Language Through Literature (LTL)

Semester and Year Offered: Sem 1/Sem2 | Year One

Course Coordinator and Team: Nupur Samuel and Monishita Hajra Pande

Email of course coordinator: nupur[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in, monishita[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in

Pre-requisites: None

Aim: This course will focus on developing the higher order sub skills of the four macro skills: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. Students will read a range of literary texts critically which will expose them to new vocabulary in context, help them deduce meanings of familiar and unfamiliar items through understanding word formation and using contextual clues. The reading of texts will also enable them to make inferences, understand figurative language, and understand relations between parts of text through lexical cohesive devices of repetition, synonymy, antonymy and collocation. Comprehension of conceptual meanings like cause, result, purpose, reason, condition and contrast will also be focused upon along with the understanding of communicative value of sentences.

Course Outcomes:

1. Demonstrate ideas and opinions on a variety of topics through written and oral texts
2. Use written and oral skills to develop an academic argument
3. Demonstrate an awareness of critical skills for reading a range of academic texts
4. Apply research skills to explore different topics
5. Use citation style to refer to source materials for projects, class presentations and assessment tasks
6. Demonstrate advanced critical thinking skills and use cues to understand intertexuality in a variety of literary and non literary texts

Brief description of modules/ Main modules:

This course will specifically focus on developing the higher order sub-skills of the four macro skills: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.

Reading and Writing

-Students will critically read a range of literary texts which will expose them to new vocabulary in context, and help them to deduce meanings of familiar and unfamiliar items by understanding word formation and using contextual clues. The reading of texts will also enable them to make inferences, understand figurative language, and understand relations between parts of text through lexical cohesive devices of repetition, synonymy, antonymy and collocation. Comprehension of conceptual meanings like cause, result, purpose, reason, condition and contrast will also be focused upon along with the understanding of communicative value of sentences. In addition to intra-textual reading, learners will also be encouraged to interpret texts by going outside it by using exophoric reference, reading between the lines and interpreting the text with the help of their own experience or knowledge of the world.

-Along with critical reading they will also be trained to write effectively. They will be encouraged to use discourse markers for introducing, developing and concluding an idea, transition markers, explanation, clarification and emphasising thesis statement. They will be exposed to different types of writing like argumentative, narrative, descriptive and opinion essays. They will be trained to use cohesive devises to ensure high degree of cohesion and coherence in written texts. Students will also get practice in summarising, paraphrasing and referencing using MLA and APA formats.

Listening and Speaking

-Oral and aural expressions will be enhanced by creating situations where students will be spontaneously taking part in interactions and group discussions. Students will also be made to develop their presentation skills. While watching videos, movies, short films, political speeches, songs, poems etc. they will be trained to strategic listening by focussing on specific details, using contextual clues etc. and responding to such texts critically.

Possible themes which may develop into modules:

The above mentioned skills will be developed by using texts which will organically revolve around modules that are thematic in nature, such as Marginality, Discrimination, Colonization, the Local and the Global, Modernization and Industrialisation, and the Environment. Texts will be chosen to suit these themes while teaching sub-skills set of academic English

Assessment Details with weights:

* Assessment situation and weightage may be subject to change; students will be informed of the final schedule at the beginning of the semester

Reading List:

• While this course can use any number of texts across English literature, it is thought that texts from twentieth century world literature be kept. Selections from the following books may be used:
• Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. London: Virago, 2015. Print.
• Basheer, Vaikom Muhammad. Poovan Banana and Other Stories. Madras: Orient Longman, 1994. Print.
• Bhalla, Alok. Stories about the Partition of India. Vol. 1 to New Delhi: Manohar & Distributors, 2012. Print.
• Bond, Ruskin. The Penguin Book of Indian Ghost Stories. New Delhi: Penguin, 1993. Print.
• Dabydeen, David. Coolie Odyssey. Hertfordshire: Hansib Pub., 2006. Print.
• Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Instalments, with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies. New York: Doubleday, 1992. Print.
• Ezekiel, Nissim. Collected Poems. 2nd ed. New Delhi: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.
• Frank, Anne. The Diary of Anne Frank: The Revised Critical Edition. Ed. David Barnouw and Gerrold Van Der Stroom. New York: Doubleday, 2003. Print.
• Green Day. American Idiot. Reprise, 2004. MP3.
• Holliday, Billie. The Complete Billie Holiday on Verve, 1945-1959. Verve Records: 1993. MP3.
• Keller, Helen. The Story of My Life. New York: Pocket, 2005. Print.
• King, Martin Luther. I Have a Dream. New York: Scholastic, 1997. Print.
• Maggs, Sam. The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy: A Handbook for Girl Geeks. Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2015. Print.
• Manto, Saadat Hasan. Mottled Dawn: Fifty Sketches and Stories of Partition. New Delhi: Penguin, 2011. Print.
• Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Edinburgh: Canongate, 2012. Print.
• Nash, Ogden. Candy Is Dandy: The Best of Ogden Nash. London: André Deutsch, 1994. Print.
• Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New Delhi: Penguin, 2011. Print.
• Planet Earth. BBC Home Entertainment, 2007. DVD.
• Rowling, J. K. Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination. New York: Little Brown, 2008. Print.
• Seth, Vikram. From Heaven’s Lake: Travels through Sinkiang and Tibet. New Delhi: Penguin, 2012. Print.
• Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.
• Thiongo, Ngugiwa. Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. Oxford: J. Currey, 1986. Print.