How to Use Short Stories to Teach English in a Humanizing, Dignifying, and Meaningful Way: A hec!

list "y #eorge $radford %atterson, "orgeslo&er'hotmail(com Short stories may be utilized as a very helpful and inspiring literary device to teach English language skills in a humanizing, dignifying, and meaningful way in the EFL/ESL class and promote human rights, justice, dignity, and intercultural understanding !he use of this device has become more obvious and important in light of the increasing interest in peace through the interest group !ES"Lers for Social #esponsibility $!S#% and the human&improving role of applied linguists' !here is an increasing stress and tendency for !ES"L professionals to participate in applications of peace linguistics (eace linguistics may be defined by a pioneering entry on that emerging area by )avid *rystal $+,,,%' -n approach which emerged during the +,,.s among many linguists and language teachers in which linguistic principles, methods, findings and applications were seen as a means of promoting peace and human rights at a global level /t emphasizes the linguistic value of diversity and multilingualism $012% -long the same lines, short stories can be utilized as an innovative device by humanistic teachers for dignifying and edifying learning e3periences Following is a checklist $partially adapted from Francisco 4omes de 5atos6s $0..2% checklist 7-re 8ou a 9umanizer:7% for EFL/ESL teachers to utilize short stories as an innovative device to teach English language skills in a humanizing and meaningful way' + 5ake use of short stories that emphasize such values as human rights, justice, peace, dignity, courage, reconciliation, forgiveness, compassion, mercy, and repentance 9ave the students look for symbols, themes, imagery, moods, tones, epiphanies, character development, plots, subplots, ironies, foreshadowing/suspense, and aftershadowing to illustrate these values 0 !hen have them write short stories to illustrate values !hey can do this as an individual class e3ercise and also at home 9ave them identify symbols, themes, imagery, moods, tones, settings, epiphanies, foreshadowing, and aftershadowing 9ave them read passages in their short stories that illustrate these literary devices !hen have them do this as a small&group e3ercise ; 9ave them discuss how the short story enables them to grow personally, socially, intraculturally, and interculturally on a group and individual level 9ave volunteers provide e3amples to the class -s a follow&up e3ercise, have them write summaries or essays e3plaining these points of growth !hey can do this as a group and individual e3ercise !hen they can do this as a homework e3ercise !hey can also do it in a second language learning conte3t

2 Encourage the students to apply human communicative rights in the classroom short& story e3ercise by asserting their right to hear $what is being said by other members of the classroom community% and their right to be heard and to make certain that the students fulfill their corresponding communicative responsibilities 1 -dapt/change portions of short stories so that they contribute to personal or group humanization, including having them write epiphanies Epiphanies $9ills, +,<<, +<% are both a kind of e3perience and also a literary genre&both a way of seeing or hearing and a way of demonstrating and writing Some epiphanies may be an artistic creation&in fact, a sort of poetic&prose statement&whereas others appear to be transcriptions of actual life, albeit recorded, of course, with e3treme care /n such a case, the crucial =uestions would be' >hat has to be changed in the short story$s% in such and such a lesson so that language learning can become a profoundly humanizing and meaningful e3perience 9ow can that be actualized: !his e3ercise can be done as a group, individual, whole& class, or homework e3ercise ? -s the students discuss and write these short stories, encourage them to adopt and sustain a positive view of the language and culture of that short story /n addition, make use of English translations by @obel literary laureates such as 5iguel -ngel -sturias and 4abriel 4arcia 5ar=uez and other great writers such as /sabel -llende and Aorge Luis Borges, the greatest short&story writer in the history of Latin -merica < -lso, use classroom short&story e3ercises to facilitate the creation of humanizing, peace&building, peace&enhancing, and peace&promoting activities so that learners improve their competence as caring and compassionate language learners/users 9ave the students e3plore how these short stories can contribute to humanizing, dignifying, and meaningful activities that can serve as a bridge for peace, justice, human rights, and intercultural understanding in regional conflicts such as in 5indanao in the (hilippines, Bosnia, #wanda, -fghanistan, Cosovo, /ra=, Sudan, Somalia, *ongo, /vory *oast, (alestine& /srael, Lebanon, *hechnya, and @orthern /reland D Employ the short&story e3ercises to help the students probe language resources, especially vocabulary, in small groups and pairs !hrough investing in vocabulary, students can reap the fruits of humanizing dividends on a short&term and long&term basis !he corresponding vital =uestion would be 9ow can the learning of vocabulary from short stories contribute to reinforcing learners6 sense of self&respect, self&esteem, mutual respect, and dignity: , 9ave the students use the /nternet in a humanizing way by searching for meaningful, dignifying, and humanizing short stories by @obel laureates such as >illiam Faulkner, Ernest 9emingway, and /sabel -llende !hen have the students communicate with each other by e&mail in discussing the short stories of these writers 9ave them compare and contrast the short stories of these writers !he use of short stories as an innovative device to teach English language skills to EFL/ESL students and second language skills of other second languages to second

language learners can reinforce the teaching of these language skills in a humanizing, meaningful, and dignifying way by' E *hallenging students to cultivate and sustain an awareness of their responsibility as peace patriots through their employment of English and of their first language and other languages in which they are fluent E Sensitizing learners to the awareness of language used not only for interacting but also for e3pressing the feeling of loving one6s linguistic neighbor E *hallenging student to create peace&promoting mini&glossaries for employment in different professions, such as tourism and management, law, medicine, journalism, and engineering E *hallenging students to e3change peace&enhancing sustaining statements, proverbs, allegories, vignettes, and =uotations with learners both intraculturally and cross& culturally E *hallenging students to identify insensitive uses of English in the media $press/television/movies% and in fictional works and to replace such objectionable e3pressions with humanizingly rendered language $4omes de 5atos, 0..0% !herefore, the short story is definitely a superb innovative device to teach English language skills to EFL/ESL students and also language skills of other second languages to second language learners in a humanizing, dignifying, and meaningful way #eferences *rystal, ) $+,,,% !he penguin dictionary of language $0nd ed % London' (enguin Books 4omes de 5atos, F $0..0% -pplied peace linguistics' - new frontier for !ES"Lers F/(LF >orld @ews, 1?, 2&? 4omes de 5atos, F $0..2% -re you a humanizer:' - checklist !ES"Lers for Social #esponsibility @ewsletter, 2 9ills, # $+,<<% >riting in general and the short story in particular @ew 8ork' 9oughton 5ifflin !he author 4eorge Bradford (atterson is a @orth -merican originally from (hiladelphia, (ennsylvania 9e is currently residing in the (hilippines finishing his (h ) dissertation in 7!G#@&!-C/@4 /@ E@4L/S9 *"@5FE#S-!/"@ /@ S5-LL 4#"G( )/S*GSS/"@S at the Gniversity of the (hilippines, )iliman in the *ollege of Education in the Language -rea 9e has a 5asters )egree in !eaching English as a Second Language from #utgers & !he State Gniversity of @ew Aersey from the 4raduate School of Education , )ept Language and Learning in @ew Brunswick in 5ay, +,D0 9e also did his B- in Aanuary, +,<2 at !emple Gniversity, (hiladelphia, (ennsylvania, GSLater, he did a post graduate major in Spanish 9e has taught EFL/ESL in *olombia, (eru, 5e3ico, 9onduras, *hina, and Corea in universities, language institutes, binational centers, and international school 9e is also a bilingual poet, having published two books of poetry in Spanish in Santiago, *hile through the Editorial Fertil (rovincia and one

book of bilinguial book of poetry in English and Spanish in the (hilippines 9e is also a short writer and essayist and has traveled, worked, and studied in the (hilippines, *hina, !hailand, Singapore, /ndia, Bangladesh, 9ong Cong, 5e3ico, *olombia, Brazil, )ominican #epublic, 9onduras, -rgentina, El Salvador, 4uatemala, and (eru