Teaching Literature in the World Language Classroom

<p><i>Teaching Literature in the World Language Classroom </i>presents a five-stage methodology for teaching literature in language curriculum that repurposes Bloom’s original and revised taxonomy to promote the language acquisition process and spark other types of learning.</p><p>The first step of text selection preparation and initiation asks students to: <i>recognize</i> familiar words structures and concepts; <i>contextualize</i> the reading; and <i>remember</i> the main details of the text. The second stage of beginning literary analysis gets target-language learners to <em>describe</em> <em>identify</em> and <i>understand</i> the basic elements of plot character setting and narration. The third phase of intermediate literary analysis prompts students to <em>interpret</em><em> analyze</em> and <i>examine</i> major themes key passages and the overall commentary. The fourth step of advanced literary analysis teaches students to <i>synthesize</i> multiple and conflicting interpretations <i>compare</i> assigned texts across units or themes and <i>evaluate</i> works through essay writing. The fifth stage of reflective and creative engagement challenges students to <i>relate</i> the assigned texts to themselves through personal and intercultural reflection <i>create</i> new artistic works and <i>produce</i> unique texts in the target language. The concluding chapter showcases all five stages of the methodology by applying them to a sample text thereby inviting world language educators to assess the potential usefulness of Comfort and Scharf’s approach to their own language courses.</p><p>This is an ideal resource for world language educators teaching literature as well as undergraduate and graduate education students focusing on target-language literature instruction and its role in the language acquisition process.</p>