English Literature And Language

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29998, 6 December 1962, Page 15

English Literature And Language

The Conference on the Teaching of English Literature Overseas, held at King’s College, Cambridge, is believed to be the first of its kind. It brought together about 70 teachers of English literature from a wide variety of institutions: universities overseas and in the United Kingdom and schools, training colleges and adult education institutions overseas, and also a small group of experts in the training of teachers of English from United Kingdom universities.

The title of the conference itself raised a number of fundamental issues on which inevitably no general agreement could be reached. But there was a consensus that the concept of English literature should be extended not only to cover good writing in a number of fields which are not generally included under the title such as law, government, science and art, but also to bring in the new literatures in English which are growing up vigorously in other continents than Europe. It was agreed that the study of English should include the study of other literatures through translation and that the influence of oral tradition on these new literatures in English might be a fruitful subject for study. The interconnexion between the study of the language and that of literature was also considered at length. It was agreed that literary study should always be related to the learner’s knowledge of the language, and that efforts Should be made to establish better balanced courses enriching either discipline through the other. Careful attention was paid to the need not only to develop the various modern teaching aids such as television, radio, recordings, films and slides, but to ensure that information about the aids available should be more widely disseminated amongst teachers of English literature

ail over the world. At the same time it was emphasised that the teacher-pupil relationship is the essence of education and that teaching aids, however useful, can only be secondary. In considering the problems of teaching English literature in universities overseas, the conference noted that although departments of English were often called upon, in default of properly equipped departments of Education, to be responsible for the training of teachers of English, the special function of English departments —to introduce advanced students to English and indeed world literature—should never be lost sight of. Two important points were made about the training of postgraduate students of English literature from overseas in British universities:—

(1) That they should engage less in “original” research than in such tasks as the editing of texts, translation of important texts from and into English, and studies of the use made by English writers of the life and literature of the students’ own country or of indigenous literature written in English.

(2) Such students should be trained in the use of micro-films and other photographic materials so that they may be able to secure adequate material for research from libraries all over the world after returning to their own countries.

The Conference pointed to a number of subjects in which investigation ought to be made, especially into reading speeds and the different techniques of skipping and at study in depth. It also recommended that an independent inquiry should be established into the examinations in English held in different parts of the world, since many existing examinations were considered to affect literature teaching for the worse.