The construct of critical cultural awareness (CCA) is often regarded as an element pertaining to intercultural communicative competence (Byram, 1997, 2021). In this model, CCA is defined as the ability to "evaluate, critically, and on the basis of a systematic process of reasoning, values in one's own culture and other cultures" (Byram,…

This study investigated the approximations of disciplinary literacy in high school English Language Arts students' writing. To study the development of these disciplinary conventions, the portfolios of written literary analyses were examined from fourteen twelfth-grade students over their last two years in high school. The conceptual framework for…

This essay draws on the voices of both literary critics and adolescent readers, resulting in a contextualization of critical theory exploring Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis." Satrapi's graphic novel has been praised for its complex composition and story-telling ability. But although it is both a recommended and contested text for an…

Whether constructed on literary analysis models or inspired by conventional acting theories, Reader's Theatre performance techniques are an invaluable instructional tool available to teachers who want their students to see, hear and feel Shakespeare texts in classroom discussion and performance. These exercises are designed to promote both a…

In this article, three students share how performing in Shakespearean plays have helped them appreciate his work. Orubba Almansouri describes how acting out the play "Romeo and Juliet" allowed him to understand the whole story better. While rehearsing and performing "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Aram S. Balian became a true Shakespeare fan,…

This paper explores a middle school teacher's and his students' perceptions of the differences between online synchronous literature discussions and face-to-face literature discussions. Each member of this literature group participated in two face-to-face and two online literature discussions. Participants were interviewed twice to discuss their…

Issue devoted to the teaching of foreign literatures. (DS)

Contrasts the complaints of a class of gifted students about Dickens' novel "A Tale of Two Cities" with their teacher's discomfort at sitting through the long and tedious movie "Brazil." (NKA)

Examines three assumptions underlying the "interpretative fallacy"--that a work of literature may be subjected to any number of interpretations. Illustrates the dangers of having English teachers embrace the interpretative fallacy. (RL)

Discusses how Francine Prose accuses English teachers of assigning simplistic, badly written books that breed incompetent writers and readers who loathe literature. Notes that Prose focuses her contempt upon "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Suggests that students show teachers how to help them love…

Indicates some of the problems students encounter in interpreting poetry and cites the reasons that students express for liking or disliking poetry. (RB)

Students should learn to approach a given text in several different ways, not just through close reading, and should be given practice in various kinds of reading with a variety of text types. Otherwise, they will close rather than open intellectual doors. (MSE)

Suggests using Henry David Thoreau's "Walden" as a rhetorical exemplum in literature instruction. Calls upon instructors to identify Thoreau's writing purposes and intended audience. Suggests that students can explore the book's varied writing styles and narrative personae. Encourages analysis of the book's ethical, rational,…

Argues that introducing students to literary criticism while introducing them to literature boosts their confidence and abilities to analyze literature, and increases their interest in discussing it. Describes how the author, in her college-level introductory literature course, used Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree" (a children's…