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Pedagogical Reflection
Pedagogical Reflection
Literature has been immersed in my professional growth since my bachelor’s degree. The concept I had about literature was based on research, I conceived it as a source to know other researchers’ work and discover new pedagogical and procedural findings regarding my language teaching field. For this reason, at the beginning of the course “"The limit-experience in world literature" I thought it as an immersion in the research path I was about to start. However, making part of this course, has been an eye-opening understanding in terms of getting involved in basic literary concepts, as both reader and teacher.
As a Reader...
As a Reader...
As a reader, the concept of limit-experience enlightened the notion of literary texts as a source of learning, personal development and self-discovery. Limit-experience concept, described as experiencing the extreme, generates a deep reflection on how transgressing our social, behavioral and emotional limits can lead us to discover our human nature. Having comprehended how the authors use it and the intention in their writing and language use, allows me to be a better reader now regarding how reflective reading literature can be.
I find the connection between literature and evilness quite compelling and enriching to my own experience. Based on the readings, I also highlight the concept of strangeness, understood as being defamiliarized in an open-eyed experience to language and limit-experiences. I experienced myself the concept of strangeness in the readings presented and the result from it was to identify those limitations we as humans set in our minds, and to understand how the monstrosity of human being is just reflected when we get out of what the authors call “the sameness”. Reading literature having clear the concepts emerged in the authors work, was just amazing since I can deeply understand the hidden language in their stories and the portray of our human deep emotions, paranoia, insecurity, fear to the new and our limited reasoning; making reading much more enjoyable.
As a Teacher...
As a Teacher...
As a teacher, this deep analysis of literary concepts showed literature as a resource to enhance language use, grasp meaning and, guide my students towards analyzing human limitations and transgressing limits while learning a new language. Using literature advocates authenticity, motivation and, meaningful learning experiences, learners get involved in the literary texts and discover the concepts in an empirical way. Thus, literature engages their emotions, as well as their cognitive faculties, supporting students’ knowledge and language empowerment.
Literature offers plenty of language acquisition opportunities and authentic language exposure. Thanks to the way authors use language to send the meaning and leave an open door to imagination, literature enhances language awareness and improves students’ interpretative abilities. Furthermore, through literature, we have more meaningful language input in the classroom. Therefore, we stimulate language acquisition in a more practical way.
Despite all the benefits this inclusion of literary texts represents in my teaching practices, there are some challenges regarding text selection, language accuracy, students' context, students' language proficiency and, language mastery that may be challenging and ought to be considered when planning my lessons and setting learning outcomes. However, I personally believe the selection of material needs a deep analysis from teachers to determine whether the texts are suitable for our students. Besides, the inclusion of pre-reading tasks to contextualize students with regard to the subject matter and language level is imperative.
To conclude, having participated in this course of limit experience and going deeper on what literature entails, has generated a deep reflection in both personal and professional fields. It is by the means of literature and the movement toward the unlimited that enriching reflective pedagogical experiences may be evoked personally and pedagogically.
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