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Understanding Language and Culture Through Literature

Our sessions will be informal. We'll begin by introducing ourselves and talking about our experiences of reading literature. I'll start by trying to explain how a literature professor looks at the business of teaching the English language to non-native speakers. If your primary interest is in learning how to communicate in English, and how to teach the knowledge you have acquired to others for whom English is a second language, Why would you want to spend time reading literature in English?

After we have discussed some of the theoretical issues, I want to conduct a little practical experiment by working through two English poems from the Renaissance, one called "Love," by George Herbert, another, "Methought I saw," by John Milton. These poems would not ordinarily be chosen as literary texts for use in an ESL classroom. That's where the experiment comes in: I'm betting that you will be able to learn a good deal about how the English language works by thinking and talking about these poems. Once we have worked through them, we'll step back and ask ourselves what we've learned about the English language and how to use it.