What do you think about this?
- Is it a good idea or not?
- What are the advantages? What are the disadvantages?
- What are the relevant factors to consider?
- And any other comment you might like to make.
Thursday 21 March 2013
Should we read novels in AEP?
Although I do not in level 7, and normally don't in level 6, AEP reading and writing classes do usually read a novel as part of the course.
What do you think about this?
What do you think about this?
8 comments:
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I think reading a novel is a good idea. It teaches us to think of a theme and some hidden messages that an author usually include them in a novel, but it is occasionally included in academic writings or research papers. As a result, we will develop a skill to read not only to follow the story, but also to find some under messages. However, the way a novel being written is not like the way we accustomed to when we read academic writings - length, format, level of language and topic. If we focus only developing a skill in writing and reading academic works, it would not be directly useful. But I am sure that it cans hugely develop our reading and writing skills. A novel is a kind of book we shall begin our reading with.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ming. Plus, I truly believe that we can learn something else outside the classroom. The main purpose of this class is to enhance our reading and writing skills, but if we just learn how to without taking any action, we will definitely not improve our skills. Learning by doing will be eventually cultivated into us as a life-long habit. And we will not struggle in the future. Also, I'm certain that academic writings, which we will face when we study a higher degree of education, are much more difficult to understand than the novel. Because when we read the novel we can get the overall story by imagination and applying our own experiences, whereas we have to understand the literal meaning of the advanced vocabulary in academic writings or research papers. Moreover, what we've done in this class helps us improve our summarizing skill which is important in academic study. Therefore, it's a good idea to start with novel.
ReplyDeletePeople usually need an example when they try to do somethings new, for example, When babies learn how to speak, they listen parent or other people talked. After that they will understand how to speak, but they have to practice their pronunciation by themselves. So, if we want to use English language as native speaker, we should learn the language from passive skills such as listening and reading.
ReplyDeleteI agree that AEP classes should have reading novel exercises for practicing reading skill and AEP students can get many new vocabularies which they are useful for non-native speakers to understand, for instance, I learn the words Wizard, Wacco from Lord of the files book which they mean awesome or cool.
I also agree with them,Ming,Peach,and Bas.AEP students should have reading a novel exercise. It cans help them to learn how to guess the meaning from the context without open dictionary in every words that they not know. However,they could practice how to get chunk or understand the main idea of the story which is leading them read faster and faster if keep practicing regulary.This skill will be very useful when students need to reading or do a lot of research when they are in university.In addition,they know new variety vocabularies by reading.And it will be quicker and longer memorize if readers are interested in those novels also the plots are very fun.
ReplyDeleteI like Pin's reference to research.
DeleteThis seems to me one of the strongest reasons for reading a novel. It means we can use it as a source to practice the writing skills involved in research and using sources: not only how to cite a source, but also how to use the ideas in a source to support an idea.
This is one reason, for example, we write an essay analysing a character in Golding's novel using only the information in the first four chapters to support a general idea about that character. This essay involves research, but that research is limited to the first 75 pages of the novel.
I like it if you also enjoy the novel, but it's value for practising reading and writing skills that are important in academic work is the compelling reason.
In higher levels (6+), we can read extensively in more challenging academic texts, so I skip the novel unless students particularly want it.
Maybe I am not so into this kind of writing. I hardly understand the meaning hidden behind the story. I find it is difficult to understand Golding's language and need to read it twice or more to know what he tries to say. When I finish reading each chapter, I think I catch up with the story about 50 per cent, so I have to read it again. It's tough when I start, but I gradually get it more.
ReplyDeleteIt is also quite different from the novels I have read before such as Harry Potter, The help and Psycho. I agree that novel provides us fully language skills but what I like most about novel are about writers' writing styles and the arrangement of content in the story, such as how the characters are introduced? and tying a knot to get readers' curious, then, they want to know what will happen next?
Sorn is right that this story is more difficult than, for example, Harry Potter. I enjoyed the Harry Potter stories, but although Rowling is a competent writer, Golding is a great writer, and his much more complex language reflects that. Apart from her newly created language, which is rarely a problem, Rowling's language isn't too challenging, who, for example, could have a problem understanding the word muggle, which hasn't made it into the OALD yet, although it is now an entry in other Oxford dictionaries of English?
DeleteGolding is less into making up new words, although his verb flink on page 11 appears to be an exception, than he is into using exactly the right word, however unusual that word might sometimes be. And Golding, unlike Rowling, lets readers see things for themselves. For example, when the three explorers come across the candle-like flowers (p. 30) the differing reactions tell us a lot about Ralph, Jack and Simon - ideas which confirm what a later reading reveals was already hinted up more subtly in the earlier pages, and which is confirmed as the story progresses, with every element multiply connected with others and all contributing to Golding's complex unity.
And Sorn is right that you need to read it more than once. I've read it many times, and each time I read the story again, I realise new things: new connections, new insights into Golding's symbolism, new ideas being explored, and all fitting smoothly under a well-told story about a group of lost boys becoming increasingly lost. I think it's a sign of great art that it becomes more alluring the better we know it, and does not bore, although getting into it in the first place might take some effort.
And also involving some research along with sharpening our awareness of how much words matter, is the revised version of Hartmann and Blass's academic writing exercise in chapter 1 of Quest, which arose naturally out of issues that have come up in our reading of Lord of the Flies.
ReplyDeleteI've just finished my paragraph supporting the definition of the noun intellectual which shows that it is not Piggy but one of the other boys who is the true intellectual on the island. At 467 words, it's a little shorter than the paragraph I wrote on culture, but took me almost the same amount of time.
Bas's definition of intellectual is, as you already know, very different - he would say that Piggy is the intellectual on the island.