Crossovers: Digitalization and literature in foreign language education

Digitalization produces increasingly multimodal and interactive literary forms. A major challenge for foreign language education in adopting such forms lies in deconstructing discursive borders between literary education and digital education (romance of the book vs. euphoric media heavens), thereby crossing over into a perspective in which digital and literary education are intertwined. In engaging with digital literary texts, it is additionally important to consider how different competencies and literary/literacy practices interact and inform each other, including: (1) a receptive perspective: reading digital narratives and digital literature can become a space for literary aesthetic experience, and (2) a productive perspective: learners can become “produsers” (Bruns, 2008) of their own digital narratives by drawing on existing genre conventions and redesigning “available designs” (New London Group, 1996). Consequently, we propose a typology of digital literatures, incorporating functional, interactive and narrative aspects, as applied to a diverse range of digital texts. To further support our discussion, we draw on a range of international studies in the fields of literacies education and 21st century literatures (e.g., Beavis, 2010; Hammond, 2016; Kalantzis & Cope, 2012; Ryan, 2015) and, in turn, explore trajectories for using concrete digital literary texts in the foreign language classroom

How to Queer the Classroom: Queer-informed Methods and Teaching Practice in ELT

König L, Merse T. How to Queer the Classroom: Queer-informed Methods and Teaching Practice in ELT. Presented at the Seminarreihe ‘Queering ESOL: Towards a Cultural Politics of LGBT Issues in the ESOL Classroom’, University College London

Queer- und genderorientierte Zugänge für einen Fremdsprachenunterricht der Vielfalt

König L, Merse T. Queer- und genderorientierte Zugänge für einen Fremdsprachenunterricht der Vielfalt. Presented at the 26. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Fremdsprachenforschung, Leitung des Freien Formats 11, PH Ludwigsburg

“Compairing [sic] a girl to a summers day is gay” – Que(e)rying EFL Learners’ Engagement with Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 and Contemporary YA Fiction

König L, Merse T. “Compairing [sic] a girl to a summers day is gay” – Que(e)rying EFL Learners’ Engagement with Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 and Contemporary YA Fiction. Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Educativos. 2023;53(2):135-173.This paper presents qualitative research findings from a literature-focused classroom project in which EFL (English as a foreign language) learners engage queerly with Shakespeare’s famous Sonnet 18 “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” and Patrick Ness’ young adult (YA) fiction narrative Different for Boys. This project was carried out at a German secondary school (Gymnasium) with a year 11 upper-level class of advanced English. The central rationale of this project– informed by a theoretical basis of literary studies, EFL pedagogy, and queer theory –was to retrace how far the learning processes of students concerning these two texts may validate, irritate or dissipate heteronormative literary readings and interpretations, which are framed here as ‘hetero-normalization’. The results show that a queer focus can draw all learners into critical and committed literary interpretations – with each learner displaying highly individual negotiations lo-cated between upfront queer visibility and continued ‘hetero-normalization’.Este artículo presenta los resultados de una investigación cualitativa de un proyecto de aula centrado en la literatura en el que los estudiantes de EFL (inglés como lengua extranjera) interactúan de manera extraña con el famoso Soneto 18 de Shakespeare “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” y el adulto joven (YA) de Patrick Ness. Narrativa de ficción Diferente para chicos. Este proyecto se llevó a cabo en una escuela secundaria alemana (Gymnasium) con una clase de nivel superior de inglés avan-zado de Year 11. El fundamento central de este proyecto, informado por una base teórica de los estudios literarios, la pedagogía EFL y la teoría queer, fue rastrear hasta qué punto los procesos de aprendizaje de los estudiantes en relación con estos dos textos pueden validar, irritar o disipar las lecturas e interpretaciones literarias heteronormativas, que se enmarcan aquí como heteronormalización. Los resultados muestran que un enfoque queerpuede atraer a todos los estudiantes hacia interpretaciones literarias críticas y comprometidas, con cada estudiante mostrando negociaciones altamente individua-les ubicadas entre la visibilidad queerinicial y la heteronormalización continua

" Compairing [sic] a girl to a summers day is gay” – Que(e)rying EFL learners’ engagement with Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 and contemporary YA fiction

This paper presents qualitative research findings from a literature-focused classroom project in which EFL (English as a foreign language) learners engage queerly with Shakespeare’s famous Sonnet 18 “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” and Patrick Ness’ young adult (YA) fiction narrative Different for Boys. This project was carried out at a German secondary school (Gymnasium) with a year 11 upper-level class of advanced English. The central rationale of this project – informed by a theoretical basis of literary studies, EFL pedagogy, and queer theory – was to retrace how far the learning processes of students concerning these two texts may validate, irritate or dissipate heteronormative literary readings and interpretations, which are framed here as ‘hetero-normalization’. The results show that a queer focus can draw all learners into critical and committed literary interpretations – with each learner displaying highly individual negotiations located between upfront queer visibility and continued ‘hetero-normalization’

All inclusive? Eine kritische Lehrbuchanalyse zur Repräsentation von Diversität in Englischlehrbüchern der Klassenstufe 9.

König L, Alter G, Merse T. All inclusive? Eine kritische Lehrbuchanalyse zur Repräsentation von Diversität in Englischlehrbüchern der Klassenstufe 9. . Zeitschrift für Fremdsprachenforschung (ZFF). 2021;32(1):81-104