Article 2

Weblink:

Reading, learning literature helps improve English Language skills

Reading, learning literature helps improve English Language skills

Posted on 13 October 2013 - 08:09pm

ON Thursday, it was announced in Oslo, Norway, that Canadian Alice Munro had won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
What's interesting is that Munro won the prestigious honour for her tales of the struggles, loves and tragedies of women in small-town Canada.
The award-giving committee called her the "master of the contemporary short story."
Stories were the order of the day at school, more than six decades ago. From fables and fairy tales to fiction, narratives, historical chronicles and drama, those were what we read and learned through our school years.
I'm sure the range of stories prescribed to us were carefully planned and selected by those who designed the curriculum. The teachers were well versed in the content and pedagogical aspects of enabling us to understand, appreciate and develop an interest in all those stories.
More importantly, we were cultivating good English language skills by learning, practising and using English, both in its verbal and written forms.

While much continues to be said about the need for our students and jobseekers to improve their English language skills if they are to succeed in today's highly competitive world, it should be pointed out that reading as a hobby and learning literature as a subject in the academic curriculum can contribute immensely to honing one's English language competency.
A habit that I, like many others, was encouraged to develop at home and in school continues to this day.
The relatively more recent advent and availability of multi-channel TV and the internet have broadened and increased manifold the scope and possibilities to access news and information and, more importantly, to learn from it.

Munro's winning of this year's literary prize reminded me of one of my English Literature teachers, a great enthusiast of Nobel Literature laureates, who encouraged us to read the works of Kipling, Tagore, Shaw, Pearl S. Buck, Hemingway and others.
We were also encouraged to pool our pocket-money savings to buy second-hand copies of news magazines, such as the Reader's Digest, Time and Newsweek. We would then share the periodicals among our classmates and took turns to read articles of interest.
In class, we would be called upon to present oral summaries and engage in discussions and debates on many of the topics in those magazines.

My purpose in describing these experiences in some detail is to illustrate how teachers who are competent and dedicated can innovate various methods for students to develop the reading habit and, combined with the learning of literature, enhance their ability to gain competency and communicate effectively in the English language.

Rueben Dudley
Petaling Jaya