Innovation in Language Learning

Close Reading skills are essential in language teaching strategies. The shortness of Hemingway's stories and the richness of submerged meaning justifies the use of his short stories in classroom situations. We have chosen "In Another Country" by Earnest Hemingway to illustrate two most important steps of close reading. As the first step of close reading procedure the students should read the story at home at least twice and look up all the unknown words in both translation and explanatory dictionaries. As the second stage the students are asked to concretize their understanding of the text. Students have to ask questions (written in advance) on the story and answer them. To prove any point, one has to turn to the exact wording of the text and give definite answers. The presentation illustrates the suggested method with focus on the composition of the story, strong position and foregrounded parts. The readers discover that the form of the story is meaningful. As a result, students get a very clear understanding of the story, they discover its veiled meaning, its message. Close Reading improves student reading-comprehension and language skills and boosts language learner engagement and outcomes.

Keywords: close reading, teaching strategies, concretization.

References:

• Spachil' O.V. Analiz i interpretatsiya khudozhestvennogo teksta v uchebnoy auditorii [Analysis and interpretation of literary text in the classroom]. Krasnodar: Kuban State University, 2020. – 245 p.