Remapping the Foreign Language Curriculum: An Approach through Multiple Literacies (Teaching Languages, Literatures, and Cultures)

Janet K. Swaffar, Katherine Arens

ISBN 10: 0873528077 / ISBN 13: 9780873528078

Published by Modern Language Association of America, 2005

About this Item

xiii, 217 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. Summary:Janet Swaffar and Katherine Arens offer a holistic approach to postsecondary language teaching that integrates the study of literature and culture into every level of the curriculum. By studying multiple genres ranging from popular to elite, students gain an understanding of multiple communicative frameworks--and develop multiple literacies. Swaffar and Arens propose the use of a sequence of template-generated exercises that leads students from basic grammar patterns to a sophisticated grasp of the interrelations among language use, meaning, and cultural context. One example of their approach is the teaching of Laura Esquivel's novel Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate). From exercise to exercise, students consider use of tense, narrative strategy (the connection between recipes and plot), and the social codes in the novel; compare the novel with the Hollywood film version (different imagery for different audiences); critique promotional descriptions of the film on the Internet; examine a magazine interview of Esquivel (to expose the interviewer's assumptions). The authors combine theory and practice, research and personal experience, to present a new, interdisciplinary curriculum that should strengthen the teaching of foreign languages in junior colleges, four-year colleges, and universities.--Back cover. Contents: Introduction : the case for remapping the curriculum 1. Scholars, teachers, and program development 2. Linking meaning and language : remapping the discipline 3. The holistic curriculum : anchoring acquisition in reading 4. A template for beginning and intermediate learner tasks : the text matrix for staging genre reading 5. A template for advanced-learner tasks : staging genre reading and cultural literacy through the Précis 6. From reading to reading literature : a language teaching perspective 7. From multiple literacies to cultural studies : constructing a framework for learning culture Coda : Professional responsibility and the identity of foreign languages in higher education.

Seller Inventory # ccd608

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Remapping the Foreign Language Curriculum: An Approach through Multiple Literacies (Teaching Languages, Literatures, and Cultures)
• Publisher: Modern Language Association of America
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0873528077
• ISBN 13: 9780873528078
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New
• Seller catalogs:
  • Language
  • Education

About this title

Synopsis

Swaffar and Arens (both Germanic studies, U. of Texas, Austin) examine foreign language (FL) programs for adult learners, positing a critical need to rethink the types of programs and pedagogies that currently dominate FL teaching in junior colleges, colleges, and universities in the U.S. Coverage includes the culture of social sciences and humanist disciplines; linking meaning and language in FL teaching; holistic curriculum design; using a short work of literature in beginning and intermediate classes to move from reading to greater language command; using multiple genres and divergent discourse practices with advanced students; sequencing learning keyed to learner stages; using the genres of different texts to teach an FL culture; and professional responsibility in FL teaching. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

About the Author

Katherine Arens is a Professor of Germanic Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. She is also a Professor in the Center for European Studies and the Center for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of five books, including "Empire in Decline" (Peter Lang, 2001) and "Austria and Other Margins: Reading Culture" (Prentice-Hall, 1996). She has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the Plato Award from the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, UK.