The effect of literature response activities on student motivation in an american literature class at the Hanoi national university of education

It was seen that during the second phase, students were much more motivated to learn American Literature than during the first phase. On the basis of this observation, the author suggests some effective activities that teachers could present when teaching American Literature to English-major students.

This paper is available online at http://stdb.hnue.edu.vn

THE EFFECT OF LITERATURE RESPONSE ACTIVITIES

ON STUDENT MOTIVATION IN AN AMERICAN LITERATURE CLASS

AT THE HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

Do Thi Phuong Mai

Faculty of English, Hanoi National University of Education

Abstract. The author investigated the effect of using literature response

activities when teaching American Literature to students who are majoring in

English language at the Hanoi National University of Education One class of

English-major students studied American Literature in two phases In phase 1 there

were no literature response activities and in phase 2 there were literature response

activities It was seen that during the second phase, students were much more

motivated to learn American Literature than during the first phase On the basis

of this observation, the author suggests some effective activities that teachers could

present when teaching American Literature to English-major students

Keywords:Literature response activities, American literature, motivation

1 Introduction

English language teaching in Vietnam in recent years has moved from the traditional approach to various versions of communicative approaches Such has been the case in the teaching of Literature to EFL students In the traditional approach, a teacher would give a lecture about a work of literature and give the students his interpretation of the content and value of the book It is now thought that this might not be the best method of teaching in

a language class Consequently, a variety of other approaches and methods are now being used One is the use of literature response activities However, few studies have been done

to show the usefulness of these activities in the classroom Therefore, the author decided to

do this research in order to evaluate the effect of literature response activities in American Literature classes on English–major student motivation at the Faculty of English, Hanoi National University of Education

Received May 19, 2012 Accepted January 2, 2013.

Contact Do Thi Phuong Mai, e-mail address: maidtp@hnue.edu.vn

2 Content

2.1 Reader Response theory and Literature response activities

Reader response theory was first suggested by Rosenblatt (1938, [8;1978]) She proposed a radical view of how people derive meaning from what they read The key features of her theory are the focus on readers’ psychological processes and literature being a means of promoting critical thinking and an openness to multiple perspectives She believed that when experiencing literature, readers bring a wealth of emotion, experience and personal knowledge which provokes associations with words, images and ideas in the text This in effect promotes open-mindedness, a foundation of democracy Rosenblatt also described how a reader’s response is both individually and socially constructed This accounts for the multiple and diverse responses within and between readers Teaching literature should therefore be a delicate balance between eliciting personal responses from students and guiding their understanding of literary elements Based on Rosenblatt’s theory, researchers like Alice Hoffman (ny) and Sarah & Michael Martin (2000) have developed a variety of literature response activities The followings are some of the most common activities [1]:

• Compare and contrast characters, two books or texts

• Create an alternative ending

• Create a book jacket

• Write a letter to a character

• Make a puzzle depicting a scene or a character

• Create a crossword puzzle based on the story

• Make a cartoon of your favorite scene or the entire story

• Write a review

• Create a scrapbook

2.2 Motivation

The term “motivation” comes from the Latin word ‘movere’ which means ‘to move’ The idea of movement is reflected in different commonsense ideas about motivation as something that keeps us working, gets us going and helps us complete tasks Motivation

is a process rather than a product Therefore we cannot observe it directly but we can infer

it from actions and verbalizations

There are many definitions of motivation and abundant disagreement over its precise nature For this study, motivation is defined in the terms put forward by Crookes and Schmidt (1992, [4;498- 502]) and quoted in Peacock (1997 [7]): interest in and enthusiasm for the materials used in class, persistence with the language task as indicated

by the levels of attention or action for an extended duration and levels of concentration and

enjoyment The writer chose this definition as she agrees with them considering that the long hours that students spend in the classroom would make such motivation an important factor in the successful learning of a language Moreover, Ushioda (1993, p.1-3) calls this view of motivation “practitioner-validated” and adds that student participation and enthusiasm are significant outcomes in themselves

Generally, two kinds of motivation are distinguished, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation is motivation from within the student and it focuses on the learning task itself An intrinsically motivated students studies because he/she wants

to study To have an intrinsically motivated learner is the goal of all motivational development Jeremy Harmer (1996, p.5) identified 4 factors that affect intrinsic motivation in an EFL classroom He listed them as the physical conditions (the classroom, the board, etc.), the method (boring or interesting), the teacher (pronunciation, explanation, patience, etc.) and success (success or failure)

Extrinsic motivation is, on the other hand, concerned with factors outside the classroom such as student attitude about language learning, rewards and punishments Extrinsic motivation is divided into 3 sub-types of motivation: social motivation (People’s desire to gain social approval from significant others), instrumental motivation (People’s desire to be rewarded or to avoid being punished) and achievement motivation (characterized by striving for high levels of performance in a competitive environment) However, life is not so clear cut The difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is not always sharp In other words, people usually learn a language for reasons which are an integration of both these two kinds of motivation (intrinsic as well

as extrinsic)

2.3 Presentation of the course

The American Literature course was designed to be taken by fourth-year students

in their 7th semester in the eight-semester program It was a fifteen-week course which provided students with an overall view of American literature They were to gain a basic knowledge of different stages of its development, factors that have affected this development, some major literary trends and some prominent American writers that could represent different stages and trends in literature

However, in this study, the researcher chose to analyze just 4 lessons and on this basis he has drawn his conclusions

1 Kate Chopin and her The Story of an Hour and Hemingway’s Cat in the Rain.

2 Bret Harte and his The Luck of the Roaring Camp and Jack London with The Law

of Life

Of each pair of books, the latter was taught with the use of literature response activities while the other was not In this way the change in student’s motivation could be

measured when literature response activities were used.

2.4 Method

In carrying out this research the writer used the following research instruments:

Observation

An observation sheet (cf [7]) was used to assess overall class motivation generated

by the tasks as manifested by level of student interest, enthusiasm, persistence with the learning task, concentration, and enjoyment during class as measured rating 8 items This observation sheet was used in Peacock’s 1997 study Each item in this sheet was scored using an artificial materials scale of one (low) to five (high) The maximum possible score

is 40 The class was observed by a trained colleague on four occasions, two during which using literature response activities were being used and and two during which literature response activities were not being used The observation sheet was completed while the lesson drew to a close and an analysis was later done to evaluate the observation

Survey questionnaire for students

A questionnaire was completed by students (cf [7]) on two occasions, once before and once after the use of literature response activities in the American Literature class The questionnaires were used to measure any change in student motivation when literature response activities are used

The questionnaire is divided into 2 parts:

Part I was a self-report question adapted from Peacock which aims to measure levels of motivation generated during the American Literature class It consists of

7 closed items on a semantic differential scale of adjectives expressing motivation, i.e boring/interesting, enjoyable/ unenjoyable, meaningful/meaningless, exiting/ dull, satisfying/unsatisfying, appealing/unappealing, absorbing/monotonous Each item was scored from one to seven, making artificial materials total of from 7 to 49 for each complete questionnaire

Part II was an open question designed to allow students to write what they wished regarding the whole lesson as well as make suggestions as to how make the lesson more interesting

In order to make sure that the students could understand the questions, and respond

in an appropriate way, clear instructions were given at the beginning of the surveys They were completed by each student at the end of each of the four lessons The researcher was present when the surveys were handed out so as to instruct the students on how to complete it and help those who could not understand something

Interview

After each lesson, 4 students were chosen at random and questioned about the lessons Students’ thoughts about the American Literature classes are also discovered through these interviews

All comments and remarks were processed and assessed using data analysis.

2.5 Results and discussion

Overall class motivation

As stated in 2.2, the Observation Sheet was completed during each lesson by the co-researcher who made 1 score for each unit and 4 scores in total

The observation results of 2 stages, with and without literature response activities, are synthesized in Tables 1 and Tables 2

Table 1 Before action plan is used (phase 1) and Table 2 After action plan is used

(phase 2)

From the two tables, it is clear that overall class motivation increased significantly (from 20.1 in phase 1 to 29.75 in phase 2) when literature response activities were used ( )

Data collected from Questionnaires completed by students

Student’s self-report motivation

Table 3 Student’s motivation (phase 1) and Table 4: Student’s motivation (phase 2)

Again, from the data presented above, it is clear that when literature response activities were used, student’s motivation increased significantly

Data collection and analysis from post-class interviews

The four students chosen had English language abilities at different levels One was rather good at English, two were ‘normal’ and one was not good at English They were each interviewed, in English, by the author and the co-researcher at the end of each reading lesson, making a total of 16 interviews conducted during the time of this research Students were asked their opinions on the activities that occurred that day Responses varied greatly and the students offered many comments about the activities used The following is a sample of interview quotes from students talking about the traditional way

of learning American Literature:

Hard to understand Language is too difficult

I can’t remember much

It is too difficult Rather impractical Somewhat boring

So theoretical.

The following is a sample of quotes from students who were talking about literature response activities:

Interesting Very worthwhile Very impressive You see! I can become a writer!!!

More challenging but useful

I like it Very exciting

I want some translation.

2.6 Suggested activities

Following the data interpretation, it can be concluded that the use of literature response activities has a positive effect on student motivation in American Literature classes It can now be presumed that student motivation will increase when these activities are used Here are some of the practical activities that were used in the American Literature classes

a Artistic/ Visual activities (Drawing, Advertisement)

Artists have often created paintings or other art forms in response to literature they have read For instance, they might paint a scene depicted in a poem, or create a sculpture of a literary character The students now have the opportunity to create some sort of artwork in response to the literature they have been reading They are free to express their interpretation in whatever way best communicates their understanding of the literature’s characters, theme, meaning, or anything else they see in it These activities can

be conducted in groups

Sample

• You are now working for a publisher Draw a cover page for the story Law of Life

by Jack London in order to most attract the readers

• Create a comic strip for The story of an Hour by Kate Chopin that is no more than

7 pages in length, including the cover page

Procedure

• In groups, discuss and determine the character, theme, setting or symbol that they

wish to portray.

• Choose the materials needed (papers, color pencils, rulers, etc.)

• Create the artistic products as required

• Include a one page explanation of their interpretation for the project

b Dialogue or Buddy journal

For this activity, students in pairs will read and respond to each other’s journals about the literary work they have just studied This activity will provide an opportunity for students to record quotations, observations, lists and images from the work and then return to those entries for reflection and comment This activity can be adapted for any of the literary works

Procedure

• The students read the stories/poems and write comments, questions, insights and observations that occur to them in a spiral notebook, and then pass their journal to their buddy

• Date and sign each entry and record inclusive page numbers

• The buddy responds to their partner’s writings, makes comments or asks questions

of her/his own, and then returns the journal to their partner

• Continue reading and responding back and forth as many times as possible

c Dependent Authors

This activity gives students a chance to extend, elaborate or revise the storyline as

a collaborative author Students can form groups or do it individually

Example:

• Rewrite the ending of the story Cat in the Rain by Hemingway.

• Write a dialogue between Richard and Josephine while Mrs Mallard was upstairs

in The story of an Hour by Kate Chopin.

Procedure:

After reading the book, take the position of a dependent or co-creative author to extend, refine, and/or reiterate the text Consider the following list Select one of these projects and enter the imaginative life of the book/ story

• Write interior monologues in the persona of a chosen character at a particular point in a story

• Write dialogues between two or more characters

• Add asides or subliminal thoughts to existing dialogue

• Write an epilogue to the text

• Write a continuation of a scene or the whole text

• Write a dream for one of the main characters

• Add another episode

d Free writing

This is quite a familiar activity that can be used in almost every literature lesson It

is an activity in which individual students freely discover and explore ideas

Procedure:

• After students have read the story, they write about the issues, themes, or characters that they have been thinking about since they finished reading

• Begin writing on paper or composing at the computer for 10-15 minutes Write down ideas as they come to mind

• Students reread what they have written and highlight ideas that they think could become topics

• Choose one of the ideas and focus their next free writing on that idea

• Write for another 10-15 minutes and hand that in

e Create an original metaphor

In a story, there are many metaphors and symbols that describe the main character For this activity, think of a metaphor for the main character that is not in the story Create

a visual representation for the metaphor and then write a brief explanation for the image

f Dramatic performance

Students perform an oral interpretation of a poem or passage from literature to convey their understanding of the work to the audience through the effects they create This type of activity should be fun so that students can be highly motivated

Sample: Give a live performance of the story Cat in the Rain and make up your own

ending for the story

Procedure:

• Decide on the form of oral presentation: a monologue, dialogue, or small group performance (This can be done with the teacher’s help)

• Reach a consensus regarding the meaning of the literature

• Assign tasks to each group member according to interest and talent

• Practice, practice, practice

• Give a live performance for the class or videotape it and show the tape

3 Conclusion

In this article, the author made an attempt to investigate the effect of using literature response activities in an American Literature classroom, by investigating the activities and student responses to those activities It is undeniable that when literature response activities were used, students interacted more with the literary work and this raised their confidence level as well as their interest in exploring the text; consequently, they were highly motivated It is hoped that this research will provide teachers and students with some practical activities that will be useful in the language classroom

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