Moving literature into the future: LiLT SIG Forum 2024
This year’s LiLT SIG forum includes short presentations on the use of literature and creative writing in the language classroom. Presenters will discuss current and future trends in literature and language instruction, sharing different approaches and methodologies applicable in various teaching situations. The session will be of interest to those already teaching with literature or for anyone considering approaches using literature. Participants will be invited to discuss these ideas as part of the forum.
Venue: Shizuoka Granship, Shizuoka, Japan
Day: Saturday, November 16th
Time: 5:50 PM – 7:20 PM (90 minutes)
Room: Hikae 2 (1F)
Jennifer Igawa
Meiji Gakuin University
Changing Dialogue to Reflect Interpersonal Relationships
The use of literature in the language classroom allows us to observe how language (dialogue) is changes depending on interpersonal contexts. This presentation will introduce a lesson in which students read a very short story in class in which the relationship between the two characters is not explicit. Students must extract information from not only the context but also the dialogue to determine the relationship. Finally, students change the relationship of the characters and re-write the dialogue to appropriately reflect that change. This exercise provides students with practice in adapting language to context.
Camilo Villanueva
Nagoya University of Foreign Studies
AI and Multimodality in Japanese University EFL Creative Writing
In terms of education, one thing is certain: artificial intelligence (AI) will not go away. Here, the author demonstrates how he has used AI in his creative writing classes. Thirty-two third-grade Japanese EFL university students were tasked with writing poetry, nonfiction, and fiction throughout the school year. The author used multimodality to incorporate technology, including ChatGPT, into the assignments at the pre-writing, writing, and post-writing stages. It was found that students were more motivated to do their assignments with the incorporation of multimodality.
Mary Hillis
Ritsumeikan University
Moving Language: Art, Poetry & Technology
This presentation explores language teaching materials at the intersection of art, poetry, and technology in public spaces. Arts-based approaches to poetry education emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration, making them particularly relevant for language learners from diverse fields of study. Visual artist Naho Matsuda’s installations, Every Thing Every Time and This City Is, used urban data to generate digital writing which was displayed throughout the city. Students analyze her work, engaging with articles and videos to deepen their understanding. By discussing their ideas in groups and creating original poems, they further explore the connections between language, culture, and digital media.
Anna Shershnova
Kyoto University of Advanced Science
Teaching English-language haiku: A pedagogical stylistic and reader-response approach
A relatively recent approach to teaching authentic literature in the Japanese EFL classroom integrates pedagogical stylistics and reader-response theory. While pedagogical stylistics focuses on teaching literature by analyzing its language and style with the aim of enhancing students’ understanding and appreciation of language and literature, reader-response theory emphasizes the reader’s subjective interpretation and response to a text, highlighting the role of individual experiences and perspectives in meaning-making. In my presentation, I will reflect on the benefits and challenges of using this integrated approach to teach contemporary English-language haiku to Japanese university EFL students.