Chapter Two

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1      INTRODUCTION

Literature is a branch of language (types of discourse) that is subject to many definitions. Kinneavy’s (1983) divided language into three divisions:

·         Expressive focuses on personal expression (letters, diaries, etc.);

·         Transactional focuses on both the reader and the message (advertising, business letters, editorials, instructions, etc.); and

·         Poetic focuses on form and language (drama, poetry, novels, short stories, etc.)

Some consider literature as written works of famous people. Some consider literature as a better or higher form of language. Eagleton (2008) states “Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language, deviates systematically from everyday speech”. Some consider literature as any form of language art that can exist in the form of song, or folklore stories. Yunus (2004) states that, “literature can be experienced privately and it is often thought of as a written form of expression, but there are many strong oral traditions in both aboriginal and modern societies”. Some even consider literature as a passing of knowledge, or ‘window to the world’. Carter & Long (1991) defines literature as a product of cultures that has a compendious store of information through which learners can gain insights as to the history, traditions and conventions of the target language. Sidhu (2003) added, “by reading literary texts, learners can get discerning glimpses of a range of cultures and other useful insights that can help broaden one’s worldview”.

As we can see, there is no sole definition of literature. Literature can be anything in any form. The thing that matters is its’ effect, or function that its carries in our daily life; especially for students learning Target Language. Sidhu (2003) and Savvidou (2004) add that the study of literature unconsciously enhances students’ overall linguistic competency including their knowledge of syntax, morphology, semantics and phonetics. Short (1996) added, ‘not just what a text means, but also how it comes to mean what it does’.

2.2      APPROACHES TO TEACHING LITERATURE

Approaches are not specific way for you to teach literature. You need to use it as a guideline, a base, a stepping-stone, for your teaching. You will need to change it from time to time, according to current situation. Brown (2001) describes approach as “theoretically well-informed positions and beliefs about the nature of language, the nature of language learning and the applicability of both to pedagogical settings”. Carter and Long (1991) listed three approaches to teach literature.

i.        The Cultural Model

a.       This method requires students to dwell with background information (culture) of the text. It requires learners to explore and interpret the social, political, literary and historical context of a specific text but it also encourages learners to understand different cultures and ideologies in relation to their own.

ii.      The Language Model

a.       This method requires students to dwell with the technical part of the language; literal, figurative, direct and indirect speech. It enables learners to access a text in a systematic and methodical way in order to exemplify specific linguistic features. This approach offers the range of strategies used in language teaching through activities in which all activities used are to manipulate literary texts in order to serve specific linguistic goals.

iii.    The Personal Growth Model

a.       This method is the combination of the above two methods in which students need to dwell both in culture and in technical part of the text. Learners are encouraged to express their opinions, feelings and opinions and make connections between their own personal and cultural experiences and those expressed in the text.

           As we can see, these methods view text differently. The first method views text as cultural artefact that is full of culture and knowledge about target society. The second method views text as pure language with no real meaning behind each sentence. The third method views text as a mean or stepping for the students to learn English.

2.3      TEACHING ENGLISH WITH LOCAL CULTURE (LOCAL MATERIAL)

There are many English resources throughout the world. Some uses local background as the base while some uses English background as the base. While which material better suits the students is arguable, it is better to use local material as it is more familiar to the students. A good example of this is the textbook.

“Some national textbooks largely or exclusively feature students’ presumed own culture and cultural identity, i.e. their ‘home’ or ‘source’ culture (C1), although the target language is clearly English (L2).”

(Cortazzi & Jin, 1999)

Oman for example implemented ‘Our World through English” (OWTE), a program where they teach the students about their own culture in English. OWTE contains simplified songs and rhymes that complement the topics they are learning. (Ministry of Education of Oman, 1997 – 98) states, “Learners learn when they are enjoying themselves and finding things out for themselves, or via discovery learning.” OWTE is beneficial to the teachers since it reduces the burden a teacher has to carry. OWTE is designed in a way that guarantees the teacher finishes teaching it by the end of the academic year. (Al – Issa, 2005). This is good if we ought to implement it in our country due to the fact that our teacher has a lot of workload.

“… many teachers often have very limited time in which to complete a syllabus, and consider including literary texts in a lesson an unnecessary and time wasting distraction, while students themselves frequently lack the interest and motivation to work with such texts.”

Lazar (1994)

2.4       TEACHING ENGLISH WITH TARGET CULTURE (NON-LOCAL MATERIAL)

Language and culture is inseparable. It is hard to actually learn a language without even touching the Target Culture. Byram (1999) stated, “the aims of language teaching are to develop both linguistic and cultural competence, which can be called an intercultural communicative competence”. This statement verifies earlier statement by Kramsch (1993), “culture awareness must be viewed both as enabling language proficiency and as being the outcome of reflection on language proficiency.”.

This method has been practiced throughout the world. Greece, for example has a series of textbook called Task Way English (Epikefalis & Denthrisou, 1991) that has a lot of Target culture with some hint of Local culture. Another example is in German, where the textbook English G, Band 6 (Hennig, 1999), mainly has United States’ culture. It is also implemented in Lebanon where their Ministry of Education commented:

“By learning about C2 cultures, students are expected to obtain ‘a livelier appreciation’ of both C1 and C2, and in fact, to promote C1 among C2 people, to spread in the world a better understanding and appreciation of one’s own religion, culture and values and to influence world opinion favourably towards one’s people and their causes.”

(Ministry of National Education, Youth & Sports of Lebanon, 1997)

2.5       LITERATURE IN MALAYSIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM

Literature in Malaysia starts with a Class Reader Program (CRP) in 1990. In 1999, Literature Component has become a part in Malaysian English Syllabus. It became a part in two major examinations in Malaysia, Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) and Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) which taken by students in Form 3 (15 years old) and Form 5 (17 years old) respectively. The first cycle is implemented in 2000 and after a decade, in 2010, the second cycle kick in with improvised reading materials.

It was later in 2005, literature been extended to two other programs; Contemporary Children’s Literature and the Extensive Reading Program. The main objective for these programs is to inculcate reading habit among students.

In 2004, Contemporary Children’s Literature (CCL) was introduced to improve English proficiency among students at earlier age and implemented in 2005 to Year 4 (10 years old). Later in 2006, it was implemented to Year 5 (11 years old) and to year 6 (12 years old) in 2007. It is also a follow-up to a program in year 1 and 2 (7 and 6 years old respectively) called The Structured Reading Program. CCL aims to provide a continuum of learning abilities for the literature component introduced in secondary schools. The objectives of the CCL program are as follows:

•         To instil and inculcate the reading habit

•         To enrich students’ vocabulary and language content

•         To enhance students’ thinking skills

•         To promote cultural understanding in the Malaysian context

•         To improve students’ English language proficiency

•         To provide lively, enjoyable and high-interest readings

The program encourages students to finish reading three books within their studying year. The books chosen are written after 1900, consists of problems, and issues that children faces in their daily live. The teacher is required to allocate 1 period per week for National Primary School, and one period per two weeks for National Type Primary School as different sets are provided.

2.6       Conclusion

            To conclude, in order to give the best to the students, well-rounded and balanced materials must be put in our literature cycle. We cannot solely focus on local or non-local materials. We need a mix of both since each local and non-local material has their own advantages and disadvantages. However, teaching literature in target culture’s (C2) advantages overshadow own culture (C1).