A new approch In teaching literature

Teaching literature, so far, focused on the traditional ways of giving word meaning, discussing about the poetic features, author’s style, etc. However, this article aims at bringing in a new method of teaching Tamil literature called ‘conceptual moves’ in opposition to scenes as in drama. It is essential to include the developments in Linguistics, Stylistics, Psychology, Sociology, etc., in teaching literature. The article follows a descriptive comparative method of analysis for discussion. The article while following the approach of discourse analysis has brought out the importance of the design and the techniques of conceptual movements of the author for better understanding of the literary piece in hand. The conceptual movements proposed are introductory, stabilizing, structuring, continuing, focusing, and reflection. With these conceptual movements, the article gives explanation with appropriate illustrations. Since the article focuses on the learning of the concepts, the comprehension level of the learners and motivates and encourages them. Furthermore, this helps in the testing of comprehension also. This article has taken ‘vazhakkuraikaathai’ of ‘silappathikaaram’ for discussion. The method and techniques used are the result of my teaching and experiments I have undertaken in this field.