Reading English Literature Research Articles

Language and literature in the information economy: the state of English, English and the state

The impact of colonialism and empire and then of transport, logistics, advertising, media, cinema, radio, tourism, and the internet extended the global reach of English. With 1.13 billion speakers, one in seven in the world now has some English competence. Within this global circulation of English, we have the global teaching of English language and literature, most recently captured for Britain in a June 2023 British Academy report, the relevant findings of which are the decline in the information age and under neoliberal governments of university students reading English Literature and the rise of Creative Writing and world literatures in translation. I distinguish global from world Englishes as the hegemonic language of global trade and finance from more bottom-up Englishes mixed with other languages on the streets; discuss the state of English studies globally; and propose decolonising and denationalising the curriculum. The notion of national languages, identifying a language with national unity, is a very modern idea, only about three centuries old and arising with the formation of modern nation-states. We might use the lived histories of global and world Englishes to transcend both romantic revolutionary and far-right exclusionary nationalisms in literary and language studies in favour of more cosmopolitan, multilingual, and convivial approaches.

The effectiveness of English literature reading in improving reading skills and reading comprehension

This research aims to explore the ways in which reading English literature enhances the reading skills of Chinese college students in the language. A questionnaire was used to carry out the study with 36 students. The pilot population of this study is first-year to fourth-year students at Liaoning University. The study puts emphasis on the effectiveness of English literature reading in improving reading skills and reading comprehension. Sixty students participated in the study by means of an experiment. In the experiment class, the teacher uses reading skills to teach English literature, however, in the control class, the teacher uses a traditional literature teaching method. SPSS version 29.0 was offered to test whether the experimental students’ literature reading grades have risen with reading skills. SPSS is a software package used for statistical analysis in social science research and other fields. A wide range of abilities for data management, data analysis and data documentation are available with IBM's SPSS programme. Researchers and analysts use SPSS to perform various statistical analyses such as descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and multivariate analyses. The study indicates that teaching English literature reading skills enhances college students’ reading comprehension proficiency and grades.

영미 문학교육의 새 모델

This study presents an innovative pedagogical framework designed for the “Reading English Literature” course, aligning with the core tenets and objectives of the 2022 revised English curriculum. Grounded in learner-centered principles, the framework introduces a new set of approaches to seamlessly integrate literary narrative-focused instruction into the context of high school English literature education. The proposed approach examines the practical applicability of instructional principles for “Reading English Literature”, with a focus on pivotal factors such as achievement standards and assessment protocols. This study aims to make a substantive contribution to the ongoing academic discourse and pedagogical practice surrounding effective teaching strategies and assessment, specifically attuned to the exigencies of learner-centered English literature education in the high school milieu.

Negative Transfer in Chinese College Students' English Reading

Contrary to what most Chinese higher education researchers believe, teaching practice shows that Chinese university students still have some difficulty in reading academic literature in English, and this is not caused by a lack of vocabulary. To investigate the impact that Chinese-based reading habits produce on Chinese university students understanding of the logic of English academic texts, 23 students were given a standardized English reading test covering ecology, zoology, economics, and cartography. Test results and post-test interviews reveal that most Chinese students were significantly better at understanding the meaning of single sentences than at sorting out the logic of the texts. When reading English literature, some students fail to correctly understand the role of logical adverbs and conjunctions, and even ignored logical words in the texts. As a result, the speed of reading English literature slows down and students fail to correctly understand the central content of the texts. This is caused by the different meanings and functions of different logical words in Chinese and English. The results of this study point out that there is a lack of training in the ability to sort out the logic of texts in Chinese higher English education and provide new teaching ideas for teachers who are struggling to improve students' ability to read English literature.

THE ROLE OF USING IG AND YOUTUBE AS MEDIA TO EXPLORE THE ENGLISH ABILITY OF AKBID BY BUNDA HUSADA BUNDA HUSADA STUDENTS

This study aimed to determine the role of Instagram and Youtube in exploring English skills for Akbid Karya Bunda Husada students. This research is qualitative. They use interview data collection techniques from 25 Akbid Karya Bunda Husada student informants in one class group. The study's results stated that; 1) Instagram and Youtube contain content containing interesting English learning materials in the form of videos, images, and writings. Instagram and Youtube support the student learning process more fun and contribute to encouraging students' interest in learning; 2) The majority of students' perceptions say they strongly agree that Instagram and Youtube as interesting media are used in English learning. Not only used to collect material, Instagram and Youtube have become media for students to pour their creativity, skills, and English skills through assignment projects from lecturers; 3) students of Akbid Karya Bunda Husada need English to be able to compete in the era of globalization related to their skills, such as communicating, reading English literature, adding insight into discoveries, improving service, and the opportunity to get a good career.

DESIGNING ESP READING COMPREHENSION: THE PORTRAYING OF STUDENTS’ NEEDS IN LEARNING ENGLISH FOR ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

The objective of this study is to find out what kind of textbooks and teaching materials are needed by students of Islamic Education Program (PAI). This is done so that students get the material they really need to support their learning process at this time or in the future. This research conducted at students of PAI IAIN Sultan Amai Gorontalo. The data were collected by observing the PAI Study Program documents and distributing questionnaires for the needs of English learning materials. This study involved 50 students who were taken randomly and spread out from 3 batches or semesters. The involvement of students who have already taken part in English learning is of course to get more comprehensive data. Data were analyzed with need analysis for students’ need. The research findings indicated that the needs of non-English study programs for ESP English courses are very diverse, so it can be concluded that they need English not only for their current needs such as reading English literature, but also for future work. Therefore, it is recommended that ESP English teachers or interested parties can accommodate the needs of students, and always carry out a need analysis because the needs of ESP students are always changing.

An Exploratory Reform in Separation of Teaching and Examination for Postgraduate Academic English Course Based on POA

Based on the survey of academic English abilities and learning needs of non-English major postgraduates at Inner Mongolia University, China. The study explores the curriculum reform scheme of general academic English for postgraduates under the guidance of Production-oriented Approach, and carries out the separation reform in teaching and examination of postgraduate academic English. The teaching concept of “promoting learning with pragmatic purpose” in Production-oriented Approach (POA) is applied to the teaching of graduate students’ academic English writing. Combined with computer technology and related products developed by Beijing Tianyan Rongzhi Software Co., Ltd., a number of open question banks conforming to POA summative evaluation are constructed, and the POA teaching evaluation model is applied to the summative assessment of the course. The results indicate that the new teaching model based on POA realizes the transformation of students from merely learning English to pragmatically using English. The academic writing task assigned by the teacher promotes postgraduates to earnestly apply what they have learned in class to practice, which is of great help to their writing academic abstracts and research papers in English, and greatly enhances their confidence in reading English literature and publishing English academic papers independently. The curriculum assessment adopting separation between teaching and examination enables students to show more initiative to expand their academic knowledge and their English thinking while learning the classroom content, so that the cases of getting high scores via a frantic last-minute effort will be apparently reduced, and the assessment for their achievements in the course will become more efficient and fair.

English Reading Literacies to Improve Values Among Teenagers

People with high levels of literacy usually have low crime rates and high intelligence. It is expected that the school community itself will happen in the school environment like teachers and students. The purpose of this research is to collect information on the learning styles and preferences of young junior high school students who are curious and critical. It is very useful to cultivate interest in reading English literature books in order to increase the cultural and social value of students who intend to apply for school literacy campaigns. The reading literacy development model used is the Plomp model: preliminary research, prototyping and evaluation. Science books such as textbooks recommended by the Cambridge Courses may have a major and popular impact because they can increase their value in various courses that use English. Educators are expected to use related books in their learning and lead the school's reading and writing movement. The result of validation of teaching materials indicates that reading literacy material with the use of English-language publications is important and can be tested.

Using Literary Texts in The EFL Classroom: A Pilot Study on First-Year English Majors’ Reading Preferences and Perceptions

First-year English majors have to meet new expectations and face new challenges when they enter tertiary education, such as reading English literature and participating in literature classes. Despite the rediscovery of literature in EFL education (Bloemert et al., 2017), secondary schools in Hungary primarily focus on preparing their students for final exams and language exams, thus first-year English majors tend to experience difficulties related to reading in the target language. One possible solution to their difficulties might be the inclusion of literary texts in EFL university courses. The purpose of the present article is to introduce the issue from the students' perspective: it reports on a pilot study whose primary aim is to explore first-year English majors’ reading preferences and their perceptions of using literature in the EFL classroom. The instrument is an online questionnaire and the sample includes 39 first-year university students majoring in English. Based on the results, it may be claimed that students are in favour of using literary texts in the EFL classroom. It is hoped that the findings on students’ reading habits will be beneficial for EFL teachers who plan to incorporate literature into their university courses.

The Early Poetry of Muhammad Haji Salleh: A Memoir in Tribute

There is a saying that “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Since learning never ends, perhaps teachers come at different points in our lives according to what we need at the time.
 Looking back to the time I was making tentative beginnings in poetry, it was certainly true. The teachers – there were two – who came to lay the critical foundations to my writing appeared without my even being aware of their significance, then. We are talking about the mid-to-late 1960s, when as an undergraduate reading English Literature, two poets came into my life who could not have had a greater impact on my attitude towards what I was studying, and the poetry I was attempting to write.
 The Professor who headed the English Department at the time was Dennis Enright, a highly distinguished poet in his home country (the UK) and the English-speaking world. He was one of the tutors who took us under his wing, and in the two years of intensive immersion in the subject (as required under the degree structure then) I got to know much more about his poetry and his commitment to not only literature, but undergraduates struggling with creative writing. He was sharply discerning, but kind; I valued his critical judgement, laconic humour and compassion. Enright returned to England about five years after I graduated. Fortunately, his last few years with the University of Singapore coincided with the time I was a student and graduate tutor and developing an interest in poetry.
 The other “teacher” who had an even greater role was a classmate, one in a very tiny class taking the single subject, English Literature. He was Muhammad Haji Salleh, a Malaysian, slightly older than the rest of us. He was a trained teacher from the Malay Teachers’ College, Brinsford Lodge, near Wolverhampton, England. His reputation went ahead of him, for we soon heard that he had a substantial portfolio of poems, which even the Chair of English admired. A quiet

Mary Lowe Good (1931-2019).

Renowned chemist, respected leader, and inspiring mentor

Exploration of the post competency-based teaching mode of English for medical laboratory

English for medical laboratory is an instrumental course, which aims to develop students' competency in reading English literature, writing English scientific papers and conducting international academic exchanges in English. With the continuous expansion and deepening of international exchange and cooperation in laboratory medicine and the demands for training international talents in higher education in China, higher requirements have been put forward for the teaching quality of this course. According to the post competency requirements for professionals of medical laboratory, this paper mainly discusses the teaching mode of English for medical laboratory from the aspects of educational concept, teaching material construction, teaching mode, assessment mechanism and teachers, hoping to play an active role in the teaching reform of English for medical laboratory at the undergraduate level. Key words: Post competency; Medical laboratory; English for specific purposes; Teaching mode

Readers of English Literature Confronting Quiet Members with Critical Literacy in the Act of Mentoring

In response to many years of a one-way teacher-oriented teaching approach in Iran, there have been some attempts in research to identify young learners as resourceful learning material themselves. Over a period of two semesters, the researchers as teacher-researcher and co-teacher full-time participant observer explore the diverse ways for inviting thirty English Literature majors to voice their own spontaneous learning challenges in reading English literature through mentorship; and characteristics of a popular mentor in critical reading practice and the ways in which a mentor may share her voice with mentees. For this purpose, a qualitative case-study methodology is conducted at Alzahra University (the only-woman university in Iran) for an in-depth understanding of the language and act of reading when Iranian women English literature readers participate in a mentorship interaction. The findings indicated that the mentors/mentees and the teacher create a subtle relationship throughout the semesters by sharing how to read and search for literary texts; how to review literary texts after hearing one another’s writing styles; how to voice their critiques with courage; how to overcome competition; and how to invite quiet members to their circles.

Using ICTs to Enhance Students Motivation in Reading English Literature

Teaching English has become more challenging than ever. A storm of change is moving in the pedagogy of English language teaching (E. L. T). The new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have played a great role in promoting ELT. This paper aims to investigate to what extent the use of visual aids, for example (animation videos, pictures, films, audio clips and projectors) can be a motivational tool in enhancing students’ interest in reading literary texts in order to improve their motivation and language skills. To achieve the aim of the study, a mixed-method approach consisted of observation and questionnaire was used to collect the required data. Therefore, an experiment was carried out with a sample group of 60 Master 1 students at Chlef university where two groups were taught in different ways. The analysis of the data indicated that majority of students had positive attitudes for the use of visual aids to read literary texts. Also, observation by the researcher showed the use of visual aids during the lecture was effective. The use of the ICT tools enhanced the students’ motivation to enjoy the lecture processes better and to achieve the lecture goals higher. The study concludes that the use of visual aids enables the students to engage closely with literary texts. That suggests that literature taught by visual aids helps to enhance students’ creative and critical thinking skills. Therefore, this study proclaims that teachers changed their attitudes as well as the students had positive attitudes for the use of visual aids, the lecture processes would be more interesting and creative.

Teaching Literature under the Volcano

I Have Been Teaching Literatures in English for Over Twenty-Five Years at the Universidad Nacional AutóNoma de México (Unam), Mexico's national university, where I received my undergraduate degree. My formative years were marked, undoubtedly, by the universalist ideal that defines the motto of the university, “Por mi raza hablará el espíritu” (“The spirit will speak on behalf of my race”). I cannot recall whether I was aware of the motto's real meaning, or of its cultural and social implications, but I suppose I took for granted that what I was taught as a student was as much part of a Mexican culture as it was of a “universal” one. Reading English literature at the department of modern languages and literatures in the late 1970s meant that I was exposed to a canonical view of literature shaped as much by The Oxford Anthology of English Literature and by our lecturers' (primarily) aesthetic approach to it as by the idea of “universal” literature conveyed in the textbooks for elementary and secondary education in Mexico. This conviction that as a Mexican I belonged to “Western” civilization greatly diminished when in the early 1980s I traveled to London for graduate studies and was almost shattered by the attitudes I encountered while conducting my doctoral research on the image of Latin America in British fiction. I was often asked whether I had ever seen a car (let alone ridden in one), or if there was electricity in my country, and the ambivalent, mostly negative, view of Latin Americans and Mexicans in what I read (authors like Joseph Conrad, D. H. Lawrence, Graham Greene, and Aldous Huxley, as well as more than three hundred adventure novels set in the continent) forced me to question the idea that one ought to read literature merely for the enjoyment (and admiration) of it or to analyze it with assumptions that fall roughly in the category of “expressive,” or “mimetic,” criticism, which was common in those days and often took the form of monographic studies, which relied heavily on paraphrase.

Reading English Literature As a Part of Liberal Education in the Era of Convergence: A Case Study

Reading English Literature As a Part of Liberal Education in the Era of Convergence: A Case Study

Reading English Literature and Korean Scholars' Search for "Authentic Subjectivity"

In his article "Reading English Literature and Korean Scholars' Search for 'Authentic Subjectivity'" Jonggab Kim discusses the ambivalence of Korean scholars toward the reading and analysis of English-language literature because of its perceived threat to Korean national identity and a route to internationalization. Kim's study is an attempt to evaluate a dual strategy of reading, one that involves both sympathy and antipathy. Kim postulates that what Korean scholars need is not a national practice of reading, but the type of reading that takes into account Korea's historical situation with the knowledge of the field or period of the text. Based on the notion of the Korean concept of "authentic subjectivity" (주체성 juchesung), Kim examines the growing confidence of Korean scholars on the one hand and their insecurity and sense of anxiety over asserting their subjectivity in the production of scholarship.

Reading English literature in Italy: intellectual and critical history

Abstract Some time ago I accepted an invitation to survey the fortune of English literature in Italy. The idea was attractive. What bearing, I wondered, did Italian intellectual life have upon the interpretation of English literary works? I decided the survey should begin in 1896 and end in 1996. Between those two dates, while unsuccessfully striving to redefine its own cultural identity, Italy saw an unprecedented growth in the study of English literature. It was partly my hope that my survey would illustrate the transience of the literary methods and theories, let alone ideologies, that have successively dominated English studies in Italy. Little did I imagine how ambitious this seemingly modest task would be. I quickly realized that it would be impossible to condense a survey of twentieth-century English studies in Italy into a few pages. I was tempted to give the project up, but I had become intrigued by the way in which the reception of English literature in Italy illustrated the wider interplay betw...

Figuratively Speaking: A Study of the Cantonese-Speaking Undergraduate's Response to Figures of Speech in Shakespeare

English literature is a fairly popular option in the Arts Faculty of the University of Hong Kong, where over ninety percent of the student population is Chinese. It is a cliche to state that the study of a literature written in a second language is no easy matter. Not the least of the average student's difficulties is the problem of understanding the finer shades of meaning and nuances of literary language. We shall not presume to tackle the entire problem of the understanding of various English writers by the average educated person in Hong Kong. The subject would be far too enormous and would involve too many sociological considerations. Instead, we wish to confine ourselves to the problems of understanding figurative language which confront students reading English Literature in the University of Hong Kong. In the following discussion emphasis is placed on the works of Shakespeare, although our observations may apply equally to other English writers. All metaphors suggest a resemblance or analogy between two objects, concepts or events. People with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds may view the 'real world' differently, and a comparison which may strike one group of speakers as 'apt' may not seem so to others. A person with a barely adequate ability in the use of a foreign language may well be troubled by meanings which are not strictly 'literal', and figurative extensions of meaning are frequently beyond his comprehension. However, when the metaphor in the foreign language is based on some concept familiar to him in his own language, it is much more easily understood and appreciated. Our undergraduates are mostly native speakers of Cantonese and are familiar with a whole stock of metaphorical expressions in colloquial Cantonese as well as some found in literary Chinese. They come to the study of English Literature, then, with a whole set-of associations learned through their own language, and although we would not like to minimize the difficulties of understanding figurative expressions in Shakespeare and other English literary works, it does seem that the cultural 'barrier' is not as impregnable as it is sometimes claimed to be. It is found that many figurative expressions in Shakespeare and

"PATRIOTISM RAMPANT"

<h3>To the Editor:</h3> —Referring to Dr. Burr's letter inThe Journal, Sept. 1, 1917, p. 751, it is true that Eucken declared that German Kultur was necessary to the spiritual preservation of mankind. But he did not say that the English language should be barred from Germany. The Germans are still reading English literature, and are very frequently presenting Shakesperian plays, even more often than we are. And even England itself has not barred the German language. In the "Prospectus of University Courses in the Manchester School of Technology," Manchester, England, session of 1917-1918, you will find that all courses, namely, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, municipal and sanitary engineering, and applied and textile industries, provide for the teaching of German. German textbooks are recommended for the use of the students, and no other foreign language is mentioned. Must we out-English the English? One other question. If we discard the German