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,
Work Cited
Santos Guerra, M. A La escuela que aprende: retos, dificultades y esperanzas.
Todorov, Tzvetan New literary History. Volume 38, Number 1, winter 2007, pp. 1- 12
