DIDATTICA

Hamlet : To be or not to be

Posted on by Valentina Corrente

TO  Hamlet (Act III, scene I).

To be or not to be

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
and by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
no more; and by a sleep to say we end
the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
that flesh is heir to, ‘tis a consummation
devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
to sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
for in that sleep of death what dreams may come
when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
must give us pause: there’s the respect
that makes calamity of so long life;
for who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
the oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
the pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
the insolence of office and the spurns
that patient merit of the unworthy takes,
when he himself might his quietus make
with a bare bodkin?  Who would fardels bear,
to grunt and sweat under a weary life,
but that the dread of something after death,
the undiscover’d country from whose bourn
no traveller returns, puzzles the will
and makes us rather bear those ills we have
than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
and thus the native hue of resolution
is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
and enterprises of great pith and moment
with this regard their currents turn awry,
and lose the name of action.

AMLETO ( ATTO III, SCENA I)

 

TRADUZIONE

 

ESSERE O NON ESSERE

 

Essere o non essere: questo è il problema:
se sia più giusto nell’animo patire
i colpi e i dardi della sorte oltraggiosa
o armarsi contro questo mare di affanni
e contrastandoli por loro fine. Morire. Dormire,
nulla più: e con il sonno dire che poniamo fine
alle fitte del cuore e a ogni infermità naturale della carne: questo è l’epilogo da desiderare devotamente. Morire, dormire;
Dormire? Forse sognare. Si, questo è il punto;
perché, quali sogni possano giungere in questo sonno di morte,
una volta eliminato questo guscio mortale,
deve farci riflettere: ecco il timore
che dà alla sventura una vita così lunga;
altrimenti, chi sopporterebbe il sferzate e i dileggi del tempo,
i torti degli oppressori, le offese dei superbi,
le fitte di un amore rifiutato, il ritardo delle leggi,
la sfrontatezza del potere e il disprezzo
che il merito paziente riceve dal volgo,
quando egli stesso potrebbe star sereno
con un nudo pugnale? Chi porterebbe fardelli,
agognando e sudando sotto il peso di una gravosa vita
se il timore di quel che c’è dopo la morte,
questa landa sconosciuta dalla cui frontiera
nessun pellegrino è mai tornato, non turbasse la volontà
e ci facesse preferire il peso dei nostri mali piuttosto
che volare verso altri ignoti?
Sì, è la coscienza ci fa vili
così la tinta nativa della risoluzione si
stempera sulla fiacca paletta del pensiero,
e imprese e azioni di grande importanza
per questo insabbiano il loro corso
e perdono il nome di azione.

Summary

Hamlet enters, speaking thoughtfully and agonizingly to himself about the question of whether to commit suicide to end the pain of experience. He says that the miseries of life are such that no one would willingly bear them; life is one of suffering and humiliation which has too often to be endured. So he wonders whether  the right attitude towards life  is to struggle against the “slings and arrows”, thus showing an active attitude  or  considering death as a most welcome escape from the evils. He associates death with sleep, rest and peace. But he says that the after-death is a mysterious reality that might be good or bad since dreams might be nightmares, and no one has ever come to life again to tell what really happens in the “ undiscovered country”. He finally comes to the conclusion that conscience is what makes cowards of us all and causes our incapacity to act.

 

 

 

COMMENTARY

Hamlet is perhaps the closet of Shakespeare’s tragedies to modern sensibilities; its hero’s doubts and indecisions are familiar to modern man equally tormented by a lack of certainties and the inability to communicate.

Hamlet’s indecisions must be placed against the background of the “ revenge tragedy”: according to its conventions, Hamlet should have sought revenge with all his forces and as soon as possible. But he does not so; he is full of hesitations, about his mother and King Claudius, whom he supposes has killed his father, and about himself.

The only certainty he has is of the corruption of the surrounding world and is repelled; the world changes its colour, life its meaning, love is deprived of its spirituality, the woman of her prestige, the earth and the air of their appeal. Hamlet sees a contagious disease which spreads from man to the kingdom, from the kingdom to the universe. The apparition of the ghost forces him in the role of the avenger but here, the theme of revenge, which is clear in contemporary drama, is called into question: all the evidence hamlet has of Claudius’ guilt is an apparition ( that of his father’s ghost) and Claudius’ confusion at watching a play that reproduces his supposed crime. This idea is linked to another theme which is honour and honourable actions: any action to correct a wrong should be reasoned, not emotional but this leads to another aspect of the play, suggested by the Romantic critic von Schlegel according to whom “ Hamlet” is the tragedy of will because in it thought kills action.

TEXT ANALYSIS

In his soliloquy Hamlet is concerned with a doubt : whether life is better than death. He is alone but he speaks in the first person plural because he is giving voice to the biggest of man’s dilemmas. He wonders which is the right attitude towards life: whether it is better to live and suffer stoic noble forbearance of adverse fortune or have an active opposition to it. So while the verb “ suffer” means a passive attitude, “ take arms” conveys the idea of an active attitude towards life. In lines 5-10 he introduces an alternative: death. Death as the only way to escape the sorrow and pain of the injustices and miseries inflicted on mankind. Then, in lines 10-13 Hamlet points out that man fears what may happen after death and  in line 28 he says “ conscience” makes us cowards since it is linked to consciousness which produces cowardice preventing us from committing suicide. Hamlet seems to resent his own incapacity to act and to put an end to his life because of his “ conscience”. In fact, Death would be preferable to Life’s suffering if man was not scared by the thought of what there may be beyond it. It is this that makes cowards of men and take s away the will to act.

 

STRUCTURE AND STYLE

As for structure and style in lines 1-10 Hamlet uses a lot of infinitive forms which give his speech a reflective mood. In lines 1-5 he draws upon some images such as “ the sling and arrows of outrageous fortune” and “ arms” taken to fight against a “ sea of troubles”.

In lines 8-9 Hamlet views death I as something to be welcomed because of its freeing power and considers it in a medieval perspective, that is, as a liberation of the soul from the “ mortal coil”. In line 24 we can find a metaphor which stands for the after death or the “ undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns”. In fact, no one has ever come to life again to tell what really happens after death.

At the end of his soliloquy Hamlet deprecates his lack of action and his cowardice. Actually, the effect of the whole passage taken from Hamlet, involving Hamlet’s soliloquy, is to make the audience consider what the meaning of “ cowardice” is. The question arousing from his words is whether it is brave to kill oneself or to stay alive. The text revolves around the idea of death by suicide which is here considered in an unconventional manner. Hamlet reverses the traditional idea about suicide seen as an act of weakness, of cowardice, a form of defeat. A person who commits suicide is unable to face problems, difficulties, losses, and decides to escape from troubles through death. To Hamlet, instead, suicide requires courage because it means facing the unknown reality of the after-death. Only few people are bold enough to go towards the unknown, because mystery generates fear; the majority of people prefer to continue to live without conviction or participation, rather than face “ the undicover’d country”. But the discussion on suicide also poses religious implications:  man has no right to take his own life. God has given man life, and God alone can take it.

ANALYSYS OF A TEXTUAL TYPOLOGY : NEWSPAPER REPORTS

Posted on by Valentina Corrente

Headline : Diplomatic sherpas feel the strain in surfeit of summits

 Newspaper headlines are usually written by a special headlines subeditor who makes them effective choosing catchy words, short sentence structures, metaphoric words and other rhetorical devices. These latter often make headlines obscure and difficult to understand but also intriguing, reflecting at the same time our cultural expectations. That’s the reason why headlines can be considered as a self-genre presenting some typical features.

For example, a TOP DOWN approach to the above mentioned headline will be focused on its non-linguistic features as the general layout, the print size and the type.

As for the layout, the first thing to notice is the space occupied by the headline on the page. As we can see, the whole text is inserted in a sort of framework which limits the boundaries of the written characters, so the clause forming the headline has been divided into three lines, each bearing one of its main constituents ( NP+VP+NP). As for print size, colour and type, black bold characters and capital letters immediately identify this clause as belonging to the genre of headlines.

On the other hand, a BOTTOM UP approach will highlight the syntactical structure and the  rhetorical devices exploited to reach a particular communicative goal : to attract and retain the reader’s attention arousing his/her curiosity and interest.

The presence of rhetorical devices accounts for the pragmatic function of this headline which invites the reader to distinguish between what is said and what is meant, between the denotative and connotative meaning of the words.

In fact, understanding the extra-meaning inside this textual genre implies the reader’s ability to go beyond the limits of what is said to infer what is meant. Of course, the journalist uses these rhetorical devices to produce a certain effect on the reader , but he counts on what Grice calls the Co-operative Principle. This means that the communicative aim is reached only if the addressee shares the addresser’s general knowledge which allows him to recognize his intention. Moreover, if we take into account Halliday’s view of language as a system of meaning involving the relationship between its participants, we will see that meaning results from the interaction between them, in what he calls the TRANSITIVITY SYSTEM. Among the micro-functions of language there is the one which allows language to create images in order to visually represent something through words, so that the reader can “see” what the writer is describing. A clear example of this linguistic function in this headline can be found at a PHONOLOGICAL-LEXICAL  LEVEL through the alliterative phonological  value of  the /s/ sound in the initial syllables in strain, surfeit, summits, which activates a metaphoric connection between the sherpas– Hymalayan mountain guides known for their resistance to physical fatigue-, and the diplomatic sherpas, the diplomatic officials who are exhausted by an excess of summit meetings.

 Lexical Level

As for the word summits, we can say that it is a clipped word since it stands for summit meetings. This lets us understand that it represents the key-word used by the media to activate their metaphorical discourse on sherpas and make the headline interesting and catchy.

MORPHO-SYNTACTICAL LEVEL

This headline, taken from The Times in its broadsheet format, is a simple Clause made up of a Noun Phrase ( diplomatic = pre-modifier;  sherpas = head) which is the Subject, a Verb Phrase     ( feel the strain) which is the Predicate, and another Noun Phrase which is also a prepositional phrase   ( in surfeit of summits). In relation to the predicate, diplomatic sherpas and the strain represent the Argument of the verb. The clause is made up of Countable Nouns (sherpas; summits)which present the inflected form of the  plural s ; and a Clipped Word (summits) coming out of  “summit meetings”.

The headof the noun phrase is in the subject position, but sherpas is modified by the pre-modifier diplomatic. 

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE SCHEME..( see attachement below)

grafico morfologico analysis of sherpas

SEMANTIC LEVEL 

The pre-modifier “diplomatic” before the head of the NP in the Subject position implies a metaphorical use of the word sherpas. Of course, the journalist uses these rhetorical devices to produce a certain effect on the reader , but he counts on what Grice calls the Co-operative Principle. This means that the communicative aim is reached only if the addressee shares the addresser’s general knowledge which allows him to recognize his intention.

In this case the addresser gives for granted the reader’s knowledge of sherpas as skilled mountaineers who resist to physical strain; otherwise it would be impossible to establish the semantic link between them and the diplomatic sherpas  exhausted by the surfeit of summits.

TEXT ANALYSIS OF THE BODY COPY

The body copy of the article we are analysing is made up of four paragraphs linked together by the key-word summits and sherpas which make up the texture of the article.

In fact, a TOP DOWN analysis will highlight how its COHESION  is given by the semantic relationship between the diplomatic sherpas who feel the strain in surfeit of summits in the headline, and the delegates participating to the G7 summit meetings mentioned in the first paragraph. The relationship is established by elements such as :

DEICTIC FORMS                              Anaphoric Proforms : HE referring to One British official

IT referring to W. E. Union anNATO

THEIR referring to sherpas/men

THESE LATTER referring to security specialists

Cataphoric Proforms : HE referring to Douglas Hurd

 

 

 

 

REPETITIONS                                 TOTAL                 : summits/Helsinki/Lisbon/

Sherpas/communiqués/specialists

PARTIAL              : diplomacy/diplomatic;

weekend/week; day/days; agree/agreed

CONJUNCTIONS                       Despite/ But/ And

The top down approach is limited to the SURFACE STRUCTURE of the text; so, in order to fully understand the message conveyed by the article we will have to go into an in-depth analysis of the linguistic features. To this aim, a BOTTOM UP approach  will allow us to prove how COHERENCE is given by the deep structure unity of our text. In fact, the linguistic items contributing to give it coherence are the morpho-lexical aspects, syntax and semantics.

MORPHO-LEXICAL LEVEL

WORD CLASS                               : prevalence of NOUNS

 

SYNONIMS                                    :  summits/peaks

OPPOSITE WORDS                                 : today/yesterday

 

CLIPPED WORDS                         : summits for summit meetings

 

COMPOUNDS                              : weekend ( week= free radical morpheme; end = free radical

morpheme

DERIVATIONAL WORDS                        : Surfeit = from French surfeit, rom sourfaire, from

SUR+faire=To overdo

:Verbiage = from French verbier = to chat

It means “ the excessive and often meaningless use

of  words”.

ADJECTIVES                              : invigorating/weary/gruelling

PARALLEL STRUCTURES       : the main burden falls/ but no burden falls

OBSOLETE WORDS                   : to toil up to

PHRASAL VERBS                       : to toil up to/to hack one’s way through

CONVERSIONS                          : Round ( usually used as an adjective, is used  here as a

noun meaning “sessions” (of meetings).

Meeting ( it can be a noun (as in our case) or

a present participle.

AFFIXATION                              : high-ly/heavi-ly =adding the suffix –ly to the noun we obtainthe

( derivational morphemes)               corresponding adverb

INFLECTIONS                            : finished/managed/extended = inflected morpheme –ED

to form the Past Simple Tense;

falls = inflected morpheme s to form the Present Simple

tense third person singular;

hours/peaks/jungles/boulders/specialists/teems/shifts/

communiqués/ directors = inflected morpheme to form the

plural;

removing/arriving/addressing/hacking/speechifying=

inflected morpheme to form the present participle;

gruelling = inflected morpheme to form an adjective

But a language lexis is not enough to construct a Discourse and create consensus ; words need to establish relationships between them and to be contained in a framework structure.

The relationship between the elements of our text is given by its SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

 

 

1st paragraph : ClAUSE/SENTENCE TYPE : left-branching structure: the weight of grammatical structures is to the left of the predicate so the typical English language structure SVO has not been respected.

VERB TYPES : Active form ; Past tense (said); Present tense( have)

SUBORDINATE RELATIVE CLAUSE : ( …said one British official, arriving direct from the G7,…);

DIRECT SPEECH : “ This is my third summit in six days”.

2nd paragraph : CLAUSE/SENTENCE TYPE : 1st sentence : hypotactical left-branching structure in which the subject is preceded by several pre-modifiers;

2nd sentence : Subordinate Clause/Relative Clause ( …, which decided,…);

VERB TYPES : active form/past perfect tense/past simple tense/present simple tense/past continuous

VERB CONSTRUCTION : HAD BETTER+ Infinitive base form

3rd paragraph : CLAUSE/SENTENCE TYPE : Paratactical right branching structure

Peripheral dependents in APPOSITION : ( … the sherpas, the men who toil uo to the peaks of diplomacy,…);

RELATIVE CLAUSE : hacking their way…( elliptic form for “who hack their way”)

COORDINATE CLAUSES : (… hacking their way…and removing political boulders…)

VERB TYPES : active form prevalence of present tense; present participle; present perfect( have had).

4th paragraph : CLAUSE/SENTENCE TYPE : paratactical sentence structure : the head of th NP is preceded by an adversative conjunction(BUT) and an indefinite Adjective(NO).

Peripheral dependent in APPOSITION : ( … the political directors, the men who have to agree the communiqués line by line)

DIRECT SPEECH : “ I had a pretty good night yesterday”/ “ we were finished by 1 am”

VERB TYPES : present tense( falls); past simple(had; said); ACTIVE FORM/ PASSIVE FORM

( we were finished).

An analysis of the SEMANTIC LEVEL together with the many metaphoric words will highlight that we are in front of both THEMATIC COHERENCE and LOGIC COHERENCE.

In fact, in the text we are examining we can detect words belonging to the SEMANTIC AREAS of

  1. NATURE                          Peaks/Summits/boulders/jungle.
  2. DIPLOMACY                   delegates/diplomatic officials/political

Directors/communiqués/teams/speechifying/extended talks/summits/round/parliament/treasury men/G7 meeting/western European community/NATO/Foreign Office/European specialists/CSCE.

3.  WEARINESS                strain/weary/gruelling/burden/(to)hack one’s way/(to) toil up to

the words belonging to these three semantic areas continually intermingle in the text to form its conceptual texture and establish an analogy between the Hymalayan mountain guides and the diplomatic sherpas who have to cope with the tiring extended talks of the summer summitry meetings . The alliterative s  sound recalls the alliteration in the headline, thus conveying the idea of physical strain; words like gruelling, burden, boulders, to squeeze in, to toil up, to hack through further reinforce this idea making the two worlds of sherpas and diplomatic sherpas overlap.

Evidence of this can be found  in the first paragraph, where the lexical choice of the adjective weary in the body copy is aimed at establishing a direct link with the word strain in the lead. The journalist’s aim is to convey the idea of physical stress experienced both by sherpas and official diplomats when coping with difficult situations ( burden/jungles of verbiage). Moreover in the first paragraph the positive adjectives invigorating and bright provide a strong contrast with the delegate’s weary look . The 2nd paragraph helps us find a CAUSE/EFFECT relationship, which gives the text logical coherence since we are explained that the delegates are so tired because of  an excess of gruelling talks and lack of time.

But it is in the 3rd paragraph that we can find words supporting the metaphoric structure of the title. In fact, the obsolete verb form toil up to , and the metaphorical hacking their way through jungles of verbiage ( where the verb hacking recalls  the idea of an axe), convey the sense of difficulty in overcoming something dangerous.

YOUNG PEOPLE AND EDUCATION (4)…..

Posted on by Valentina Corrente

The student will be the actor of his own learning process and not simply a passive learner.

To provide a constant feedback, which may help to direct the learning
process, it’s proposed an informai assessement by the teacher to be done
during the lesson, side by side with learning, in relation to what goes on in
the c1assroom. Assessment will be carried out measuring the performances
of students in the normal c1assroom environment, looking at how they
respond to the subaims of activities, their abilities in communication,
expression, cooperation and negotiation, their non-verbal responses and the
progress they make.

 Assessing c1asswork and homework informally at an everyday level is very useful and gives feedback not only to the teacher but also to the
learners, because students, rather than being worried or frustrated by
the threat of examinations and free interviews, can feel more responsible for
their own progress, feel a sense of achievement and acquire a greater and
more intrinsic motivation for learning.

As regards homework, students will be asked to rewrite the steps of
the analysis they have done in class, so to have guidelines for analysing
another literary text chosen by the student himself.

This could be the object of a formal test to be done in c1ass. However ì
setting and marking tests for a more in-depth formal assessment will be
carried out under formaI conditions at the end of the module, reflecting the topic
area covered in the module itself.

YOUNG PEOPLE AND EDUCATION (3)…..

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More easily they will be able to make comparisons between the education
system in Victorian era and in contemporary age.

Taking into account that kinesthetic students learn best when they
are engaged in activities involving their body (in other words when acting,
touching things and moving around), I planned a final dramatization of the
text through a role-taking activity. It will probably be a useful way to keep
this particular kind of students motivated and to make students in general
have fun while learning. Besides this activity proves effective both for
enhancing the learners’ grammatical competence and for letting some of
their unconscious psychological contents come to the surface. Playing a role
means facilitating the development of the empathic ability: students are
compelled to take on another personality for a while and this process
compels them to see things from the point of view of a certain character,
trying to think and talk like him/ her.

Similarly as for the focus group activity (jigsaw reading) and the
group discussion activities presented in other steps of this lesson plan,
also this activity will be important for students learning how to co-operate in
order to reach the same goal.

As regards more specifically group discussions, they may develop
students’ oral proficiency and their capacity in turn taking in a conversation.
I introduced them also with the aim of enhancing their ability to pay
attention and to listen to what other people say: they accustom students to
confrontation and negotiation, increasing their ability in comparing opinions
with their peers, sustaining their critical point of view.

On the other hand the activities to be done in pairs encourage the
students to interact with one of their peers, giving them the opportunity to
overcome the fear of being judged which often negatively affects, as we know,
their production.

As for the group activities I planned, they might be a little
problematic in a sense. It’s important that groups differ in size and
composition. So, before the activity starts, it would be helpful to divide
students in groups in an organized and principled way, thus according to a
certain balance among members. This will help avoiding groups
made up only of good students or only  weaker students; or groups made
up of good students and only a weaker one, since he/ she will tend to ‘leave
the job’ to his /her mates and won’t produce much. Then, while doing the
mind-map writing activity, for example, the  teacher could ask the weaker
student to write it down. In this way he/ she will be also stimulated by his
peers who will check on his/her production at the same time.

Another problem might arouse from the competition activity since we
might run the risk of creating inadequate or frustrated reactions or
behaviours on the part of the weaker groups who may feel discouraged by
their inferior competence and skill, leading to their demotivation. Again, to
avoid frustration and demotivation the teacher should set up well balanced
groups, where the best students provide help and stimulus to the weaker
one.

During all these activities our role as teachers will be that of a
counsellor who observes, co-ordinates and provides suitable prompts.

YOUNG PEOPLE AND EDUCATION (2)…..

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We are aware that students learn differently and that, as teachers,
we have to cope with multiple intelligences (in other words with Verbal-
Linguistic students, with Visual and Auditory students and with Kinesthetic
students). That’s why in order to motivate all students and to prepare them
to understand the mental attitude of the Victorians and the way they
considered education  I decided to vary the activities in class and to
use a variety of channels through which presenting the lesson contents,
that is to say an integrated combination of words, pictures and music from
the very Engagement phase. So the teacher, for example, as a first step will
use the traditional blackboard to write anchor-words, evidently belonging to
the semantic area of Education, which the students might need in the
Productive phase. He/she will also use the overhead projector to show
transparencies presenting the characters mentioned in the literary text in
the form of comics. It will be an helpful and funny means to arouse students’ curiosity and attention and a way to elicit their ideas and opinions about the given topic.

Moreover the teacher will appeal to the auditory channel by
proposing the listening of a song, Another brick in the wall by Pink Floyd,
that students will probably know. Of course this famous
song is not randomly chosen, since it deals with the education system in the
60s/70s: Pink Floyd openly criticize some aspects of their contemporary
education in it, such as ‘thought controI’ of people through pre-packed
knowledge.

Moreover the comics and the song will be very good expedients to
lower the affective filter of the class group thus creating a relaxed and
enjoyable atmosphere in the classroom.

In a folIowing step the students will have to direct their efforts in
drawing a mind-map of the text they are analysing and then in writing a
composition connecting all the points highlighted by the map itself. This
kind of activities will improve the students’ ability in elaborating a logic and
coherent text about a given topic: mind-mapping activity, in fact, helps
students to sum up the most important features of the text they have
studied, paying attention to its denotative and connotative message and to
the phonological, lexical and morpho-syntactic elements. Side by side with
the ability in writing a coherent text, they will have to show an appropriate
use of the linking words and connectors and a proper use of grammar items.

Moreover mind-mapping also encourages the students to establish
intertextual links between the literary text and the song they have heard.

 

LESSON PLAN : YOUNG PEOPLE AND EDUCATION (1)……

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The present Lesson Plan revolves around literature. The chosen
literary topic is Young People and Education related to an excerpt from
Dickens’s novel Hard Times.

The lesson is included in a teaching unit belonging to the prose
section of a module titled Education throughout the ages in Poetry, Prose and
Drama. This module, which lasts l0 hours, is meant to show how great
writers dealt with this theme at different times and in different literary
genres in greatly different contexts. The teaching unit is carried out in the
first term of the school year.

My planned lesson lasts 2 hours and it is devoted to students
attending the fifth year of a Liceo Linguistico. It represents the Practice stage
of the whole teaching unit, since the teacher will have already presented the
prose situation throughout the different ages in the previous lesson of the
same unit, as the Presentation stage.

The lesson is divided into 3 phases (Engage, Study and Activate
phase); on its turn each phase is furtherly divided into more than one step.

The literary passage chosen for study and analysis is A man of
realities, in which the author criticizes the overemphasis placed on
education and discipline in Victorian England. As for the language items
related to the lesson, the literary analysis will indirectly lead to the revision
of the Past tenses and the use of the Modal verbs; the lesson will also imply
the revision and the extension of vocabulary connected with the semantic
area of Education

First of all I planned my lesson considering that today’s teenagers
are used to TV and Web-sites with a very high graphic quality, embedded in
a multi-media world where stimulus comes from different perception
channels. Moreover adolescents are generally driven by the ‘principle of
pleasure’. For these reasons teachers should always find out modern
strategies to win the challenge and be able to arouse students’ interest and
curiosity for the contents he / she wants to propose. Then he / she should
make efforts in lowering students’ affective filter through pleasant activities
which arouse students’ enthusiasm, especially if related to their personal
experience: teenagers can be particularly involved in learning literature by
playing on their personal emotions and wishes.

Finally the teacher should no longer act as the only source of
information but as a guide and facilitator who exhorts and co-ordinates the
students in the class activities and debates, in order to elicit their opinions
and to stimulate their problem solving ability. The starting points of the ratio
of this lesson plan were these fundamental points.

Then I planned my lesson also considering that students employ
different learning attitudes, so I thought to effectively motivate and engage
everybody by focusing on different learning strategies, such as: Cognitive
strategies (e.g. practicing with sounds and writing systems, transcoding information from verbal to diagrammatic form, using reference materials,
recombining, analysing contrastively, highlighting, etc.); Social strategies
(cooperating with , both with peers and teacher, asking questions,
experimenting with language by taking risks, empathizing, becoming aware
of others’ thoughts and feelings, negotiating, etc.); Metacognitive strategies
(overviewing and linking with already known material, finding out about
language learning, becoming aware of how the language works, predicting in
listening/reading, using selective attention by focusing on key-words and
linguistic markers, etc.); Memory strategies (creating mental linkages,
semantic mapping, using key-words, etc.).

 

Interculturalità a Scuola

Posted on by Valentina Corrente

Come può la didattica rendere possibile l’interazione tra individui che non hanno le stesse coordinate culturali?

 

Il Consiglio d’Europa ritiene importante incoraggiare i multilinguismi ma solo al fine di sviluppare il plurilinguismo, ossia fare in modo che vi sia interazione e scambio tra le varie lingue. In tal modo, queste ultime formeranno insieme un unico bagaglio che dovrà interagire nelle conoscenze dei vari attanti. Alcuni paesi hanno deciso di lasciare ai vari popoli la propria cultura. In Francia e Germania si è visto che il dramma non è quello dei padri ma quello dei figli che hanno comportamenti diversi e differenziati “i figli che incendiano” e “i figli che fanno saltare le metro”. L’intercultura deve aiutare a crescere attraverso il confronto con l’altro e, mentre i Francesi hanno risposto con un’idea che parte dal concetto di cittadinanza e laicità in base al quale in Francia ciascuno è cittadino francese e nessuno lascia emergere il suo passato, l’Italia ha puntato sull’oralità che sia interazione con l’Altro nel rispetto dell’altro e sulla creazione di una nuova identità nazionale. Il punto di vista interculturale dice che le culture non devono essere intese come corazze che impediscono la crescita perché esse sono pur sempre il prodotto umano e il loro compito è quello di sorreggere l’uomo nel suo affrancarsi dalle condizioni di partenza.

 

Per tale motivo la scuola italiana è stata chiamata a ripensare i propri modelli legislativi e culturali attraverso le seguenti circolari ministeriali inerenti l’ interculturalità a scuola :

 

  1. 1989: ( 301/1989) Inserimento degli stranieri nella scuola dell’obbligo.

 

  1. 2.   1990: ( 205/1990) La scuola dell’obbligo e gli alunni stranieri. L’educazione interculturale

 

  1. 1994: ( 73/1994) Proposte iniziative per l’educazione interculturale.

 

Come riportato nel documento 73/1994, “L’educazione interculturale si esplica nell’attività quotidiana dei docenti sulla base di una rinnovata professionalità e si sviluppa in un impegno progettuale e organizzativo fondato sulla collaborazione e sulla partecipazione”.

Ciò vuol dire non solo scambiare informazioni, ma vivere e far vivere esperienze, attivare un continuo confronto non solo tra gli operatori della scuola, ma anche tra i soggetti impegnati nei servizi di territorio o investiti di responsabilità sociali.

L’educazione interculturale promuove i valori che danno senso alla vita; non sono tutti nella nostra cultura, ma neppure tutti nelle culture degli altri. Non tutti nel passato ma neppure tutti nel presente o nel futuro. Essi consentono di valorizzare le diverse culture ma insieme ne rivelano i limiti e cioè le relativizzano, rendendo in tal modo possibile e utile il dialogo e la creazione della comune disponibilità a superare i propri limiti e a dare i propri contributi in condizione di relativa sicurezza.

L’educazione interculturale introduce anche una riflessione sulla propria cultura e ne rafforza la consapevolezza per cui tra gli obiettivi dell’educazione interculturale si evidenzia la necessità di insegnare ai giovani a confrontarsi con le differenze sia culturali sia fisiche che, a volte, nascondono un’identità culturale. Gli allievi devono imparare a confrontarsi e a gestire le diversità, occorre insegnare loro ad acquisire la competenza interculturale che consente di comunicare in una modalità diversa.

L’educazione interculturale dovrebbe insegnare a risolvere i conflitti, a lavorare in una società interculturale, a confrontare i propri valori con quelli dell’altro. Essa deve insegnare la tolleranza, perché solo l’apertura verso gli altri  può combattere il razzismo, i pregiudizi, gli stereotipi.

Guardare all’altro con una predisposizione all’ascolto, all’accoglienza e non con rifiuto che scatena anche la xenofobia (l’altro invade i miei spazi, l’altro trasforma la mia cultura in qualcosa di diverso).

Bisogna tener presente che la didattica interculturale non è solo una questione di integrazione di contenuti né tanto meno una materia a sé. L’interculturalità è un punto di vista, una prospettiva che pertanto va fatta nelle ore di geografia, scienze, musica e di lingue, ovviamente. Per cui, ogni singolo insegnante, partendo dai bisogni del discente, può  adattare l’insegnamento a ciascun allievo. Ciò significa ancorarlo ai suoi stili cognitivi, alle sue pre-conoscenze, alle sue modalità e potenzialità comunicative.

Dunque, il buon esito dell’integrazione culturale è legato  alla capacità degli insegnanti di guidare processi di insegnamento/apprendimento in una situazione determinata dall’incrocio di culture. Tutto ciò ovviamente richiede una certa professionalità orientata alla ricerca di  nuove strategie e metodologie didattiche.

Nell’ottica di una pedagogia interculturale, tra le varie strategie che si possono utilizzare vi sono esempi di testualità diverse: ad esempio si può ipotizzare l’impiego di testi pubblicitari, film, cartoni animati, favole, articoli di giornale, barzellette ecc. in cui siano presenti gli stereotipi culturali. Occorre, però, evitare di utilizzare materiali tratti dai libri di corsi di lingue in quanto essi non sarebbero autentici: l’insegnante dovrà sforzarsi di ricercare modalità di insegnamento che non siano scontate.

La pubblicità è un buon esempio in quanto essa è stringatissima, il gioco è tutto sull’immagine che si accoppia alla parte testuale, e i modi di scrivere sono particolari.

Un articolo è già più complesso, si può però tagliarlo, scegliere una porzione che sembra interessante, e calibrarlo in base all’età e al livello di competenza linguistica degli studenti.

Per quanto concerne i film, linguisticamente essi presentano alcune difficoltà linguistiche ma il compito dell’insegnante sarà quello di attirare l’ attenzione degli alunni solo su alcuni particolari.

L’ideazione e la ricerca di approcci nuovi, tuttavia, non deve far dimenticare la grande difficoltà rappresentata dal problema linguistico che influisce sulla situazione psicologica degli alunni. Imparare una seconda lingua comporta dei disagi soprattutto di tipo linguistico, dunque il docente non può tralasciare di effettuare un serio lavoro sulla lingua al fine di aiutare i suoi allievi a superare il divario tra le due dimensioni linguistiche. Il docente che metta in atto un approccio interculturale, dunque, dovrà arrivare all’intercultura usando la lingua stessa!

La comunicazione è un momento per il dialogo ma essa, ovviamente,non si limita alla competenza linguistica: in realtà bisogna saper gestire le varietà diatopiche e diastratiche delle lingue insieme ad altri codici come la gestualità o la competenza cinestesica. Vi sono, poi, altre competenze fondamentali che richiamano il contesto della comunicazione e la capacità di sapersi relazionare al luogo, al momento e agli interlocutori, e con ciò parliamo di competenza socio-comunicativa oppure pragmatica, che è la capacità di saper gestire la comunicazione adeguandosi all’interlocutore.

La lingua, nella sua oralità, non è solo una sequenza di fonemi: il suono della lingua è associato al sistema fonologico e ciò significa sapere associare sequenze di suoni a significati. Ma oltre ad essere associata a questi elementi discreti, la lingua è collegata anche a elementi non discreti come la competenza intonativa. Ogni lingua ha le sue norme intonative e le utilizza in maniera indifferenziata. Questo non è un elemento a favore della comunicazione perché esse inibiscono la comprensione, le frasi variano,una sequenza di parole assume un significato diverso a causa della curva di intonazione.

Un lavoro su questi aspetti non è semplice ma andrebbe effettuato a scuola per avere una visione completa sul funzionamento della comunicazione. Nel C.E.F. troviamo tutte le competenze che devono essere proposte e presentate in classe: competenza di traduzione ed interpretazione insieme alle competenze comunicative che gli alunni devono acquisire di pari passo allo sviluppo della lingua.

Una strategia linguistica nell’ottica dell’interculturalità ci viene fornita dagli stereotipi linguistici: è interessante partire da quelli presenti nella lingua italiana come ad esempio “fuma come un turco”, “bestemmia come un turco”, “vu’ cumprà”, per cercare poi quelli in lingua straniera ( Inglese, Francese, Tedesco, Spagnolo, ecc.) che abbiano delle connotazioni particolari di popoli. Bisogna rendere gli alunni consapevoli del fatto che ogni stereotipo nasce da qualcosa e, pertanto, si sceglieranno delle espressioni in lingua straniera e le si confronteranno con le strutture simili o molto diverse in italiano. Occorre riflettere in particolare sugli stereotipi che richiamano gruppi linguistici, etnici, razziali come “fuma come un turco”, “sembra uno zingaro”, “è tirchio come un ebreo”, “sembra un profugo albanese”, “sembra un tedesco”, “fa l’americano”, “beve come un irlandese”, ecc.

Partendo dalla normativa, al fine di abbattere certe barriere culturali e certe forme di razzismo, si può cogliere un momento specifico del nostro percorso e si può adottare una strategia rappresentata dalla scelta di argomenti da recuperare in riviste o quotidiani di attualità e/o politica esteri e di confrontarli con articoli presenti in riviste italiane. Nel momento della scelta occorrerà  motivare la scelta dei materiali utilizzati, inquadrare il lavoro in una prospettiva particolare, motivare la scelta della tematica spiegando perché vogliamo introdurla nella nostra programmazione didattica; spiegare  dov’è l’ elemento di comparabilità e quale la sezione comparata.

Occorre trovare punti di vista diversi e fare un lavoro sia linguistico che testuale. L’articolo scelto non deve essere lunghissimo ma deve essere reale; il testo comunque può essere anche un testo pubblicitario,un articolo di giornale, di una rivista, può essere una parte particolare di una rivista che andrà messa a confronto con quella italiana. Ad esempio si possono utilizzare le lettere della posta di un giornale italiano e confrontarle con uno straniero. Ovviamente, si sceglieranno quotidiani e riviste dello stesso orientamento politico e/o culturale, e si andranno a recuperare le modalità in cui la notizia viene proposta in base alle differenze culturali per poi presentare una lezione su queste ultime.

Infine sarà opportuno effettuare anche degli esercizi che portino un arricchimento linguistico alla classe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tra Multiculturalità ed Educazione Interculturale – Il nuovo volto della scuola italiana

Posted on by Valentina Corrente

Il filosofo Emmanuel Lévinas scrive “il nostro rapporto col mondo, prima ancora di essere un rapporto con le cose, è un rapporto con l’altro. È un rapporto prioritario che la tradizione metafisica occidentale ha occultato, cercando di assorbire e identificare l’altro a sé, spogliandolo della sua alterità”. Per diversi studiosi, la riflessione di Lévinas sull’ Altro costituisce uno dei fondamenti teorici del multiculturalismo contemporaneo, suggerisce, cioè,una visione nuova e diversa dei rapporti fra gli individui e fra le culture: rapporti fra diversi, che come tali vanno riconosciuti e valorizzati. Solo attraverso questo riconoscimento è possibile attivare una comunicazione autentica fra le culture, senza affermazioni egemoniche di una sull’altra. Questa è una prospettiva feconda, attraverso cui, ad esempio, è possibile guardare in modo nuovo ai problemi di rapporti fra le culture che vengono a determinarsi con i processi migratori in atto su scala planetaria. Infatti, anche se la società moderna sembra ormai avviata a diventare multietnica e multiculturale, molti e rilevanti sembrano ancora gli ostacoli che si pongono alla diffusione di un’autentica “cultura dell’accoglienza” nei confronti dell’immigrazione. Osservando la società attuale, appare evidente una forte contraddizione: da un lato, si propende con fiducia per un processo di “globalizzazione” e di apertura che limiti quanto più possibile le barriere

politiche, culturali e soprattutto economiche tre vari paesi del mondo; dall’altro, si guarda con sospetto, ostilità e repressione ai flussi migratori che, dal Sud del pianeta, si spostano verso il Nord.

Pensare ad un mondo in cui le diverse razze e culture si integrino fra di loro, pur mantenendo ciascuna la propria specificità, è elogiabile e forse realizzabile, ma non può far dimenticare le difficoltà e le diffidenze che caratterizzano in molti casi i rapporti tra immigrati e paesi d’accoglienza, originando malcontento ed esasperazione in alcuni strati della popolazione di questi ultimi.

Proprio adesso che ci si avvia verso un mondo globale, emerge in tutta la sua complessità il problema della convivenza tra etnie e culture di varia natura.

Analizzando più nel dettaglio la situazione di due Stati europei come la Francia e la Gran Bretagna, possiamo trovare modi diversi di gestire il problema degli immigrati. In Francia, essi si sono gradualmente integrati, indipendentemente dalla loro origine e dalla religione professata, alla popolazione locale. In Gran Bretagna, invece, avviene un’assimilazione che però non compromette il mantenimento delle peculiarità etniche, religiose e culturali proprie della comunità a cui ciascuno appartiene. Da anni anche l’Italia, per l’afflusso di tanti immigrati soprattutto dal Nord Africa, dal Medio Oriente, dall’Albania e dagli altri paesi dell’Europa orientale, sta avviandosi verso la multietnicità. Tuttavia, privi dell’esperienza chegli americani, per la diversità della loro storia, hanno riguardo alla convivenza sul loro territorio di etnie diverse, e senza neppure la consuetudine a vedere nelle nostre città gruppi di persone provenienti dalle ex colonie, che ha caratterizzato francesi, inglesi ed olandesi, noi italiani siamo stati colti impreparati dal massiccio afflusso di extracomunitari che ha interessato, di recente, il nostro Paese.  L’Italia, paese con una lunga esperienza di emigrazione, attualmente sta vivendo, in ritardo rispetto paesi come Francia e Inghilterra, un  momento di immigrazione massiccia ed estremamente variegata. Cosicché nella nostra società, che da omogenea si sta trasformando in disomogenea, da religiosamente compatta a religiosamente differenziata, da monoetnica a multietnica, da monolinguistica a plurilinguistica, la multiculturalità è ormai un dato di fatto. Basta dire che nelle scuole italiane,     – tra italiano, dialetti, minoranze linguistiche storiche e minoranze linguistiche nuove- si contano ben 190 lingue diverse.

Di recente sui giornali si sono susseguiti centinaia di articoli che riguardano episodi, più o meno gravi, di intolleranza razziale, fatti di cronaca nera che vedono come protagonisti extracomunitari, dibattiti politici su questa o quella proposta di legge per espellere gli immigrati clandestini o tentare di dare sistemazione dignitosa ai “regolari. Per contro, sono emersi in molti paesi industrializzati, Italia compresa, atti di discriminazione, ostilità e razzismo che hanno visto spesso gli immigrati come oggetto di aggressioni che provocano non di rado delle vittime. Dunque,l’integrazione dei popoli e delle culture non è un obiettivo di facile attuazione ma certamente non possono essere giustificati gli atti di discriminazione, ostilità e razzismo. Occorre lavorare alacremente per diffondere presso molte persone un senso di solidarietà verso tutto ciò che appare diverso da loro, nella consapevolezza che un individuo, prima di essere europeo o africano, è un essere umano le cui origini della cultura sono sì elementi di identità e di specificità da preservare, ma sono anche soprattutto mezzi di scambio e comunicazione attraverso cui attuare una completa integrazione ed una pacifica convivenza di tutti popoli.

Di fronte a questi fenomeni in continua e rapida evoluzione, di fronte ad una società sempre più multiculturale e multietnica, si sono posti al sistema scolastico problemi e sollecitazioni di fronte ai quali i tradizionali strumenti e metodi educativi risultano inadeguati. Come viene ribadito sempre più spesso nelle circolari ministeriali del nostro paese, si ritiene, infatti, oramai necessaria l’apertura della pedagogia a una dimensione interculturale, centrata sulla conoscenza e sulla gestione positiva delle dinamiche che nascono dall’incontro con la diversità.

E  il tema della diversità, nella sua complessità e radicalità, è il concetto nodale: come la normativa vigente tende a più riprese a sottolineare, infatti, una educazione interculturale presuppone una più generale educazione alla differenza, intesa come meccanismo essenziale del nostro essere nel mondo e il nostro modo di confrontarci con l’esterno.

La differenza è il nostro modo di leggere la realtà: noi pensiamo, ragioniamo e conosciamo il mondo unendo il simile e dividendo il diverso. Ma, ancor prima, la differenza è un fatto umano: esiste in primo luogo una diversità biologica, centrale nella storia dell’umanità. Poi ci sono le normali differenze interne alla vita dei singoli individui: il carattere, i sentimenti, le reazioni, essere giovani, ecc. Per concludere c’ è poi la differenza culturale, cioè quella tra noi e gli altri popoli, ovvero coloro che parlano un’altra lingua, adorano un altro dio, seguono altre leggi e si attengono ad altri modelli sociali.

Una diversità in tutti i casi è difficile, scomoda, perché ci spinge a interrogarci sul confine tra il rispetto dell’altro e delle sue scelte e la difesa delle nostre scelte e della nostra identità, sulla validità e sui limiti della nostra “norma”.

Il diverso è anche l’estraneo, l’opposto, e quindi per certi aspetti il nemico. C’è un naturale, istintivo desiderio di autoaffermazione in noi che deve fare i conti con la presenza di qualcosa che è diverso, in altre parole qualcosa di cui non facciamo parte e che, proprio per questo, ci minaccia; siamo insomma istintivamente portati a rifiutare l’altro, ad affermare attraverso questo rifiuto la nostra “totalità”, la nostra centralità e priorità rispetto al resto del mondo.

È in questo senso che le differenze culturali e le relazioni interetniche in seno ad una società multietnica come la nostra rappresenta un problema da affrontare.

Informarsi, confrontarsi con il diverso, capirlo, è molto difficile, implica un grande sforzo, ma soprattutto mette in discussione, ci potrebbe mettere in crisi. E così ci accontentiamo di giudizi sommari sui “diversi”, di stereotipi (in genere negativi), di pregiudizi (rubano il lavoro, rubano le donne/uomini, non si vogliono integrare,…) che ci portano a segnare una separazione, un rifiuto, e nello stesso tempo, una gerarchia (ovviamente a nostro vantaggio).

Fissare in immagini pregiudiziali non è solo un facile strumento di riduzione del diverso alle nostre categorie, ma serve anche a creare un’immagine positiva di noi e a giustificare le nostre azioni. Purtroppo i pregiudizi e la tendenza alle semplificazioni e a rappresentazioni distorte radicalizzano le incomprensioni, impediscono l’incontro, lo scambio reciproco e lasciano dominare la fobia del diverso, il desiderio di non vederlo, di negarlo, di ricacciarlo da dove è venuto. E tutto ciò spiana il terreno al razzismo. Ma di fatto il nostro futuro comprende il convivere con la diversità ed è, dunque, necessario imparare a farle posto. Ciò significa in primo luogo smascherare i pregiudizi e le ottusità nascoste nei luoghi comuni più scontati, quindi mettere in discussione conoscenze, valori ed istituzioni, decentrare e relativizzare il nostro punto di vista, acquisire punti di vista in più, dare spazio anche ciò che non è come noi.

Questo perché l’ identità culturale non è un blocco monolitico e statico, ma, prima di tutto, un prodotto umano e quindi qualcosa di dinamico che può assorbire gli stimoli esterni, trasformarsi, divenire.

Nessuno è per sua intrinseca natura “diverso”, è sempre la prospettiva di chi guarda a determinare la realtà, stabilire chi è “normale” e chi no, in base alle sue idee, ai suoi desideri, alle sue paure. Basta cambiare posizione, ipotizzare, lasciare spazio ad uno sguardo diverso, per scoprire un altro modo di leggere la realtà,un’altra scala di valori. Rifiutare questa relatività e porre come assoluta la propria centralità significa negare l’altro. Ma, d’altra parte, è impensabile rinunciare al proprio punto di vista, alla propria scala di valori, che si dissolve nella propria identità, in altre parole attuare una completa assimilazione. La soluzione è tra questi due estremi opposti, nel trovare cioè un equilibrio conciliando la conoscenza di sé e il rispetto dell’altro.

In un tale panorama si intuisce l’importanza, nonché la difficoltà, dei compiti che attualmente attendono la scuola: limitarsi, infatti, a dire che il “relativismo culturale” è una condizione minimale da porre come base a una società interculturale non risolve certo il problema. Una società interculturale si forma attraverso un’educazione interculturale che deve essere assunta in sede pedagogica, in quanto essa implica un ripensamento tanto dell’elaborazione quanto del momento della trasmissione della cultura.

A tale riguardo uno dei primi testi che riporta i concetti fondanti dell’educazione interculturale è la Dichiarazione sulla razza e pregiudizi razziali che la conferenza generale dell’Onu per l’educazione, la scienza e la cultura ha firmato a Parigi nel 1978 (in particolare l’articolo 5). Tra gli altri documenti normativi inerenti l’educazione interculturale nella scuola, un quadro dettagliato del nuovo contesto della trasmissione e dell’elaborazione della cultura e delle linee di intervento auspicabili in tal senso è contenuto nella Pronuncia del consiglio nazionale della Pubblica Istruzione sull’educazione interculturale nella scuola del 1292 e nella C.M e. n. 73/1994 Proposte e iniziative per l’educazione interculturale (che ha assorbito in un unico documento il contenuto della normativa precedente).

Educazione interculturale significa contribuire a sviluppare un’identità che sia positiva nel confronto con l’ interazione dell’ “altro”. Ad un tale compito, urgente quanto difficile, sono chiamati tutti docenti di tutte le scuole di ogni ordine e grado attraverso la loro attività quotidiana “sulla base di una rinnovata professionalità e un impegno progettuale e organizzativo fondato sulla collaborazione e sulla partecipazione”.[1]

L’interculturalità non è una materia a sé, ma un punto di vista, una prospettiva, che deve trovare spazio in ogni campo. Si tratta di una prospettiva interdisciplinare, che deve riguardare tutte le materie dei curricula scolastici: essa va inserita nell’ora di musica, di italiano, e soprattutto di lingua straniera (dove l’insegnamento dovrebbe già espletarsi giocoforza con uno sguardo interculturale…).

I notevoli cambiamenti avvenuti all’interno del gruppo classe, che vede oggi la presenza di prime, seconde e terze generazioni di migranti, richiede scelte adeguate e strumenti legislativi e culturali per coniugare le esigenze di modelli molto diversificati.

Il docente comincia, dunque, a porsi alcuni problemi  fino a qualche tempo fa ignorati: ” Questo mio atteggiamento offende le persone “diverse” che mi stanno di fronte?”, “Spiegare le crociate come difesa contro i barbari incivili che avevano conquistato il Santo sepolcro offende il ragazzo arabo che mi sta di fronte?”, “Esaltare i carbonari anti-austriaci  offende l’austriaco il cui antenato è morto sotto le bombe?”…

Assumere un punto di vista interculturale vuol dire riconoscere pari dignità a tutte le culture, comprendere che ogni cultura è degna di rispetto e mettere in atto tali concetti attraverso l’interazione e il dialogo. L’interazione è la strategia-chiave, perché interculturalità significa reciprocità, apertura, rispetto, scambio, accoglienza, contaminazione… interagendo si produrrà, infatti, integrazione senza assimilazione, la quale non va ricercata a tutti i costi perché essa implicherebbe fondamentalmente un atteggiamento di superiorità.

Conferire un taglio interculturale al proprio modo di insegnare da parte dei docenti significherà indurre gli allievi al “decentramento” e alla “circolarità” dei propri punti di vista, alla loro relativizzazione, così che l’ “io” del soggetto faccia spazio anche al punto di vista degli “altri” ed impari a guardare sé e alla propria cultura con lo sguardo che l’altra cultura gli restituisce. Solo così il relativismo culturale, che è un atteggiamento psicologico, si attuerà in logica del “rispetto”, ovvero in un modo di comportamento, che potrà portare la società multiculturale a divenire una società interculturale.

 

Valentina Corrente

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Proposte e di iniziative per l’educazione interculturale,C.M. n 73/ 1994

HOW TO PLAN A MOTIVATING TEACHING UNIT AND A WELL CONSTRUCTED LESSON PLAN

Posted on by Valentina Corrente

 

 

 

 

 

Rationale The main reason for choosing to deal with the theme of Love  and Marriage is that Love is highly motivating for adolescents and we all know that motivation is the key to knowledge. As a matter of fact, love plays an important role in our students’ life. As teenagers they want to grow up, going outside their family and look for new relationships. This is the moment when friends become their new family and the opposite sex is the new world to explore and win. They live their first love affairs, discovering how difficult it is to handle one’s own feelings and how painful it can be to fall in love.This Teaching Unit is based on the mixing of  frontal teaching and Task-based activities which actively engage students in the learning process. To this aim, the whole learning path is here divided into three main steps.      As for the Lesson Plan it is mainly based on the realization that today’s teenagers are embedded in a multimedia world where stimulus comes from  different perception channels. They are used to watching  TV programmes and Web-sites which offer great graphic quality. Furthermore, being aware that kids are generally driven by the principle of pleasure, the activities are meant to arouse the SS’ interest and curiosity for the proposed contents.The literary passage chosen for analysis is “You are Mistaken Mr Darcy!” taken from Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice marks the climax of the novel and the lowest point in the Elizabeth/Darcy relationship. The two characters appear in their most radical attitudes but also with their potentially best qualities. Darcy has forced himself into declaring his love to Elizabeth but his phrasing is so unfortunate that all he achieves is to make Elizabeth utterly indignant. He cannot conceal the pride of his social superiority, the obstacles he has had to overcome to accept the idea of loving her, the arrogant condescension which makes him sure of her consent. Still, he has been able to appreciate her talents and her frankness and he has taken the first step, however awkward, towards her. Elizabeth, on the other hand, is rightly offended at his behaviour and accuses him of faults that will later on turn out to be unfunded. The prejudices she has accumulated against him have spoiled her capacity for judgement and urged her to take her revenge on him. The particular aspect of the passage is that, curiously enough, while Elizabeth accuses Darcy of prejudices against her and her family, he accuses her of being too proud: an ironic reversal of what has appeared up to this point. Indeed, both Elizabeth and Darcy have been guilty of both pride and prejudice.

 
Addresses and Level of the CEF Students of the last year of Liceo LinguisticoB1
Aims          . To make SS reflect upon the fact that appearances are often misleading;. Connections between the theme of Love and Marriage as a cultural issue and promotion of SS’ personal opinions. 

.                 Cognitive: To arouse SS’ critical response about the theme of Love and Marriage analysing how great writers have viewed the same issue at different times and in greatly different contexts;

. To reach deeper understanding of female characters in literature and women condition through history and different cultures, examining how the various aspects of one theme can be developed in more than one text.

 
·                    Meta-cognitive: To make SS reflect upon the fact that appearances are often misleading;. To stimulate SS’ critical reflection and foster their gradual shift from the analysis of the technical aspects of a literary passage to those of the reality around them. 
·                    Socio-affective: Connections between the theme of Love and Marriage as a cultural issue and promotion of SS’ personal opinions through cooperation;. SS acquire a new awareness about their own biased attitudes and  learn how to avoid them. 
Objectives  .                    Cognitive:  Recognize and analyze the theme of a narrative text through the characters’ actions, words and reflections focusing on the main characters in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Emily Brontë’s  Wuthering Heightsin order to speculate on the theme of love and marriage.. Text reading aims at indirectly leading to the revision of the Modal Verbs used to make hypothesis, If-clauses, Conditional and Future in the past..The lessons are also intended to extend vocabulary connected with the semantic area of Love and Marriage, providing insights into the cultural aspects of the given topic at the same time.

 
·                    Meta-cognitive:   working on the texts in a more and more autonomous way exploiting all of the four skills (listening/ speaking/reading /writing).. Read, compare and contrast different texts about the same theme; 
·                    Socio-affective: exchange points of view andacquire a new awareness about the prejudiced ideas and biased attitudes towards people. 
Pre-requisites .    Cognitive: Recognize literary conventions of Novel as a literary genre and analyze literary texts, a good knowledge of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights plot, features and themes together with background information related to the writer and the Victorian age.. Translate texts from English into Italian paying attention to the specificity of the literary language; 
·                    Meta-cognitive: To be able to detect and understand the denotative and connotative meanings in a literary text; 
·                    Socio-affective: to develop the SS’ oral proficiency and their ability in turn taking, in negotiating ideas and in comparing opinions sustaining their point of view. 
Methodology Being aware that students employ different learning strategies the teacher knows that he/she has to cope with multiple intelligences, that is to say with Verbal-Linguistic, Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic students. For this reason the activities in class will be varied in order to exploit a variety of channels through which presenting the lesson contents. In this way, through an integrated combination of words, pictures, images, recordings and movies, the students will be motivated from the very Engagement phase. The SS won’t be given the translation of the most difficult words but only a paraphrase so that they will be stimulated to infer the meaning by themselves. Of course, the SS will be given some background to the stories so that they may appreciate the movie sequences while the global approach phase is meant to construct a sort of frame to provide SS with the main narrative coordinates. After listening and reading the excerpts taken from the two novels, they will have to carry out a series of activities individually, in pairs and in clusters of four in order to come to an autonomous generalization about the pieces of literature they are studying.The SS will be finally asked to fill in a final questionnaire based on the principle of the Learning Logto check if they really enjoyed the activities and if these latter really proved effective for enhancing both their grammatical competence and cooperative ability.During the several phases of the lesson the teacher will act as a facilitator of the learning process, he will just be a guide into the mysterious depths of a literary text. 
Time 6 lessons of 1 hour each in the second term of the school year.
Place Classroom, language laboratory.
Teaching aids Blackboard, CD player, OHP, textbook, Internet, transparencies; photocopies; grids; coloured sheets, images and pictures, reading charts; films 
Assessment and Evaluation Assessment will be carried on in itinerethrough :

  •  Participation in class discussion;
  •  Group work activities;
  •  Open questions and discussion
  •  Individual work

Evaluation will be carried on at the end of the teaching unit through a written production activity to be performed in class.

Evaluation will also be carried out measuring the performances of  the SS, looking at how they respond to the sub-aims of each activity, their ability in communication, expression and negotiation. Some reinforcement will be provided by the teacher through a Mind Map which will help them  summarize the most important features of the texts and  give a logic order to the content of the lessons.

 
Interdisciplinary ·                    Religion: Marriage..              Philosophy : Prejudice in Spinoza’s Philosophy
Modular Link ·                   Emily Brontë : excerpt from Wuthering Heights.
  ·                    Latin: Seneca, Fedra
Strategies                Meta-cognitive: Plan, draft, revise, and edit  for a legible final copy.  . Use reading, writing, speaking and listening … to solve problems and answer questions. 
              Socio-affective: working with fellow-students on language, using feelings and emotions to gain awareness of self and others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                          PROCEDURAL TIMELINE

The following  lesson plan is divided into three phases ( ENGAGE; STUDY; ACTIVATE); on its turn each phase will be further divided into more than one step.

                                        LESSON 1

ENGAGE : Pre- Reading activities

PHASE 1 : MOTIVATION

1. WARM UP : Brainstorming   (15 min)

 

a)    The teacher shows the SS some coloured sheets and invites them to choose the colour they like best. On the one side of the sheets there is a funny cartoon about Love and a balloon with the sentence  “  LOVE IS……..” to be completed ; on the other side the SS will find an image taken from the movie Pride and Prejudice.

b)    The teacher puts some transparencies on the OHP showing some pictures related to the topic: Love and Marriage. The first transparency shows Klimt’s picture THE KISS, whilst the other depicts a typical wedding situation.

After showing Klimt’s picture the teacher asks the SS to say what the image recalls to their minds and in order to encourage their answers, she invites them to answer the following questions:

  1. 1.    what can you see in this picture?
  2. 2.    what feelings does this image suggest you?
  3. 3.    what do you associate the image of the kiss with?

 

Then the teacher shows the transparencies related to the theme of marriage and, in order to act on SS’ schemata and elicit information, she asks them the following questions:

  1. 1.    is the relationship described in the images typical for your country or not?
  2. 2.    how popular is marriage in Italy?
  3. 3.    do you think that marriage is outdated nowadays?
  4. 4.    what do you think is the best age to get married?
  5. 5.    in a wedding ceremony in Italy, what are the wedding vows that a man and a woman traditionally exchange? What do they promise to do?

 

ANTICIPATION  (10 min)

The teacher tries to sum up the SS’ first impressions and anticipates something about the text writing the words PRIDE and PREJUDICE on the blackboard. Then he/she asks the SS to look up these words in their Oxford dictionary and write down the feelings they associate them with.

STUDY

PHASE II  : GLOBAL APPROACH

 

Before/While-listening activities :    [ individual work]

 

 

 

Activity 1. Listening with a purpose   ( 30 min)

Before reading the text the teacher draws a spidergram on the blackboard containing some of the key words of the text to give the SS some clues about its content and arouse the sense of challenge inviting them to find out some more key-words to add to the spidergram after they have listened to the passage.

ACTIVITY 2 :  making hypothesis

The teacher gives the SS a photocopy of the excerpt and asks them to read the title and make hypothesis about the content. He/she reads the passage for the first time at normal speed to let the SS catch the gist of it; then he reads it one more time at a slower speed so that the SS can be easily engaged in a sort of while-listening activity. To this aim he provides them with the following  grid :

ACTIVITY 3 : Fill in the grid ( tick the right answer)

 

Number of characters involved in the story  Prevalence of : General atmosphere
MEN

WOMEN

 dialogue relaxed
1 1 description tense
2 2 narration friendly

 

 

 

 

 

HOMEWORK  (5 min)

Task-based Activity [ Study Groups of 4 SS each]

In groups of four explore the web to get information about Jane Austen. The research will have to cover the following areas :

  1. Who she was, date and place of birth, what she did, where she lived, her background, her family and any interesting gossip on her.
  2. Her novels. How many did she write; write a short summary of her major novels ;
  3. Her limitations and great qualities;
  4. Irony, satire and humour in her novels;
  5. Her parody of the Gothic novel;
  6. Make a list of cool websites on Jane Austen. Include title and a brief summary of what the site offers.

                                               LESSON 2

 

 

 

 WARM UP   ( 5 min)

 

General check of homework through a TRUE/FALSE questionnaire.

STUDY

PHASE 3 : ANALYSIS     ( 50 min)

 

Activity 1 : Extensive reading (  Skimming & Scanning )

                     [individual work]        

The SS have a first general look at the passage in order to catch the gist of it; then the teacher invites them to answer the following questions :

  1. 1.    who are the people involved? What is their relationship?
  2. 2.    where is the story set?
  3. 3.    what are the two characters talking about?
  4. 4.    when is the story set?
  5. 5.    why does Elizabeth reject Darcy’s proposal?
  6. 6.    what is his reaction?
  7. 7.    what does Elizabeth accuse Darcy of?
  8. 8.    what does Darcy accuse Elizabeth of?

 

Activity 2 : Role-playing  [ pair work]

The teacher asks the SS to read the dialogic sequence of the text in a sort of role-playing activity in order to make them pay attention to their pronunciation and intonation.

 

 

 

Activity 3 : Speaking    [ class work]  

The teacher invites the SS to express their opinions about the theme to make them aware that the scene reported in the extract they have read deals with the topic discussed in the first lesson.

HOMEWORK     ( 5 min)

Task-based activity

Imagine you are re-writing the passage you have read for the stage or cinema. Consider the last paragraph focusing on Elizabeth’s “tumult of mind” after Darcy has gone away. Write a monologue for her through which you show the heroine’s inner feelings. Include stage directions for physical action.

                                                 LESSON 3

 

 

WARM UP :

Motivation will be aroused through homework checking. To this aim the teacher invites two volunteers to perform their monologue in front of the class. Then he checks the formal accuracy of their piece of writing, correcting any morpho-syntactical mistakes. These latter provide the teacher with an input to explain some grammar rules to the whole class, thus reinforcing the SS’ linguistic skills.

 

STUDY AND PRACTICE

PHASE 3 : ANALYSIS    ( 1 h)

INTENSIVE READING

This phase is meant to guide the SS’ into the in-depth analysis of  the text; for this reason, the teacher proposes a series of activities that help them focus on :

  • the verbal, semantic and symbolic aspects of the passage;
  • the setting ;
  • the characters;
  • the narrator;
  • the themes

some of these activities will be exploited in class, some other as homework.

ACTIVITY 1. [ group work]

The teacher splits the class into six groups of four SS each and asks them to read the text carefully because this time they are required to focus on the stylistic features of the text. To this aim the teacher will have the SS carry out the following activity :

 

 

LEXICAL LEVEL

 

Look at the words in the extract and fill in the grid below  ( 15 min)

TOTAL RECURRENCIES PARTIAL RECURRENCIES
   
   
   

MORPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL

Activity 2   (15 min)

Read the text carefully and find out as many examples of  elements which contribute to textual cohesion :

  • derivation
  • conversion
  • anaphoric/cataphoric proforms
  • repetition
  • phrasal verbs
  • compounds

 

 

Activity 2       (10 min)

SEMANTIC LEVEL

Now focus on the semantic relationship among the words belonging to the same semantic area which contribute to textual coherence :

a)    Underline in different colours the sentences regarding Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s feelings.

b)    Match the list of words on the left hand side to the mains on the right hand side by drawing lines that connect them:

                                                     Offences                                             PRIDE 

Inferiority

 

Mortification

 

Arrogance                                          PREJUDICE

 

Conceit

Disdain                                              

 

STRUCTURE

Activity 4 : Focus on the SETTING

       The setting is :        

  • Internal
  • External
  • Real
  • Unreal
  • Symbolic

Activity 5 : focus on the NARRATOR

  1. the story is told :
  • in first person
  • in third person
  1. the narrator is :
  • hidden
  • manifest
  • obtrusive
  • unobtrusive
  • omniscient

Activity 6 : focus on LANGUAGE and STYLE    ( 15 min)

Concentrate on grammatical items and fill in the following grid:

  ELIZABETH DARCY
Direct speech    
Indirect speech    
Modal verbs    
Irony    
Sarcasm    

 

HOMEWORK  ( 5min)

ANALYSYS

The teacher gives the SS a photocopy with the following activities to be performed at home :

Activity 1.  focus on Elizabeth

–          Analyse Jane Austen’s method of characterization. She presents characters both directly and indirectly. Consider the character of ELIZABETH. She is introduced through :

q       her own words

q       her own thoughts

q       both

–          Which of the following adjectives do you think best describes Elizabeth?

q      Self-composed                                                             

q      Passive

q      Independent

q      Vindictive

q      Intelligent

q      Hysterical

–          Consider the final paragraph: using a red-ink pen circle all of Elizabeth’s words and expressions suggesting that she may admire Darcy and be flattered by his attention.

–     Does the final paragraph confirm or contradict what she said previously in the passage?

Activity 2 : focus on Darcy

–    Using a blue-ink pen circle all the words and expressions in the text of what Elizabeth describes as Darcy’s “arrogance”, “conceit”, “ and “disdain” of the feeling of others.

–   What does Darcy pride himself of? Which comment made by Elizabeth seems to offend him most profoundly?

–   As a single, wealthy, socially superior young man Darcy automatically assumes that Elizabeth will accept his proposal of marriage. Underline evidence in the text of his disbelief of her refusal.

Activity 3 : focus on both characters

  ELIZABETH DARCY
Actions
    
 

Reactions & Attitudes
      
 

Way of speaking

 

 

      

PHASE 4 : SYNTHESIS

 

Connection & Extension     [ MODULAR LINK]

WARM UP       (10 min)

Before introducing the second excerpt, the teacher proposes a brainstorming about the main ideas that came out while examining the first passage and the results of the text analysis the SS carried out at home by themselves.

Once the Motivation Phase is over the teacher gives a brief lecture on the contents and themes of the text he is going to introduce. Then he underlines the fact that the SS will be asked to make a comparison between the two works; for this reason he encourages them to detect as many similarities and differences as possible.

However, before providing the SS with the second passage, taken from Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, the teacher gives them some brief co-ordinates about the Victorian Age, just to enable them to make comparisons keeping in mind the different historical periods. This time he chooses to engage her SS through the vision of films. To this aim he has chosen in advance the movie sequences he is going to show them taken respectively from Pride & Prejudice and from Wuthering Heights. The selected shots correspond to the events taking place in the written texts chosen for text analysis.

Activity 1. Pre-watching questions    (15 min)

 

Before playing the DVD the teacher asks the SS to answer the following questions:

How much important is Love in your life? And money/social status?

 Are you more inclined to pride or prejudice?

Do you think we can often be wrong in our opinion about  people?

Do you think that true love can overcome the obstacles of social prejudice and class discrimination?

While watching the film the teacher stops playing the DVD and invites the SS to focus on the general atmosphere created in the movie sequences by the sound track, the props, the costumes and the environment. In fact, the films are  both set in a typical British landscape: the quite and provincial English countryside in Pride & Prejudice; the stormy moors in Wuthering Heights.

The SS are also invited to pay attention to the smallest detail regarding the characters such as their facial expression and gestures.

 

Activity 2 : While-watching questions    (15 min)  [ individual work]

The teacher wants this activity to be as fruitful as possible so she asks SS to answer the following questions :

         Where and when does the action take place?

         How many characters are there?

         In what way are the two heroines prejudiced towards the man who loves   them?

         What is the two men’s reaction?

         In your opinion which of the characters in the movie sequences embody

         pride and prejudice? What can you infer from their facial expression?       

 

 

Activity 3 : Post-watching questions   (15min)    [Group discussion]

After watching the film sequences the teacher will listen to the SS personal comments and ideas stimulating their critic thinking through a class debate fostered by the following questions :

  Is the theme of the films what you expected from the title?

  What does Darcy’s reaction to Elizabeth’s words suggest

about the social values and conventions of the time?

  What do Catherine’s words suggest about the Victorian

attitude towards love and marriage?

  What particular meaning does the term “proposal” acquire

in Pride & Prejudice?

 

 

 HOMEWORK   ( 5 min)

After the group discussion based on the previous questions the teacher gives the SS a copy of the excerpt taken from Emily Brontë’s work and asks them to apply all the textual analysis techniques they have learnt in class.

 PHASE 5  :  REINFORCEMENT

 

    This phase is intended to provide weaker students with remedial work. For this reason the teacher draws a Mind Map on the blackboard which sums up all the steps done so far in the teaching/learning process. This activity takes no more than 5 minutes. Then the teacher splits the class into four groups A,B,C,D and invites Group A and B to focus their attention on the differences and similarities between the two female characters: Elizabeth and Catherine (Personality, Way of speaking, Personal beliefs and Social attitudes); at the same time  he will have Groups C and D concentrate on the theme of Love and marriage, considering both the biased attitudes of the characters and the author’s point of view.

After 30 minutes the teacher invites the Spokesman of each group to tell in front of the class the results of his /her group analysis; then, the Observer of each group will relate on his/her observation on the opposite group’s interaction skills.

Finally the teacher splits the class into two main groups inviting them to side with the character they like best defending him/her against the critical observation of the opposite group and exhorts them to find a suitable motivation for his/her behaviour. This activity takes 20 minutes.

HOMEWORK         (5 min)

 

This time the teacher invites the SS to study all they have done in class and at home since they will have to face a formal class-work in the form of a written production.

 

 

 

PHASE 6

 

TESTING & CHECKING   ( 1 h)

The SS are finally required to  show their skill in written production writing a composition in no more than ten lines, according to the rules of the Terza Prova.

To this aim the teacher provides them with two composition titles, one for each desk row so that they will be compelled to work on their own.

COMPOSITION A

 

  Elizabeth’s rejection of Darcy and Catherine’s rejection of Heathcliff acquire particular significance if one considers the social condition of women at the beginning of the 19th century.

  Compare and contrast male and female attitudes towards Love and Marriage both in the 19th century and nowadays.

 
COMPOSITION B

 

Compare and contrast Emily Brontë’s and Jane Austen’s view about Love and Marriage focusing on the differences between Elizabeth and Catherine. Then write a short paragraph of comparison. Finally say which of the two heroines you prefer and why. When thinking of two possible titles for the written production the teacher pays attention in giving the SS the opportunity to make critical comparisons between the texts they have studied and to express their personal opinion about the given topic, also referring to the present days.

FEEDBACK

 

                                                LEARNING LOG  

 

 

  1. What I learnt today………………………………………………………………………….………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
  1. The topics I was most interested in today……………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..         

NEVER

OFTEN

SELDOM

3.     Today I used English in the classroom                                  

Videos

CDs

Realia

TPR

 4.    During the lesson the teacher used                                      

5.   The activities I really found useful to improve my awareness of English. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

6.  I found the classroom atmosphere very relaxing/ stressful because………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

                                     ATTACHMENTS  

 

 

  1. 1.              Snoopy, Love is…

              

 

 

 

2. Klimt, The Kiss            

 

 

3. Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy

3. Pride and Prejudice, The Wedding

 

A Wedding Ceremony Today

 

 

 

 

 

TEXT 1. You are mistaken Mr. Darcy!

“And this,” cried Darcy, as he walked with quick steps across the room, “is your opinion of me! This is the estimation in which you hold me! I thank you for explaining it so fully. My faults, according to this calculation, are heavy indeed! But perhaps,” added he, stopping in his walk, and turning towards her, “these offences might have been overlooked, had not your pride been hurt by my honest confession of the scruples that had long prevented my forming any serious design. These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I with greater policy concealed my struggles, and flattered you into the belief of my being impelled by unqualified, unalloyed inclination — by reason, by reflection, by every thing. But disguise of every sort is my abhorrence. Nor am I ashamed of the feelings I related. They were natural and just. Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? To congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?”

Elizabeth felt herself growing more angry every moment; yet she tried to the utmost to speak with composure when she said,

“You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way, than as it spared me the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentleman-like manner.”

She saw him start at this, but he said nothing, and she continued,

“You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it.”

Again his astonishment was obvious; and he looked at her with an expression of mingled incredulity and mortification. She went on.

“From the very beginning, from the first moment I may almost say, of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form that ground-work of disapprobation, on which succeeding events have built so immoveable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.”

“You have said quite enough, madam. I perfectly comprehend your feelings, and have now only to be ashamed of what my own have been. Forgive me for having taken up so much of your time, and accept my best wishes for your health and happiness.”

And with these words he hastily left the room, and Elizabeth heard him the next moment open the front door and quit the house.

The tumult of her mind was now painfully great. She knew not how to support herself, and from actual weakness sat down and cried for half an hour. Her astonishment, as she reflected on what had passed, was increased by every review of it. That she should receive an offer of marriage from Mr. Darcy! that he should have been in love with her for so many months! so much in love as to wish to marry her in spite of all the objections which had made him prevent his friend’s marrying her sister, and which must appear at least with equal force in his own case, was almost incredible! It was gratifying to have inspired unconsciously so strong an affection. But his pride, his abominable pride, his shameless avowal of what he had done with respect to Jane, his unpardonable assurance in acknowledging, though he could not justify it, and the unfeeling manner in which he had mentioned Mr. Wickham, his cruelty towards whom he had not attempted to deny, soon overcame the pity which the consideration of his attachment had for a moment excited.

She continued in very agitating reflections till the sound of Lady Catherine’s carriage made her feel how unequal she was to encounter Charlotte’s observation, and hurried her away to her room.

TEXT 2 Catherine’s confession

She laughed, and held me down; for I made a motion to leave my chair. ‘This is nothing,’ cried she: ‘I was only going to say that heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy. That will do to explain my secret, as well as the other. I’ve no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn’t have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.’

Ere this speech ended I became sensible of Heathcliff’s presence. Having noticed a slight movement, I turned my head, and saw him rise from the bench, and steal out noiselessly. He had listened till he heard Catherine say it would degrade her to marry him, and then he stayed to hear no further. My companion, sitting on the ground, was prevented by the back of the settle from remarking his presence or departure; but I started, and bade her hush!  […] Nelly, I see now you think me a selfish wretch; but did it never strike you that if Heathcliff and I married, we should be beggars? whereas, if I marry Linton I can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my brother’s power.’

‘With your husband’s money, Miss Catherine?’ I asked. ‘You’ll find him not so pliable as you calculate upon: and, though I’m hardly a judge, I think that’s the worst motive you’ve given yet for being the wife of young Linton.’ ‘It is not,’ retorted she; ‘it is the best! The others were the satisfaction of my whims: and for Edgar’s sake, too, to satisfy him. This is for the sake of one who comprehends in his person my feelings to Edgar and myself. I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation, if I were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff’s miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. – My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I AM Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. So don’t talk of our separation again: it is impracticable […]

 

Valentina Corrente

References

 

  1. Notes taken during the Module on “Didattica della Letteratura Inglese” at the SICSI course at the University of Naples                 “L’Orientale”.
  2. Rosa Marinoni Mingazzini; Luciana Salmoiraghi, The Mirror of the Times, second edition, Morano Editore,1992
  3. Stagi Scarpa Mariella, The new literary labyrinth. Genre through text, SEI, 1996
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