Literature in the ESL Curriculum

Why do people read literature? The definition of literature is a writing of some sort in which expression and form are characteristics or features of the writing. It can come in the form of poetry, novels, biographies, or essays. There are a couple of main reasons people usually read literature. People usually read for an escape from life, to learn something new, to confront human experience, or simply for pleasure. One of the more popular of those four is to confront human experience. They use what the author writes down and apply it to their daily life. Authors sometimes do that too. They write down their own experiences to give the audience pleasure, or to realize that they shouldn’t make the same mistakes. When it comes to

According to “The Demise of Disciplinary Authority” by Louis Menand academic literary studies is more important than one may think. Menand claims that there is two background categories condition for the academic. The first one is “that knowledge accumulates brick by brick.” The second is the discipline of literary studies. The author goes on to say that the literacy studies have existed since 1960. There was a time in society when literature was not known as its own genre. The author wants the readers to learn and understand that literature is itself genre. Literature studies can be understood as an independent discipline. An author named Levine argues in this article that the future does lie in interdisciplinary work. There was a research done that showed that academic literacy studies became disconnected from the institutional structure it inhabited. The American university was covering up and enjoying a pergola of rapid expansion. The challenge of literacy studies was that it could have simply been put in the existing system.

In the passage “Why Literature Matters,” Dana Gioia uses facts and statistics as well as strong word choice and tone to help persuade the audience.

Literature Matters “Who needs literature?” (Gillespie). Literature is a way to experience another world written on a sheet of paper. In the article “Why Community College Students Need Great Books, J.M. Anderson refers to literature as “a form of travel in time and space, allowing readers to experience vicariously what others have thought, felt, and even seen.” Experiencing literature takes the mind to another world and allows it to be free with imagination and creativity.

In the article, “Why Literature Matters”, the author, Dana Gioia, states how reading is taking a turn downhill as young adults are not reading literature. Gioia addresses that in order to fix the issue, politicians and business communities need to try and fix the problems. Dana Gioia uses a series of logical appeals to show how the decrease in literature is affecting the society.

The two articles that I chose both went hand in hand with the struggle of learning and teaching literature. I chose the article “One High School English Teacher” because it complements my first article, “Death to High School English”. In this essay, I will summarize and interpret the first article to show the deeper meaning of it. Then I will research my second article and show the author 's credibility to help prove my argument, and finally I will tie together all my main points of my essay.

Writer, Dana Gioia in his article “Why Literature Matters”, argues that the decline in reading will have a negative effect on society. He supports this claim by first stating that it is an important part of the business world, he then explains that young people will not understand the ideals of citizenship, and finally he claims that there will be long-term social and economic problems. Gioia’s purpose is to inform and persuade his audience in order to bring attention to the problem in reading. He adopts an informative and concerning tone, so that everyone can pitch in and do something about the decline in reading.

We see from John Green’s video, “Why and How We Read” and Gary Morson’s article, “Why College Kids Are Avoiding the Study of Literature”, that literature is given a bad name because of how it’s being taught, people think it’s a waste of time to learn, because of the unnecessary critical analysis. We can also see that the two articles and video all show us that authors are trying to communicate a message through their writing, and ultimately, teach us something. In both articles and the video, it is emphasized that we build the necessary skills to empathize and communicate with others. Ultimately, we also understand and express our own emotions more efficiently, when we do read. Finally, in “The Business Case for Reading Novels” by Anne Kreamer

In Robert Penn Warren’s essay “Why Do We Read Fiction?” it concludes that people read fiction because it satisfies the reader’s deepest needs. Fiction itself makes people feel significant, so when we read Lord of the Flies and A Separate Peace it also makes us feel significant in many unique ways. One of those ways is through making fiction novels that have people live without rules or breaking the rules. That’s what makes the reader interested.

Reading in America has begun to decline and is starting to worry some people about the effects this will have on the country as a whole. In the passage “Why Literature Matters,” Gioia persuades that literary reading is very important to society through her use of word choice and appeal to logic as well as emotion.

Based on the title of the publisher and their various publications, we can assume that the broad audience of the article are people with an interest in literature itself. However, due to the vast amount of detail and description in the article, we can quite safely derive that the narrow audience are people directly involved in education. While the article seems promising to high school and college students, it is not limited to

Some people do not realize that they affect the education of their children by banning certain books. The banning of books is banning the author's right to free speech which can hinder the education of Americans. In schools teachers have to worry about what readings they present to their students because they could have any parent coming after them for exposing their children to “heinous” or “bad” things when all it truly is, is literature used to broaden

The Premature Obituary of the Book: Why Literature is an essay written by Mario Vargas Llosa. In this essay Llosa writes that it is crucial for literature to be a part of people’s lives. In Why Literature he writes that reading is important for the mind, communication, and developing knowledge about life and democratic ideals. Reading is not only important for one’s self but for the world. Just as he mentioned in his quote, it’s not just about the leaf, or the person, but its about seeing the world in different ways and being able to experience and gain knowledge on all subjects. Through his writing he gives many valid points as to why reading literature is important to people of all ages and genders all around the world. Llosa’s persuasive essay is relatable and can get readers thinking about the importance of reading by using many valid points in his essay. Llosa presents his reading to many different audiences and he effectively persuades the audience through his points given in the reading. He does this because he wants the reader to understand why it is necessary for people to learn and experience new things through reading literature and other texts.

What is Literature? Why Study Literature? People often think that literature is one thing, not knowing that it is in actuality composed of several elements that we all use in our daily lives. Literature is the foundation of life. It places an emphasis on many topics from human tragedies to tales of the ever popular search for love. While it is physically written in words, these words come alive in the imagination of the mind, and its ability to comprehend the complexity or simplicity of the text. Literature is a journey that is inscribed in pages, and powered by the imagination of the reader. Ultimately, literature has provided a gateway to teach us about life experiences from even the saddest stories to the most joyful ones

The study of literature is a lost art, like taking a picture with film. It is an item in which you can hang on to forever and create everlasting memories and will always come to use, not something you can just cast aside. As a student, many can attest to the fact that Literature is not as entertaining as other classes may be. However, literature is something in life that you do not appreciate until it’s time to share your knowledge with the world,. Personally, I am thankful that I read many books and finished all the work assigned to me throughout my 12 years of English class.. Literature gives you perspective about other people, In the study of literature,one can appreciate the change it has brought to the world. It prepares your mind