1. The Dilemmas of Teaching and
Testing Literature in EFL
Amos Paran
Institute of Education, University of London
While you wait for the talk to begin, please do have a
look at the two poems on your handout and give
yourself an account about what your reaction to them
is; you may even discuss the poems and your
reactions with your neighbour!
2. Outline of talk
Why we use and teach literature
Ways of reading
Dilemmas in testing/assessing literature
Principles for testing/assessing
literature
Tasks for testing/assessing literature
Future tasks for testers and researchers
3. Teaching literature
teaching literature vs. using literature
affective personal growth
intellectual growth
encourage private appreciation of literary
works
4. Why teach literature?
Present in every human being are two desires, a
desire to know the truth about the primary world, the
given world outside ourselves in which we are born,
live, love, hate and die, and the desire to make new
secondary worlds of our own or, if we cannot make
them ourselves, to share in the secondary worlds of
those who can.
W. H. Auden (1968)
5. Why teach literature?
What really happens (when a reader engages with a
text) is that the story-maker proves a successful ‘sub-
creator’. He makes a Secondary World which your
mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is ‘true’: it
accords with the laws of that world. You therefore
believe it, while you are, as it were, inside.
J. R. R. Tolkien On Fairy Tales
6. Why teach literature?
‘education (indeed all communication) is an
attempt to change others - to interfere with
them… The issue is not one of whether
teachers should inculcate value judgments
into their pupils, but of which values these
should be.’ (Cook 1996:152-153)
‘language teaching, and the part which
literature has to play in it, have to be seen as
part of the whole educational endeavour’
(Paran 2000: 76).
7. Why teach literature?
potential to ‘promote greater understanding
and knowledge of human behaviour’
(Carter and Long 1990: 217)
‘a means of introducing learners to … a
serious view of our world, of initiating them in
the process of defining themselves through
contact with others’ experience’
(Brumfit 2001: 91-92)
8. Why teach literature?
‘literature is inherently affective in a way
which perhaps applies to no other
subject’
the ability of literature to lead to ‘an
enhanced awareness and understanding
of one’s own emotional life.
(Parkinson and Reid Thomas 2000: 143)
9. I bring nearly 35 years of experience of trying to
make my grasp of biomedical science useful to
the astonishingly diverse population of Kentish
Town in north London. And in Mrs Dalloway,
Virginia Woolf describes one of the
compensations of growing old as ‘the power of
taking hold of experience, of turning it round,
slowly in the light.’
10. Efferent vs. Aesthetic Reading
Efferent reading: focuses on the public meanings
present in a text
product oriented
Aesthetic reading: focuses on the personal,
private, lived experience of engagement with
the text; reading as a transaction with the text
process oriented
Rosenblatt 1985
11. Dilemma 1:
To test or not to test?
Teaching
Internal, personal goals and processes
Differentiation and individuality
Divergent process
Cooperation
Testing
Externally driven goals and processes
Equivalence and equity
Convergent process, differentiating product
Individual
13. Or testing something else?
The poem ends “And that has made all of the
difference”. This quote describes how the speaker
will relate to his decision later on in life. How does he
think he will feel about his decision?
NOTE: For this question use ONE of the thinking
skills from the Appendix on page 14.
Thinking skill I chose …….
ANSWER: ……. (10 points)
Explain why you chose that particular thinking skill to
answer question 9a.
ANSWER: ……. (5 points)
14. Thinking skills
Comparing and contrasting
Distinguishing different perspectives
Explaining cause and effect
Problem solving
Inferring
Explaining patterns
15. Dilemma 3:
Testing knowledge or skills?
(Carter and Long 1990): 3 main types of question
Paraphrase and context
‘Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.’
Explain this quote in your own words.
George tells Chris: ‘When you make suckers out of
people once, you shouldn’t try to do it twice’.
What are the TWO times he is talking about?
16. Dilemma 3:
Testing knowledge or skills?
Describe and discuss
Describe Snowball and explain what happens to him.
(Carter and Long 1990)
Evaluate and discuss
In Act III Jim says to Mother: The compromise is
always made.
According to the play, is compromise a necessary
part of life? In your answer relate to ONE character in
the play.
Illustrate from the stories how Lawrence’s attitude to
his characters is often a mixture of ridicule and
compassion. (Carter and Long 1990)
17. Dilemma 3:
Testing knowledge or skills?
Sue says she does not want Ann and Chris to live near
them after they marry because:
a. Chris and Jim have never been close friends.
b. Chris might influence Jim to go into research.
c. she is jealous of their relationship.
d. Ann’s father, Steve, is a criminal.
18. Dilemma 3:
Testing knowledge or skills?
⇒ Flight from the text
(Short and Candlin 1986)
19. Dilemma 3:
Testing knowledge or skills?
Lin 2006
Guided and structured reading of poem
in class, in a combination of
individual/group work and
demonstration/lecture from the teacher
Reduction of support from teacher;
individual work on a different poem with
a similar theme in class.
Unseen poem in exam
20. Dilemma 4: Testing private
appreciation or public knowledge?
Candidates show independent understanding and
appreciation of layers of meaning in texts through the
identification and discussion of appropriate detail.
They make relevant comparisons between writers’
concerns, attitudes and ideas, responding personally
to the ways in which they affect the readers’
responses. They successfully communicate insight
and exploratory thought in various forms. They show
analytical skill when exploring the social and
historical settings of texts, their cultural contexts or
the literary traditions on which they draw.
AQA GCSE Specification, 2011.
21. Dilemma 4: Testing private appreciation
or public knowledge?
How to study a novel
Start by reading (the novel) quickly for
pleasure, then read it slowly and carefully.
….. Further readings will generate new ideas
and help you memorise the details of the
story.
….. Make careful notes on theme, plot and
characters of the novel. The plot will change
some of the characters. Who changes?
22. Dilemma 4: Testing private appreciation
or public knowledge?
Testing personal appreciation will entail with
working with students on:
Developing private appreciation (see
Tutas 2006)
Ways of expressing personal
appreciation and supporting personal
views and argumentation
23. Dilemma 5: Appropriate genres
or essay-type questions?
Fecho with Amatuchi and Skinner 2007:
classroom conversation in which the teacher
and pupil used classroom time to act
increasingly like two friends having a chat
about books at a coffee shop rather than
taking the inquisitor/rote responder roles seen
all to frequently in too many literature
classrooms.
24. Principles for Testing and
Assessment
Include both public knowledge and private appreciation
Use a variety of tasks
Include choice
Provide the texts
Ensure that criteria are transparent
Minimise the weighting of language
25. The Principles Applied:
Portfolios
‘most frequently identified example of
alternative assessment’ (Fox 2008:99)
Include both public knowledge and private
appreciation
Use a variety of tasks
Include choice
Provide the texts
Ensure that criteria are transparent
Minimise the weighting of language
26. Tasks for Assessing and Testing
Literature: Presenting a portfolio
French ‘Litté rature é trangere en langue é trangere’.
Four Criteria:
Pré sentation du dossier
Niveau de lecture des documents
Culture litté raire
Expression orale
Each criterion at 5 levels - 0-1 to 5
27. Tasks for Assessing and Testing
Literature: Presenting a portfolio
Description riche et pré cise de la thé matique et
de l’ensemble des documents, ajout d’un ou
plusieurs documents pertinents, justification
claire et argumenté e du choix autour de la
thé matique, expression d’une appré ciation
esthé tique et/ou d’un jugement critique
personnels
Bulletin officiel no. 43, 24 Novembre 2011
28. The Principles Applied:
Multi-part and multi-task tests
Include both public knowledge and private
appreciation
Use a variety of tasks
Include choice
Provide the texts
Ensure that criteria are transparent
Minimise the weighting of language
29. Tasks for Assessing and Testing
Literature:Language Based Tasks
Write a review of the work for a newspaper or a
magazine
Write a review of the work for a website
Respond to a review from a website or a
newspaper
Respond to short statements by critics
30. Tasks for Assessing and Testing
Literature: Creative Tasks
Write a prequel or a sequel.
Write a literary piece on the same theme.
Rewrite the work for the 21st century.
Write a ‘missing scene’ or document (e.g. letter)
from the story or novel.
31. Tasks for Assessing and Testing
Literature: Art-based Tasks
Draw the poem/story/scene.
Design a cover for the book.
Choose an appropriate cover for the book out of a
range of alternatives.
Choose an accompanying piece of music for the work.
Create a trailer/short film based on the work.
All these should/can be accompanied by a written
justification for the choices or the designs.
32.
33.
34. QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
36. Tasks for Assessing and Testing Literature:
Tasks Combining L1 and L2
Compare the poem with a poem written in your own
language
Choose the best translation of a poem from a range of
translations available
Translate part of the work into your L1 and comment on
the product and on the issues that arose
37. Tasks for Assessing and Testing
Literature: Unseen Tasks
Lin 2006
Unseen texts compared with texts studied in
class: Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by
William Carlos Williams compared with
Auden’s Musee des Beaux Arts
38. The task for teachers and testers
Devise tasks for specific works
Work on finding the most appropriate
tasks for different works
Create criteria
Research different ways of testing
