ENG 535 Linguistic Approaches to Literature (Spring, 2011) Instructor: Charles X. Li, Ph.D. Office contacts: 963-1598 / lix@cwu.edu Class meetings: MW 2:00 3:40 p.m. Office location: L&L 403H Classroom: L&L314 Office hours: MR 11-12:00, T 4-5:00, & by appt. Required Texts Li, Charles X. (2011course pack). ENG 435/535 Linguistic Approaches to Literature. Central Washington University: Wildcat Bookstore Custom Publishing. Course Description This course is primarily concerned with two emphases: (1) How is language used in literature, and how can the use of language in literature be generalized? (2) In what ways can literature and literary language be incorporated into the L2 English classroom? Throughout this course, we will vacillate between these two emphases instead of addressing one after the other. As such, we will blend and examine the following major topics: What are language, linguistics, and literature? How are they related? In what aspects has modern linguistics contributed to the shaping of modern literary criticism? Which kinds of linguistic forms can be adapted to which kinds of literary forms and in what ways? How can literary elements be taught in the ESL/EFL setting to facilitate acquisition of the structure of L2 English and promote communicative skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in L2 English? Course Requirements 1. Classroom Protocols: Regular attendance, timely completion of assignments, active participation in class discussions and activities, and effective corroborations among class members. 2. Quizzes/tests: There will be several pop quizzes/tests on various topics to evaluate your understanding of them (your lowest score will be dumped). 3. Discussion Leaders: Each graduate student and each pair of undergraduate students will choose one article or chapter from the course pack and lead class discussions of it on the day for which the chosen chapter or article is assigned. 4. Weekly Readings and Bi-weekly Mini-themes: As you are finishing weekly reading assignments, choose some literary and/or linguistic notion from them, such as accentualsyllabic verse, metrical variation, figures of speech, personification, symbolism, parallelism, character development, structuralism, deconstruction, lexical competence, prose style, syntactic embedment, post-structuralism, and many more, and write a biweekly mini-theme of about 500-600 words (400-450 words by ENG 435 students), using at least two references (APA style), that examines your chosen notion. Each class member will have a chance to write four mini-themes, two of which should address literary and/or linguistic notions and two of which discussions of innovative ways of applying the chosen notions to developing teaching material that nurtures L2 English learners specific literacy skills or enriches their general knowledge base (ENG 435 students and graduate students of literature may opt for topics of their interest). 1
Although you are free to choose your own topics, the topic for your first mini-theme is mandatory: What is literature? These bi-weekly mini-themes are due on Wednesdays, starting on April 6 and ending on May 25. I will not accept late mini-themes; if you don t do the work before class, you simply miss that week s assignment and that portion of your grade. The choice of a notion and its application is strictly up to you as long as the notion is from the readings assigned for that week when a mini-theme is due. 5. Oral Reports and Class Discussions: On those Wednesdays when your mini-themes are due, you will be giving somewhat detailed oral reports on your mini-themes. If one is not ready for the report, he or she will simply lose the credit. Due to this tightly staggered schedule, as shown in a separate handout, no make-up reports are accommodated. Class discussion will emerge from comments that other students and I make initially and from these oral reports. 6. Seminar Papers: You will complete a seminar paper of about 12-14 pages long (8-10 pages for ENG 435 students) that explores contributive and innovative ways of integrating aspects of literature or literary language into the L2 English classroom. While non-tesol majors may consult with me in choosing a topic not related with TESOL as long as it is related with this course, TESOL majors are expected to choose one nonduplicated topic from the following list: (1) Teaching ESL/EFL listening processes (bottom-up processes, top-down processes) through poetry, prose, or drama (ppd) (2) Teaching ESL/EFL speaking through task-based responses to ppd (3) Teaching ESL/EFL phonological processes through ppd (4) Teaching ESL/EFL speaking through pushed output of studying ppd (5) Teaching ESL/EFL prosody through ppd (6) Teaching ESL/EFL intensive reading through ppd (7) Teaching ESL/EFL extensive reading through ppd (8) Teaching ESL/EFL the writing process through ppd (9) Teaching ESL/EFL cohesive devices through ppd (10) Teaching ESL/EFL vocabulary through intensive reading of ppd (11) Teaching ESL/EFL vocabulary through extensive reading of ppd (12) Teaching ESL/EFL multi-word units through ppd (13) Teaching ESL/EFL pragmatics through ppd (14) Teaching ESL/EFL literary styles through ppd (15) Teaching ESL/EFL grammar through ppd (16) Teaching ESL/EFL relative clauses through ppd (17) Teaching ESL/EFL stylistic traits of syntax through ppd The list could be longer. These topics are so broad-based that they allow you to focus on certain aspects of them and thus rename them. For example, Topic 2 may be renamed: Enhancing L2 English Speech Rhythm through Metered Verse, while Topic 6 or 7 may address either reading strategies to improve L2 English speed reading or regional and social variation in literature and combine it with bilingualism and/or L2 English cultural studies. Topic 9 may focus on lexical cohesion only, conjunction relationships only (e.g. 2
and, but, so, yet, namely, in addition, in spite of this, etc.), comparison only, reference words only, or substitutes only, or all of them, while Topic 12 may emphasize one or all categories of multi-word units, including idioms, figuratives, literary sequences (such as high water), formulaic structures. While Topic 13 may stress speech acts, turn taking, or other pragmatic aspects, Topic 17 may feature one or more literary syntactic styles of embedding depth of clauses, recursiveness, non-finite verb phrases, extended distance between head words in subjects and predicates, syntactic inversions, to name just a few. Whatever the topics are, they share one focus, that is, how to use the rich sources of literature and the scholarship in the fields of linguistics and second language acquisition to enhance input for ESL/EFL learners to promote acquisition, or, to put the shared focus differently, how to link linguistics and literature with L2 English language learning. To complete your seminar paper successfully, you will also need to: (1) do library research for additional references (no fewer than eight citations), (2) determine appropriate proficiency levels of ESL/EFL learners that your paper addresses, though it is entirely up to you to decide whether you will collect original ESL/EFL data or not (I prefer you do not, given the time constraint), and (3) scrupulously follow the APA documentation style. 7. Oral Presentations: You will power-point present your seminar paper. Course Outcomes By the end of the course, the students will be able to: (1) Distinguish linguistic form from literary form and characterize their complementary nature; )2) Describe linguistic approaches to the language of literature (poetry, prose, and drama); (3) Conduct linguistic analysis of literary texts; (4) Apply knowledge of linguistics and literature to the field of TESOL or areas of own interest. Assessment Instruments Several pop quizzes/tests (lowest score discarded): a total of 30% Mini-themes: a total of 28% Oral mini-theme reports (handouts required): a total of 4% Seminar paper: 30% Seminar paper presentation (power-point required): 4% Discussion leadership (handouts or power point required): 4% TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE Notes: 1. This schedule is subject to minor adjustments if needed; 2. Weekly readings may be expanded or reduced, contingent upon time constraints; 3. The items ended with an asterisk * are for you to choose to lead class discussions; 4. Items ended with a superscripted + sign are not in the course pack; 5. Literary texts are in italics. 1 st wk: March 29 --Part I.1 Language, Linguistics, and Literary Analysis (1-10) 2 nd wk: April 4, 6 --Part I.1 Language, Linguistics, and Literary Analysis (10-18) --Part I.2 Phonology and Literature: Notes on Meter (19-30) 3
3 rd wk: April 11, 13 --Part I.2 Iambic Pentameter (31-39) (4/11) --Part I.2 Chaucer: Folk Poet or Littérateur? (41-52)*(4/13) --Linguistic form and literary form + (time permitting) (1) Part IV.1 Shall I compare thee to a summer s day? (199) (2) Part IV.1 I wandered lonely as a cloud (201) (3) That time of year you mayst in me behold + (time permitting) 4 th wk: April 18, 20 --Part I.3 Morphemes and Words (53-57) *(4/18) --Part I.4 Syntax and Literature (59-64)* (4/20) (1) The Sun Also Rises: Chapter 10 (209-215) (2) Clause Structure and Prose Style in Hemingway+ (time permitting) 5 th wk: April 25, 27 --Part III.1 Chants, Music, and Poetry (107-114)*(4/25) --Part III.2 Storytelling, Role Play, and Drama (115-124)* (4.27) --Part III.4 Tree or Three? An Elementary Pronunciation Course: Unit 1 /s/ sun (133-135) --Part III.5 Ship or Sheep? An Intermediate Pronunciation Course: Unit 1 /i:/ sheep (137-140) 6 th wk: May 2, 4 --Part III.6 Listening: Unit 12 Fashion in the Twenty-first Century (141-148) --Part III.7 Speaking: Unit 5 Do you Like the Internet? (149-151) --Part III.3 Learning and Teaching How a Poem Means* (125-132) (Ma5 2) --Part I.5 Measuring Lexical Style and Competence (65-72) (1) Part IV.1 After Making Love We Hear Footsteps (203) (2) Part IV.2 The House on Mango Street (217) (3) Part IV.2 Barn Burning (219-225) (time permitting) 7 th wk: May 9, 11 --Part II.1 Modernity and Postmodernism: Structuralism (73-83)* (May 9) Modernity and Postmodernism: Deconstruction (83-95) *(May 11) ~Literary Texts to discuss: (1) Part IV.2 The Story of an Hour (207) --Part II.2 Critical Strategies for Reading Literature (formalist, biographical, psychological, historical, gender, mythological, reader-response, deconstructionist) (97-106) 8 th wk: May 16, 18 4
--Part III.10 Stage by Stage: Using Drama in the Sec. Lang. Classroom (171-180) *(May 23) --Part III.11 Stage by Stage: Chapter 2 Developing Fluency and Getting Students on their Feet (181-197) *(May 25) --part IV.3 Plays: Sure Thing (235-238) --Part IV.4 Plays: A Doll House: Act III (239-242) (time permitting) 9 th wk: May 23, 25 --The acquisition of the lexicon + (time permitting) --Part III.8 Vocabulary: A House Versus Home ((153-166) --Part III.9 Reading and Writing: South of the Slot (157-169) 10 th wk: May 30 (Memorial Day no class), June 1 --Exploring a new approach to teaching ESL/EFL syntactic complements+ --Catch-up day 11 th wk: June 8, noon-2:00, Wednesday --Seminar paper due --Power-point presentation of seminar paper 5