12.Teaching Literary Skills

• Knowledge of literature from both diachronic and synchronic perspective of the history of civilization. Appropriate critical jargon and literary theory information should supplement it. And, what is more, the feeling for literature reading and discussion.
• Knowledge of How to teach Literature to teenagers

1. awareness of complexity of situation (cultural awareness raising; information transfer; artistic taste refinement; creativity enhancement; study skills improvement; language skills development; self-knowledge growth).
2. Adaptation of reader’s response theory beliefs to the classroom situation: i.e. text seen as a flexible structure (both closed and open); reader as co-author of the text.
3. Guidelines for achieving literary skills:

1. make the study of literary texts stimulating, challenging, enjoyable.
2. make students learn how to think and not what to think; how to handle concepts of literary theory and not parrot ready-made interpretations;
3. keep a right balance between focus on information and focus on personal response/creativity.
4. make the literary text an interesting ‘encounter’ in time by presenting it in the context of the culture and civilization of their time.
5. make both the achievement and behaviour cultures (both English/American and Romanian) meet on the arena of the literary text.
6. Observe the spiral principle (from recognition, to guided discovery, to awareness and, finally, to response) for ensuring success and satisfaction in the development of the critical mind.

4. Here are the teaching/assessment objectives of ‘literaturing’ as presented by the authors of the Pathway to English series: At the end of Grade 12, students should be able to:

1. demonstrate their presentation skills by planning an oral/written presentation of the features of a literary text which should be relevant to the topic, selective and clear, and which should use the appropriate terminology and language register;
2. express their personal response, that is to explore and express their views on a literary text by articulating informed and independent opinions on literary texts of different types and cultural epochs;
3. make a text analysis, i.e. to show their understanding of the ways in which writers’choice of form, structure, and language reveals meanings, their understanding of the cultural and historical influences on literary texts, their awareness of the relationships between literary texts.

5. Textbook writers spirally work upon the following concepts when aiming at developing literary skills: plot-building; character-building; theme; narrative perspective; setting; symbol discovery; range of language(s) and style(s).

• Reflection as Exercise:

1. Look at the text from E. Bronte’s Wuthering Heights in Book 10, Perspectives on English. Design a scenario for teaching students the concept of plot uncovering. Detail: stages, purposes, skills, activities, timing, types of interaction.
2. Look at the text from S. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, in Book 11, News and Views. Design a scenario for teaching students the concept of character building. Detail: stages, purposes, skills, activities, timing, types of interaction.
3. Look at the text from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, in Book 11, News and Views. Design a scenario for teaching theme discovery: Detail: stages, purposes, skills, activities, timing, types of interaction.
4. Look at the text from Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady, in Book 11, News and Views. Design a scenario for teaching narrative perspective discovery: Detail: stages, purposes, skills, activities, timing, types of interaction
5. Look at the text from Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers, in Book 11, News and Views. Design a scenario for teaching language as style: Detail: stages, purposes, skills, activities, timing, types of interaction
6. Look at the text from J. Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, in Book 10, Perspectives. Design a scenario for teaching language as style: Detail: stages, purposes, skills, activities, timing, types of interaction