An experience of literary adaptation for the intermediate English courses for adults in Escuela de Lenguas (UNLP)

Abstract

Using literature as a pedagogical resource in the English classroom promotes language acquisition, providing authentic contexts of language in use which can be exploited both linguistically and culturally.

At beginner levels, the scope of language comprehension motivates teachers to use literary texts pre-designed as didactic input for the English language class. Most abridged versions of texts are not always based on contemporary, authentic and attractive literature, which prompted us to adapt literary texts that meet these premises, and thus encourage our students’ contact with meanings more relevant to their realities. As a task of the internship at Escuela de Lenguas, we intended to adapt the story “A Temporary Matter” by the American-Indian writer Jhumpa Lahiri to an intermediate level in order to address it in the corresponding English course for adults (Level 4).

This paper departs from the importance of literature as a pedagogical input in the English class; it then reviews the strategies developed to adapt this story and our experience throughout this journey in its different stages: the beginning of the task, the search for bibliography and text adaptation techniques, and the dynamics of the process.