Teaching American Literature at Tertiary Level in Vietnam: A Discourse-based Approach

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Teaching American Literature at Tertiary Level in
Vietnam A
Discourse-based Approach

• By Tran Thi Ngoc Lien
• Haiphong Private University, Vietnam

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Current Situation

• Time constraint

• Limited Material Development

• Language-based Syllabus

• Conventional Teaching Method

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Questions

• How to access to a literary text

• How to make a literature-based syllabus work

• What to better learners appreciation of
  literature in EFL class.

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• A discourse-based approach does it work?

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Discourse analysis in application to analysis of
literary texts

• Interactions

• Discourse Organization

• Discourse Properties

• Relevance between discourse analysis and literary
  appreciation

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Interactions

• Characters Characters

Authors Readers
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The Gift of Magi by OHenry

• Character Character
• Jim and Bella A poor couple Great Love

Author - Readers Love Sacrifice Love makes
people the wisest
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Discourse organization

• Discourse patterns

• Problem-solution
• Cause-effect
• Conversation patterns
• Etc.

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Poem of Natureby Emily Dickinson

• 106
• Nature is what we see
• The Hill the Afternoon -
• Squirrel-Eclipse-the Bumble bee-
• Nay-Nature is Heaven-
• Nature is what we hear-
• The bobolink-the Sea-
• Thunder-the Cricket
• Nay-Nature is Harmony-
• Nature is what we know-
• Yet have no art to say-
• So impotent Our Wisdom is
• To her Simplicity
• Emily Dickinson (cited in American Literature A
  Course Book. College of Foreign Languages
  _Vietnam National University, Hanoi, 2007)

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• 824
• The Wind begun to rock the Grass
• With threatening tunes and low-
• He threw a Menace at the Earth-
• A Menace at the Sky
• The Leaves unhooked themselves from Trees-
• And started all abroad
• The Dust did scoop itself like hands
• And threw away the Road!
• .
• That held the Dams had parted hold
• The Waters Wrecked the Sky,
• But overlooked my Fathers House-
• Just quartering a Tree
• Exerp from Poem of Nature by Emily Dickinson

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• What is Nature in Mans life?

What I f?
What is your impression of Nature in poem 824?
Questions cited from Teaching American Book,
ULIS, VNA
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• Poem of Nature 106
• Sensory perceptions

• Poem of Nature 106
• Sensory perceptions

• Poem of Nature 824
• Contrasting versifications

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Discourse Properties Context Cooperative
principle Politeness
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Hills like the white elephants by Hemingway

• Conversation analysis
• Transaction
• Exchange
• Move
• Act
• Sinclair and Courthard, 1975

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• The warm wind blew the bead curtain against the
  table.
• "The beer's nice and cool," the man said.
• "It's lovely," the girl said.
• "It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig,"
  the man said. "It's not really an operation at
  all."
• The girl looked at the ground the table legs
  rested on.
• "I know you wouldn't mind it, Jig. It's really
  not anything. It's just to let the air in."
• The girl did not say anything.
• "I'll go with you and I'll stay with you all the
  time. They just let the air in and then it's all
  perfectly natural."
• "Then what will we do afterward?"

INITIATION
RESPONSE
FOLLOW UP
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• "What makes you think so?"
• "That's the only thing that bothers us. It's the
  only thing that's made us unhappy."
• The girl looked at the bead curtain, put her hand
  out and took hold of two of the strings of beads.
• "And you think then we'll be all right and be
  happy."
• "I know we will. You don't have to be afraid.
  I've known lots of people that have done it."
• "So have I," said the girl. "And afterward they
  were all so happy."
• "Well," the man said, "if you don't want to you
  don't have to. I wouldn't have you do it if you
  didn't want to. But I know it's perfectly
  simple."
• "And you really want to?

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• Violation of maxims gt hesitant or neglected or
  struggling or disgusting?

• Politeness strategies gt deviant purposes

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Context

• Inner context

• Outer context

• Intertextual context

• Social context

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Farewell to armBy Hemingway

• Priest to-day with girls, the captain said
  looking at the priest and at me. The priest
  smiled and blushed and shook his head. This
  captain baited him often.
• Not true? asked the captain. To-day I see
  priest with girls.
• No, said the priest. The other officers were
  amused at the baiting.
• Priest not with girls, went on the captain.
  Priest never with girls, he explained to me. He
  took my glass and filled it, looking at my eyes
  all the time, but not losing sight of the priest.
• Priest every night five against one. Every one
  at the table laughed. You understand? Priest
  every night five against one. He made a gesture
  and laughed loudly. The priest accepted it as a
  joke.
• (Hemingway, 19292)

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• Inner context Friendship between the Captain and
  Priest

• Social context Wartime

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• DA or Literature teaching?

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Discourse-based Syllabus for American Literature
Teaching

• Overview of literary text

• Discourse Properties

• Literary Appreciation

• Experience beyond Literature

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• literature via language or language via
  literature?

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• Thank you!