Literature Circles in the University Language Classroom: Assessment and Marking
Sachiko Shikoda
The 90th General Meeting of The English Literary Society of Japan
19 May 2018

Contents² Issued involved in assessment and testing³ Literature circles³ Approaches to assessment² Tasks and questions³ Group presentation³ End-of-semester examination² Concluding remarks

Literature Circles² “small peer-based discussion groups, involved in reading the same piece of literature, and who cometogether on a regularprogrammed basis to share interpretations of what they have read”(Shelton-Strong, 214)
² See: Daniels (2002), Kim (2004), Shelton-Strong (2012).

Literature Circles in Japan² Potential to develop skills in:³ Communication³ Critical thinking³ Personal growth² See Brown (2008), Furr (2003), Kusanagi (2015), Williams (2011).

Approaches to assessment² Assessing student growth in literature circles³ Alternative assessment° Rubric/ observation sheets (performance)° Portfolio° Book projects¯ Artworks¯ Theatrical performance

Components in language testing and assessment
What we are trying to measure and how it should/ could be done
(Shohamy and Hornberger, xiii)

The washback³ The impact of language testing on teaching and learning“ (…) it is important to collect cumulative evidence of the process of ongoing engagementwith literature rather than collect summative evidence of knowledge about literature”(Paran, 2010 161-162).

²“the way in which testing and teaching are interconnected should not mean ‘that classroom
procedures should be modelled by the test; but rather that test procedures should be reshaped by thestrategies and goals of the classroom”(Spiro, 1991: 29, quoted in Paran (2010))² “language can never cease to be at the centre of literary (or any other) reading”(Hall, 114)

“Flight from the text” by Short and Candlin (1986)² “(…) a flight from the text as a formal, linguistic, and aesthetic artefact, into the text as a sequence ofevents, a series of facts, or a set of behaviours” (Carter and Long, 215)

“Classroom strategies and activities using Jane Eyre” by Saito「いずれにしても、この授業の中で、学生はまず英語の勉強をすることになる。（…） 英語学習と文学研究を明確に分けないところが重要な点である。」(Saito, 2017: 38)

Carter and Long (1990) on exercises and tests“(exercises and tests should) reunite students to the text and its uses of language as the originating centre oftheir experiences”(Carter and Long, 220-221)“Let’s Read and Discuss”² September 2017 to January 2018
² An Elective option for 1st year undergraduates: “Language and Communication/ Intermediate
English”² 13 weeks (105 minutes per week)² 30 students (23 males; 7 females)³ 19 Arts and Humanities; 11 Science² The Embassy of Cambodia (2013) by Z SmithTasks and questions for assessment² Group presentation³ Presenting findings in English³ 40 min. per group (including Q & A)
³ Opportunity for self expression in target language
A list of evaluation criteria given in advance (performance)
Literature circles role sheets (contents)² End-of-semester examination
General comprehension³ Language-based questions: vocabulary; composition; translation
Personal response³ Essay-type question° Previously unseen text; response in approx. 200 words in English° Making connections between the text and real world

In lieu of a conclusion…
² Language proficiency and reading proficiency are inextricably linked² Meaningful social interaction would presupposes this premiseMaley (2001) said…
“It may seem anomalous in a market-oriented world of supply and demand and cost-benefit calculation that
there is still a place for literature. Perhaps the growing interest in literature is one manifestation of the spread ofparallel notions such as “emotional intelligence.”(Maley, 185)

Works Cited
Brown, Howard. “Literature circles for critical thinking in global issues classes.” 14 January 2017.
<http://www.academia.edu/1523620/Literature_circles_for_critical_thinking_in_global_issues_classes>
Ronald Carter and Michael N. Long, “Testing literature in EFL classes: tradition and innovation” ELT
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Harvey Daniels. Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in Book Clubs and Reading Groups. 2nd Edition. York,
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Furr, Mark. Literature Circles for the EFL Classroom.’ Proceedings of the 2003 TESOL Arabia Conference.
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Myonghee Kim, “Literature Discussion in Adult L2 Learning,” Language and Education. 18 (2): 145-166,
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Suzanne Keen, Empathy and the Novel. Oxford: OUP, 2007.
David Comer Kid and Emanuele Castano, “Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind,” Science.
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Yuka Kusanagi, “Literary Reading Circles and Short Essay Activities for English Learning among MedicalStudents.” Literature and Language Learning in the EFL Classroom. Eds. Masayuki Teranishi, Yoshifumi
Saito, and Katie Wales. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 212-228.
Alan Maley. “Literature in the language classroom.” The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English toSpeakers of Other Languages. Eds. Ronald Carter and David Nunan. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 2001. 180-185.
Amos Paran, “Between Scylla and Charybdis: The Dilemmas of Testing Language and Literature.” Testing
the Untestable in Language Education. Eds. Amos Paran and Lies Sercu. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 2010.
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斎藤兆史.「文学研究と語学学習—『ジェイン・エア』のバーサの表象に着目した授業案」. 日本英文学会（関東支部）編『教室の英文学/ Approaches to Teaching English Literature』東京：研究社, 2017.

Scott J. Shelton-Strong. “Literature Circles in ELT.” ELT Journal 66. 2 (2012): 214-223. 14 January 2017.
<http://www.academia.edu/769911/Shelton-Strong_S._J._2012_._Literature_Circles_in_ELT>Elana Shohamy and Nancy H. Hornberger (eds.), Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Volume 7:Language Testing and Assessment. (2nd edn). New York: Springer, 2008.
Michael H. Short and Christopher N. Candlin. “Teaching Study Skills for English Literature,” in Brumfitand Carter (eds.), Literature and Language Teaching. Oxford: OUP, 1986.
Masayuki Teranishi, Yoshifumi Saito, and Katie Wales (eds.), Literature and Language Learning in the
EFL Classroom. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Williams, David. “A new approach to reading/ discussion focused language learning.” 14 January 2017.
<http://www.jiu.ac.jp/books/bulletin/2011/tour/williams.pdf>