The English Classroom
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The English Classroom – a Place of Struggle AN ANALYSIS OF THE POTENTIAL OF CONTEMPORARY YOUNG ADULT FICTION AS A TEACHING TOOL FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE Heidi Beate Kristensen Master’s thesis Trondheim, May 2015 Norwegian University of Science and Technology Program for Teacher Education Academic supervisors: Anja Synnøve Bakken and Gweno Williams Acknowledgements The road leading up to the result that you are now holding in your hands has been the biggest ‘place of struggle’ that I have ever encountered – and I have been to some pretty desolate and overcrowded places. However, as these journeys usually are, it has been a fruitful road to travel, and for that, there are a few people that need to be acknowledged and thanked. My supervisors, Anja Synnøve Bakken and Gweno Williams, deserve sincere thanks for their honest input and constructive feedback. Mamma and pappa have at times been annoyingly supportive – believing in me unconditionally. The motto has been: Don’t give up! And it worked. Their support has been invaluable, and for that they can take some of the credit for the finished product. Then there are the girls up on the fourth floor. By now they know me better than most. We have shared frustrations, anger, tears, joy, laughter, insights and other confession that had nothing to with culture, novels, analysis or writing. They kept me sane and made the experience enjoyable – new friends were made. Trondheim, May 21, 2015 Heidi Beate Kristensen I Abstract The topic of this thesis investigates the potential of contemporary young adult fiction as a teaching tool for the encouragement of intercultural competence. The aim has been to identify cultural specific issues represented in the texts, as well as universal issues. This is because intercultural competence is concerned with both. Furthermore, the aim is to suggest how these representations are beneficial for the teaching of intercultural competence in Norwegian lower secondary schools, and what pedagogical potential the novels possess. The methodological approach has been a literary analysis inspired by the notion of ‘culture as discourse’. Hence, I have suggested some relevant discourses found in the novels. The data material consist of two American novels, one with a male and one with a female protagonist, and two British novels, also represented with one protagonist from each gender. All the novels fall under the genre of contemporary young adult fiction. Through the analysis, universal and culture specific issues were identified related to three cultural topics: family, gender and youth culture. The findings indicate that the novels can be used as cultural artifacts, although to varying degree. Thus, the novels challenge the reader’s knowledge, skills and attitudes – which are the three aspects of interculturality. The conflicts that might occur between the reader’s native culture and the novels’ representations of cultures will generate a ‘place of struggle’ between these cultures. By generating these cultural struggles – which also can be understood as cultural difference and contradictions – the novels allow for teaching activities that aim to make the learner comfortable with cultural differences, i.e. becoming interculturally competent. III Sammendrag Temaet for denne avhandlingen undersøker potensialet samtidslitteratur for ungdom innehar som et pedagogisk verktøy for å fremme interkulturell kompetanse. Målet har vært å identifisere kulturspesifikke problemstillinger som er representert i tekstene, samt universelle problemstillinger. Dette er fordi interkulturell kompetanse er opptatt av begge perspektivene. Videre er målet å foreslå hvordan disse representasjonene er gunstige for undervisning av interkulturell kompetanse i den norske ungdomsskolen, og hvilket pedagogiske potensial romanene besitter. Den metodiske tilnærmingen har vært en litterær analyse inspirert av konseptet ‘kultur som diskurs’. På grunn av dette har jeg foreslått noen relevante diskurser som finnes i romanene. Datamaterialet består av to amerikanske romaner, en med mannlig og en med kvinnelig hovedperson, og to britiske romaner, også representert med en protagonist fra hvert kjønn. Alle romanene faller under sjangeren samtidslitteratur for ungdom. Gjennom analysen var universelle og kulturspesifikke problemstillinger identifisert i tilknytning til tre kulturelle temaer: familie, kjønn og ungdomskultur. Funnene antyder at romanene kan brukes som kulturelle artefakter, men i varierende grad. Dermed utfordrer romanene leserens kunnskaper, ferdigheter og holdninger – som er de tre aspektene interkulturalitet består av. Konfliktene som kan oppstå mellom leserens ‘native culture’ og romanenes representasjoner av kulturer vil generere en ‘place of struggle’ mellom disse kulturene. Ved å generere disse “kulturkampene” – som også kan forstås som kulturforskjeller og –motsetninger – tilrettelegger romanene for undervisningsaktiviteter som tar sikte på å gjøre eleven komfortabel med kulturelle forskjell, det vil si å bli interkulturelt kompetent. V Table of contents Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... I Abstract .................................................................................................................................... III Sammendrag .............................................................................................................................. V Index of Tables, Illustrations & Figures ................................................................................... XI 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Research question ............................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Limitation and clarification of concepts ........................................................................... 2 1.2.1 Contemporary young adult fiction ............................................................................ 2 1.2.2 Intercultural competence ........................................................................................... 3 1.3 Previous research and my thesis’ relevance ..................................................................... 5 1.4 Chapter summary and outline of the thesis ...................................................................... 7 2 THEORETICAL FRAMING ............................................................................................... 9 2.1 Social constructivism ....................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Cultural education in the ESL classroom ....................................................................... 11 2.2.1 What is culture? ....................................................................................................... 11 2.2.2 Culture as Discourse ................................................................................................ 12 2.2.3 ‘Place of struggle’ ................................................................................................... 13 2.2.4 ‘Decenter’ ................................................................................................................ 15 2.3 Literature in the ESL classroom ..................................................................................... 17 2.3.1 The gender perspective ............................................................................................ 17 2.3.2 ‘Efferent’ or ‘aesthetic’ reading of fictional texts ................................................... 19 2.4 Chapter summary ........................................................................................................... 20 3 METHOD AND MATERIALS .......................................................................................... 21 3.1 The pilot project ............................................................................................................. 21 3.2 The qualitative research method..................................................................................... 22 3.2.1 The researcher ......................................................................................................... 23 VII 3.2.2 Text analysis: a combination of literary and discourse analysis ............................. 23 3.2.3 The reader – the learner ........................................................................................... 25 3.3 The research material ..................................................................................................... 26 3.3.1 Choosing the research material ............................................................................... 26 3.3.2 Novel summaries and general comments ................................................................ 28 3.4 Chapter summary ........................................................................................................... 30 4 ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS ..................................................... 31 4.1 Categorizing and analyzing ............................................................................................ 31 4.1.1 What cultural topics the novels address .................................................................. 32 4.1.2 How the cultural topics in the novels are address ................................................... 33