Interviewing a vampire 1 Running Head: INTERVIEWING A VAMPIRE

The Benefits of Interviewing a Vampire Mnica Jimnez Pearanda Peer Corrector: Luis Diego Arroyo University of Costa Rica October 27, 2010

Interviewing a vampire 2 Abstract Currently, English literature does not represent a recurrent or common means to teach English in EFL classes in high schools; nevertheless, teachers should change the latter vision and exploit English literary texts to help their students enhance their linguistic abilities and understand cultural elements. Literature does not only serve to teach reading, but it also assists students in their process of learning and improving writing skills; by means of reading, students learn a vast range of vocabulary and grammatical structures that will help them to compose their own essays or papers. In addition, well chosen literary texts become the driving and motivational force for oral discussions and even dramatizations, which encourages students to practice their oral competences. Literature will also help students become familiarized with elements of the English culture, which represents a key element to immerse themselves in the learning process of the language. With a careful selection of the literary texts, creativity, and effective guidance from teachers, English students at high schools will find in literature a powerful asset to learn and even enjoy their EFL classes.

Interviewing a vampire 3 The Benefits of Interviewing a Vampire Estela is a student that has never been interested in her English classes at high school; in fact, she thinks that they are extremely monotonous, boring, and even tedious. Estela also considers that her professors teaching methods have always lacked intrinsically motivating techniques to involve her and her classmates actively in their learning process. However, when Estela started her tenth grade and attended to her first English class with her new professor, she could not avoid feeling pleasantly surprised; after the presentation of the course, the professor gave Estela and her classmates an excerpt of one of the most famous vampire stories: Anne Rices Interview with the Vampire. Estela, who has always liked vampire stories, became excited at the idea of incorporating the literary text to the English lessons at her high school. By the fact of giving her a piece of writing of her interest, her motivation and attitudes started to change; Estela began to participate actively in every activity the professor based on Rices book. Not only did Estella gain in vocabulary and grammar skills by reading the excerpt, but she also started to participate in oral discussions and presentations, which helped her practice and improve her pronunciation. Moreover, she even did some research to understand the background of the excerpt of the book. Since reading significantly contributes to the development of linguistic competences and the comprehension of cultural backgrounds, the usage of English literature should be incorporated to EFL classes in high schools. Some teachers might argue that they will find difficult to incorporate literature to the syllabus of the course; however, they must understand that the analysis of the pieces of writing will not become the main target of the course; on the contrary, they will represent the means to achieve the pre-established objectives on the curriculum. Literature will become a useful teaching resource to help students enhance their competences by means of basing activities and techniques on English literary texts. Teachers will have an enormous range of

Interviewing a vampire 4 possibilities to change monotonous methods; in fact, as Gerardo Alfaro and Cynthia Oconitrillo mentioned, literary texts can be used in a whole world of methodological possibilities. Those possibilities are just restricted by the teachers creativity ... (2007). Nevertheless, teachers that do not have a vast compendium of teaching strategies based on literature have also the opportunity to learn and access lesson plans and techniques. Books such as Writing Simple Poems (2001) and Incorporating Literature in ESL Instruction (1987) will prove to be extremely useful resources since they describe a significant number of activities that teachers can implement or use in their classes. In addition, web pages such as Resources for Schools Librarians offer professor the possibility to download and use entire lessons plans based on specific objectives and literary texts. The incorporation of literature in their classes is not the only concern some teachers have; they are worried about the possible reluctance that some students may show to read the texts. However, progressive immersion will help students develop their appreciation toward literature. Teachers must carefully select the texts that they are going to use taking into account their students level and interests; for instance, Estelas professor based his selection of Interview with the Vampire on the current trend of vampire books and movies that have engaged adolescents attention. In addition, teachers must follow three basic principles for selecting texts that will help them and their students fully enjoy and take advantage of literature. Christine Nuttall (as cited in Nesterenko, 2009) establishes that the first principle is suitability of content, which requires the selection of materials that students will find interesting, enjoyable, challenging, and appropriate for their goals... Second, teachers must focus on exploitability by means of selecting texts that will facilitate the achievement of certain language skills and content goals, [and] that [are] exploitable for instructional tasks and techniques... Finally, the third principle is readability, which refers to texts with lexical and structural difficulty that will challenge students without overwhelming them. If teachers

Interviewing a vampire 5 follow these principles when they incorporate literature to their classes, they will be able to encourage students to read the given texts. According to Lazar, literature is a valuable resource which provides the students with motivation, authenticity, cultural access, language stimulation, [and] language awareness ... (as cited in Alfaro and Oconitrillo, 2007, p.8). In fact, reading helps students develop writing skills. Since literature generally uses a greater variety of lexical items than spoken conversational English, (personal communication, Methodology for English Teaching anthology, October 18, 2010) students gain in vocabulary, grammar, and spelling skills by means of reading. Because writing is a behavior that people do not learn naturally, students need to have a guide through the development of their skills, and literature allows English learners to obtain a wide range of vocabulary that they will be able to use in their compositions or essays. When students read a literary text, they immerse themselves in a language experience that will assist them in their understanding and application of language mechanics. In addition, literary texts enhance the students comprehension of the meaning and function of words since they are being exposed to their usage in specific contexts. Currently, English teachers in some high schools typically teach vocabulary in isolation or in simple sentences; however, short stories (for instance) create a whole context that help students improve their skills when they have to choose the correct words to write. For instance, with the simple activity of asking the students to create a glossary of unknown of key words in a specific literary text, teachers are helping them to remember the meaning and the correct spelling of valuable vocabulary. Moreover, by reading, learners are also experiencing different patterns of organization, structures, mechanics, punctuation, and syntax that will be useful when they have to write a composition. Literature allows readers to evaluate and appreciate different writing styles, levels of formality and complexity that they can imitate according to specific intentions or purposes in their writings. Nevertheless,

Interviewing a vampire 6 teachers must choose carefully the literary texts that they are going to give to their students; they have to take into account the learners level and the writing techniques they want to teach; for instance, Hemingways stories, which are generally considered as simple in regard to language usage, can be employed with beginners, and more complex ones such as Hawthorne or Poes short stories will be helpful with more advanced students. As A. Lpez mentions, a useful technique teachers can utilize is feedback and modeling. In this activity students are given a specific piece of writing to use it as a base or model to compose their own creations, and once they are ready, they will receive feedback from their teachers. By imitation, students can pick up some techniques that authors apply to write. In addition, literary texts can be used as the basis for some reviews, summaries, and reaction papers in which students exercise and improve their writing competences (personal communication, October 21, 2010). Even though many people might think that literary texts serve to teach only reading and writing, literature helps students improve their communicative skills. Since literature is generally open to interpretation, it becomes a useful means to encourage student participation in oral discussions. For instance, Estela is free to express her opinions and interpretations about the excerpt of Interview with the Vampire that she is reading, and since her classmates may not have the same ideas as her, the professor can organize a group discussion based on Rices book. Because Estela and her classmates would be presenting and defending their points of view, which requires an active oral participation, the professor can take advantage of the activity to give the students feedback on their pronunciation and fluency. In addition, simple stories can serve as the basis for some dramatizations in which students will be forced to work on their oral skills. For instance, if they are going to represent a short story in front of the class, students must pay special attention to the way they are going to articulate, pronounce, and even stress the words of the dialogue. Since short stories have always a

Interviewing a vampire 7 specific mood, students will have to base the way they are going to intonate or stress words and sentences on the context, which will help them understand how the way they speak and emphasize specific syllables or clauses conveys different meanings. For instance, if a group of students is going to dramatize Virginia Wolfs The Legacy, they have to find and use specific oral strategies and skills to transmit the different tones of melancholy, desperation, and finally irony to the rest of the class (A. Lpez, personal communication, October 21, 2010). Moreover, since one of the main elements of poetry is the use of rhythm, poems become useful tools to teach students about the musical quality produced by the repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables (Rinehart, n.d.). A. Lpez states that advanced and intermediate students can take advantage of the alternation of accented and unaccented syllables in the works of poets such as Edna St. Vincent Millay, who wrote some poems under the strict meter of sonnets, to understand the mechanics of intonation and stress in English (personal communication, October 21, 2010). If teachers are teaching rhythm and intonation to beginners, they can employ English nursery rhymes because their rhythm can be used to model the syllable stress, sentence stress and intonation patterns of spoken English (Susan, 2009). One teaching activity that will help students and teachers while dealing with oral competences is choral reading. In groups, students choose a poem or nursery rhyme and decide a specific manner to read it aloud; they have to divide it into parts based on the rhythm of language and decide among having, for example, solos and duets. In fact, it provides for speech improvement in pitch, tone, volume, rate, diction, enunciation, and clear interpretation of selections (Choral Reading or Speaking, n.d.). Therefore, the language mechanics of literary texts will encourage students to learn and practice one of the English macro skills: speaking. Learning a new language requires the recognition and familiarization to the culture, and English is not the exception. Language and culture are two closely related concepts;

Interviewing a vampire 8 when you teach a language, you also teach a complex system of cultural customs, values, and ways of thinking, feeling, and acting (Teaching by principles, 1998). Since literature usually presents cultural elements, English literary texts help students become familiarized with English culture. Nanda (2001) states that English literature reflects and reinforces the cultural patterns and value system of those who speak the language. Currently, when teachers teach cultural backgrounds or elements to their students in high schools, they tend to do it based on monotonous ways in which students are passive learners; however, literary texts, carefully selected based on the three principles already mentioned, provide students with the extra motivation they need to learn about English culture. Literary movements represent and encompass elements of the period of time in which they flourished; therefore, they represent a significant resource that teachers can exploit to teach. For instance, Estela, who likes vampire stories, can present to her classmates an oral report about the Gothic (or American Gothic) movement that will help them learn, for instance, about the Victorian times. Nevertheless, teachers must take into account that literature re-create myths, narrations, and testimonies (Campos et al., 2007); therefore, they must guide their students to go beyond the literary text they are reading and do some research to fully understand the whole context of it. Literature becomes the driving and motivational force that encourages students to investigate cultural elements. A useful activity teachers can use in their classes with students of different levels is Where in the World; in the activity, the professor gives to each student a different English literary text and ask them to indicate the part of the country in which the author was born or the story takes place in a map of the United States s/he has to bring to the class. As a consequence, learners will be able to identify different cultural elements of different parts of the North American culture (Narrative for English Teaching anthology, personal communication, October 22, 2010). In addition, with the simple activity of asking students to identify specific traits of a literary movement or cultural

Interviewing a vampire 9 elements on a literary text, they are helping students to remember and recognize specific cultural traits. Estela is now about to finish her tenth grade and she cannot believe how much she has learned since that day she was given the first excerpt of Interview with the Vampire. In contrast to the previous years at her high school, she found herself participating actively and voluntarily in her learning process of the English language. Not only did she read Rices entire book, but she found in literature a whole new world to learn and afford pleasure. By means of incorporating literature in her classes, Estelas professor managed to reach and benefit her and her classmates at a linguistic, cultural, and emotional level. English literature represents a whole world of possibilities to involve and teach students the different elements that learning English as a foreign language involves. Bringing to class an English literary text does not have to be a burden neither for the students nor for the teachers; on the contrary, literature should be used as a resource to change monotonous teaching methods in which students lose their interest toward the subject matter. Therefore, literary texts must not be exploited in a mechanical way of analysis, but teachers must choose intrinsically motivating techniques such as the ones Estelas professor used based on the excerpt of Rices book: writing a poem based on their interpretation and/or appreciation of the writing, dramatizations in which students had to actually interview a character, and oral presentations about the literary movement behind the book. As a consequence, literature leads students to find their EFL classes truly interesting, which helps them become active participants in their learning process. Many students, as Estela did, will find literature beneficial in their classes and in their lives; in fact, Estela is now ready to finish interviewing a vampire to become acquainted with The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned.

Interviewing a vampire 10 References Alfaro, G. & Oconitrillo, C. (2007). An analysis of the application of imaginative literature as a teaching resource for the development of language skills: A study in San Ramn School District. (Dissertation, Ciudad Universitaria Carlos Monge Alfaro, 2007). Bertland, L. (n.d.). Literarure Lessons Plans. Resources for School Librarians. Retrieved on October 19 from http://www.sldirectory.com/libsf/resf/bookplans.html Brown, H. D. (1994). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language BBpedagogy. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents. Retrieved on BBOctober 19 from http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ajelt/vol8/rev1.htm Campos, C., Delgado, S., Monge, M., Orozco, D., Quesada, S. & Romero, C. (2007). La Enseanza significativa de la historia integrando la literatura. (Dissertation, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, 2007). Choral reading or speaking. (n.d.) English Language Arts. Retrieved on October 19 from http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/mla/speak023.html Holmes, V. & Moulton, M. (2001). Writing simple poems: pattern poetry for language acquisition. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Nanda, Dubi. (2001). Value of literature in language teaching. Journal of NETA, 6, 111. Nesterenko, N. (2009). Methodology II. Universidad Tcnica Particular de la Loja. Retrieved on October 19 from http://www.utpl.edu.ec/eva/descargas/material/184/g23601.1.pdf Rinehart, H. (n.d.). Lines & Rhymes: Rhythm. Wheeler English. Retrieved on October 19 from http://www.angelfire.com/ct2/evenski/poetry/rhythm.html Sage, H. (1987). Incorporating literature in ESL instruction. Language in education: theory and practice. Washington, DC: Office of Educational Research and Improvement. Susan. (2009). Using nursery rhymes to teach American English pronunciation patterns. American English Pronunciation Blog. Retrieved on October 19 from

Interviewing a vampire 11 http://www.confidentvoice.com/blog/using-nursery-rhymes-to-teach-american-englishpronunciation-patterns/