshoves the sweater to the edge of her desk,Mrs, Price tells her, 'you put that sweateron right now and no more nonsense." The incident ends right before the bell rings for lunch when PhyllisLopez,anotherstudent in the class, remembers that the sweater is hersRacheltakes it off and gives it to her. . "Out of Order" tells the story of Wiiiiam Saroyan's first duy in seventh grade at Longfellow Junior High School. The srory begins with the ancienr history teacher,Miss Shenstone, telling the students to turn to page 192 in their books.William comments that ,,it would seemmore in order to turn to pageone for ,the first lesson." The teacherresponds by telling William to be quiet and ler her do the teaching. Then she points to a phorograph in the textbook of two stonesthat she saysare 20,000yearsold. William questions how she knowsthis. This leadsMissShenstone to "fling" herself at Wjlliam, resulting in his leavingthe room. He returnsfive minuteslateq and again MissShenstone "flings"herself at Wlliam. This results in Williamgoing to seeMr. Monsoon, the principal of the school,to tell him why he left the class.Mr. Monsoon meanwhilewants to knowWilliam'snameand who he is, specifically what nationalityhe is. When Wlliam tells him that he is Armenian, the principal replies, "Nobody but an fumenian would haveaskeda questionlike that." William's meetingwith the princjpal endswith the principal sayingthat he "must give him a thrashing."'At this point, William goeri home and tells his Uncle Alecksander what occurred.He then returns to the schoolaccompanied by his uncle,who talks to the principal alone. After a short time, Wlliam is askedto come into the office to talk with.othe principal, Miss Shenstone,and his uncle and is told by his uncle that Miss Shenstone hasagreedto look into the matterof how the ageol the stones wasdetermined. He is also told that it waswith 'ladmiration't that Mr. Monsoon commentedthat only an Armenian would ask a question like that, In the end William has to spend the rest of the day away '
-Frnrn

next day as though "nothing had happened.', \Atrenhe returnsto school,William apologizes to both the principal and Miss Shenstone. However, after four days, MissShenstone leaves the school.Meanwhile, Mr. Monsoontalksabout mannersat several studentbody meetings, but aftera month he leaves, too. In order to promoteaesthetic reading,it is important to beginby havingstudentsreadand enjoy the stories.Obviously studentswill enjoy readingliteratureonly if the text is accessible to them.Hence,it is importantin selecting literary texts to ensure that the theme of the text is engaging for the students and that the textitself is not too difficulton eithera linguisticor con_ ceptual level. To encourage aestheticreading, the initial discussion of the storiesshouldfocus on havingstudents discuss what they enjoyed or didn't enjoy about the story,what it meansto them,how it relates to their own personal experiences, and so on. It is thisvery kind of discussion that can lead to whatWiddowson(19g2) terms practicalstylistics, in which studentsare encouraged to expressindividual interpreta* tions and must refer theseinterpretations back to the text. To illustrate how this might occurin L2 classrooms, Iet us considerhow studentsl individualinterpretation of the characters in the two storiesdescribed abovecould be the basis for a literary task.

Characterrzation
Readers assess characters in a story based,on whatthe character says and does, what othersin the story sayabout the character, and how the author describes the character. To encourage students' own responses to the stories, a teachir might begin by having studentsdescribeboth Rachel and William;This couldinvolvesrudents' listing the adjectives they believebest describe eachcharacter, describing eachin a short paragraph, gathering pictures that depict their imagg of Rachel and Wlliam, or cor4paring eachcharacter with someone theyknow. The next part of the literary task should' encourage students to return to the text tojustify their interpretations. One activitymight be to

tn'eone suggested by McCloskey and Stack(1ggg, pp. 154-155)for eachcharacter. Students would completethe following type of chart, citing specific detailsfrom the story.
How Others See Wlliam .=--\flLLIAM Descriptions of Williarn by the Author Wlliam's Own Words and Actions -/'-'/ Your Ideas aboutWilliam

The list of whatWlliam says would include the followingpassages from Sarcyan's story. "How do you know?" 1Shesaidthe rockswere twentythousandyears old . . . All I saidwas,'How do you know?' I didn't mean they wsren't that old. I meant that maybe they were older, maybe thirty thousandyearsold. How old is the earth? Several million years old, isn'tit? If the book can say the rocks are twenty thousandyearsold, sornebody ought to be ableto say how the book got that figurq. This isn't F.rnerson School,it's LongfellowJuniorHigh. I carnehere to learn.I don't expectto be punished I'wantto learn.'l because The list of what Rachelsays, on the other hand, would incl,ude the following: "Thatlsno! I don't,yourre not. . . Notmine." "But that'finot." Once studentscomplete their individual webs, teacherscan then encouragethem to examinethe language of the text. The contrast illus" !n length of both characters'responses ' trates,aspectsof their person{ity. Howev.er, , i:more subtle featuressuch as the falsestartsin speechand the u5s,.sf'questions'in $achells, Williamlqspeech alsosuggest differences in their

Because both stories are told from the first personpoint of vievy, students'interpretation of Wlliam and Rachelwillundoubtedly be affected, by what they learn about the charactersfrom their thoughts.Hence, with these stories,the teachermay want to draw attention to the conceptof first personpoint of view.In usingliterature in the classroom,exactly what tasla are developed should depend on what featuresof the text are salientin the storyand on what elementsof the text are relevant to students' interpretationof it. Let us then consider how teachers might addressthe elementof point of view in relationto thesetwo stories.

Point of View
(1986)distinguishes Fowler threetypes of pointof (2) idnological,and view:(1) spati,o-tunpwal, (S) Fsycholngical. The spatio-temporal point of viewrefers both to the sense of time that the author conveys by using such techniquesas flashbacksor the interweaving of stories(the temporaldimension), and to the manner in which an author depicts items suchasobjects, buildings, andlandscapLs in (the relationto one another spatialdimension). The ideologicalpoint of view,on the other hand, refersto the "setof values, or belief system, communicated by the language of the text" (p. 130). The psychological point of view is the one most frequently referred to in literary analysis gf "whois presented andinvolves the question as the observerof the events a narrative, of whether the author or a participating character"(p. 13a). Fowler delineatestwo types of psychological points of view: internal and external. In the internal psychological point of vier,v-, either the storyis told from first personpoint of viewby a character his or her feelingsabout who shares the events and characters of the storyor it is told who is not a participatingcharacter by someone but who has knowledge of the feelingsof the 'the omniscientauthor.In characters, so-called the external psychologlcal point ofview, the narl rator describes the eventsand characters from a position outside of the,,maincharacterwith no to the characters'feelings and opinions. access

Psychological Point ofView

"E'leven" and "Out of Order" are both told from the first person point of view by Rachel and William, who share their feeiings about the events. In both stories, the authors let the reader into the thoughtsof thejunior high srudent, The openingof eachstoryillustrates this first person point of view. o'Eleven" begins with the following: What they don't understand about birthdaysand what they never tell you is that when you're eleven, you're also 'ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, :andsix, and fivc, and four, and three, and two, and one.And whenyou wake up on your eleventh birthday you expect to feel eleven,but you don't. You open your eyesand everything's just like yesterda/, only it's today. And youdon't feeleleven at all.Youfeel like you're still ten. And you are*underneaththe yearthat makes you eleven. "Out of Order,"on the other hand, begins in the following way. LongfellowHigh wasnot strictlyspeaking a high schoolatall.It wasrhe seventh and eighth gradesof grammar school, anclitsfull namewas Longfellow High School. The Longfellow Junior in question was of course the Mr. Longfellow, or Henry Wadsworth, althoughnothing much wasevermade of that. It wasin ancienthistory classthat I first astonished my class into an awareiiess that here was a truly original mind. It happenedthat this was the first class of the veryfirst day. In order to help studentsrecognizehow the differencein tone betweenthe two openings is achieved,a teachermight pose a seriesof questions for s[udentsto consider, such.asthe following.

"ELEVEN"

l. Who doesthq refer to?rvVhy do you think the author choseto use thE ratherthan a specific reference? Who do you think loz refers to? \Mhydoyou think the author chose ro useyoz? What effect Z. doesthe author achieveby having Rachel listall of the years of her life iarher thanjust saylng "When you'reeleven, you're alsoall the otheryears of vourlife',? "Our oF ORDER" 1. Williamis in seventh gradeyetpointsour the first and middle namesof Longfe[ow Why do you think William Saroyan(the adult authorof the story)hasWilliam,the seventh grader; point this out? 2. \t\4ratkinds of things astonish, you? Why do you think Saroyan chosero describe himself asa seventh graderusingthat word?\,Vhy do you think Saroyandescribedhimself as a truly originalmind? The aim of suchquestions is to help students recognizethewayin whichtheir assessment of the two characters hasbeeninfluencedby howthe authors haveusedfirst personpoint of viewto developa childlikevoicefor Racheland a self-confident and arrogantvoice for Wlliam. In the caseof "Out of Order," the relationship of the author and narratoris evenmore complexsinceSaroyan, the author,is writing abouthis ownyouth. Another activity that couldbe usedto highlight the mannerin which the authors depictthe characters is to havestudentslist all of the sentences in "Eleven" that sound childlike.This tist mightincludesuchsentences asthefoltowing: l. "Like some daysyou mighr saysomething stupid, and that's the pari of you that's still ten." 2. "Or maybesomedaysyou might need to sit on,yourmama's lap because you're scared, and that'sthe part of you that'sfive." Studentsmight also make a list of comments Willia?nmakesthat demonstratehis outspoken self-confidence. This might include comments like the following:

1. "I remarked thatit wouidseem more in order to turn to pageonefor the first lesson." asked m1l n?me;whereupon, 2. i'I was I wasonly 'William too gladto sayhonestly, Saroyan."' The mainpoint of suchactivities is requiringstudents to return to the text to examine how the storyis told and in whatways this hasinfluenced theirjudgment of the characters.

Spatio-Temporal Point ofView

Cisneroschose to use the present tense to rqcoqnt her story while Saroyan usesthe pasl To explore the differencethat verb tense tense. hason tellinga story, teachers might refer to passagessuch as the following and ask students which of the two accounts they felt they were actually witnessing.
"ELE\rEN"

"Whose is this?" Mrs.Pricesays, and she up in the air for holdsthe red sweater all the classto see."Whose? It's been for a month." sittingin the coatroom "Our oF ORDER" Miss Shenstoneflung herself at me that I wasscarcely able with suchspeed to get away.For half a moment she clung to my homeknit sweater, and ' damaged it beforeI got away. Suchcomparisons are usefulin helping students recggnize tensein stothat the useof the present rytelling sqggests the irnmediacy of events,invit-

Another way of addressingthe temporal point of view is to askstudentsto visualize key events in a storyby completinga collage. In the caseof 'lOut of Order,"students could be asked to identify what they consider to be central events of the story, suchasMissShenstone's chasing Wlliam, the principal'squestioning William, and Uncle Alecksander's coming to the princi pal'soffice.Then individually or in smallgroups, studentscreatea collageof theseeventsusing photographs, objects, line drawings, and texts. fu mentionedearlier,what Fowlercallsthe spatialpoint of viewaddresses howobjects, build. ings,and landscapes aredescribed. For example, q'Eleven" in the red sweater is introducedin the story when Mrs. Price "holds the sweater up in the air for all the class to see." Latershetakesthe "rgly sweater with red plasticbuttonsand a collar and sleeves all stretchedout like you could use it for a jump rope" and puts it on Rachel's desk.This leadsRachel to "movethe red sweater to the corner of my deskl' until eventuallyshe "the red sweater shoves to the tippy-tip corner" of "it's her deskand hangingall overthe edgelike a waterfall." To addressthe spatial dimension, teachers might beginby askingstudents why they think Rachelfelt so humiliated by having the teacher insist that the sweaterwas hers. This undoubtedly of what would lead to a discussion the sweater waslike.At this point, students might of the be askedto list all of the descriptions in the story.The goal of suchan activityis sweater to help students recognize that their opinion of the sweaterhas been influenced by how the it. author choseto describe

ofView Point ldeological

identical.whereas in othersthe author usesflashbacksso that the story time and real time differ. In'dealingwith suchstories, teachers might have students completea chart suchasthe one at the l bottom of this page in which studentsuse clues at the actual tirne of the text to guess l,frorn the_ event.This type of chart is partictrlarlyuseful in where the,story line b qurte complex ,gihratiops temporally. : Examining stories' ideological point of view is closelyrelated to what has been termed critical Kress (1985)maintains lituaq or uitical read,i,ng. that readersshould approachall textsfith three why is the topic being questions in mind;:namely, written about, how is the topic being written about, pnd what other wayscould the topic have been written about?In critical reading,readers to examinethe values and belief are encouraged

systerns that underlie a text or what Fowler (1986)refersto asthe ideological point'of view of a story.Accordingto Fowler,the narrator or charactersin literary texts frequently rely on modal structures to convey their beliefs and atti_ tudes. Thesestructures include such things as modal auxiliaries (e.g., may, might,shoild\, modal adverbs or sentence ad,verbs (e.g.,,u,rdy, puhaps, It is cntainthat. ..), evaluative adjectives and adverbs(e.g.,luchy, regrettaityl, and, fortunate, verbs of knowledge, prediction, and evaiuation (e.g.,seem, beline, d,istike). foresee, One suggestedway of encouraging students to see the ideologicalpoint of view in ,,Out of Order" is for the teacherto begin by askingstu_ dentswhy they think the storywasentitled ,,Out of Order." As a follow-up to this question, a teachercould have students underlineall the references to the "old school"(i.e.,whenteach_ ers do the questioning) and the *newschool" (i.e., when sl.udents do the questioning) and have them use these referencesto determine whether or not they think the author is sympa_ thetic to the old or the new school, citing sen_ tencesfrom the text to support their view.Such an approachwould lead studentsto consider suchpassages asthe followingone,whichoccurs after William questionshow Miss Shenstone the age of the stones at Stonehenge. fi9* William comments that "the truth of the matter is that neither Miss Shenstone nor Mr. Monsoon himself, the principal, had anything like a satisfactory answer to any legitimateques_ tion of thissort,for they (and all the other teich_ ers) had always accepted what theyhad found in the tbxtbooks." The goal of this typeof an examination of a literary text is to netp students see that authorso,flten havea particularsetof values that'inform how theychooseto tell a story. In concludingthis comparison of thesetwo shorf stories, it.is importantto emphasize several pointS regardringthe use of literary texts to developstudents'languageawareness. First, in to promote students' enjoyrnent yrder of reading hterary texts, ,classroom activitiesshould ut*uv, begrnwith.having students individrrally or il 5p211 groupssharetheir personalreactionsto a literary text; Second,,as a way of developingstudents' awareness of how their interpretation, of the text

has been influenced by how the story is toid, classroom tasks shouldencourage students to go backto the text to supporttheir interpretations. Finally,exactlywhat typeof classroom tasks are used will depend on what fearuresof the story are most salient (e.g., temporal or spatial description, point of view, or characterization).

USINGLITERARYTEXTS TO INTEGRATE SKILLS

Reading
UsingliteratureascontentproviCes an idealway to integrate the development of the four skills. As the previousdiscussion hasmade clear,encour_ agingstudents to carefully examinea literarvtext to support their interpretations promotesstu_ dents' closereading of texts,a skill which will benefit their reading of other material. Literature,of course, is alsoideal ascontentfor extensive reading programsin LZ classrooms. Becoming engaged with a pieceof literaturewill

titles divided by levelsof difficulty as well as by agegroup,genre,and regionof the world.)

Listening
When read aloud, literaturealsooffersan excel-

is that suchmaterialexposes students to avanety of dialects and voicequalities. Ahother tlpe of listening task that can be used-in L2 classroomsinvolves storytelling. MorganandRinvolucri(1983) in their book,Once Upona Time,argueconvincingly that the quality of listening that occurswhen someoneis telling
t'is

listeningcomprehension from a tape.The latter is alwaysthird-person listening,a kind of eavesdropping that is strangely uncompelling.To be told a story by a live storyteller, on the contrary 'I-thou' involves listening, one in wherethe listeners can directlyinfluencethe telling" (pp.1-2). Their book contains a variery of strategies for usingstorytelling to develop listeningskilis.

previously occurred.Students thus havea great dealof relevantinformationto draw on to write a dialogue. Plays provide a rich contextfor developing students' and pragmaticawareness sociolinguistic (seeMclby fin press]).It is important,however, to recognizethat playsdiffer in significantways from natural conversation. fu Simpson(1997) points out, drama and naturally occurring discourse arenot identicaltypes of communication. The most obviousdifferencebetween the nvo is that characters in playsare not real people in the way that interlocutorsin conversation are. Anotn*er difference is that whereas naturally occurring conversation is straightforwardly "face to face," in drarna dialogue the channel of communication is more complex.Thisis because there layersat work are two communicative . . . On the one in drama discourse. hand,thereis interaction within a play: this is the character-to-character on stage dialoguewhich is displayed or in the text. On the.other, there is between the dramatist communication or reader(p. 164). and audience playscanbe usedto examine Nevertheless, of turns in consuch things as the sequencing ellipsis, statedand implied meanings, versation, (1989) strategy for suggests one so on. Fish and of the nature of students'awareness increasing givingstudents a He recommends conversation. in a play,which list of the cast of characters includessome backgroundinforrnationon:the (e.g., a journalist, a coach,a black characters athlete,a sponsor).Wth this information and the title and setting of the play, studentsare about the play in asked to make hypotheses termsof the plot, theme,and so on. Then Fish a section of the playwith givingstudents suggests names deleted. the linesbut with the charactersl Studentsfirst try to gueiswho is speakingfrom aSked Finally; students,are thelist of characters. In the lines of the play. doing so, to sequence to the fac{ that studentscan develop sensitivity, l'conversations but orderlyand are complicated; (Burton 1982,p. .86), events'i rule-governed

Writing
Literaturecanbe usedto develop students'writ_ ing abilities by havingstudents reactin personal journals and formal essays to the literary texts they read. Using writing:in this way offers two

to the extentthat students are askedto refer to the text to justify their conclusions aboutthe literaryselection, they learn to supporttheir opin_ ionswith relevantinflormation, itr i-portant skill for various types of academic writing. 'Using literary textsin writing classes is also valuable for helping students becomeawareof voice and point of view in written texts. For example, with "Out of Order" and "Eleven," one strategy for developing point of viewwouldbe to have studentsrewrite these stories from the point of viewof the teacher. Another possibility would be to havestudents rewrite "Eleven"asif told and experienced by William. In this case, students would need to considerhow Wlliam, given what they know of him from ,,Out of Order,"wouldreactto beingwronglyaccused of owning an old red sweater, and then assume Wlliam's voicein recountingthe story.

Widdowson (1992).makes a convincingargument for using poerry in the languagecliss_ room. He arguesthat, althoughthe content of poemscan often be reducedto ordinaryobser_ vations (e.g.,tirne passes, life is lonely), ,,the essentials of poetry lie in the way languageis usedto elaborate on suchsimplepropositions so that they apre reformulatedin unfamiliarterms which somehow capturethe underlyingmystery of the commonplace" (p. 9). The simple themes of poetry and the unconventional method of expressing thesethemesthusprovidean avenue for language learnersto usethe Englishtheyhave to express sophisticated ideas, unrestricred by the tlpical constraints of conventional discourse.

USINGLITERARYTEXTS TO DEVELOP CULTURAL AWARENESS

A third benefit of using literary textsin the languageclassroom rests in their potentialfordevel_ oping cross-cultural awareness. This is especially importanl in an era when leirners.orn-,rrri.ut. in English, nor only wiih speakersof "iil* Englishin Western countries, but alsowith other non-native speakers aroundthe giobe. In order to discussthe benefits of using literary texts to develop cultural awareness, it useful to d.istin. guish various dimensionsof culture. Adaskou, Britten,and Fahsi(1989)distinguish four dimensionsof culture:theaesthetic ssnseinwhich alan-

shapes, suchasa ladder or staircase. Next,students list woqds that theyassociate with this shape. Then the;zuse some of these wordsto writea poemin the slape of the otject itself. To increasestudents'

tural norms influence what languageis appropriate for what context. A literary text frequentlyexemplifies several dimensions of culture. For example, when considering "Out of Order" and "EleveR," the aes-,, theticsense of cultureis evident in the mentionof Henry Wadsworth Longfellowand Stonehenge.
The

in variousways-in the assumption in "Eleven" about the importance of clothes in American schools and in the accepted role of the teacher to questionand commandstudents. The semantic sense of cultureis clearin word choicewhen, example,William reports that the teacher fgr "flung herself" at him rather than sayingshe chased him or ran after him, and it is evidentin the metaphoricaluse of languagein "Eleven" when Rachel'for example,states, "The wayyou grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rings insidea tree trunk or like my little woodendolls that fit one insidethe other,eachyear insidethe next one."Finally, the pragmatic sense of culture tl elemplifiedin the dialogue passages in "Out of Order"when,for example, theformalcontractual sense of Uncle Alecksander and Mr. Monsoon's agreement regardingWlliam is sealed with the exchange of the uncle sa)lng,"I shall be interested in his progress," and Mr. Monsoon "Weall shall." responding, There are thosewho arguethat a language cannot be taught without culture. Kramsch (1993),for example,maintainsthat if language "is seenas socialpractice,culture becomes the ,Culturalawarevery core of languageteaching. nessmust then be viewedboth as enablinglanguageproficiency and as being the outcomeof reflection'on languageproficiency"(p. B), She argue-s, however, that knowing about a culture (i.e., gaining cultural competence)does not mean that one has an obligationto behavein accordance with the conventions of that culture. Thus the ultimategoal of culturallearningis not to convgy'information abouta culturenor to promote the acquisition of culturallyinfluencedways of behaving, but rather to help learners seetheir culture in relation to othersso as to promote cross-cultural understanding. If oneaccepts thisviewof culturallearning, it is clearthat iiterary textsprovidean ideal context for exploring cultural differences.However, approachinglirterztureto develop cross-culfirral understandinq nequires that teachers first carefully examine the culturalassumptions present in a particularliterarywork and then structureactivities that help students galn an understanding of those assumptions. Teachers and students need to ''ih-E$':"

both from eachother'sand from those portrayed in the literary Gxt. fu a wayof clariiring this approach, let usconsid.er howa specific text-igfrt be-usedin a second language .l^rroo* to promote cross-cultural understanding. In general,immigrant liteiature offers a rich coniext for exploiing cultural differences since the storiesfrequent$ deal with individuals who haveliterallyani figuratively crossed borders and, hence,have.*p"ri"rr..d manycultural dif-

grant family working as tomaro pickers in California.The Uayashifamily is composed. of Rosie,a youngteenager, and her pu..rrtr. Rosie is involvedin manyaspects of Americanculture and hasacculturated to the extentof preferring to useEnglish instead ofJapanese. In ihe course of the storyshefalls in lovewith Jesus, another young immigrantworker,who is Hispanic. The story revolves around Rosie'smother,Tome, who assumes a pen name for writing haiku to submit to a contestsponsored by thi Malnichi Shimbu newspaper. Mrs. Hayashi's talentin writ_ ing haiku results in her receiving an awardfrom the editor of the newspaper, one of his favorite Hiroshigesprints depictingfour sampans on a pale blue sea.However, Rosie's father,upsetby the disturbancesthat the haiku writing has caused the family, destroys the Hiroshige hiswife receives.The story ends with Mrs- Hayashi admitting to her daughrerthat shecameto the United States as parf of an arrangedmarriage after having glvenbirth out of wedlockto a stillborn son. After the birth, Tome had written to her favoritesister in the United States, threatening to kill herselfif her sisterdid not sendfor her. Her sister then had arranged a marriage for her in the United States with a young man who had recentlyarrivedfrom Japan.Th; storyconcludeswhen Rosie's mother kneelson the floqr and takesRosieby the wrists:"'Rosie,' she said ur$ently,'Promise me you will never rfiarryl.')' This story contains several cultural schemas-thg schemiof theJapanese immigrant family in whichvarious Japun.i. traditions"such

roles are still upheld; the scherna.of American popular culture, with references to movie stars like ShirleyTempleand songslike "Red Sails in the Sunset";and finally, the schemaof farm with expectations workers about tomatopicking and poor hour;ingconditions. \{hich schemas are familiar to teachers and studentsdepends upon their culturalbackground. In teaching the story however, the firststepthe teacher needs to undertakeis to examine what cultural schemas the storyportrays. This might be accomplished by simplyclusteringall of the examples in the text that rel4teto a particularculturalschema. Next, teachers needto designways to make these differences accessible to students. One strategyfor doingthis is to merely present someof the assumed cultural information. In this case,a teacher mightshowpictures of farmworkers, read some examplesof haiku, or familiarizestudents with relevant aspects of UnitedStates' popularculture.Thislevelof culturalawareness isnot difiicult to exemplify. The significantcultural differences in the story however, rest in such factorsas the assumed genderrolesof theJapanese fatherand mother, the acceptance of arrangedmarriages, and Tome's thoughtsof suicideasa resultof a significant lossof .[ace. With thesekinds of cultural assumptions, the goal should not be to evaluate these assurnptions but rather to help students understand why the characters actedastherrdid. Ultimately,this should lead sh-rdents to clarify their ownundelstanding of suchculturallybound phenomenonas genderroles,lossof face,and marriage. . F,,Iow these aspecfs of culture are approached in the classroom depends largelyon the baCkground of the teacherand the students. If, for example,the storyis taught inJapanwith studentsand aJapanese teacher, then Japanese the classroom participants mostlikelyshare many cultural assumptions evidentin the behaviorof Mr. and Mrs. Hayashi. \tVhat might seemunusual is the fact that Rosiehas not kept ,to this class up her Japanese and is willing to,meet ,..r.ily On the other hand, if the srory is with Jesus. taught in the lJnited Stateswith an'American teacher and someJapanese stud.ents, the teacher, while familiar with manyreferences to,.American

culture and wrth an understanding of the farm worker community, may not understand the many referencesto Japanese culure nor be willing to acceptMrs.Hayahsi's willingness ar the end of the story to giveup her writrng of haiku. In short,to the extentthatEnglish language classroomsrepresent individualsfrorn variouscultural backgrounds, the culturalinformationin particular literarytextsmaybe knownto andaccepted by someof the classroom participants, yetunfamiliar to others. Ultimately, wharthe literarytext providesis a medium for sharing and illuminating the cross-culturaldifferenies it exernplifies.The valueof selecting textsthat portrayaspects of the culture of some of the classroom members is that thosestudents who cornefrom this culture can explainmany of the cultural elementsthat maynot beunderstood bymernbers of other cultures.Ideally, the culturaldiscussion that occurs will illuminate why particularcharacters from a specific cultural backgroundacted as they did. Such an approachhopefullywill avoid rhe cultriral stereotypingthat can occur when discussing crossrultural differences,since these discussions will be groundedin specific behavior portrayed in a particular literary context. This is one of the m{or cross-cultural benefitsthat Iiterarytextscan bring to L2 classrooms.

CONCLUSION
Using literature as content in ESL/EFL classes hasa variety of benefits. \{hile readingliterature should be primarily an enjoyable aesthetic experience,usingliteraturein L2 classrooms can also developstudents'languageawareness. Because literary textsare unique in their abitity to illustrate that whatiscommunicated cannotbe separatedfrom how it is communicated, theyprovide an ideal context for demonstrating the^importaficeof form in language learningand language use.Eiactlyhow theyareused, in a particularclassroom depends on a wide larietX of factorsstudents' language learninggoals, proficiency level in English,and personalinterests, aswell as the

teachers' knowledge of and interestin literature, the teacher's teachingphilosophy, and his or her classroom objectives. Perhaps the greatest benefit of usingliteratureascontentin an era of increasing globalization is that literary textsprovide an ideal contextfor examiningcross-cultural differences andexploringthemin a mannerthat particularizes rather, than stereotypes thesedifferences.

DlscusstoNQtJEST|ONS
1' Drawinggn the ideas presented in this chapyou believeare the essential tei discussrwhat , dif[erences betweenliterary and nonliterary texts. 2. Discusswhat you believe are the major advantages and disadvantages of using literary textswith second language students. 3; Do you think explicit attention should be givento examiningthe form of literary texts in L2 classrooms? \trhatreasons do you have for your opinion?Do you believethis attention to fotm detracts from students' aesthetic experience with a text?\l[hy? 4, This chapter has argued that even though there are differences betweendialogues in literarytextsand naturalconversation, such materiil is valuablein developingstudents' pragmatic competence? Do you agreeor disagree? \,Ihy? 5. Discuss waysin which you would find informationabout unfamiliarculturalschemas in literary texts.
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c. a series of activities that involvethe deveiopment of all four skills-reading, writing, speaking, and listening I Selecta piece of literaturethat involves several culturalschemas. Beginby analyzing the culturalschemas that existin the text, listing specific details that contribute to each schema. Then describe howyogwould inake those schemasaccessible to a particular group of language learners. o J. Selecta secondlanguage textbookthat uses literarytextsascontent.Review the follow-up activities that are includedin the text,and discusswhether you believe the activities contribute primarily to students'aesthetic readingof the text, their efferentreadingof the text,or both. 4. Observe an ESL or EFL class that usesliterary texts,Describethe activities in the class that contributeto students' awareness of the languagein the text and the activitiesthat developstudents'awareness of the cultural schemas in the text.

FURTHER READING
Carter,R.,andJ.McRae,7996. Language, Lituatureand theLeamsr. London: AddisonWesley Longman. This collectionof essays is derivedfrom three international seminars on the teaching of literature in second and foreign languageclassrooms,held at the Universityof Nottingham. The editorsnote that the papers in the volume share a commitment to practical,classroombasedactivities,particularlythosethat are language based and studentcentered. Collie,J.,and S,Slater,1987 , Li,terature ln theLanguage qnd, Classroom: A Rtsource Booh of ldeas Acti.aities, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The openingchapterof this trookexamines why literature shouldbe included in second language how texts should be selecteO] uiA -. classrooms, how theyshouldbe used. The other chapters are devotedto illustrating specificclassroom activities to,usewith literary textsin the preJeading, and postreading . , while.reading, process.

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SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES
1:: Select a:shortstorythat you believe would be engagrng for a group of languagelearners youarefamiliarwith.Then design one of the 1'*-'EffiP:r';'';"'' followirug a,..,an ictivity that encouragesstudents to , . drawon the textto supporttheir opinion raracterin the story encourages studentsto text would,be different her point of view