Encouraging Reading Habits on diverse perspective of literature
Encouraging adolescent students to love reading is the primary challenge many teachers put at the top of their daily "To Do" list. Teaching adolescents to read and instilling a love of reading is a unique combination of talent, skill, care and determination. Teachers should fully understand of what their students are, how to encourage their reading habits and what they should not do to decrease their motivation in reading.
As children grow to be adolescents, their skills increase, the type of books and how they read will change and develop. Some will read one book at a time; others may have two or three going at once. If it works for those adolescents, it's alright. Some will take a book wherever they go, others may read only in a certain spot at a certain time. Again, they will have some ownership and develop their own reading characteristics.
As they grow, they may see that they are living in differences. Then, they try to find identity to be theirs. It may happen in multicultural education. The realization may impact reading habits. They will not hit books, if they think those books can not represent them any way.
In reading, it is undeniable to comprehend all the book. But, there are some obstacles to make students love their books, and one of them is something who related to region diversity, such as culture, ethnic, and nationality. When they read a book, which they do not have any senses in relation to the book, they will not love it.
However, if those students just set up to see differences of them from others, they will have no respect to see and to adjust the different situations. Then, possible problems will rise; prejudice, racial, and stereotype. Consequently, teachers should know how to decrease prejudice from their classroom. Thus, reading diverse literature includes culturally, ethnically, and nationality can be one way to bridge the gap.
In my experience, the first thing to do by all teachers is selecting literature, which can cover diverse perspective. Fortunately, nowadays, there are many YA novels in print that present both good stories and diverse perspectives. I find that a well-selected piece of YAL embodies the essence of the concept and expresses it in ways that young adult can identify with much more than any single poster, audio-visual aid or mini-lecture those teachers might give.
In classroom, if teachers use literature reflective of the young adult experience from diverse cultural perspectives, actually they can demonstrate to their students that they care of them as individuals or as members of society. So they can ask their students to care of each other.
Furthermore, if teachers have selected YA novels, they can step to let their students find certain books that can represent them. At any rate, actually they need to develop ownership towards their choice. Moreover, independent reading for young adult is a right choice as they grow up. Teachers also need to recognize that forcing students to read texts they do not like, do not trust, or do not value just for the sake of introducing them to diverse culture that may affect their negative attitudes toward members of those cultures. So, let them enjoy their thinking to develop their reading characteristics.
Then, let those students to share their feeling about the novels they have read. Feeling that is shared to all members of classroom, will create the classroom develop tolerating and appreciating diverse value. They will respect each other and more realize to the diversity that surrounds.
It is a good way since from the sharing activity, so many things they can understand. Through reading-sharing activity, however, students can examine various cultures values of such topics as the conception of family, the role of each family member, the view of technology, science, religious view, and political view, moral and philosophical beliefs. Those values actually need understanding by all students. Teachers should make them understand that they can not live alone, do something lonely, but need friends to help them. And they may come from diversity, so the only way can they live is by appreciating and tolerating the diversity. If teachers can manage the multicultural classroom wisely, in my experience, students will have appreciation to each other in cover of diverse perspective.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
The Importance of Teaching Young Adult Literature in EFL Classroom
Heri septiawan
06211210263
Curriculum and Material Development
The Importance of Teaching Young Adult Literature in EFL Classroom
As termed by linguists, language is a means of communication, so language study means study how to communicate by using the language. The sort of communication is that there must be more than one people; one as a sounds maker with his or her mouth (or hand movements in sign language, or pen marks in written language) and the other listening (or watching or reading). Therefore, communication appears in social context. Or it cannot appear in isolation.
In consideration of the language function, language study is not merely study grammar of formal language, but the way to use the language in communicating with others. By doing so, English teaching must not come back to the traditional point of view; that just emphasize the teaching of formal English grammar. However, it should be in relation to the nature of language itself, to communicate. Or it should be based on Communicative competence.
The main concern for EFL teachers is to build communicative competence. The competence is more than acquiring mastery of structure and form. It also involves acquiring the ability to interpret discourse in all its social and cultural contexts. Yet, in my experience, it is obvious that many EFL speakers cannot comprehend the creativity, resourcefulness, and the nature of English itself, even the Standard English. As a result, teaching literature in EFL classroom can be a useful tool to develop their linguistics knowledge of English.
The benefit of connecting this linguistic study to the literature is that students experience how their language works; the language awareness, through an attractive works, not boring and that can only be found in reading. Teaching English through boring works just carry them to the space where their creativity, critical thinking may not appear, and English literature an interesting way to build students’ linguistics knowledge.
In my experience, at least, literature has two benefits; firstly, from the content written within the literature, and secondly, from teachers’ creativity to manage the literature in classroom. The content of literature should project the way of what young adult lives. It may appear from the characteristics which young adult has. On the other word, the literature should be consistent with the needs, interests, developmental stages and intellectual level of the students. The fulfilment of the characteristics will draw young adult closer to interact fully with the chosen book.
When the young adult encounters an interesting book, it will make language study more fun and attractive. A writer may use colourful vocabularies in order to make their readers in a great spirit to read it. Many things can be learned from a book. It usually contains culture, which related to language varieties used in the book. As a result, students will have more language awareness. They will understand that English is not only from one variation, but it has so many varieties. Besides that, their orthographic and phonologic knowledge can be impacted through the study. In short, their linguistic development is really built.
However, the content of the book cannot be responded properly by the students, if the English teacher cannot manage the way to use the literature effectively and creatively in the classroom. If so, it may kill the enthusiasm of students in teaching the language. To overcome the problem, firstly, a teacher should use a wide range of authentic texts to introduce learners to a variety of types and difficulties of English language. Secondly, literary discourse sensitises readers to the processes of reading e.g. the use of schema, strategies for intensive and extensive reading etc. In this way let students give response of what they read; it is to show they understanding and quality of the book. And, lastly, literary texts prioritise the enjoyment of reading. Let them enjoy it and see the book as the way to improve their English.
There are many benefits to using literature in the EFL classroom. It can widen learners’ understanding of their own and other cultures; it can create opportunities for personal expression as well as reinforce learners’ knowledge of lexical and grammatical structure. Moreover, good strategies built by teacher can help students analyse and interpret language in context in order to recognize not only how language is manipulated but also why. the use of literature in the language classroom offers foreign language learners the opportunity to develop not only their linguistic and communicative skills but their knowledge about language in all its discourse types. The use of literary texts in the language classroom can be a potentially powerful pedagogic tool.
06211210263
Curriculum and Material Development
The Importance of Teaching Young Adult Literature in EFL Classroom
As termed by linguists, language is a means of communication, so language study means study how to communicate by using the language. The sort of communication is that there must be more than one people; one as a sounds maker with his or her mouth (or hand movements in sign language, or pen marks in written language) and the other listening (or watching or reading). Therefore, communication appears in social context. Or it cannot appear in isolation.
In consideration of the language function, language study is not merely study grammar of formal language, but the way to use the language in communicating with others. By doing so, English teaching must not come back to the traditional point of view; that just emphasize the teaching of formal English grammar. However, it should be in relation to the nature of language itself, to communicate. Or it should be based on Communicative competence.
The main concern for EFL teachers is to build communicative competence. The competence is more than acquiring mastery of structure and form. It also involves acquiring the ability to interpret discourse in all its social and cultural contexts. Yet, in my experience, it is obvious that many EFL speakers cannot comprehend the creativity, resourcefulness, and the nature of English itself, even the Standard English. As a result, teaching literature in EFL classroom can be a useful tool to develop their linguistics knowledge of English.
The benefit of connecting this linguistic study to the literature is that students experience how their language works; the language awareness, through an attractive works, not boring and that can only be found in reading. Teaching English through boring works just carry them to the space where their creativity, critical thinking may not appear, and English literature an interesting way to build students’ linguistics knowledge.
In my experience, at least, literature has two benefits; firstly, from the content written within the literature, and secondly, from teachers’ creativity to manage the literature in classroom. The content of literature should project the way of what young adult lives. It may appear from the characteristics which young adult has. On the other word, the literature should be consistent with the needs, interests, developmental stages and intellectual level of the students. The fulfilment of the characteristics will draw young adult closer to interact fully with the chosen book.
When the young adult encounters an interesting book, it will make language study more fun and attractive. A writer may use colourful vocabularies in order to make their readers in a great spirit to read it. Many things can be learned from a book. It usually contains culture, which related to language varieties used in the book. As a result, students will have more language awareness. They will understand that English is not only from one variation, but it has so many varieties. Besides that, their orthographic and phonologic knowledge can be impacted through the study. In short, their linguistic development is really built.
However, the content of the book cannot be responded properly by the students, if the English teacher cannot manage the way to use the literature effectively and creatively in the classroom. If so, it may kill the enthusiasm of students in teaching the language. To overcome the problem, firstly, a teacher should use a wide range of authentic texts to introduce learners to a variety of types and difficulties of English language. Secondly, literary discourse sensitises readers to the processes of reading e.g. the use of schema, strategies for intensive and extensive reading etc. In this way let students give response of what they read; it is to show they understanding and quality of the book. And, lastly, literary texts prioritise the enjoyment of reading. Let them enjoy it and see the book as the way to improve their English.
There are many benefits to using literature in the EFL classroom. It can widen learners’ understanding of their own and other cultures; it can create opportunities for personal expression as well as reinforce learners’ knowledge of lexical and grammatical structure. Moreover, good strategies built by teacher can help students analyse and interpret language in context in order to recognize not only how language is manipulated but also why. the use of literature in the language classroom offers foreign language learners the opportunity to develop not only their linguistic and communicative skills but their knowledge about language in all its discourse types. The use of literary texts in the language classroom can be a potentially powerful pedagogic tool.
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