WFP Series Vol. 2: Foreign Language & Adolescent Literature

Students enrolled in Writing for Publication (Fall 2018) wrote and submitted blog stories related to the department. The fruits of those efforts will be published on our department blog every day during finals week.  The following stories were written by Barbara Olivis.

Why LLP is for Me:  I would not have the proper tools to succeed without the English classes I have taken here at Tennessee State University. With my career of choice being rooted in professional writing, I am already getting experience in my academic classes that can help me with in that pursuit. The exposure that I have gotten with both reading and writing literature in class will serve as a working example that I will continue to build upon in my career. There is no doubt in my mind that once I delve deeper into my writing career that I am going to realize that LLP has prepared me and impacted me even more than I am already aware.

Barbara Olivis

For The Love of Linguistics—Flourish Foreign Language
   
     Imagine going to the non-English speaking foreign country of your dreams and being fully emerged in their culture. You can probably picture yourself wearing their attire, eating their food, and doing their dances. But, everything goes blank when you get to the whole language barrier part (give or take the few bits of language you might have picked up from watching Dora the explorer.)
     You may find yourself thinking “If only there were subtitles in real life.” Well, have no fear foreign language is here, and it is here at Tennessee State University.
     The Language, Literature, and Philosophy department offers various foreign language classes that range from beginner to intermediate. French and Spanish courses are paired with a multitude of different clubs and opportunities to strengthen what students have already learned in class. The Foreign Language table is one of the initiatives designed to keep foreign language learners linguistically leveled with both French and Spanish speakers having a day to let loose with linguistic leisure.
      “I believe that any language will open your mind even a little bit to other cultures. It will make you think

Dr. Roxane Pajoul

differently.” French professor Roxane Pajoul says. “I think that if as many students as possible are exposed to that, then something will switch in their brains. It can change people’s minds, our ways of thinking, and long term, I think it can even have some impact on our politics. I do believe that every major should take a foreign language, even just for a semester, because it can really make a small difference.”
      Learning a new language will set a person ahead in more ways than one.  Notably, it grants foreign language speakers with cultural tools as well as linguistic ones. In Pajoul’s French class, students learn about how the French have several different categorizations and levels to what they consider or do not consider a friend. This is particularly interesting after one takes into account the contrasting narrative in America, where someone met yesterday can be referred to as a “friend.”
     Differences like this show that language is often cultural. Words change and are shaped by socialization, and this may be no more obvious than when someone uses the wrong term in a different language. Language is especially important because communication would be nearly impossible without it.
It is impossible to fully experience a foreign country without knowing the language because of the fact that there is a dire piece missing; the heart of the country: language. Language is the tool that we use to see beyond ourselves and exchange ideas and beliefs. How well rounded can we call ourselves if our only dialogues are shared with those that share the same language as us?
The answer is simple; we can’t. Language is a bridge that connects human beings and provides them with tools to look beyond what they see. If there is no context behind a subject then it is just a string of words. Being well rounded requires more than sticking to what is familiar to you and language is one of the first things we learn how to distinguish.

Adolescent Literature and How It Shapes Who We Are.Lessons Learned in Literature

Do you remember crowding at your teachers feet during storytime in grade school? You and all the other children wide eyed and amazed at how everything in the story seeming true and possible? There is a reason that some memories probably rush to your brain.
The books we read in adolescence tend to be the books that we remember for the rest of our lives. Books that wowed us, inspired us or even drove us up the wall with annoyance when we were younger have a huge impact on our lives with this often being the first time we are introduced to more complex ideas.
       “I think adolescent literature is some of the most important reading in your life because once you’re 20, 25 your identity is fixed, you’re kind of who you are, but when you are 6, 7, or 8 you’re still forming,” Adolescent Literature professor Philip M. Shafer says. “We use adolescent literature to teach people how to read, and how to decode meaning, and how to decide what makes a boy, a boy, a girl, a girl and a grownup a grownup and other parts of identity.”

Dr. Philip M. Shafer

Adolescent literature is crucial to society because of the fact that it is the gateway to education. Literature learned at such a young age teaches children not only how to read, but also how to think in a way that is considered socially acceptable to whatever society the literature is being read in. “Any kind of language we give to children influences who they end up becoming and it influences how they can express themselves.” Shafer informs.
     Adolescent literature and Children’s literature go hand in hand with each other. “Children’s literature is considered literature fit for ages from birth to age 7, and adolescent literature starts around age 8 and stops around the age of 13” Shafer says.
     He goes on to inform about how at different ages we read various forms of literature and it has more of an impact on us than what we think when we are reading these novels. It is important to know the impact of literature around these ages so we can gage the appropriate forms of literature to expose to children.
Even though the common readers of Adolescent literature are teenagers it is important to note that adults read these novels too. Sometimes adolescent literature is not even written with the purpose of being distributed among the youth, sometimes adults just decide that certain books hold attributes that align with what we think children should know.
  “We have to recognize that we are not just giving children books to keep them entertained, they aren’t just learning what a story is.” Shafer says with passion. “They are learning how to behave based on the things they read, they are learning how language works, and they are learning how to think.” The distinction between reading for fun and reading to learn is blurred when one considers the fact that something can be picked up from the literature whether it is conscious learning or not.
Children’s Literature and Adolescent literature are both two separate courses offered in the English Department. There is not a minor for either one of these subjects at the moment, but these classes are available for those interested in studying the impact of learning at a young age.

Barbara Olivis is an English major from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She aspires to be a professional writer within the genres of poetry and fiction. Olivis has appreciation for Science Fiction, she hopes to someday turn her novels into movies and to direct a film. She expects to graduate in 2019.