LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 10 : 1 January 2010
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         K. Karunakaran, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.

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Is Literature a Viable Medium for ESL Acquisition?

V. Sakthivel, M.A., M.Phil. and N. Kavidha, Ph.D.

Life, Literature and Mastering Language Skills

Interestingly, there is an interrelation between life and literature, literature and language and language and life. In any society, all these three components are important and inseparable. Among them, life provides the base, then language evolves and using the language literary works are created. To create a literary work, the writer should have a command over the language and have an eagle eye on the day-to-day events in life. This actually makes the use of literature more relevant to learn a language, so long as such literature is in current idiom.

One of the Best Tools

Literature is one of the best tools to master a language. People have an inherent ability to understand the basic story-telling conventions irrespective of age, religion, caste and creed. This helps us enjoy literature and appreciate the meaning it conveys. It is this implicit competence that we try to take advantage of in using literature to teach language.

Active Participation Takes Place

When a reader reads a piece of literature, he actively participates in the story and he questions, wonders, gets angry, cries during the process of reading, All these feelings exemplify the readers' participation.

Literary critics and experts have classified it as reader-response criticism.

Scientists nowadays are doing the same thing using technologies and have named it virtual reality, where the viewers immerse in the artificial atmosphere and anticipate the happenings with real involvement. The same can be experienced by reading a novel, for example, where we curse the villain and praise the deeds of a hero or heroine or both. We also sympathize with the people who suffer unnecessarily.

The same may be correlated to Coleridge's theory of willing suspension of disbelief and to Aristotle's theory of Catharsis. They depend on how far a reader allows himself to be consciously captivated by his believing of what he reads.

Recognizing and Storing Usage Rules

While reading, a conscious reader should allow his heart to go for details and his mind to collect the usage of a language.

Easy Interaction

Literature provides real-life situations where one character meets other characters and they interact and express their emotions. The language used by these characters should be noted by the reader.

It's the duty of the language teachers to show the right direction to the learners and motivate them to take note of the language used by the characters.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Linguistic Purism and Language Planning in a Multilingual Context | The Problems of Teaching/Learning Tenses | Language and Literature: An Exposition - Papers Presented in Karunya University International Seminar | Similes in Meghduta - The Absolute Craftsmanship in Language | Culture of the Tamil Society as Portrayed in Ponniyin Selvan | Deconstructing Human Society: An Appreciation of Amitav Ghosh's Sea Of Poppies | Enabling Students to Interpret Literary Texts Independently by Enhancing their Vocabulary | Coping with the Problems of Mixed Ability Students | Displaced Diasporic Identities - A Case Study of Mordecai Richler's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz | English Language Teaching in Developing Countries Error Analysis and Remedial Teaching Methods - An Overview | Diaspora Literature - A Hybrid or a Hybridized Product? | Anita Desai's Journey To Ithaca - A Manifestation of Vedantic Knowledge | A Study on the Physiological, Psychological and Spiritual Perspectives of Different Selves in a Self with Special Reference to Yann Martel's SELF | Conveniences and Complexities of Computer-Aided Language Learning | The Danger Lurking Within: The African American Woman in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye | Practices and Paradigms of Using Multimedia and Language Laboratory for Teaching Communication Skills to Technical Students | English: A Blessing in Disguise - A Study of Chinua Achebe's Technique of Hybridization | Language Teaching - The Present Day Challenges | Is Literature a Viable Medium for ESL Acquisition? | The Lord of The Rings : Galadriel, The Light Of Middle-Earth | Teaching Reading - A Challenge in Itself | The Silent Way | Translator as Reader: Phenomenology and Text Reception - An Investigation of Indulekha | The Dysfunctional Women in Mary Gordon'sThe Other Side | Utopia and Dystopia, Conflict Between Two Extremes - An Appraisal of Anita Desai's Cry, The Peacock | Reading 'god' Backwards | The Comic Vision in the Stories and Sketches of R.K.Narayan | My Responses to The English Teacher | 'Fall from Grace into Grief': Putting into Perspective the Outrages of Terrorism in Salman Rushdie's Shalimar the Clown | Style and Language in M. G. Vassanji's The Assassin's Song | Affirmation of Life in Lloyd C. Douglas' Magnificent Obsession | Effectiveness of Group Investigation Model and Simulation Model in Teaching English | A Mathematical Treatment of Feministic Literature for the Prediction of Social Trends | Multiple Intelligences and Second Language Learning | Amitav Ghosh's The Circle Of Reason - A Study of Diaspora | The Role of Multimedia in Teaching Writing in English | A PRINT VERSION OF ALL THE PAPERS OF JANUARY 2010 ISSUE IN BOOK FORMAT | HOME PAGE of January 2010 Issue | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR

V. Sakthivel, M.A., M.Phil.
Department of English
Dr. Sivanthi Aditanar College of Engineering
Tiruchendur 628 215
Tamilnadu, India
v.sakthivel@rediffmail.com

N. Kavidha, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Department of English
Dr. Sivanthi Aditanar College of Engineering
Tiruchendur 628 215
Tamilnadu, India
kavith_n@rediffmail.com

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