Chaos in the Classroom Chapter 10: Voices out of Nowhere

1997

When your high school students need understandable explanations of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple and other novels frequently studied in literature courses, direct them to this new reference from Gale. Each volume of Novels for Students contains easily accessible and content-rich discussions of the literary and historical background of 15 to 20 works from various cultures and time periods. Each novel included in this new resource was specially chosen by an advisory panel of teachers and librarians -- experts who have helped us define the information needs of students and ensure the age-appropriateness of this reference's content.

It is not uncommon to hear from the academics that standards of English studies have drastically deteriorated over the period of time. One of the causal factors normally attributed to this decline in standards is students' incapacity and incapability to read and appreciate literary texts. But one should not conveniently overlook the fact that English studies in India is made available only through academic institutions where teachers and pedagogy play a vital role in benchmarking and sustaining standards. Here prevails the pedagogic pandemonium first in the minds of literary academics who themselves face the linguistic handicap of English as a second language. They cannot equate themselves as much with native teachers of English literature as teachers of regional literatures in India. Ironically, for a majority of English literature students at all levels, English is still a foreign language. Hence, while English literature teachers face a single disadvantage of using English as a second language, English literature students confront doubt disadvantages: English as a foreign language and they have no competence in it. Hence, it is a silent conspiracy to exclude language study from literary study by way of emphasising the contents. Linguistic competence is the first and foremost requirement for acquiring literary competence. Both cannot be acquired simultaneously, but only successively. Analysis and appreciation of literary texts mercifully rests on language which provides the necessary matrix for the creation of literature. It is not justifiable and fair to level charges against students when they never ever get an opportunity to acquire literary competence for both aesthetic appreciations subjectively and cognitive comprehension objectively. Students, in fact, become victims of the 'cell-prison' status being internalized first by the academics and then accorded to 'lang-lit' components of aesthetic branch of human knowledge. This paper aims to examine the importance of language as a subject and as a medium in teaching of English literature, and it sets a working hypothesis that language is an equally important and indispensable tool for creation and consumption of literature. 2

New Delhi: Kalpaz, 2014

Selçuk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 1981

Problems cohnected with the teaching of the English novel to Turkish students in university English language and literature departments are mainly of two kinds. There are problems arising from the nature of the nov~I as a literary form; there are also problems arising from the fact that, . when students come into serious contact, more or !ess, for the first

Continental Thought & Theory, 2019

Studying Fiction, 2021

The right of Jessica Mason and Marcello Giovanelli to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. five years. We are grateful to everyone we have taught and worked with; all of you have helped to shape the ideas in this book. As always, we are grateful as ever to our colleagues, families and friends and would also like to acknowledge the support of the team at Routledge at the various stages of writing. Finally, Jessica Mason would like to extend special thanks to Ben Hannam and Kate Longson, without whom her involvement in the final preparations of the manuscript of this book would simply not have been possible. We are grateful for permission to reproduce parts of the following research papers in Chapter 2 of this book: "Well I don't feel that": Schemas, worlds and authentic reading in the classroom, by Marcello Giovanelli and Jessica Mason, English in Education, 2015, reprinted by permission of the publisher (Taylor & Francis Group, http://www.tandfonline.com) "What do you think?" Let me tell you: Discourse about texts and the literature classroom, by Jessica Mason and Marcello Giovanelli, Changing English, 2017, reprinted by permission of the publisher (Taylor & Francis Group, http://www.tandfonline.com)