Common Strategies Among EFL Students Reading Literature

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shirin Shafiei Ebrahimi ◽  
Zaidah Zainal

This study is to introduce the most common strategies that EFL students use while they read a piece of literature in English. To identify these strategies a questionnaire is employed as the instrument of data collection. The interesting result shows a significant tendency of EFL students to creativity and construction of new ideas in meaning making of the literary text just the same way as any other type of texts; however, the detected strategies help the readers to realize that strategies only help in the functionality of each text in a different way. This conclusion can assist the students to have a deeper understanding of literary texts and the teachers to facilitate the process of reading for the students.

Author(s):  
Elih Yanto ◽  
Hilmansyah Saefullah ◽  
Deny Kwary

This article reports the findings of action research on the implementation of extensive reading to literary text (henceforth ER) with learning logs (henceforth LL). The research question was: In what ways do the students engage in comprehending literary texts through ER with learning logs? And what are students’ reactions to these activities? The research was conducted in the English Language Education Study Program English Education Department of a state university in Indonesia in which twenty six students voluntarily participated in this study. The data of the research were collected from students’ reflective journals and semi-structured interviews. The empirical findings show that the students engaged actively and autonomously in the literary text identifying, word defining, class presentation, vocabulary enforcement and reflection through literary text extensive reading (ER) program with learning logs (LL). The findings also reveal that through the use of scaffolding by teachers and peer support, the students were engaged in the discovery of English literature vocabulary by documenting unfamiliar or interesting words from their English literature reading texts. The students also enjoyed exploring the different meanings of vocabulary using electronic dictionaries and corpus software. Furthermore, the findings show that they had enhanced awareness of word classes, word orders, and word meanings. The research suggests that the use of learning logs has managed to engage the students in reading literary texts as meaning making and learning autonomy that expand their reading ability and lexico-grammatical repertoires.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arab World English Journal ◽  
Shahzad Ahmad ◽  
Faiz Sathi Abdullah ◽  
Mohammad Yunus Ibrahim

The paper argues that literature provides authentic materials for developing reading and related language skills in addition to other real world texts (e.g. advertisements, or multimodal texts downloaded from the Internet). Hence, the paper aims to demonstrate how literary texts can be employed in the English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom to facilitate reading, language acquisition, and related critical skills, particularly at the pre-intermediate stage and above. Text selections from popular novels were analysed using Johns and Davies’ (1983) Text as Vehicle of Information (TAVI), and Text as Linguistic Object (TALO), as well as Clandfield’s (2005) Text as Springboard for Production (TASP) as a framework to design language learning/use activities. Source texts were selected from Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and Martel’s Life of Pi in view of these novels’ current salience in the literary world to address key research questions: 1) What reading skills and sub-skills can the literary texts help develop among ESL/EFL students? 2) What aspects of grammar and vocabulary can be exploited in the texts? 3) How can the texts be used as reflections of social reality to generate discussion of critical issues among students? The fact that these novels have been produced as films, which the learners could also watch in whole or part, is expected to stimulate further critical appreciation. The paper concludes that the value of such informed use of any literary text is that it exploits the literature-language nexus to provide the synergy needed for student learning in the ESL/EFL classroom and beyond.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 265-273
Author(s):  
Eckhard Lobsien

Abstract What sort of object is a literary text? From a phenomenological point of view - phenomenology considered as both a radical theory of reading and a theory of radical reading - a range of answers arise, many of them tinged with deconstructive momentum. This paper aims at pointing out some basic issues in reading literary texts, offering ten theses on the enduring tasks of phenomenological literary theory.


2021 ◽  
pp. 104973232110581
Author(s):  
Shahmir H. Ali ◽  
Alexis A. Merdjanoff ◽  
Niyati Parekh ◽  
Ralph J. DiClemente

There is a growing need to better capture comprehensive, nuanced, and multi-faceted qualitative data while also better engaging with participants in data collection, especially in virtual environments. This study describes the development of a novel 3-step approach to virtual mind-mapping that involves (1) ranked free-listing, (2) respondent-driven mind-mapping, and (3) interviewing to enhance both data collection and analysis of complex health behaviors. The method was employed in 32 virtual interviews as part of a study on eating behaviors among second-generation South Asian Americans. Participants noted the mind-mapping experience to be (1) helpful for visual learners, (2) helpful in elucidating new ideas and to structure thoughts, as well as (3) novel and interesting. They also noted some suggestions that included improving interpretability of visual data and avoiding repetition of certain discussion points. Data collection revealed the adaptability of the method, and the power of mind-maps to guide targeted, comprehensive discussions with participants.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Oluwole Akinbode

Since the inception of Pragmatics as an independent approach to meaning has independent linguistic study, the approach to meaning has encountered an enormous change. Meaning has been perceived beyond the sentence level. The aim of this paper was to do a pragmatic analysis of selected obituaries in Nigerian newspapers; Nigerian Tribune, The Nation and The Punch. These papers were purposively selected because obituaries were regularly published and publicized through them in a mournful manner and this called for a critical linguistic study by analyzing the mournful use of language with a view to finding out their effects on the decoders. The study of language has been extended significantly beyond mere description of linguistic properties to the various ways which individual communicators convey meanings in different socio-cultural contexts. The theoretical framework for this study is pragmatics. This is because pragmatics has been able to account for social meanings and give new insights to the understanding of literary texts and thus, helping in formulating strategies for the teaching and learning of language. Three Nigerian newspapers namely Nigerian Tribune, The Nation and the Punch were purposively selected for data collection. Relevant texts on obituaries were extracted from them and were critically analyzed for the purpose of this study. It was found out that relatives and friends of the deceased publicized the death of the deceased as memories and sympathy for the departed souls. It is recommended that obituaries should be used for the teaching and learning of English as a Second Language because funerals and obituaries are a significant aspect of African culture.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akiko Nagao

This study examined the progress of English as a foreign language (EFL) writers using the instructional framework of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and the communities of practice (CoPs) model. The study participants comprised 11 first-year undergraduate students in Japan with intermediate-level English proficiency who were exposed to SFL in a single EFL classroom (CoP). The participants’ genre understanding and meaning-making decisions when writing discussion essays were studied over two semester-long courses. To do so, their developmental changes were analyzed using pre- and post-instructional writing tasks. In particular, their ability to convey interpersonal meaning, such as through the use of modal verbs, was examined and compared between the pre- and post-tasks. To triangulate the findings, participants’ genre awareness in relation to discussion essays was also examined using in-depth qualitative analysis of their self-reflective texts and peer assessments, based on a grounded theory approach. In the pre-writing task, it was apparent that the learners lacked understanding of the components of discussion essay writing. However, analysis of their post-instructional tasks revealed that most had begun to apply the language components required to convey interpersonal meaning in their discussion genre texts. These results suggest that the changes in learner’s genre awareness and knowledge affected the lexicogrammatical features they used when writing discussion essays. Thus, this study concludes that applying the SFL framework to writing instruction enhanced EFL learners’ awareness of textual meaning and their understanding of the function of discussion essay texts.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Aris Wahyu Tristanto ◽  
Ludi Wishnu Wardana

This research was conducted to describe the entrepreneurial leadership of SMEs Tofu "RDS" and description about the obstacles experienced by SMEs Tofu "RDS". This research uses descriptive qualitative research design that aims to obtain the information available at this time, and then attempt to describe, record and interpret the information. Data collection methods used were interviews, observation and documentation. This type of qualitative research is case study. The result of the research is the condition of entrepreneurial leadership from the leadership of SMEs Tofu "RDS" is generally good because he is able to motivate employees well, have a picture of the future effort, able to read opportunities well, actively seeking new ideas, persistent in running their business And barriers faced by SMEs Tofu "RDS" can be overcome well by the leadership of SMEs Tofu RDS.


2003 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boldizsár Fejérvári

It is a common fashion in literary criticism, or 'Lit Crit,' to treat reality, human behaviour, communication, and everything else as though they were 'texts to be read.' This paper proposes to go the other way: it interprets literature (or, more precisely, one literary text, Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead) as a part of reality in which several other layers of the real combine, such as linguistics, science, or other literary texts, most notably Hamlet. While Edward II is not generally considered a direct source for Stoppard's play, this paper shows how, in the wider perspective of 'interreality,' Marlowe's tragedy might interact with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. At the same time it is proved that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, contrary to the critical conception of many, is not a parasitic work 'feeding off' Elizabethan playwrights, but a play that enters a symbiotic relationship with its host (as defined by Hillis Miller).


Neofilolog ◽  
1970 ◽  
pp. 157-166
Author(s):  
Dorota Szczęśniak Dorota Szczęśniak

This paper discusses the importance of working with a literary text (especially poetry) in the context of the foreign language (FL) classroom. In order to facilitate FL teaching, language teachers are encouraged to use poetry and rhetorical devices occurring in such texts (e.g. rhymes, alliteration, metaphor etc.). The paper offers some teaching procedures and techniques based on rhetorical devices, which may prove valuable in raising FL students’ motivation and language awareness while having fun analyzing quality literary texts.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-85
Author(s):  
Kiki Astrea ◽  
Anisa Ulfah

The purpose of this study is the discovery of (1) the influence of political ecological values (2) the influence of cultural ecological values (3) the influence of social ecological values, and (4) the influence of the ecological values of imperialism heritage. The data in this study are data about (1) the influence of political ecological values  (2)  The  influence  of  cultural  ecological  values  (3)  The  influence  of  social ecological values, and (4) the influence of the ecological values of imperialism heritage. Data sources are obtained from documentation and interviews. The data collection techniques are carried out with documentation and interviews. Data analysis techniques use interactive techniques. Data validation uses triangulation, both triangulation of theories, data, and methods. The research findings can be described include: (1) the influence of political ecological values (2) The influence of cultural ecological values (3) The influence of social ecological values, and (4) the influence of the ecological values of imperialism inheritance in the literary text writer in Lamongan


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