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Using literature in consciousness-raising tasks
Rod Ellis
University of Auckland
Literature is characterized by the use of deviant forms and patterning in order to foreground specific features. In order to identify foregrounded features language learners need to be able to compare the features they see in a literary text with those features that constitute the norms of a language. Thus, by helping learners to identify what is ‘special’ in the language of a literary text, teachers can also raise their consciousness of what is ‘normal’ in the language. More importantly, literature serves as a resource for examining how language works to achieve meaning.
This talk will discuss a number of ways in which literary texts can be exploited to develop some practical consciousness-raising tasks as a way of increasing learners’ awareness of the relationship between linguistic form and meaning in both literary and non-literary uses of language.
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Rod Ellis is currently Professor in the Department of Applied Language Studies and Linguistics, University of Auckland, where he teaches postgraduate courses on second language acquisition, individual differences in language learning and task-based teaching. He is also a professor in the MA in TESOL program in Anaheim University and a visiting professor at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) as part of China’s Chang Jiang Scholars Program.
His published work includes articles and books on second language acquisition, language teaching and teacher education. His books include Understanding Second Language Acquisition (BAAL Prize 1986) and The Study of Second Language Acquisition (Duke of Edinburgh prize 1995). More recently, Task-Based Learning and Teaching early (2003), Analyzing Learner Language (with Gary Barkhuizen) in (2005) and a second edition of The Study of Second Language Acquisition (2008) were published by Oxford University Press. He has also published several English language textbooks, including Impact Grammar (Pearson: Longman). He is also currently editor of the journal Language Teaching Research. He has worked in schools in Spain and Zambia and in universities in the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States. He has also conducted numerous consultancies and seminars throughout the world.
Rod Ellis is the Senior Advisor to the Asian EFL Journal
contact asian_efl_journal@yahoo.com
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