From Literary Comprehension to Literacy: The Expansion of a Concept and its Consequences for the Teaching of Literature
During the last few decades, the concept of ”literacy” has had a growing impact ...on the vast fields of education. Although the uses of the concept are multifaceted and diverse, the hegemonic policy discourse as supported by the OECD treats literacy as an individual competence closely tied to the development of explicit reading strategies. This article examines what the concept of literacy means for literary studies in general and literature education in particular. We argue that there are reasons to critically reflect upon the effects of invoking the concept of literacy in the field of literature education. With the aid of theorists like Rita Felski and Toril Moi, our main focus is to examine the risks of centering attention on the ”subject” (the student and his/her abilities) instead of the ”object” (in our case, the works of fiction). By turning to Gert Biesta and Emmanuel Lévinas, we argue that there is an educational value in acknowledging and appreciating what lies beyond the scope of the student’s immediate understanding.
Rikta blicken mot texten Rosenbaum, Cecilia; Runesson Kempe, Ulla; Svensson, Anette
Forskning om undervisning och lärande,
2021, Volume:
9, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Inom svensk forskning om läsundervisning har det framhållits att elever redan på mellanstadiet (åk 4-6) behöver utveckla litterär kompetens och få vägledning i hur de kan angripa och bearbeta en text ...för att utveckla fördjupad läsförståelse. Syftet med föreliggande artikel är att ge ett kunskapsbidrag beträffande hur undervisning som syftar till att utveckla förmågan att dra slutsatser om en skönlitterär huvudpersons karaktärsdrag kan utformas. En specifik litteraturdidaktisk aktivitet som utvecklats inom ramen för en Learning study i årskurs 4 och 5 studerades närmare. Syftet med undervisningen var att eleverna skulle utveckla sin förmåga att dra slutsatser om en huvudpersons karaktärsdrag utifrån en läst text. 15 timmars videoinspelade lektioner, där samma berättelse användes i samtliga cykler, analyserades med utgångspunkt i variationsteori. Analysen visar att de olika cyklerna erbjöd olika lärandemöjligheter beroende på hur läraren gav instruktioner till lärandeaktiviteten, hur uppgiften formulerades och utformades, om texten och huvudpersonens karaktärsdrag kom i fokus och relaterades till varandra samt vilka aspekter som öppnades upp som dimensioner av variation.
In Swedish research on reading instruction, it has been emphasized that students already in middle school (grades 4-6) need to develop literary competence and receive guidance on how they can process a text in order to develop in-depth reading comprehension. The aim of the article is to contribute with knowledge regarding how teaching that aims to develop the ability to draw conclusions about a fictional protagonist’s character traits can be designed. A specific activity focusing literature education that was developed within the framework of a Learning study in grades 4 and 5 was studied in more detail. The purpose of the teaching unit was that the students would develop their abilities to draw conclusions about a protagonist’s character traits in a fictional text. 15 hours of video-recorded lessons, where the same story was used in all cycles, were analyzed using variation theory. The analysis shows that the different cycles offered different learning opportunities depending on how the teacher gave instructions to the learning activity, how the task was formulated and designed, if the text and the protagonist’s character traits came into focus and related to each other, and which aspects were opened up as dimensions of variation.
El presente trabajo se centra en el estudio de la evolución de la metodología de análisis de los textos literarios, atendiendo especialmente al papel de la literatura comparada y su relación con el ...desarrollo de la competencia literaria y el intertexto lector. Para ello, se realiza un análisis de la presencia de esta importante herramienta docente en los planes de estudio desde la Ley General de Educación (1970) hasta la Ley Orgánica para la Mejora de la Calidad Educativa (2013), así como una revisión bibliográfica, tanto de diversos manuales de comentarios literarios como de los modelos seguidos por diferentes libros de texto.
The Proyecto Común de Lectura is an initiative of different educational members related to the reading and use of literary texts. This article presents and critically evaluates the reading activities ...that the members of this project implemented from a common interest in reading. Those activities included facilitating the solid construction of reading and literary competence in students in early years, Primary Education and Secondary Education. The literary text that was selected for this purpose was The Adventures of Pinocchio (1882-1883), by Carlo Collodi. This approach also shows how interdisciplinary reading contributes, through focused methodology, to its use in several fields of knowledge at different levels of teaching and learning, and from different perspectives of reading and comprehension of the literary text.
El Proyecto Común de Lectura es una iniciativa de diversos miembros educativos relacionados con la lectura y explotación de textos literarios. En este artículo, presentamos y valoramos críticamente las actividades de lectura que los miembros de este Proyecto implementaron a partir de un interés común de lectura: facilitar la sólida construcción de la competencia lectora y literaria en estudiantes de edades iniciales, de Educación Primaria y de ESO. El texto literario que se seleccionó para tal fin es el de Las Aventuras de Pinocchio (1882-1883), de Carlo Collodi. Además, se muestra cómo el trabajo de lectura interdisciplinar a partir de la metodología del centro de interés contribuye a que esta pueda ser explotada en diferentes niveles de enseñanza-aprendizaje, y desde diferentes ópticas de lectura y comprensión del texto literario.
This study builds upon work in task-based language teaching and literary studies to explore the use of fan fiction as a pedagogical tool in a technology-enhanced university foreign language class. A ...task-based fan fiction project, The Blogging Hobbit, modelled on blog-based role-play storytelling found in online media fandoms, was carried out in a first-year university course for undergraduate learners of English who were also training to become secondary school English teachers in Sweden. Students were organized into groups, in which each member was responsible for voicing a single character from Tolkien's novel "The Hobbit" in a blog-based collaborative role-play of a missing moment from the story. Findings revealed that carefully sequenced collaborative fan fiction could facilitate analysis of a literary text, learners' use of creative writing techniques, and language development, particularly at the level of lexis.
Ecocritical scholarship has always had pedagogical ambitions. It is commonly assumed that education based on ecocritical readings of literature will change the attitudes and actions of pupils and ...students and thus contribute to forming environmentally aware and sustainable citizens. However, this article proposes an alternative view on the interaction between sustainability and literature education. Based on a critical discussion of “ecocritical orthodoxy,” this meta-theoretical study uses affect theory in conjunction with Rita Felski’s proposal for postcritical reading to argue that literature education needs to take the polysemy of literary texts and the unpredictability of readers’ encounters with such texts into account. By linking this to a specified set of sustainability competences and a dialogic concept of literary competence, the aim of the main discussion is to highlight the many potentially fertile overlaps between literature education and the competences needed in a sustainable citizen. Here, Timothy Clark’s thoughts on the Anthropocene as threshold concept, and Timothy Clark’s views on irony are important parts of the theoretical framework. Moreover, such a framework for sustainable literary competence could help to argue for the value of literature education and genuine literary competence.
This study aims to analyze the effectivity of the digital tool, called book-trailer,
facilitates the promotion and acquisition of literary competence in initial
teacher training. The selected sample ...was a group of the Master's Degree in
Early Childhood Education of the University of Zaragoza. Four book-trailers
made by the students of the 2nd year of the subject Children's literature and
literary education taught at the Faculty of Humanities and Education were
analyzed. Likewise, the Nvivo software was used for data processing and
categorization of semi-structured interviews with a focal group. The
conclusions obtained reflect the relevance of the book-trailer as a digital tool
support the promotion of reading and the acquisition of literary competence in
future teachers.
El presente estudio tiene por objeto analizar en qué medida la herramienta
digital, denominada book-trailer, facilita la promoción y la adquisición de la
competencia literaria en la formación inicial de maestros. La muestra
seleccionada fue un grupo del Grado en Maestro en Educación Infantil de la
Universidad de Zaragoza. Se analizaron cuatro book-trailer realizados por los
alumnos del 2.º curso de la asignatura Literatura Infantil y Educación Literaria
que se imparte en la Facultad de Ciencias Humanas y de la Educación. Asimismo, se utilizó el software Nvivo para el tratamiento de los datos y la
categorización de las entrevistas semiestructuradas con un grupo focal. Las
conclusiones obtenidas reflejan la relevancia del book-trailer como
herramienta digital que favorece la promoción de la lectura y la adquisición de
la competencia literaria en los futuros maestros
Literature is life. It is the gateway of looking the world outside. We can learn, understand and appreciate the world. Reading literature is the best way to know who we are, what we are, and what we ...used to be. Using descriptive correlational research design, the study ventured on assessing the literary appreciation skills and reading performance of university students in literature, which may provide input to propose innovative learning tasks in enhancing their literary competence. Ninety students enrolled in the literature subject of the three college departments of one campus of a public higher education institution in the Philippines, were the participants of the study. Findings revealed that the students have a moderate level of skill in literary appreciation areas but a relatively low skill level in recognizing author’s point of view, ability to judge the text, recognizing personal philosophy based on literary text read, and relating the stories to their personal lives. Meanwhile, students showed fair performance in literature learning, while literary appreciation skills and reading performance differed when students are grouped according to their college affiliations. Furthermore, a positive relationship exits between literary appreciation skills and reading performance of the students. This study proposes the implementation of twenty-nine innovative learning tasks for literature classes. The different learning tasks were presented in this paper for classroom use.
Intercultural competence is a crucial element of foreign language education. It is argued that the multi-faceted nature of intercultural competence implies that assessment of its construct is a ...complex process; as a consequence, its progress is difficult to measure. Although several tools for evaluating intercultural competence currently exist, research on their use in secondary school settings is scarce. This study reports on the development and validation of an instrument intended specifically for use in foreign language literature education. To this end, tangible learning objectives for intercultural literary competence were developed based on five dimensions of intercultural communicative competence (Byram, 1997) and six categories of literary competence (Witte, 2008). These objectives were re-formulated for implementation in a student questionnaire. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the construct validity of the instrument was investigated among a sample of 164 secondary school students in the upper forms of pre-university education in the Netherlands. Although the results supported the hypothesized wo second-order factor structure, the model fit indices were less favourable compared to the fit indices of an alternative five first-order factor model. Subsequently, correlation and summability analyses were performed to test the reliability of the instrument. Future research and implications are discussed.
During the last few decades, the concept of ”literacy” has had a growing impact on the vast fields of education. Although the uses of the concept are multifaceted and diverse, the hegemonic policy ...discourse as supported by the OECD treats literacy as an individual competence closely tied to the development of explicit reading strategies. This article examines what the concept of literacy means for literary studies in general and literature education in particular. We argue that there are reasons to critically reflect upon the effects
of invoking the concept of literacy in the field of literature education. With the aid of theorists like Rita Felski and Toril Moi, our main focus is to examine the risks of centering attention on the ”subject” (the student and his/her abilities) instead of the ”object” (in our case, the works of fiction). By turning to Gert Biesta and Emmanuel Lévinas, we argue that there is an educational value in acknowledging and appreciating what lies beyond the scope of the student’s immediate understanding.
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