Death can not be a taboo in EFL classes

All of us are worried about death; all of us have thought about death, we do not understand exactly what happened when we die. We have a lot of questions related to death but nobody can answer them but I can guarantee 100% that we will die someday. Everyday million of people die around the world and we have not noticed. Moreover, at school it is not a common topic, indeed it is a taboo topic and for that reason many teachers avoid discussing about death because it is very complex, sometimes they do not know how to face difficult questions or what kind of material they could use. Thus this paper deals with the following question, why literature can help teachers to discuss about death in EFL classes? I raise this question because death can not be a taboo topic in the classroom. On the one hand I will provide two definitions about death, in order to have a holistic understanding of the meaning. On the other hand, I will present the reason why literature helps teachers to discuss about it and I will give some examples of poems and novels that are focused in this topic and they could be helpful to introduce the theme in EFL classrooms.

According to the biologist Nasif Nahle, death always occurs as a deterministic event because all living beings will die. Death is a final state of any biosystem that is intimately linked to a state of maximum entropy; thus, death is an irreversible final state. Thus, dead organisms, humans included, will never return to life.

Now, a Christian perspective mentions that,

The Bible tells us how to face death. From God's perspective it is not physical death that we should fear. Physical death is only the soul being separated from our physical body. There are really three types of death. Besides physical death, there are spiritual and eternal death. Spiritual death is separation from God because of our sin. God cannot be in the presence of sin (disobedience to God). Spiritual death started with Adam and continues today whenever we sin against God. Spiritual death is only a temporary condition, but eternal death is forever. Eternal death is eternal separation from God. If we have not accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will face death that is eternal on Judgment Day.

These perspectives give us an obvious sense of its meaning, death is the end of life. It does not important if we have a scientific or a religious point of view because it is clear that all of us born, then we grow up and finally we die. However, the main differences between these points of view are what happen after we die.

Clearly this topic is very difficult for all of us, but it does not mean that it has to be left aside by teachers. Teachers should be prepared to talk about it, for that reason in their initial programs should encourage them to discuss and analyze complex topic such us death, euthanasia and abortion. In that way, they would acquire knowledge about these topics and it would not be so difficult to discuss them in their classes.

One way to introduce the topic to EFL classrooms is through Literature due to the fact that literature reflects a constant process of trying to understand death and all its implications. (Encyclopedia of Death and Dying, 2009).Moreover,

the history of death in literature reveals a culture that has evolved from one that accepted death as a natural part of life, to one that invested it with primary religious significance, to one that almost fetishized death, to one that tried to deny it for its now apparent irrationality. Literature suggests that as death has become increasingly less "natural" and concomitantly less meaningful, people have had to find new ways to negotiate it. (Encyclopedia of Death and Dying, 2009)

Having in mind that idea, literature provides a historical background about death, indeed this topic has been written since ancient times. So far, literature has demonstrated that it is an excellent tool to incorporate this topic to EFL classrooms. Many writes have written about death so there are million resources like poems, short stories, novels, etc to apply in classes. For instance, “When I Have Fears that I may cease to be” by Keats is excellent poem to discuss in classes because he wrote about his fears of death and not being remembered. So, students could understand emotions and feelings that in the poem appear. In that way, students could understand a different point of view about death and how Keats dealt with his feelings. So, in that way teachers could raise awareness of emotions, learners could feel identified with the poem and they could understand that they are not the only ones how feel fear of death. It is important to mention that teachers should foster students to research, share opinions, discuss deeper, and solve problems related to this topic because these activities could help them to compare their ideas with others, to listen classmates’ experiences and points of view. In this manner, learners are practicing emotional skills and critical thinking.

To conclude, death has different perceptions like the biological and the religious but those perspectives are not a difficulty to discuss it in classes. Indeed, literature helps teachers to discuss about death in their lessons because it has always reflected on death. Besides it is and excellent resource due to the fact it has real language, it provides historical contexts, many writers have written about it and it brings different perspectives and emotions to the classroom. When teachers and students discuss about this topic, they can understand their feelings and fears and others’ perspectives, how death has faced through history and they can put into practice emotional skills and critical thinking.

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Work cited

Australian Museum . Defining Death Death the last taboo. 2009. 02 Dic 2009

<http://www.deathonline.net/what_is/defining.cfm>

“Death”. Encyclopedia. Com. 2009. 02 Dic 2009

< http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O94-death.html>

Nahle, Nasif.. Biological death. Biology Cabinet Oct 2006. 02 Dic 2009.

<http://biocab.org/Biological_Death.html>

“Death in Literature” . Encyclopedia of Death and Dying, 2009. 03 Dic 2009 <http://www.deathreference.com/Ke-Ma/Literature-for-Adults.html>

final essay ouline

title: Death can not be a taboo in EFL classes
Outline

1. Introduction

a. biological definiton about death
b. cristian definition about death

2. Body
a. literature and its relation to death
b. examples
c. applicability

3. Conclusion

September 1, 1939 by W. H Auden

Clearly, just reading the title of this poem I understood that the author was pointed out historical facts. On September 1, 1939 was the invasion of Poland and that issue was the beginning of the Second World War. Moreover in 1939 was the end of Spanish Civil War. These two historical aspects determined this poem.

In the following stanza he is criticizing the consequences of the invasion of Poland,

waves of anger and fear
circulate over the bright
and darkened lands of the earth,
obsessing our private lives;
the unmentionable odour of death
offends the September night

Auden in this part of the poem illustrates the fear of people and the imminent death of million of human beings. He also explains how the land had been destroyed by the invasion, desolation and darkness controlled the streets of September 1.

He also refers to religion, he mentions Luther to place us in a specific context that from him until now, religion has controlled the way we see God and what children have to learn about religion. As consequence they have developed a psychopathetic, with multiple personalities and mentally ill.

When he says “All I have is a voice”, he wants to be listened to and he also wants to express that through his voice we can criticize authority, progress, democracy, collective man, religion and nationalism.

To conclude, this is an excellent poem to analyze and to present it in an EFL class because it has many contemporary topics that are affecting our society nowadays.

Nicole's blog

I really like Nicole's post about D. H Lawrence because it was very interesting and she wrote about what called her attention. She mentioned the most important topics of the Rocking Horse winner but she could explain little bit more about them. I completely agree with her, the end of the short story is surprising!! I’ve never expected that Paul died.
Her questions were excellent, I think that she could use this short story in her elab. Probably she could use some quotes and then ask them those questions.
To conclude, she did a great job her reflections were good and she mentioned the important topics.

The waste land by T. S Eliot

Just analyzing the title of the poem, “The waste land”, I wonder where is the waste land? It is important to consider that this poem was published after the First World War, so the waste land could refer Europe after the war. Devastation, desolation, death and loneliness were aspects that predominated in during the interwar period. The massacre of innocent people in the war denoted the lack of awareness of …..In fact weapons were more important than human beings’ lives. Eliot combined different languages such as German and French. Probably he wanted to demonstrate that languages were not a boundaries, the waste land was conformed by all European countries. In the first subtitle “The Burial of the Dead” we can recognize how the land was devastated in the war. “And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water” .To conclude, this poem criticized the European society and how the war damaged the land and human relations.

The rocking- horse winner by D. H Lawrence

Mother and children relationship is a key issue in the Rocking- horse winner because D.H Lawrence combined his real experience with fiction.

Analyzing his life and this story, the image of the “mother” is seen as an unhappy woman, who takes care children and control all aspects of her children’s life. On the one hand, in the case of the story the mother didn’t love her children and they felt that. There was a wall between them. However she tried to do her best in order to look like a good mother. Another aspect to consider is that she didn’t have a good relationship with her husband. Moreover she said that she was an unlucky woman because she got married to an unlucky man. In other words, she passed on the responsibility of unluckiness to her husband.

On the other hand, Lawrence’s mother had a close relationship with him, in fact she encouraged him to study arts and poetry. In that way she controlled his life because she didn’t want that he become a miner as his father. In addition she didn’t get along with her husband, they had frictions due to the fact they belonged to different social status. She passed on the responsibility of they poverty to her husband. To conclude his life had a lot in common with the rocking- horse winner. Probably he wanted to express what he lived through a story.

A room of one’s own by Virginia Woolf

To be honest I don’t like this essay. I think it is boring, maybe because it’s about gender issues and I believe that it is not a controversial topic nowadays.

However in this post I’ll focus on the need to have a space to write.

When she wrote about the need of having a room of one’s own she was referring to have physical and mental space to have inspiration to write.

Probably Charlotte Brontë didn’t have a physical space to write but she had a mental space where she was free to do whatever she wanted. She created that place and for that reason she could write Jane Eyre and other novels.

To have a room of one’s own is important not only for women, but men also need a space to be free. Women and men are human beings so, they have the same rights and duties. Gender equality is important to develop a better world. If Shakespeare was one of the greatest writers, women can be the greatest and most important writers too.

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens in his story “Oliver Twist” has portrayed modernity in all its aspects, for instance the relationship between the city and the country, the lack of good life conditions and loneliness.
When I saw the movie I immediately reflected on those children who live in bad conditions without medicine, warm clothes, food or a house. Nowadays when we see a child begging for money, we don’t care about him/her. Moreover that child is invisible to our eyes. Probably those children use delinquency as their ally to survive in our society and we blame them for their actions. In my case I used to see those kids near to the Posta Central and I don’t do something to help them. Sadly, my individualistic point of view has develop that indifference and modernization has also contributed to my individualism, everything is fast and I don’t have enough time to do something and I don’t devote time to change it.

Oliver Twist must be taught in schools because it makes us reflect on our “modern society” and individualism, and students also could think about children who don’t have parents or a house. In that way they could be more empathic and they could appreciate what they have.

The signal-man by Charles Dickens

I really enjoyed reading this short story, it was amazing how this story was developed and I never expected its ending. It also made me feel anguish because the story was terrifying!
When I was reading I asked to myself , How has modernity affected our lives?
Modernity has developed a lack of good life conditions, for instance it is not healthy work too many hour per day or work isolated. However some people accept those conditions in order to “improve” their life. But that improvement is just an illusion due to the fact, they waste all their energy trying to earn more money working more hours. For that reason mental diseases are related to these work conditions. The signal man was mentally disturbed, he saw a ghost in the railway, as a result of working alone in a small box. Nowadays people suffer stress, depression or panic crisis. Having those diseases, they couldn’t work for the reason that they are completely disabled for the society.
I believe that the ghost that the signal man saw wanted that he stops and reflects on what he was doing- in his life. It’s the same when we suffer stress, which is a sing that tells us stop, take your time and think about everything in your live.

Franki!

After reading Frankenstein and Mary Shelley’s biography I realized that she portrayed herself in some way because she grew up without her mother and she was rejected by her father. Probably the feeling of loneliness inspirited her to write Frankenstein.


Victor Frankenstein played with the power of nature even more he challenged the process of life and death and his obsession and ego led him to create this creature “Franki Jr.”. Sadly he didn’t think about the consequences of his actions and he didn’t care about his “son”, he just abandoned and rejected him as if he was an old toy.

Franki Jr. just wanted to know who his family was - his roots, he wanted to be loved and accepted. Everybody wants that, everybody wants to be part of the world. On the one hand he had feelings like a human being. On the other hand as a result of discrimination, abandon and injustice Franki Jr. behaved as a monster killing all the people who Victor loved. That was his revenge. Clearly Franki Jr. was not guilty of having born without a family, without someone who tells him what things are bad or good. For that reason the guilty person in this case was Victor, he caused all his own problems.

This reading made me think that sometimes all of us feel like Franki Jr. when we feel that we don’t belong to certain places, when we don’t feel loved, when we are discriminated, when we are disappointed, when we are not accepted for our clothes, beliefs or attitudes….

Daffodils, by Wordsworth

Reading Wordworth’s poem I felt that I was gazing those daffodils and they were dancing around me and little by little I was part of them- part of nature. Absolutely nature is perfect, gorgeous and infinite and all of us are proud of its beauty. I think he admired nature and beauty and for that he took daffodils as a representation of nature magnificence.

This poem is like a photo .When we take a photo we capture an instant of our lives and we can be part of it every time we look at it. Clearly this poem represents an instant that Wordsworth lived and experienced and then he recalled and wrote about it.

The following stanza: “A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company" deals with the idea that when we contemplate nature, we are not alone, it illuminates our lives and we can be full of pleasure.

“When I have fears that I may cease to be” by John Keats

As a romantic poet, Keats dealt with nature, but he emphasized on human nature. Clearly fear is one of the most important aspects in human beings. All of us have felt fears in our lives and in my personal experience I have felt fears that frighten me; however I have never wanted to cease to be. After reading this poem I think he was very pessimistic about his life. And I realized that he felt fears about the rational world and love and not being remembered.
Having read his inscription on his tombstone, this reads: “Here lies one whose name was writ in water”, I could understand better his fear of not being remembered. He wrote that because when someone writes something in the water, it can’t endure for a long time. Nevertheless maybe he never thought that he will be always remembered for his poems and his inscription.

Kubla Khan or or A Vision in a dream ......

"It is essential to poetry that it should be simple, and appeal to the elements and primary laws of nature; that it should be sensuous, and by its imagery elicit truth at a flash; that it should be impassioned, and be able to move our feelings and awaken affection”.

What does this quote mean with simple? Should poems be simple in the way of appealing to our feelings? Are poems simple? In that part of the quote we can interpret as simple in the way of easy to read or to understand. For me the more challenging the poem is, the more think about it. I read many times Coleridge’s poem and every time I read it I gave different interpretations, I discussed it with my classmates and I realized that is not simple in that sense. So, what does this quote mean with that?

Another aspect that I found in this poem is that it is very affective due to the fact it is a representation of a dream and clearly it represents the human thoughts and feelings. It also appeals to our imagination, for the reason that the poem gives us the notion of a mystical place and through our imagination we can go there and we can be part of it. He used his imagination to create this beautiful poem, and we have to use it to go to that wonderful place.

To conclude, Kubla Khan has most of the elements that the quote refers, it is excellent to encourage our imagination.

The Little Black boy by Blake

The mother and Child
Pablo Picasso

How wonderful is when our mother kisses and hugs us. That instant is pure and natural and it is tangible because we can touch and see her and we can feel her love. We will never forget all the moments that we have lived with her.
That’s why I believe that when the little black boy recalled all the instants that he lived with his mother and all the things that she taught him were always in his mind and in his soul, and for that reason when he told his story, he played with the past and the present as they were always together.
Another important aspect is that the mother taught her son about the world and God through nature. For instance, when she said him “Look on the rising sun: there God does live..” she took an instant “ the rising sun” to explain him where God lives. So nature gives as the idea of eternity and divinity due to the fact that God, who is an intangible being, has created it.

Literature opens minds

This essay will be about how literature has changed my life and the way I see education. I will write about my experience in my literature class and how it has changed my way I understand the world. I will describe some topics that I discussed in this class, then how schools apply literature and finally, I will write how literature can be applied in EFL classrooms.

At the beginning of the semester I believed that the literature class was just about reading old books and posh poems with old fashioned topics. All those prejudices did not let me see how beautiful and important literature is. So during the semester I discovered myself enjoying all the readings and, little by little I was involved in a very amazing process, reflection on my life. Why? Because I realized that literature is closely related to our lives, our experiences and our feelings. It also helps to express our ideas and feelings, to imagine new worlds and to be more creative. As Todorov wrote, ‘literature expands our universe, prompts us to see other ways to conceive and organize it’. (17)

All the classes covered different topics like homosexuality, the role of women in our society, love, palimpsest, discrimination and truth. Obviously those topics are not old fashioned as I thought before. The teacher was a facilitator and she guided us in our reflections on those topics and my own classmates presented the themes as they wanted. When they presented I realized they related the topics to their own lives and experiences and they applied all their creativity in their presentations. So, in that way I could see different points of view, interpretations and realities. And I felt very motivated in the class because I wanted to see and participate in all the presentations. Some topics were very interesting and they generated amazing debates.

And after seen all the presentations I thought how schools are applying literature in their classes? This question made me think when I was at school. When I had to read a book I just read it because it was compulsory and I would be evaluated for it. And I never reflected on the main conflicts or the topic or what the intention of the author was. Currently the situation is the same,

teachers concern the function of one component of the work in relation to the structure of the whole, not on the meaning of that component nor on the meaning of the book as a whole for its epoch for us. So students are asked about the role of a character, of an episode… (Todorov, 2007)

This is an awful problem because teachers are not promoting reflection and critical education. For instance, once I observed in my work experience that the students had to read “Pride and Prejudice” and the teacher told them they had to memorize all the characters because the test would be about them. For that reason students tend to see literature as something boring and monotonous because they just have to memorize the characters. Despite the book has interesting topics to discuss, the teacher preferred to focus his lesson in memorize the main characters.

But how can future teachers change that way of teaching literature? I think teachers training programs should encourage literature as a way to develop critical awareness of education in order to develop critical thinkers’ teachers. Future teachers can not repeat the same mistake that in practice teachers are making. If they are well prepared in their initial programs, they could improve education. I believe that if our society has reflective and critical teachers, they could be an example to their students and students could understand their lives.

It is important to mention that future teachers must be aware of students’ interests, so in that way they could know what topics would be meaningful for them and related to their lives, both teachers and students could discuss all these topics in the classroom. In short they would not be passive, they would be active learners discussing, reflecting and analyzing different topics.

After analyzing how future teacher could improve their practice, I will write how I could use literature in EFL classroom. I would focus on speaking activities because it is the less reinforced in the classroom. First, I would ask students what books they like and what topics they would like to talk about in the class. Then I would bring those topics to the classroom, it would not be necessary make the students read the entire book, but I would present them some general ideas of the book and the author. After that, I would give them some questions to discuss and finally they would have to formulate some question to their classmates. The focus here is to share ideas, in that way I will be doing speaking and listening activities because they have to tell what they think and listen to their classmates’ opinions and see other perspectives. However, what happens with the books that are compulsory because of the syllabus? This is a common problem in the school, so I would analyze with the students what topics they would like to talk or write about.

To conclude, literature has helped me to “keep my mind wide open”, to understand my life and different points of view. Literature opens minds because it helps to create new worlds and imagine stories, it gives the chance to develop new representations of the world and express their ideas. My literature class gave the opportunity to develop these aspects and my classmates gave me examples on how I could apply literature in my future language classes. It also made me think on how future teachers could improve their literature classes, and I think that universities have to focus on teachers training programs in order to develop critical thinkers’ teachers. Future teachers must promote reflection and active students, if that happens, the school could develop its fundamental mission which is to contribute to the improvement of society through the formation of critical citizens, responsible and honorable. (Guerra, Santos, 2000) Finally, through literature, teachers can use different methodologies to teach EFL learners because the topics are very contemporary and it can open students’ minds.

Work Cited

Santos Guerra, M. A La escuela que aprende: retos, dificultades y esperanzas. Madrid: Editorial Morata. 2000.

Todorov, Tzvetan New literary History. Volume 38, Number 1, winter 2007, pp. 1- 12

We are human beings !

This paper will discuss the movie that we have seen in class, which was “The Merchant of Venice”. I will focus on the opposition between the characters Shylock and Antonio. Both were the main characters of the film but they represented opposite power in it. It is important to mention how this movie began, the first images shown were texts which explained how Jews were treated to us, discriminated and hated.

In the movie the events took place in the 16th century, in Venice, which was divided into Jews and Christians. Jews were discriminated, they were forced to wear red hats in order to recognize them and they lived in a ghetto. Antonio, who was a Christian, spat in Shylock’s face, just because he was a Jew and a usurer. One day Antonio decided to borrowed money from Shylock. Why? Because Antonio had a friend, Bassanio, who needed money in order to travel where a virgin queen lived. He wanted to seduce her because she had a lot of money. Antonio and Shylock made a deal, the Jew lent him the money without any interest but if he could not pay him three months later, Shylock would cut him a piece of his flesh. Three months later Shylock and Antonio went to the court to decide if the Jew would cut part of Antonio’s flesh. Shylock was thirsty for revenge because he had lost his pride and he had lost his daughter. But if we analyze deeply why he wanted revenge, we could see that it was because he just wanted to be respected and he wanted to be treated as a human and not as Jewish dog. from this point of view, he wanted to teach to Antonio to respect Jews but maybe through revenge was not the best way to do it.

The movie showed us stereotypes of people, its characters clearly represent different types of power and ways of thoughts. So, what did Antonio represent? Probably he represented the good side. He had everything in his life, he was handsome, Christian, and he also had money and Bassanio’s friendship. On the other hand Shylock represented “the dark side of the force”, because he was ugly, usurer and Jew. First, the discrimination here is something physically. Why did the film director choose the handsome guy to represent a Christian? It’s something absolutely esthetic, because the antagonist could not be the handsome. Otherwise, the antagonist would not be represented as something bad. Second, the discrimination in this movie was basically represented by the hate against Jews. They had to live in ghettos, wore specific clothes and they did not have the same opportunities like the Christians. Something that called my attention was Shylock’s words when he was trying to explain that he was a human to Christians.

“I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die?...”

Those words showed the desperation that Shylock felt and they made me reflect on discrimination; which is the most stupid thing that we could do against someone. We are human beings! We have the same feelings, the same fears, etc. So, everybody must have the same rights and the same opportunities. Therefore, as future teachers, movies like this could help us to encourage students to be aware of cultural differences and similarities and teach them respect. And we could say that segregation, discrimination and racism destroy the humankind and develop hate in the human beings’ hearts and souls.


To conclude, I think that this movie had two theatrical genres, comedy and tragedy. We could recognize comedy in the love story between Bassanio and Portia, and on the other hand, we could see tragedy in opposition between Shylock and Antonio. Discrimination and segregation were important topics in this movie, too. And these types of movies can help us as future teachers to teach values, like respect because all of us are human beings and also teach us awareness of other cultures due to the fact that we live in society.

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379889/quotes

film review

Outline

Title: We are human beings!

1. Introduction
2. Brief summary of the film
3. Opposition between characters
4. Discrimination
5. Personal opinion
6. Conclusion

The Faerie Queene

It was a very difficult text. I read it many times, but after the class discussion I could understand a little bit better the main idea of the letter.
The title of this poem represented an imaginary world because it took place in the Faery land where the Queene had her kingdom.
He critiqued the social, political and religious problems but he did it in an intelligent way, he expressed all his discomfort through hidden messages. So, for that reason it was an allegory.
He chose to write about King Arthur because he was a brave knight and a marvelous person who had excellent virtues. He also emphasized in some characters, which represented the church and the moral, for instance.
Spencer was smart because he wrote the letter to Raleigh to explain his intentions and what his poem was about and he also was looking for a protector because he wanted to be safe of all the problems (social, political and religious) that happened in those times.

what do women desire?

We want to be understood, loved and safe but at the same time we want to be free, independent and have fun. Probably all those desires are in our genes. Allison had the same needs just like contemporary women have..

We want to be independent but we want to depend on someone. Who can understand women? Even I can not understand myself.

I think that she was like Samantha Jones of Sex and the city, “she had sex not only to give birth but, she just wanted to have fun”. Allison could be Samantha in those times. Both had the control of their life and they discovered their sexuality, body and feelings and both looked for their desires. Clearly Allison was very brave because she was against of all church laws and against the role that society imposed on women.

I would like to follow her way of thought because I believe she was very courageous and she was very liberal. Who has 5 husbands nowadays? I’d like t have 5 husbands and if one of them does not understand me, I could kick him out and I would just 4 husbands left. The same happens if one of them have sexual problems I’d have the rest to solve that problem.

Briefly, men would never understand what women desire, curiously enough we don’t know what we want.