Teaching Literature in the World Language Classroom

Teaching Literature in the World Language Classroom presents a five-stage methodology for teaching literature in language curriculum that repurposes Bloom’s original and revised taxonomy to promote the language acquisition process and spark other types of learning.

The first step of text selection, preparation, and initiation asks students to: recognize familiar words, structures, and concepts; contextualize the reading; and remember the main details of the text. The second stage of beginning literary analysis gets target-language learners to describe, identify, and understand the basic elements of plot, character, setting, and narration. The third phase of intermediate literary analysis prompts students to interpret, analyze, and examine major themes, key passages, and the overall commentary. The fourth step of advanced literary analysis teaches students to synthesize multiple and conflicting interpretations, compare assigned texts across units or themes, and evaluate works through essay writing. The fifth stage of reflective and creative engagement challenges students to relate the assigned texts to themselves through personal and intercultural reflection, create new artistic works, and produce unique texts in the target language. The concluding chapter showcases all five stages of the methodology by applying them to a sample text, thereby inviting world language educators to assess the potential usefulness of Comfort and Scharf’s approach to their own language courses.

This is an ideal resource for world language educators teaching literature as well as undergraduate and graduate education students focusing on target-language literature instruction and its role in the language acquisition process.