Learning Language Through Literature in Secondary Schools: A Resource Book for Teachers of English

Chapter 1 - Worlds of Words: Authenticity of Response and the Experience of Literary Texts in the Hong Kong Second-language Classroom

1 CI----IAPTER ..I. Worlds of Words: Authenticity of Response and the Experience of Literary Texts in the Hong Kong Second-language Classroom Peter Kennedy and Peter Falvey INTRODUCTION Read this poem. Resist the temptation to skip this bit! The widest prairies have eJectric fences, For though old cattle know they must not stray Young steers are always scenting purer water Not here but anywhere. Beyond the wires Leads them to blunder up against the wires Whose muscle-shredding violence gives no quarter. Young steers become old cattle from that day, Electric limits to their widest senses. Read it through again and, as you do so, note down: 1. your first thoughts as to what it might be 'about'; 2. the feelings it evoked or any personal experiences that came to mind while you were reading the poem; and 2 Peter Kennedy and Peter Falvey 3. the questions you asked yourself as you went along (e.g. were there any words you weren't sure about?). Here are our initial responses. Peter A • Title What does the title refer to? What kind of wires are they? Telephone/ telegraph wires? Barbed wire? • Pictures It is cows in a field but it isn't a 'field' or a 'meadow', it is a 'prairie' . . .(mental picture ofa combine harvester in anAmerican landscape - Kansas? - wheat - breakfast cereal advert)! • Sounds 'though old cattle know' .. . There are a lot of 'oh' sounds there ... Why? • Questions Old cattle and young steers ... It is something to do with youth and experience? What? • Language 'muscle-shredding' ... Sounds like a Bruce Willis or Schwarzenegger film ... 'give quarter'? Arthurian romance - jousts knights ,when one knight is on the ground and the other one has a lance at his throat. What is the exact meaning of the phrase? Check it in the dictionary. • Personal experiences 'electric fences' ... reminds me ofholiday in Devon, when we tried to take a short cut, got stuck in the corner of a field and couldn't get into the next one because of an electric fence ... buzzing. We had to walk the long way round to get back onto the road ... very annoyed with the farmer. Why do they do that? How much of a shock do you get if you touch them? How strong would the electric current be? Peter B • The title, Wires, makes me think of concentration camps and films that I have seen - it reminds me of Steve McQueen, one of my favourite actors in that famous prison camp film. • 'Prairies' sets me off thinking of the old Westerns and the battles between the ranchers who wanted wide-open spaces and the sheep-herders and farmers who wanted to enclose the spaces. • The first stanza, however, brings me back and I begin to think of operant conditioning and the 'learning' that the old steers have encountered when blundering into the electrified fences. • The 'purer water' makes me think of my days in the desert and the needs that drive animals - and humans. • I wonder why the poet carries the last line of the first stanza over into the second stanza, but then I realize what a powerful image those two lines create, especially the phrase 'muscle-shredding' in the next line and the contrast of 'beyond the wires' with 'up against the wires' . ======================- Worlds of Words 3 • I got to the end of the poem and thought 'This is interesting' but I need to read it again a few times. The first reactions by Hong Kong University students to this poem are shown in Appendix 1. What Were We Doing As We Were Reading? Although our responses to Philip Larkin's poem Wires were very different, there were a number of things they had in common: 1. We looked at the title and started speculating as to what the poem might be about even before we read it. 2. We made inferences, e.g. 'The poem appears to be about cows but is something to do with youth and experience.' 3. The poem sparked off associations. We connected the words with films we had seen, books we had read, personal experiences we had had. 4. We didn't understand it all at the first reading. Even after a second reading, we were still puzzling it out using the clues in the text and asking ourselves questions, e.g.: • The poem has an interesting shape - ABCD DCBA. Why is that? • Ifyou read...