TEACHING LITERATURE TO ESL STUDENTS

2016 commemorates 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare; this special anniversary year is a truly unique opportunity to work on his work with our sudents. The British Council and the Royal Shakespeare Company have created this pack of resources to help teachers make students see how Shakespeare  was a writer who  still speaks for all people and nations, addressing big questions and themes about the human experience which have no deadline.

Besides, the British Council has launched a competition on Shakespeare for students of Secondary 4 which is worthwhile trying: students have a maximum of three minutes to act out a monologue  on any issue related to Shakespeare. Recordings should be sent between February 1st and March 14th. The prizes are really tempting so I hope you will take the chance.

Apart from encouraging you to commemorate  one of the greatest playwrights of all times, I would like to provide you with a series of questions you can use to start talking about Literature with your students. I suggest that you should use these questions to warm students up to the topic of books and literature.  Once you know what your students'  previous experience about Literature is, you can start introducing poems, short stories and novels or even try  a first approach to Shakespeare through a rap on Othello. The following video will demonstrate what I am saying:



If  you want your students to follow what they are saying, you can find the lyrics here.

Finally I would like to contribute to your Literature classes by sharing my favourite web resources on Literature for Secondary  students.  I hope they will be useful for your school contexts.