Analyzing and Building Literary Characters

Literature is undoubtedly one of the world’s greatest art-forms. For this reason, the study of literature is absolutely essential to students of all ages. And, of course, it is only through the extensive study of pre-existing literature that new literature can be created in order to keep this art-form around forever. However, before attempting either of these worthwhile pursuits, it is very important to develop an understanding of all of the characters involved in the work of literature being studied or created. Therefore, it stands to reason that the ability to analyze and build characters is crucial to all literary students.

Character analysis is comes fairly naturally to most people, so that’s where you should begin your lesson. First, show a short clip from the film “Arms and the Man”. After the students have finished viewing the clip, project the “Character Analysis / Building” worksheet (below) on the overhead projector. Use this worksheet to guide an analysis of the characters in the film, encouraging as much student participation as possible.

Once this class discussion has ended, explain that this process of analyzing characters is the same process used to create characters. Then, pass out copies of the same worksheet that you just used to each one of the students. Give them ten minutes to create a character of their own using this process.

When the students have completed their worksheets, separate them into groups of four. Tell each of the groups to write a short story using the characters that they have just created. Stress that they are to be as creative as possible with all other elements of the story, but to only use the characters that they have already created.

When the class has finished, reiterate the importance of characters in both the analysis of existing and the creation of new literary works. Then, collect their papers and congratulate them on a job well done!

Modern methods of EFL teaching at different levels

Anne Voitiuk (Vinnytsia)

The Strategies of Teaching Writing

Writing is a complex process that allows authors to explore thoughts and ideas, and make them visible and concrete. Writing encourages thinking and learning for it motivates communication and stimulates reflection. Nowadays teachers search for effective methods of teaching writing which can guarantee pupils’ progress.

The most important factor in writing exercises is that students need to be personally involved in order to undertsand the basic principles of writing better and to remember them as long as possible. The teacher should realise clearly what skills he is trying to develop. Next, the teacher needs to decide on which means (or type of exercise) can help learning of the target area. Once the target skill and means of its achievement are defined, the teacher can proceed to concentrate on what topic can be employed to make all students participate. By combining these objectives, the teacher can expect both enthusiasm and effective learning in return.

The choice of the target area depends on many factors; What level are the students? What is the average age of the students? Why are the students learning English? Are there any specific future intentions for the writing?

Having decided on the target area, the teacher can focus on the means to achieve this type of learning. The teacher must choose the most appropriate manner for the specified writing area.

Finally, it is highly important to decide which type of correction will make a a writing exercise useful. Here the teacher needs to think about the whole target area of the exercise. If there is an immediate task to be done, such as taking a test, perhaps the correction guided by the teacher is the most effective solution. However, if the task is more general, maybe the best approach would be to have the students work in groups and learn from each other in this way.

Thus, having chosen the most effective approaches, the teacher can expect his pupils to succeed in writing in particular and in English in general.

Goshtynar Ruslana