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Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.

(TESOL)

Re-Creating Literature in the ESL Classroom Author(s): Shirley Brice Heath Source: TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Winter, 1996), pp. 776-779 Published by: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3587935 . Accessed: 04/08/2013 21:23
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Collie, J., & Slater, S. (1987). Literature in the language classroom.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Duff, A., & Maley, A. (1990). Literature. and language teaching.Cambridge: Cambridge University Lazar, G. (1993). Literature Press. with a small "1. "London: Macmillan. McCrae, J. (1991). Literature London: Longman. Widdowson, H. G. (1975). Stylisticsand the teachingof literature.

Literaturein the ESL Classroom Re-creating


SHIRLEY BRICE HEATH StanfordUniversity

* One section of my bookshelves devoted to literature is crammed with writings by ESL students. Their tales of travel, new friends and foods, family adaptation, remembered heroes, and moments of loss and regret fill the pages of these newsletters, journals, classroom booklets, and even a few commercially published volumes. Elementary and high schools, adult programs, and literacy projects, as well as youth organizations and summer camps, produce these collections. All the writers are learners creating literature in their various types of classrooms in order to say, more often than not, what they cannot say elsewhere. Emotion, confrontation, confession, and dreams fill page after page, pushing learners to use words never called for in mathematics, science, or social studies assignments; shaping lines of poetry and epigraphs from half sentences; and addressing readers who extend beyond teachers and school doors in authenticity. In ESL classrooms around the world, and especially in Canada and the U.S., the evolution of these forms of literature-poetry, short stories, dialogues, often accompanied by pictorial art and oral dramatic readings essentials of language learning. Students write and music-generates and rewrite, listen to their own and other's words again and again, read aloud to others, reshape their efforts to make words "say" just what they to create natural in its has no rival Literature mean. them to want power attention to and how it and on reflection works, language repetition, audience response on the part of learners. The wider the range of genres accepted as literature, the greater the potential for influence in classrooms beyond English and institutions beyond schools. Poetry and short stories allow dialogue, interior monologue, stories, and description, but arguments, editorials, biography, history, and sets of directions naturally call for explanation, comparative analysis, and narratives of events and places as well as of people. Across 776
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history, these forms have counted as literature just as solidly as has poetry; only in Western societies in the past century has the term literature come to refer primarily to works of the imagination. One need only consider the many sacred texts of the world that include sets of directions, arguments, history, and biography to be reminded of the short-term perspective on the definition of literature that is reflected in contemporary anthologies of literature. Genres, such as biography, history, and arguments, call for the practice of expressions essential today in both academic and on-the-job writing, which is often filled with troublesome prepositions and function words that serve primarily to make sentences and paragraphs cohere: in orderto, moreover, for the purpose of, as well as, as noted above.Though often less obvious as forms that new language learners might enjoy using than poems or short stories, genres that insist on moving listeners and readers to action or giving information they can verify in books or from sources other than the teller or writer count as valued currency in institutions, such as schools, employment offices, and jobs. Moreover, many of these "institutional" genres may be far less familiar to new learners of English than poetry, autobiography, or short stories. It is by no means the case that all social groups in cultures around the world value argument, explicit explanation, the giving of directions, or comparative analysis-especially if these come from the young, women, or those of lower caste or class. Learning these forms and all their nuances of style, placement of detail and generalization, and transitional devices depends on sufficient oral practice of these genres. Students cannot be expected to write academic essays of argumentation, laboratory reports, or biographical accounts unless they have learned these forms through oral practice and have had multiple opportunities to reshape such writing with immediate audience feedback. ESL teachers who incorporate extensive writing of literature in their classrooms ensure that several sound practices reinforced by sociocognitive theories benefit their students: 1. Literature calls out to be read aloud, to be interpreted by listeners. Hence, all genres get a hearing from classmates who push speakers and writers to improve the match between what they say or write and what they mean or intend. 2. All literature is situated both in the genesis of its writing or telling and in the listeners' or readers' reception and understanding. Thus, as students read aloud their written pieces of literature, class members explore common themes and experiences, differences of interpretations, and reasons for the inevitability of multiple understandings as well as the necessity of some common core of meaning that all can grasp.
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3.

4.

Exhibition and performance-terms increasingly common in the assessment world-flow naturally out of the writing of literature. Behind these lie practice and, more often than not, practice repeated again and again. The routine of practice sits far more agreeably with students when it can lead to exhibition, performance, and a personal portfolio than when it must culminate in a test or task controlled by others. One volume of ESL student literature on my shelf refers to "voices that perfume the memory." Recent research on the brain and behavior underscores the commonsense experience that emotional commitment and high motivation give learning a boost. When students move in their literary writing through a range of emotions and motivations that draw from their own memories, expectations, and hopes, the hard work of L2 learning gets a strong helping hand.

Teachers who choose to use literature in their ESL classrooms need to acknowledge some cautions along with these benefits. Invariably, when students are freed to include some writing from what they feel, remember, and hope, as well as what they know and can prove or verify, teachers and classmates have to be ready to form a supportive community of listeners and learners. Such communities know the difference between sympathy and empathy, between false praise and specific questions and suggestions, and between laughing with and laughing at someone's mistakes. Many teachers find that in such classrooms they need to write along with their students and share their writings for student response; such openness models the all-important idea that every text has several meanings, and asking questions of texts shapes the first step toward enabling texts to give answers. Perhaps no benefit of multigenre literature classes of ESL writers and readers is greater than the focus they ensure on language. As educators we know that awareness of language, how it works, what it can do, and how creative we can be with it pushes linguistic accomplishment. Cognitive, aesthetic, and social boosters thus come along with the heightened prominence that literature gives language. Extensive use of literature of all genres written by students heightens pleasure, sharpens perception, and helps them do with language, oral and written, what is essential for their spiritual, instrumental, and social well-being. The following bibliography of student writing, drawn from learners in Canada, China, South Africa, and the U.S., exemplifies the possibilities that exist for re-creating literature in the ESL classroom. THE AUTHOR ShirleyBrice Heath is Professorof English and Linguistics(with courtesyappointments in anthropologyand education) at Stanford University.Her research has
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focused on language and culture in several parts of the world, with a particular emphasis on the role of language in socialization. Much of her research has been done with teachers or students as collaborators and joint authors. Her most recent with Shelby Wolf (Harvard University publications include The Braid of Literature, Press), and Identityand Inner City Youth,with Milbrey McLaughlin (Teachers College Press). BIBLIOGRAPHY OF STUDENT WRITING

San Berkman, M. (Ed.). (1988). Our lives:Newcomer High Schoolstudentstell theirstories. Francisco, CA: Newcomer High School. Earl Marshall School. (1993). Lives of love and hope:A SheffieldHerstory.Sheffield, England: Author. San Diego, CA:Anhui University/San Diego Johnson,J. S. (Ed.). (1986). WINDOWS. State University. McAteer High School. (1992). Voices thememory: thatperfume from McAteer Writing High School.San Francisco, CA: Author. from our class. Toronto: St. Steven's CommuMorgan, B. (Ed.). (1991/1992). Stories nity House/Toronto Board of Education. Mtshali, M. O. (Ed.). (1988). Give us a break:Diaries of a group of Sowetochildren. Johannesburg, South Africa: Skotaville. Northern High School Community Writing Project. (1990). Struggles and celebration: Voices from the city.Detroit, MI: Author. Porter, J. (Ed.). (1991). New Canadian voices.Toronto: Wall & Emerson. Toronto Board of Education. (1987). Past ... present ... future .... A collectionof writingsby adults learningEnglish as a secondlanguage.Toronto: Toronto Board of Education. Weinstein-Shr, G. (1992). Storiesto tell our children.Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

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