Literature Circles in EFL are teacher accompanied classroom discussion groups among English as a foreign language learners, who regularly get together in class to speak about and share their ideas, and comment on others' interpretations about the previously determined section of a graded reader in English, using their 'role-sheets' and 'student journals' in collaboration with each other.Bedel, O. (2011). Literature Circles in EFL: How they stimulate the social interaction. Retrieved September 24, 2011, from Literature Circles in EFL: http://eltdigest.com/literaturecircles
Introduction English language learners often say that reading, which is a vital element of language learning, is boring and difficult. This problematic situation might be the result of not practicing EFL reading in the right way. So, is there an effective way of using literature in the EFL classroom? The issue, this article intends to investigate is, what language interactions and classroom discourse are taking place in 'Literature Circles' and how this might affect the language development of foreign language learners? The suggested idea is that, as a balanced element of the school curriculum, literature circles can provide an exciting way to promote student engagement in extensive reading by means of cooperative learning and collaborative work and offer the potential to promote reading for enjoyment. The main focus of the analysis has been the student-to-student interactions and classroom discourse taking place during literature circles discussions. The main concern was over how different variables affect the language development of English learners. The results show that, during the process of this research, the students were highly motivated for reading and in that way improved their interactional skills in English. They experienced a different atmosphere of practicing language. They had similar tasks as they had before but this time for a more realistic purpose and in a more authentic environment.
Overview Nowadays, nearly all EFL coursebooks compete to include the most up-to-date and interesting texts for the target age group, while on the other hand the fiction literature has a treasure of themes which, relate more to our everyday lives. All this goes against what most English language learners and many English teachers as well believe: poems, short stories, and plays do not have a major role in classrooms aimed at developing communicative competence in English, and literary texts are only for advanced learners. In reality, most students often think that the study of English literature is boring and difficult. This problematic situation might be the result of not teaching literature in the right way. Most English learners think that studying literature is definitely not the right way to develop either language skills or interest into literature.
Today, most of the foreign language teachers, are in search of specific learning approaches that have strong student centered components like cooperative and collaborative learning. In this article, the term 'literature circles' in the EFL classroom refers to; small groups of students reading the same piece of literature to accomplish different tasks like preparing questions, reporting challenging vocabulary, finding cultural items, determining the well written parts or making connections with the contemporary society. The members of the groups later come together in the classroom to have a discussion under the supervision of their English teacher on the piece of literature they covered.
Being greatly influenced by the effect of these literature circles on L1 classes, a research was conducted at a high school in Sofia, Bulgaria to find out more about how teachers can increase the student interaction and adapt literature circles into EFL classes to increase foreign language competence. The main question arising from the problem at this stage was: Is there an effective way to use literature in the EFL classroom? The research also focused on how much the student interaction in an EFL class could be encouraged through literature circles.
Background The idea of 'Literature Circles in EFL' initially came from the adult 'book clubs' defined as a group of people who meet regularly to discuss the specific book they have read and share their opinions, likes or dislikes about it.
Similarly, as DaLieDaLie, S. O. (2001). Students Becoming Real Readers: Literature Circles in High School English Classes. In B. O. Ericson, Teaching reading in high school English classes (pp. 84-100). Urbana: NCTE. explains, a 'literature circle' is a students' equivalent of an adult book club in the L1 English classroom. The aim is to encourage student-choice and a love of reading in young people. According to DaLie, the true intent of Literature Circles is "to allow students to practice and develop the skills and strategies of good readers" in English as their native language.
'Literature Circles' are small groups of students who gather to discuss a piece of literature in depth. The discussion is guided by students' response to what they have read. Schlick Noe & JohnsonSchlick Noe, K. L., & Johnson, N. J. (1999). Getting Started with Literature Circles. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc. further explain that, you may hear talks about events and characters in the book, the author's craft, or personal experiences related to the story.
As a key element of the English L1 classes in US, DanielsDaniels, H. (2002). Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in Book Clubs and Reading Groups (2nd Edition ed.). Portland, Maine: Stenhouse explains 'Literature Circles' as a form of independent reading, structured as collaborative small groups, and guided by reader-response principles in light of current comprehension research.
On the EFL side of the picture, Furr,Furr, M. (2004). How and Why to Use EFL Literature Circles. Retrieved September 24, 2011, from Welcome to EFL Literature Circles: http://www.eflliteraturecircles.com literature circles in EFL are magic in that they have the power to transform 'Foreign Language Learners' from passive, rather shy, reticent students into students who eagerly point at their texts in order to support their arguments while sharing their opinions in English!
Aims Based on all the above-mentioned issues related to the difficulty of implementing literature in EFL classes, the initial aim with this research was to find out how literature circles stimulate the social interaction among language learners and promote the collaborative learning in the EFL classroom.
Wendy C. KastenKasten, W. (1995). Literature Circles for the Teaching of Literature-Based Reading. In M. Radencich, & L. McKay, Flexible Grouping for Literacy in the Elementary Grades (pp. 66-80). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. believes that literature circles promote peer discussions, negotiation of ideas, and the expression of comprehension, which is a feature that is most common in literature circles. As it is clear that classroom interaction and social learning will appeal to teachers and researchers who have an interest in classroom discourse, this research tends to find out more about the extent and importance of literary discourse in foreign language acquisition and the need and importance of literary texts for a comprehensive attainment of higher levels of language skills.
'Literature Circles in EFL' study can be important on the grounds that, with greater needs on improving foreign language learning and skills development for general language competency and exam preparation, there is a need for a research into the process underlying the performance and literary materials used to stimulate the student interaction in foreign language classes through collaborative work on literature circles. As NunanNunan, D. (1992). Research Methods in Language Learning. New York, NY: CUP. states, this kind of research can provide guidance for teacher education, instructional materials, and curriculum development.
Research The main issues the research intends to investigate and expects to find out are mainly focused on the responses and findings of the following major research questions: What language interactions and classroom discourse are taking place in literature circles and how might this affect the language development of foreign language learners? The intended research further aims to discover if teaching of literature or literary texts makes language acquisition more 'use-focused' instead of 'form-focused' and if it is beneficial to include literature or literary texts in EFL curriculum at all the stages of language learning in general.
The primary research rationale suggests that, as a balanced element of the school curriculum, literature circles can provide an exciting way to promote student engagement in social interaction and improve foreign language learning by means of cooperative learning and collaborative work and offer the potential to promote reading for enjoyment.
It is suggested by Schlick Noe & Johnson that 'Literature Circles' are easy to fit into a comprehensive literacy program as a way for students to apply what they are learning about reading and writing.
Methodology Searching for a suitable research methodology for the project, Lemke'sLemke, J. L. (1985). Using Language in the Classroom. Geelong, Australia: Deaking University Press. statements were found the most helpful, where he embraces a social perspective on language that sees schools not as 'knowledge delivery systems' but as social institutions in which people affect each other's lives. He argues that classroom education is talk. "It is the social use of language to enact regular activity structures and to share systems of meaning among teachers and students".
This research project mainly focuses on literature circles, which Daniels describes as a quite sophisticated and highly evolved part of the wider collaborative learning movement. Before making a distinction between cooperative and collaborative learning, we should know that, the act of learning takes place in social interactions through joint, collaborative activity. As Baquedano-LópezBaquedano-López, P. (2004). Literacy Practices across Learning Contexts. In A. Duranti, A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology (pp. 245-269). Malden, MA: Blackwell. states, learning takes place first at the social level which is 'the inter-personal level' and is later appropriated by the individual one which is 'the intra-personal level'. Daniels introduces a distinction between 'cooperative learning', which is mainly used to describe traditional skills-oriented school tasks assigned by teachers to student groups, and 'collaborative learning', which is preferred for more higher-order, student-centered and open-ended activities. To find the relation between literature circles and communicative and cooperative learning, we depart from Raphael and Gavelek'sRaphael, T. E., & Gavelek, J. R. (2001). Book Clubs for Children. In B. E. Cullinan, & D. G. Person, The Continuum encyclopedia of children's literature (pp. 97-99). New York: Continuum International. view that 'literature circles' can be traced to the idea of cooperative learning study groups where students work collaboratively on specific projects or tasks. As it is also mentioned by Ernst-Slavit, Carrison, & Spiesman-Laughlin,Ernst-Slavit, G., Carrison, C., & Spiesman-Laughlin, J. (2009). Creating Opportunities for "Grand Conversations" Among ELLs With Literature Circles. In J. Coppola, & E. V. Primas, One Classroom, Many Learners: Best Literacy Practices for Today's Multilingual Classrooms (pp. 91 - 118). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. literature circles provide opportunities for oral language and literacy growth for all students, including English language learners. Many teachers, however, are hesitant to use this instructional approach with students who are learning English.