Initially, this work recognizes that college students often fail to understand or to appreciate the language of literature; therefore, a proposal has been developed that incorporates the typical methods and media of two academic areas--literature and oral interpretation--into a synchronized dual approach to the study of literature. Chapter I discusses contemporary problems of literacy in general; Chapter II explores the traditional teaching approaches of English and oral interpretation; and Chapter III develops a possible-literary communal effort by outlining a survey course in British Literature and presenting a series of exemplificative Writers Theatre scripts.Chapter IV reviews the associative problems that apparently exist between oral language and the written symbol and recommends that a companion project might demonstrate more fully the efficacy of an integrative approach to the teaching of writing.

The purpose of this study was to illustrate the usefulness of oral interpretation in the teaching of English literature at the middle school level. Four areas of literature: poetry, short story, mythology, and drama, were approached through methods of oral interpretation and/or recommendations in the teacher's resource manual accompanying the textbook. A descriptive review was made of the response to the material by the students and the methods of presentation by the instructor. The primary value of approaching the study of literature through oral interpretation was increased interest and motivation among the students and their generally positive reaction to the methods used.

How do ELA spaces, here defined as classroom practices, curricula, and assignments, invite students to locate “their” voice? To enact one? To what extent do or might pedagogical approaches to and community norms for a class discussion; the possibility and opportunity to lean into uncertainty; the texts students read and are exposed to; and the kinds of writing assignments and different narrative perspectives with which they experiment each play a role in shaping that voice? The chapters that follow will explore occasions and sites where voice may be located in different iterations in the ELA secondary classroom. Based on student claims and written responses on which I report in this dissertation, ELA spaces emerge as a kind of laboratory theater for locating a writerly identity. The results of my research suggest that Harkness pedagogy; reading and writing in response to literature; dialectical journaling; essaying that embraces uncertainty; experiment and play with different narrative perspectives; and being in conversation with literature are all promising pedagogical approaches to ELA instruction whose aim is to help writers locate and develop their own writerly voice.

ChatGPT and generative AI technologies have infiltrated our learning spaces, and, as a result, schools may be changed forever. While some educators may seek to ban the use of chatbots, motivated by a fear of the rampant plagiarism the technology might invite, I, however, write this dissertation with the intent of finding uses for AI as a participant in the teaching and learning of literature in the secondary and post-secondary English classroom. In this dissertation, I examine a series of problems, issues, and ideas raised by AI, situated in specific relationalities among readers and literary texts (students, teachers, and myself functioning as my main sites of inquiry) by engaging in literature-based experiments. Through reflecting on my experiences and experimenting alongside teachers, students, and AI, I have found that the problems and opportunities introduced by AI are not-so-new: they’re a re-presentation of the familiar, repackaged and amplified. Though this dissertation has not lent itself to the discovery of a singular conclusion, I have found, rather, grounds for further experimentation and provocation. As I conclude this dissertation, I attempt to identify some ways that teachers of English can utilize AI not as a tool for providing knowledge and information for students, but to rather utilize it as a thought-provoking companion for the teaching of literature.

To this day, Columbia College maintains one of the most robust liberal arts curriculaa mong the tertiary education landscape, an institutional decision that has been both lauded and denounced by students, professors, and cultural critics alike. As this dissertation examines, high tensions from all angles largely stem from the Core Curriculum’s dual commitment to two seemingly oppositional values: its original mission and its ongoing evolution. My interpretive study of this unique undergraduate program begins with an examination of the cultural tradition from which Core derives—the West—considering how the notion of the liberal arts has evolved from antiquity to present day by pinpointing artifacts that demonstrate each era’s practices and priorities. Atop this foundational context, whose relevance persists in its establishment of citizenship, reciprocity, self-determination, and amateurism as underlying values of the liberal arts, I then examine university archival records dating back to the Core’s inception in 1919 and engage with personal stories, collected through interviews with alumni and former instructors of the program. These retrospective and interpersonal examinations are further complemented by the weaving in of my own experiences from my time as a student in the program, adding an introspective angle. In service of determining what is, was, and should be at the core of this curricular phenomenon, I neither defend nor rebuke the Core’s existence, but rather wonder and imagine its universal potential, ending with a call for more finite iterations of the program’s long-lasting values.

From preface: The original purpose of this thesis was to make a comparative study of all the English literature which had been prescribed from 1945 to 1980 for study by all high school pupils in the Republic of South Africa, Zimbabwe and the ex-High Commission Territories. This proved to be a formidable task. However, most of the material collected, including all the individual poems prescribed, was recorded in table form. This proved too bulky a system for comparative purposes and the field was narrowed to include only that English literature which had been prescribed for candidates writing Matriculation or Senior Certificate examinations on the higher grade as part of the English Language syllabus. From time to time, however, reference will be made in this thesis to prescriptions for the lower grades and for the lower standards.

D.Litt et Phil. / The aim of this study is to illustrate how literature study in English at secondary and teacher-training levels could be informed by an inter-disciplinary perspective which would transform the classroom methodology. The teaching of English literature to speakers of other languages focuses on data-driven decoding, low-level comprehension and literary criticism at the expense of reading experience, personal but informed response and the development of literary competence ...

This narrative inquiry documents the inaugural Performance at the Center summer institute, a professional development program in which teachers worked alongside students to generate an original multimodal performance piece inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Specifically, the study examines text-inspired creation: how readers identify and then create out of the gaps and spaces in a given text through remix and performance. This researcher employs qualitative methods to address the following questions: (1) How do Performance at the Center facilitators set up the conditions for text-inspired creation? (2) How do teacher and student players describe what effect, if any, Performance at the Center has on their reading of Frankenstein? and (3) How do select teacher players describe what effect, if any, Performance at the Center has had on their design and implementation of curriculum? Examining her data through the lens of “the gift” (Marcel Mauss and Lewis Hyde), this researcher finds that facilitators set up the conditions for text-inspired creation by stepping into the role of muse—offering both tangible and intangible “gifts” to prompt production. Teachers and students describe the ways in which Performance at the Center invites sensory entry into Shelley’s text, enabling readers to compose meanings potentially inaccessible through words alone. Select teachers describe the ways in which Performance at the Center catalyzes a reconceptualization of what it means to teach literature, underscoring as it does the profound distinction between dissecting a text and experiencing a text. This investigation suggests that positioning the study of literature within a gift culture—receiving literature as a living gift to be passed on through student text-inspired creation—has the potential revitalize texts, teachers and the classroom itself.

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This dissertation focuses on code-switching i.e. the alternate use of two languages within the same speech event, as a technique in teaching literature to Grade 10 ESL learners by bilingual teachers in comparison to English only method by an English monolingual teacher, in two schools in Port Shepstone. This study examines the forms and functions of English-Zulu code-switching by bilingual ESL teachers. Using the experimental approach, it also investigates whether there are any significant differences in scholastic achievement as measured by tests of literary works between the control group which is taught through the medium of English and the experimental group which is taught through the medium of cs. This study also examines the attitudes of monolingual and bilingual educators and bilingual learners toward CS, particularly in the domain of the school. Through an analysis of data obtained from questionnaires, interviews, lesson recordings and tests, this research reveals that even though CS does not appear to significantly contribute to scholastic achievement, it fulfills a variety of pedagogical functions. CS therefore claims a firm position in the classroom. As such, I argue that CS should not necessarily be perceived as interlanguage but as a form of linguistic code in its own right. I also demonstrate that contrary to a wealth of studies (e. g. Nyowe 1992; Gibb 1998) that show that English monolingual speakers, as well as those who employ CS in their linguistic repertoire, stigmatise the use of CS, the majority of participants of this research perceive CS as a code that is both inevitable and a valuable learning resource. Finally, I explore the implications of this research for principals, teachers and governing body members. I suggest that there is a need for these role players to engage in consciousness raising as the ANC Language Policy Document clearly accords CS an official status and more importantly, CS is a reality in the classroom. In addition, I examine the implications of CS for ESL teachers and teaching, particularly in the teaching of literature. I suggest that by employing CS in the teaching of literature teachers help learners to better interact with and interpret the literary text, and also promote communicative competence among the learners. Lastly, I explore the implications of CS for methodology. I conclude that the strategic use of CS effectively enhances English L2 acquisition. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.