English or Portuguese: language or literature

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English or Portuguese language or literature?

• Richard Hudson
• Lisbon, May 2007

2
Plan

• Similarities between Portugal and Britain
• English language or literature?
• A new approach to language teaching
• Grammar in Britain
• The place of literature
• Some lessons for Portugal?

3
Plan

• Similarities between Portugal and Britain
• English language or literature?
• A new approach to language teaching
• Grammar in Britain
• The place of literature
• Some lessons for Portugal?

4
Language history

• Ancient written language
• complex spelling
• Massive overseas expansion
• emigration
• world language
• Relative wealth
• recent immigration, bringing other languages
• literary heritage

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Plan

• Similarities between Portugal and Britain
• English language or literature?
• A new approach to language teaching
• Grammar in Britain
• The place of literature
• Some lessons for Portugal?

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What is English?

• I speak English.
• English a language
• The two core school subjects are mathematics and
  English
• English a language because literacy is core.
• I am studying English at university.
• English literature (written in English?)

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Confusion!

• English is obligatory for all because writing and
  reading are important.
• but includes literature.
• English teachers are graduates in literature.
• but teach language more than literature.
• Similarly, French teachers are graduates of
  literature
• but teach language more than literature.

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The old solution

• Teach language through literature
• Argument children learn to write well by reading
  good literature.
• Some children do learn this way.
• Counter-argument most children do not learn like
  this.
• 1999 20 of adults in Britain cannot find a
  plumber in the phone book

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The romantic view of language

• Children are natural language learners.
• They learn their first language without help.
• Instruction is just a waste of time.
• All they need is experience.
• So the same is true of all language learning.
• Research support
• Some literature experts (e.g. Leavis in UK)
• Noam Chomsky and many linguists.

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But

• Is this view true?
• Why do so many children fail to learn by
  exposure?
• Why do we need language teachers if we can leave
  it all to nature?
• Nature alone is not enough we need to do better
  than that!

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Plan

• Similarities between Portugal and Britain
• English language or literature?
• A new approach to language teaching
• Grammar in Britain
• The place of literature
• Some lessons for Portugal?

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The new solution in England

• Teach language directly.
• Argument children need help when learning
  language.
• They may not notice new patterns.
• They may not understand new patterns.
• This is true of all language learning
• advanced first language
• elementary second language

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Language includes

• grammar
• vocabulary
• pronunciation
• variation
• regional
• stylistic
• historical

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The realistic view of language

• Children are natural learners
• But language is hard to learn because new words
  and patterns are not
• obvious, so it is easy not to notice them.
• self-explanatory, so it is easy to misunderstand
  them.
• And schools add extra problems.

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English language or literature?

• School English must include direct teaching of
  language.
• So English teachers must know about language.
• But they must also know about
• literature
• media studies (film, TV)
• drama

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Plan

• Similarities between Portugal and Britain
• English language or literature?
• A new approach to language teaching
• Grammar in Britain
• The place of literature
• Some lessons for Portugal?

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The death of grammar

• 1900-1960 no study of grammar at university
• so no grammar for English undergraduates
• so grammar at school was not based on research
• 1960-90 grammar disappears from school
• so young English teachers know no grammar
• very little grammar in foreign-language teaching

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A problem for the new approach

• Language should be taught directly.
• Official government policy in L1 and L2
• But most teachers know very little about grammar
  and other structural matters.
• So how can they teach directly?
• How to break the cycle?
• Teachers have just one post-graduate year of
  training with little time for subject knowledge

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The future

• Maybe teachers will gradually learn about
  grammar.
• Especially if they help to teach Advanced-level
  English language
• Years 12, 13
• Very popular (20,000 pupils each year)
• But it will take a generation to retrain teachers.

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Plan

• Similarities between Portugal and Britain
• English language or literature?
• A new approach to language teaching
• Grammar in Britain
• The place of literature
• Some lessons for Portugal?

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What about literature?

• Literature is one of the many uses of language.
• So it is studied as such.
• But it is also part of the national heritage
• So it has a very special status.
• But what is the heritage of a multi-cultural
  nation in a multi-national world?
• And what is literature?

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In defence of the status quo

• English (including literature) is the most
  popular school subject
• well taught
• using age-appropriate texts
• with discussion and interaction
• by well-informed and enthusiastic teachers
• But foreign languages are the least popular.

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Literature in language teaching

• Literature is
• well written
• enjoyable to some readers especially girls!
• So its a good model for language teaching,
  provided that
• students notice and understand new patterns
• understand differences between genres

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Plan

• Similarities between Portugal and Britain
• English language or literature?
• A new approach to language teaching
• Grammar in Britain
• The place of literature
• Some lessons for Portugal?

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Lessons for Portugal?

• Dont let grammar die.
• Respect literature
• as an important model of language
• as part of your national heritage
• but maybe not central to language teaching?
• Accept direct teaching of language.
• Make sure that teachers can teach directly.

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Obrigado!

• This slideshow can be found at
• www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/talks/lisbon.ppt