Literature and ELT: Louis Sachar's "Holes"

Table of contents

1. Introduction: Why teach literature (or Literature?) in ELT

2. Choice of text

3. Work plan for four lessons

4. Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendix: work sheets
‘Dig it’ (D-tent boys)
Character sketch . 13 ‘Mad Lib’
Discuss, decide, and survive!
Filling in the holes (questions)
Create your own ‘wanted poster’!
Reading log

1. Introduction: Why teach literature (or Literature?) in ELT

Readers may be divided into four classes:
1.) Sponges, who absorb all that they read and return it in
nearly the same state, only a little dirtied.
2.) Sand-glasses, who retain nothing and are content to get through a book

for the sake of getting through the time.
3.) Strain-bags, who retain merely the dregs of what they read.
4.) Mogul diamonds, equally rare and valuable, who profit by
what they read, and enable others to profit by it also.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

To my mind, the above quote by Samuel Taylor Coleridge expresses well the role teachers of English (and any foreign language) should ideally play in the foreign language classroom: that of (apparently ‘rare’, but ‘valuable’) ‘mogul diamonds’, who give their students the opportunity to enjoy what the teachers have enjoyed themselves – that is, reading an amusing or thrilling, a horrifying or moving piece of literature. The exact role literature should play in the classroom is one of the most exciting questions teachers of foreign languages concern themselves with. According to Daniel Shanahan, the complexity of this question is revealed by the difficulty in stating it in a satisfactory way:

Formulated by a management professor, it might go something like “How can FL departments justify offering literature courses when our students can’t speak the language well enough to carry on a routine set of business negotiations?” Formulated by a researcher in applied linguistics, the question might be “What does literature contribute to language learning when communicative competence must clearly be our goal?” Expressed by a member of a FL department whose degree work was in literary studies, one might hear […] “Why can’t these people see that literature is as central to language learning as management vocabulary and cloze tests?” (Shanahan, 164)

Sylvie D. Henning, too, has rightly stated that (sadly!) foreign language teaching is sometimes regarded as an exercise with utilitarian goals, meaning that it is the changing global and economic situation (and not the inherent value placed on language, literature, or culture) that may allow language teachers to become more assertive about their importance. However, she points out that the study of literature – any literature, that is, both literature and Literature – is one possibility within the cultural sphere that provides ‘added value’ beyond the aspect of career goals: ‘[t]hrough literature, students can develop a full range of linguistic and cognitive skills, cultural knowledge and sensitivity.’ (Henning, 24)

Turning to the question of whether to teach literature and/or Literature, I understand both terms to be an integral part of culture, which one might define (along with Raymond Williams) as ‘the “informing spirit” of a whole way of life’ (Williams, 11). Being one of the four skills, I would argue that reading (literature and Literature) is not only an almost ‘natural’ component of language teaching, but also a fantastic means of stimulating the learning of a foreign language. Some works of Literature, namely those one ‘ought to have read’, are often seen as a compulsory part of language teaching and learning, with some holding that these works have to be interpreted along certain guidelines, such as the teacher’s. Others argue that texts, however the term is defined, are a valuable resource for language teaching, ranging from grammar and vocabulary items to questions such as stylistic differences. People holding this view regard literature, and Literature at least to a certain extent, as a kind of text that is enjoyable for both students and teachers. (Cf. Hedge, 204)

As I have already mentioned, Literature is a constituent part of general knowledge – a fact one needs to keep in mind, especially when teaching in an AHS. However, literary texts must be carefully selected according to students’ language proficiency so as to avoid ‘frustrational’ reading and increase their comprehension and appreciation of literature: ‘one must decide such questions as “how much”, “when”, and “which literary works” before reaching the final goal of syllabi that maximize the potential that literature has to offer’ (Shanahan, 171). In my opinion, learners should not be overstrained with texts that are too difficult or that deal with topics that are not of great interest to them. Students do need to be challenged, but within a limit, and the books they read must not be forced upon them, as they will switch off from reading otherwise.

As such, reading literature in the ELT classroom might be more enjoyable for students than reading Literature. Out of the large variety of text genres and subgenres a teacher can introduce, literature is an essential one. Extensive reading, that is, literature, plays a crucial role in developing reading ability and increases students’ exposure to English outside the classroom, which is particularly important when the classroom time is limited. In addition, extensive texts such as novels can encourage learners’ potential to think critically and stimulate their imagination – as Jim Haynes has said, ‘A book a day keeps reality away’ – thus allowing students to ‘build their language competence, progress in their reading ability, become more independent in their studies, acquire cultural knowledge, and develop confidence and motivation to carry on learning’ (Hedge, 204-205).

I would like to conclude by emphasising the role of both literature and Literature as incentives that promote discussion and authentic communication in the classroom; ‘reading activities, from the beginning, should have some purpose, and we should concentrate on the normal purposes of reading’ (Rivers and Temperley, 187, cited in Hedge, 195). As Camille K. Vande Berg writes in her article “Conversation Activities Based on Literary Readings”,

[…] in the simplest of terms, a well-chosen literary selection gives the students something interesting to talk about. Furthermore, in a spirited debate over the ideas contained in a literary passage, the students’ attention will be focused on plot and character rather than on prepositions and tenses; […] as in the spontaneous language of a native speaker, concern for message will predominate over preoccupation with form. These selections, then, can provide useful material for meaningful conversation exercises by introducing ideas stimulating enough that the students will be motivated to draw on their linguistic competence in order to communicate their feelings and opinions. (Vande Berg, 665)

Similarly, Kenneth Chastain notes that ‘learners must use language to create a meaningful message’, that they should base their messages on ‘their feelings and knowledge’, and that they should speak ‘for a sustained period of time as in an extended answer to a thought-provoking question […] or to interact with other learners in a conversational situation’ (Chastain, 165, quoted in Vande Berg, 665). Foreign language teachers can thus use literature/Literature as a valuable means of achieving communicative competence, or, as Vande Berg puts it, as ‘the springboard for an enthusiastic exchange of ideas’, in which learners ‘[use] the target language to argue, to justify their opinions, or, while playing the role of a character, to engage in conversational exchanges.’ (Vande Berg, 669)

As has emerged from this brief introduction, literature can be understood – and taught – according to three intersecting and not mutually exclusive models, which Carter and Long explained in Teaching Literature in 1991: the cultural model (with its focus on the text as a product about which students learn to acquire information), the language model (that pays particular attention to the way language is used), and the personal-growth model (with its overall aim of motivating the students to relate the themes depicted to their own experience) – to all three of which I would like to add the value of literary texts as a basis for communicative activities.

2. Argumentation of my choice of text

We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.
B. F. Skinner

I have chosen the novel Holes by Louis Sachar with the quotation above in mind: even though it might not be classified as one of the ‘great books’, i.e. of ‘(high) Literature’, it is definitely one of those books that can serve to ‘teach a love of reading’. When I was in 7th form, my English teacher gave us a brief overview of a variety of books and allowed us to choose one for classroom reading – needless to say, we were immediately fascinated by this one, and it is precisely this fascination with the book that can be passed on to students.

Holes is the exciting story of Stanley Yelnats (mind the palindrome!), an overweight boy who is unjustly sent to Camp Green Lake, a boys’ juvenile detention centre. Stanley knows that this is due to a curse on his ‘no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather’, who did not fulfil a promise he had made to Madame Zeroni. At the camp, Stanley and six other boys are forced to dig holes every day in order to pay their debt to society. However, Stanley soon finds out that there is more than ‘character building’ going on, and (through good luck!) finally manages to break the curse that has followed generations of Yelnatses.

The novel and its main themes (friendship, racism, justice, fate, etc.) can be exploited in many appealing ways for classroom reading. I would read the book in grade 7 (second half of school year), because even though the language is relatively easy to understand (which makes it easier for the students to ‘immerse themselves’ in the world of the story), the novel’s structure (especially the constant flashbacks describing events that happened more than a hundred years ago and running as a subplot through the story) is rather complicated.

In the open learning sequence I have prepared, two basic approaches to reading a book in class are incorporated. First, there is the ‘classical’ approach with its well-established, successful activities, whereby the focus of assessment is (as is usual on an upper-secondary level) on both language and content. On the other hand, the activities on the second work sheet focus on the themes dealt with in the book. Since friendship, bullying, racism, etc. are issues in (nearly) every teenager’s life, it can be motivating for the students to deal with these topics from a personal point of view, in a creative way. The activities on both work sheets are designed in a way that allows the students to plan which tasks to do when themselves.

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