Teaching Language through Literature in the EFL Classroom

【Abstract】English language education takes place as a general school subject in colleges in China. There are many approaches to language teaching. Generally， literature course in foreign country has two equal tasks- literature appreciation and language learning. In literature instruction， it has to cove r these two aspects and fulfills these two tasks. This paper aims to help students in EFL classroom students find out how messages in texts convey ideas of ideologies by designing a literature course- analyze the same story in different genres.

【Key words】EFL； Pygmalion； My fair lady； genre

As an EFL teacher in China， I deeply feel that the traditional EFL classroom has exposed excessive challenges in English language teaching. Students still feel frustrated after many years of language learning. As a struggling language teacher， I need to change the way I look at students and the way I teach them. Then I explore the literature teaching in my classroom， through which I can figure out the importance of incorporating students native language and cultural practices into EFL classroom. I have come to appreciate the importance of literature teaching in EFL classroom.

Combination of language learning and literature appreciation should be a typical characteristic of English literature teaching in the EFL context. Generally， literature course in a foreign country has two equal tasks-literature appreciation and language learning. While in literature instruction， it has to cover the two aspects and fulfill these two tasks. On the one hand， students will appreciate literature； on the other hand they will learn language on the same time.

To avoid adapting the traditional approach， focusing more on the functional and interactive approaches in the literature teaching in language education， I aim to design a lesson as an example， which aims to set up foundation knowledge of cultural background of the drama Pygmalion and the movie My fair lady. I will use some literature materials to different genres based on the same story to help students to be critical thinkers through critical cultural analysis.

Teaching instruction follows the steps below：

Make a comparison between the drama Pygmalion and the movie My fair lady， implementing reader theatre.

1）I will hand out the section of Act 1 from the drama Pygmalion to students， and ask them to read it before class as preparation. The students can capture the general idea of this play in this step.endprint

2）I will play some part of the movie My fair lady to students. Student can figure out this movie refers to the same topic as the drama Pygmalion， even if there are many differences between these two genres. After playing this video clip， I will give the transcripts of the video clips to students.

3）Group discussion. This step involves collaborate working team-tell the differences between the two genres.

4）Then I will hand out a chart to every group， and the chart should be designed like this：

The group members should work together to fill chart 1 in these piece of literature. They are familiar with the plot setting elements about when， where， who， what and how. After their discussion， I will put this chart on the board， and every group can fill two blanks on the chart. After completing the whole chart， anyone can add more information on the chart if they question these answers. In this step， the students begin to understand the contents in these two pieces of literature.

5）Next， I will show them chart 2 below

For chart 2， I will guide students to compare these two pieces of literature. I need guide students to analyze the similarity and differences from specific aspects， and this should be multifaceted. I will give students on some hints on the comparison from aspects of words， sentences， scene， characters， and etc.. After that， the group discussion will be held on this chart filling.

In this section， the students will get conceptual knowledge toward the content in Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw and the musical film My Fair Lady. Then I will use my scripts as follows：

Shaws Pygmalion retells a myth by Ovid， in which a man creates and falls in love with a female statue. The goddess of love takes pity on the man， and brings the statue to life. The musical film My Fair Lady turns a drama of mythological weight into a lighthearted musical comedy. This shift in genre from drama to film causes the musical to lose some of complex social analysis that occurs in Pygmalion.

Section 2： Assist the students to cultivate an ability to think critically

6）Play the video clips again， I will put forward some questions in details.

Setting： Where does the story take place？

Plot： How does the story process？

Characters： Who are the characters？

After the students scan these questions， I will let the students to watch the film clips. I need guide students to think about the question： How will we emphasize the moral of story using our voice？ For this question， students will do a critical thinking to the idea embedded in the film.endprint

7）After watching film-clips activities

Put forward questions in depth

a.What is the man hiding from the rain？

b.Why is Eliza afraid of him at first？

c.Where has Colonel Pickering been living and what has he studies？

d.Who is Henry Higgins anxious to meet and why？

e.What is Elizas ambition and what does she decide to do about it？

While putting forward these questions， I need guide students to come back the question in： How will we emphasize the moral of the story using our voice？

8）Role play

9）Group discussion on an in-depth question （critical thinking）-reader theater：

Q： Can you recognize each characters social position by their language and behavior？

Is he or she from the upper class， middle class or lower class？ Give me your reasons.

In this discussion， in every group， there should be a writer and a reporter， every group needs to make a poster on the wall. Students can use pictures， words， phrases， sentences even some sign to explain their ideas on this question.

Summary of this lesson：

This lesson aims to help students not only focus on reading comprehension， but also help themselves to be critical thinkers by exploring the hints hidden among the lines in reading materials.

The purpose of designing this lesson is to support language teachers in China to explore literature elements hidden behind the textbook. I suggest language teachers modulating their teaching approaches to suit specific situations for school students in China. Even if their English foreign language proficiency cannot achieve the same level as their mother language， but their psychological development level has achieved to a certain level.

作者简介：谢果 （1985.12-），女，硕士，湖北荆州人，汉族。现任职于桂林理工大学博文管理学院。研究方向：系统功能语言学。endprint