About this Event
The Stories of Literature in Language Teaching: Research and Teaching Tensions
What is the role of literature in language learning and teaching? Are there methodological approaches that are more likely to succeed than others? What is the role of initial teacher education and of CPD in helping teachers access the affordances of literary works of all genres in language classrooms across the world and at different educational stages?
Different countries and different curricula take different views and provide different answers to these questions: there is no one view of the role of literature in language teaching; rather, there are stories of literature in language teaching (Paran, 2006). In this talk, Professor Amos Paran attempts to untangle some of these stories through reflecting on the connection between practice and research and the way in which they feed on each other. He reflects on the value that is put on researching and on working with teachers; on the insights into practice that his own research and that of his students has uncovered; and on the different approaches to teaching and researching literature he has encountered.
This is also the story of the way in which his career spent working on literature in language teaching has unfolded, seemingly of its own volition, without a plan; in the words of Antonio Machado,
caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Speaker
Professor Amos Paran
Professor Amos Paran began his professional career teaching English as a Foreign Language in two schools in Israel, where literature was then a compulsory element of the school-leaving examination. Alongside teaching, he wrote support materials for educational television, examination practice materials and textbooks.
He completed an MA in Applied Linguistics and a PhD on reading in first and second languages at the University of Reading, followed by an MA in Distance Education at the Institute of Education. Before joining the IOE in 2001, he worked at the Centre for Applied Language Studies at the University of Reading.
His work has focused particularly on literature in language teaching. He has served as Coordinator of the Literature, Media and Cultural Studies Special Interest Group of IATEFL and Convenor of the AILA Research Network on Literature in Language Learning and Teaching, as well as holding guest professorships in Tübingen, Szeged, Alcalá de Henares and Santiago de Chile.
His wider research and publications span reading, feedback on writing, materials development, distance learning, the research-teaching connection, CLIL and translanguaging. His most recent book is Becoming a Reading Teacher, co-authored with Jane Spiro. He is currently co-editing Materials Development and Teacher Education with Luis Carabantes and working on a handbook of literature in language teaching with Sandra Stadler-Heer.
Chair
Professor Li Wei
Li Wei is Director and Dean of the UCL Institute of Education. His research covers many aspects of bilingualism and multilingualism, including language acquisition in childhood, education policy and practice regarding bilingual and multilingual learners of minoritised and transnational backgrounds, and the cognitive benefits of language learning.
He is a fellow of the British Academy, the Academy of Social Sciences, UK, and Academia Europaea.
Respondent
Professor John Gray
John began his career as an English language teacher working mainly in Spain where he was based from 1984-1998. His academic work has focused mostly on issues relating to social justice, particularly on the implications of the neoliberal marketisation of education and the erasure of marginalised groups from the ELT curriculum. He has always been interested in the role of literature in the language classroom as a means not only of addressing the systemic erasures characterising the typical Anglo-American English language textbook but of introducing students to a more imaginative engagement with language and the world.
Please note that a ticket will be required to attend this event.
Following the lecture, guests are warmly invited to join us for a drinks reception, offering the opportunity to continue the conversation and connect with fellow attendees in a relaxed atmosphere.
For more information about UCL's privacy policies and how UCL uses your data, please see the .
Event venue & nearby stays
UCL Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London, United Kingdom
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.