Introduction
In the field of education, values or ideologies represent the approaches which are easy to identify. Richards (1998:42) exemplifies school-based curriculum development, the teacher as action researcher, and literature in the language curriculum as some values-based approaches. Besides, he also cites some other examples of such approaches, among others: team teaching, the learner-centered curriculum movement, reflective teaching, and humanistic approaches. These approaches importantly have something to do with the system of education, social values, and culture. It is apparent that they are conducted in good team with collaborators not individual work. The humanistic approaches, for instance, focus on human values development in language teaching.
It goes without saying that language teaching entails other essential things will be explored in that area. The things, as insisted by Stern (1992) in We (2006:20), consist of four content areas: target language, target culture, communicative activities, and general language education. The first three areas focus on language, while the other four emphasizes the involvement of learners in reflecting languages, culture, and learning in a generalized way. However, the general language education which includes the learners’ involvement is neglected. In teaching and learning activity, language educations emphasize their teaching more to the four language skills rather than the moral value development. The portion of general language education that covers moral values is very small as illustrated by Moody (1971). Consequently, it is agreeable that based on his insistence, “language teaching requires more than the teaching of language.”
Furthermore, as previously stated, language education needs an approach which aims at fostering a sense of responsibility in students. The aim, according to Cates (1997:2), is mentioned in literature that the importance of moral values of foreign language teaching is avoided. The language education has neglected and does not pay attention to the approach that emphasizes values and attitudes. It is a must that these emphasis are shown in foreign language classroom as devoted by Stevick (1990) in We (2006:26) that works in foreign language learning emphasize feelings (personal emotions and esthetic appreciation), social relations (friendship and cooperation), responsibility (the need for public scrutiny, criticism, and correction), intellect (knowledge, reason, and understanding).
There must be some considerations of the emphasis of general language education in language learning. Cook (1983) cites two levels of consideration when arguing what language teaching should be about, functional and educational. Functionally, students are acquiring “a skill they can use outside the classroom” and educationally, their horizons are widened. This means that the students’ development in terms of personalities and potential is encouraged in the language teaching. It is in line with We’s insistence (2006:20), “The more learners know about language, culture and language learning, the better they should be able to control the learning process and be responsible for their own development.”
The most important aspect of language education is the need for sharpening both cognitive and affective aspects of the students. In other words, not only is the brain developed, but also the feeling is, as pointed out by We (2006) that English language education entails to help students be either creative and critical or wise and intelligent. To be so, it is necessary to make use of literary works as the general language education by reading and responding the works critically as well as aesthetically. Beach and Marshall (1990) pinpoint seven reader responses that consist of describing, conceiving, interpreting, explaining, engaging, connecting, and judging. The first four responses sharpen the cognitive domain while the last three help students sharpen the affective domain.
In English Language Teaching (ELT) field, excellent professional knowledge is not the only indicator of good teachers (We, 2006). More importantly, they are obligated to teach as creative as they can in the classroom to establish students’ ability to think, to speak, to read, to criticize, and to cooperate. Thus, We adds, “good teachers not only are able to balance their thinking and views of teaching and learning wisely, but also take responsibility to teach and guide students to learn wise thinking and to use language for good rather than ill.” Similarly, Alwasilah (2000:28) cites that language education represents culture strategy to prepare good citizens with critical consciousness. Therefore, the development of human values, growth in self- awareness and in understanding of others, sensitivity to human feelings and emotions, active students involvement, and in the way human learning takes place should be emphasized in language teaching since the humanistic approaches applied as insisted by Richards (1998:42).
In EFL curriculum in Indonesia context, there are four curriculum designs: subject-centered designs, learners-centered design, problems-centered designs, and core designs. This paper focuses learners-centered design, which includes two sub-designs, i.e. experience and humanistic design. The experience-based designs view an active transaction between teacher and students to map the students’ interest and need. Meanwhile, humanistic designs concentrate on the students’ need in conducive and supported environment to strengthen their personality, and their achievement is evaluated through the process of learning not the product of learning. It is a matter of fact that the humanistic designs focus more on the integration among cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains (Sundayana, in Alwasilah, 2003:45). As previously proposed, Stern also emphasizes the general language education on the involvement of learners in reflecting languages, culture, and learning in a generalized way.
Based on the foregoing discussion, this theoretical and experience-based paper elaborates ideas of humanistic approach in language teacher education in building good character prospective teachers by exploring the experience of teaching literary appreciation course by the collaboration between reader response strategy and visual symbol response in order that later on they can implement their tasks in classrooms to enhance their students’ language skills and to apply the contribution of the humanistic approach.
The Collaboration between Reader Response Strategy and Visual Symbol Response in the Framework of Humanistic Approach
Reader response approach emerged in literature theory in 1960. Rudy (2006) point outs that the response focused on reader in reading literary works. In the response’s perspective, the creativity and productivity of the reader determine a text. Therefore, no response is totally regarded as precise response. According to Beach (1993:15) reader response came up to the surface as a strong reaction from readers in society to structuralism approach that highlighted the text per se and neglected the role of the reader. Nevertheless, the approach is still necessitated in the new paradigm since it is similar to one of the reader responses in term of describing. To conceive a story without recognizing the story’ structure is impossible.
Beach and Marshall (1990:137) propose seven reader responses, namely: 1) describing, 2) explaining, 3) conceiving, 4) interpreting, 5) connecting, 6) engaging, and 7) judging. These responses are classified into two groups; describing, conceiving, explaining, and interpreting refer to cognitive aspects and the others belong to affective ones. In term of describing, a reader (a student) restates the information that is provided in a literary text after reading it. It seems that the response is too simple, but in fact it entails a process of abstraction. Thus, to include a description of the story, the student has already decided what is important in it. And every student will have distinct description of the importance events. Such distinction can be a crucial point of initiating a discussion.
Next, in explaining a character’s action, students are drawing on their conceptions of characters’ traits, beliefs, or goals to infer a reason for that action. In Weesner Irene, Goodnight, Felix fails to show up at Irene’s house due to his insecure. Therefore, students can initiate their explanation by expressing the reasons for his insecurity. It can be related to an alcoholic father that has hampered his ability to feel positive about himself or in social context he thinks that people like him never really succeed.
Furthermore, when students conceive of the characters or settings in a text, they are moving beyond a description of information to a statement about its meaning. In Irene, Goodnight, for example the students can describe the fact that Felix is nervous in a particular situation. Meanwhile, in making interpretations, students can discuss what a literary text really cites. Interpretation involves generalization that implied by the text. In term of connecting, students may often connect their own prior reading experiences with the literary text. When reading Irene, Goodnight, the students may be reminded of their own awkward moments in conversing with members of the opposite sex. In relation to Indonesia local literature, Siti Nurbaya, they can connect their own culture to the culture posed in the story. According to Rudy (2005) they can also connect the content of the story to their own experience or others, to films that they ever watched, to other story books that they ever read, to social life, and to religion.
In engaging response, students are engaging with a story when they are articulating their personal emotional reaction or level of involvement with the story. The students often have difficulty expressing engagement because they are not consciously aware of how they are experiencing the text.
Ultimately, students have to judge the story by pulling back from it to make evaluative statements about its characters, quality, values, author, and story line. The students can argue that the characters’ behavior was appropriate or inappropriate, rational or irrational, interesting or uninteresting, normal or abnormal, and well-written or not.
Based on the above depiction of the responses, it can be established some guiding questions to facilitate students to appreciate aesthetically literary works by identifying indicators emerged in every response. From her previous studies about reader response strategies, Rudy had already developed guiding questions since 2005. By conducting a research and development (R & D), the following is the guiding questions established in 2007, funded by The Directorate General of Higher Education of Indonesia through a Competitive Research.
Table 1: Reader Response Indicators and the Illustration of Questions
No | Responses | Indicators | Illustrations |
1 | Describing | Character, character-ization, setting, theme, style, | a. What do you think of the character of the story? Is he/she good or bad? b. Where does the story happen? Do you like the setting? Why? c. Does the story tell about good things? d. Is the story reasonable? Is the style of the story communicative of figurative? Explain it. e. What event in the story do you think is very important? Why? |
2 | Conceiving | Reason | Why is the character forbidden to do something? |
3 | Interpreting | Opinion | a. In your point of view, what does the story talk about? |
4 | Explaining | Character’s action, agreement | a. A character is extremely hated by someone but he/she keeps patient and obeys. What do you think of the character’s action? b. Do you agree or disagree of the bad action done by anyone to the character? Why? |
5 | Engaging | Feeling, imagination, thought | a. Can you feel what is felt by the character? What does he/she feel? b. Would you do the same thing if you were the character? Explain it. c. Can you imagine what happens? Explain it. |
6 | Connecting | Experience, Other story, Film, Social life, Culture, Religion | a. Do you have the same experience with the character? Your brother? Parents? Neighbor? Friend? b. Have you ever read book or watched film which is similar to the story read? Tell the story and connect it. c. Can you connect this story to social life? Culture? Religion? How do you connect it? |
7 | Judging | Story line, Moral values, The author | a. Is the story interesting? b. Is the story valuable? What values do you get from reading the story? c. What do you think of the author? |
In 2010, the instrument for guiding students in responding literary works was developed by Rudy through a Competency Research of Directorate General of Higher Education in Indonesia. The instrument was enriched with two other theories, character building and Pavlov conditioning theory.
Some other investigations about reader response strategies have been conducted. Barr (1991) in his book Handbook of Reading Research put forward such inquiries. For instance, Hansen investigated engaging response that readers passively responded the optimistic poem and emotionally influenced their emotion and Shedd found that readers’ attitude affected their emotional involvement in engaging strategy that positive thinking readers to literary works indicate higher emotional involvement than those who have negative thinking. Other researchers that focused their research on that response as cited by Farrell and Squire (1990:180) are Chasser (1977), Golden and Guthrie (1986), and Hansson (1986).
Investigations on conceiving response are conducted by Beach and Wendler about college students’ understanding of characters’ behavior in their psychological aspects, while high school students comprehend it in term of physical aspects. Next, Beach investigated readers that connect their life experiences, Lipson found that reader connect the story to cultural perspective, and Beach and Harstle found that the readers connect the story to their own experiences and personalities. And there are many other investigations that focused on describing (Singer and Donlan, and Newkirk), explaining (Black and Seifert, and Bruce), interpreting (Hunt and Vipond, and Svennson), and judging (Parnell, Binkney).
In Indonesian context, there are two investigations that have been done to finish doctoral program. Firstly, Mulyana (2000) conducted a research on the seven reader responses by applying those to teach Indonesian poetry to university students and the result was the responses can develop students’ appreciation to poetry. Unfortunately, the application of those responses was still vague since he focused profoundly to the principles and the condition of literature learning. Other investigation was conducted by Rudy (2005) to primary school students. The finding was that reader responses applied to short stories can develop students’ writing skill.
Learning from Experience in LA Course
Literary Appreciation (LA) is one of the compulsory subjects in English study program of Teacher Training Faculty at Sriwijaya University Palembang in the Province of South Sumatera, Indonesia. So far most students find it boring to learn it. The teaching of literature is neglected both in Indonesia and abroad. It is obvious that the teaching of literature especially in English study program had applied structuralism approach, known as an old paradigm. Since the approach became the umbrella of literature instruction, the courses, such as prose and literary appreciation were presented conventionally and focused on intrinsic values. The students perpetually appreciated such values. In other words, they only identified the elements of fiction that were really in the literary texts. Therefore, the focus of learning was what were in the text and what the text said about characters, settings, and plot.
Furthermore, it was Rudy’s observation in her literary appreciation class for two semesters since 2006. Firstly, the fifth semester students were asked to read a simple short story and to appreciate it based on their own experiences of responding literary work. The result of appreciation was that all the students summarized the short story and commented on it by identifying the elements of fiction. It was what they knew and it was what they got from their high school teachers.
Next, the students were introduced to appreciate literary works by applying reader response strategy and visual symbol response. They enjoyed it; they read short story and wrote imaginatively by following the direction of a set of guiding questions that helped the students write freely. Rudy (2006) discovered that students really enjoyed the strategy and explored the literary works by expressing their own personal response. They also drew pictures and made socio-gram in order to enrich their interpretation. At last, they had to present their response in front of the class and report it in posters or wall-magazines.
Such technique of teaching contributed to sharpen cognitive aspect as well as affective and psychomotor aspects. This technique falsified the underlying assumptions that literature was merely a recitation subject, that it could not develop students’ language skills, and that it only sharpened students’ brain intelligence. It was strengthened by a research conducted by Rudy (2005) that the collaboration between reader response strategy and visual symbol response was able to promote primary school students’ critical thinking and writing skill. The quasi-experiment design proved that the collaboration response was effective to develop students’ writing skill. It was also expected that such kind of response was able to improve the students’ moral since they qualitatively responded short stories that contained moral messages. The indicators of improving their moral were built by describing the character’s action, conceiving and explaining the character, interpreting what had been done, engaging their feeling, imagination, and thought to the character’s feeling, connecting their own experience, other film and story book to the character, and judging the author, the story line, and values by reading the story.
Based on Rudy’s finding (2009), the development of learning model is that at the end of the students’ activity in learning process, there is a creative performance art to stimulate their psychomotor faculty by collaborating seven reader responses and two of visual symbol responses (socio gram and tableau). The content of the performance art refers to model of teaching as follows:
1. Lecturer explains structuralism approach as the old paradigm of literary appreciation.
2. Lecturer introduces reader response strategy as a new paradigm of appreciation and exemplify each response.
3. Lecturer asks students to browse and read South Sumatra’s folktales in English version.
4. Lecturer asks students to describe the elements of fiction by arguing, comparing, and competing toward the folktales.
5. Lecturer guides students to explain and conceive the folktales.
6. Lecturer asks students to connect the content of the folktales to their experience, other stories and film, other culture and social life, and religion.
7. Lecturer asks students to engage their feeling, imagination, and thought toward the characters of the folktales.
8. Lecturer asks students to interpret the folktales by putting forward the theme and identifying an important word.
9. Lecturer asks students to judge the folktales and the plot.
10. Lecturer introduces visual symbols response and asks students to respond the folktales by applying one the symbols.
11. Lecturer asks students to perform a tableau and discuss the meaning of the performance.
12. Lecturer explains the collaboration between the two responses.
13. Lecturer puts forward the arrangement of performance art.
14. Lecturer shows a scenario of performance art and discusses it with students.
15. Lecturer asks students to arrange performance art by combining the two distinct responses.
Since it is under the study of an R and D, this investigation develops the performance art as the last activity students must perform. It is very different from the previous inquiries that the writer has conducted that also focused on the two visual symbols but they were not arranged in a performance and the students were asked to write their scenario for performance art in group. Having discussed and showed the scenario of performance art written by the writer to the students, she asked them to work in group to create a scenario based on the stories that have been read. Every group created only one scenario. The scenario consisted of five parts: (1) monolog by two students (They retold their own story, other students listened to it carefully), (2) discussion (all students in the group discussed the story by describing, explaining, conceiving, interpreting, connecting, engaging, and judging), (3) tableaux (two or three students selected which part of the story that they liked best to be performed, and other students guessed it), (4) discussion on tableaux (all students discussed it until they could guess what had been performed, and (5) tableaux in socio gram (all students created a performance art in terms of socio gram by the help of colorful papers to show the relationship among the characters of the story).
Here is one of performance art scenario created by a group of students after reading Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor’s New Suit.
I. Monologue
S1 : An Emperor who cares for nothing but his wardrobe hires two weavers who promise him the finest suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "just hopelessly stupid".
S2 : The Emperor cannot see the cloth himself, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing unfit for his position or stupid; his ministers do the same.
S1 : When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they dress him in mime and the Emperor then marches in procession before his subjects.
S2 : A child in the crowd calls out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others.
S1 : The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but holds himself up proudly and continues the procession.
II. Discussion
S1 : the emperor is the main character in this story, The Emperor New Suit. What is the character of the emperor like? Do you like him?
S2 : in my point of view, the character is a bad man. As an emperor, he just thinks all about himself. He always looks for another way to satisfy himself of his strange passion of having good clothes.
S1 : You’re right. The main character is bad. He is also a greedy king. Talking about the setting, I like the setting because the setting makes me imagine about a big place where people from all countries gather there to do many interesting activities.
S2 : I agree with you. I like the setting and the way the author described the characters. By the way, what is the most important event in the story?
S3 : Well, the most important event happened in the story is when the king and the soldier walked along the road in the city. The king wanted to show the citizens his newest and finest dress ever after, but the people cannot see anything. Nobody wanted to tell him about his pity condition, except of a little boy. This child told bravely that the emperor was almost naked. The emperor was very shy since that event the emperor’s habit was totally changed. Nevertheless, the moral values contain in this story. It teaches us about humanity and building good relationship with others. If you are in the same position, will u do the same action?
S2 : Yes, if I am that situation, I will tell the truth. I will be honest as the child when that event happens to me. When people around me choose to keep silent and keep something wrong as a secret without telling him, it will be worthless.
S1 : The king who had a wrong thinking about himself. He was a bad leader because he did not put his citizen’s needs at the top at the top of priority. He always thought about his beautiful dress until one child reminded him about his silly action. Because of his passion to have a good dress, he easily believed two liars who assured him that they could make the finest clothes all the world. They said only good man that could see the good clothes. His soldiers, ministers did not see anything but they did not say anything to the king. When he walked along the street in his city, he met the child and the child told him directly that he did not wear anything. From the event, the man changed the bad habit and be a good king.
S4 : I disagree with the bad action done by the ministers, the soldiers, and also the citizens to the emperor. They were so afraid of telling the truth.
S1 : In your opinion, what is the reason about their action?
S4 : they were so afraid of telling the truth to the emperor that he did not want others to have bad thinking about themselves. They just kept silent, the emperor just continued his mistakes forever.
S5 : So what does the story tell about?
S1 : The story tells about the importance of telling the truth. By telling the truth, we can change the destiny of someone. By telling the truth, we can maintain the bad condition that is happening. We can also learn about being a kind man. It is not good if we keep being a greedy man and do not want think about the people around us. In your mind, do you have memorable word from this story?
S5 : Yes, I do. The word “innocent” is so memorable.
S1 : Why do you fell the word “innocent” is so memorable?
S5 : I choose innocent because it reminds us about a pure heart without any sins. It reminds us to be a good man and always be in a right track.
S6 : I have ever read almost the same story. It is about a greedy giant who died because of his greediness. He asked the villagers to serve as much food as they can, but the giant never felt satisfied. He asked more and more food. Finally, the villagers were angry and they arranged a plan to kill the giant. In the end of the story, the giant died and covered by soil because of landslide create by the villagers. The plot of the story is little bit the same as the emperor’s story. The difference is only at the end of the story. The emperor had a second chance to change his bad habit but the giant did not have that chance.
S2 : Yes, I have. I have ever read a story which is the same as this story. I have ever read a story about a greedy giant who died because of his greediness. He asked his villagers to serve as much food as they can, but the giant never felt satisfied. He asked more and more food. Finally, the villagers were angry and they arranged a plan to kill the giant. In the end of the story, the giant died and his body was covered by soil because of landslide created by the villagers. The difference is only at the end of the story. The emperor had second chance to change his bad habit, but the giant did not have that chance. The emperor is lucky to have second chance because he can be a good emperor in the future.
S6 : Yeah, He is very lucky. You know that to get the second chance in this world is difficult. When we get it, we sometimes do not use the second chance well. We cannot use to change our bad behavior.
S7 : By the way, the theme of this story is about a greedy emperor, right? I do disagree with the emperor because as an emperor, he’s supposed to think not only about himself but also about his citizens. Thinking about his citizens is a must because it is his responsible as an emperor.
S3 : It is nice to discuss about literature. We can criticize the characters and feel what the characters feel.
S7 : That’s right, but don’t forget to connect the story to our own experience, our family and friends’ experience, even our neighbors’ experience. The most interesting thing is if we can connect the story to a movies, books, or novels that we have ever read. Unfortunately, we often forget the title of the movies or novels we have read.
S1 : By the way, is this story interesting? Are there any advantages for us? Let alone, we know that people does like folktale, even they just forget it.
S3 : I think the story is interesting. The most important thing is trough reading folktale and other local literatures, we know the events or story that have been believed or happened in the past and related to the existence of what we can see nowadays.
S4 : Just now, you asked me about the advantages of this story for us, didn’t you? The advantage we get is the moral value from this story. This story suggests us to be honest in everything we do. We have to tell the truth though it will hurt one’s feeling. From this story, we also learn not to be a greedy person because by being a greedy man, we will not have a sensitive feeling toward another people.
S6 : From this story, we also learn not to be a greedy person. It is not only about food but also about many things because by being a greedy man, we will not have a sensitive feeling toward another people. In addition, the story suggests us to be honest in everything we do. We have to tell the truth though it will hurt someone’s feeling.
S4 : As a leader of a country, he should think about his people, his government and his responsibilities. As an emperor of the big company, he should put the citizens (his people) above everything. He can think about himself, his food, or clothes because they are also important for the leader’s life, but don’t forget to think about the citizens that he leads. He has to be responsible to his citizens. That is the characteristic for a good emperor.
S1 : Friends. Actually, we have done literary appreciation. We have elaborated the story, understood, and explained the act of the king, felt and imagined if we were the character in this story. We also have tried to relate the story with our experiences, social lives, book’s stories or novels or films. Then, you have judged this story. Now, let’s try to make tableaux. It is the scene without movement and voice which acts the part of story. Then, your friends will guess it. The purpose of tableaux is to identify whether our friends understand this story or not.
(Four students discuss about this story. One student is as moderator)
III. TABLEAUX
Four students act out the scene when the king and soldiers walked along the road in the city. The king wanted to show the citizen his newest and finest dress ever after, but the people could not see anything because the emperor did not wear anything. Nobody wanted to tell him about his pity condition, except a little boy. This child told briefly that the emperor was almost naked. The emperor was very shy since that event the emperor habit was totally changed.
IV. DISCUSS THE TABLEAUX
Moderator : That act of tableaux just now is taken from one of story’s parts. Is there someone who wants to try to guess what they have acted?
S8 : I will to guess. I think that performance performed when the king wants to meet the tailor of his dress. He really wants to thank to the tailor because the tailor has made the newest and the finest dress for him.
S9 : I think that it is when the king and the soldier walk along the road in the city. The king wants to show the citizen his newest and finest dress ever after, but the people cannot see anything because the emperor did not wear anything.
S10 : I do not agree with those statements. I think it is when the king wants to give the present to his people because he is very happy after being made the dress by his tailor. He thanks to God, so he gives the present to his people.
Moderator : Well, there are three people who have guessed the act of this tableaux. Let’s ask them who has guessed the correct answer among these students?
(The actors of tableaux discuss who has guessed correctly)
S2 : The correct answer is S9. That tableaux is when the king wanted to show the citizen his newest and finest dress ever after, but the people could not see anything because the emperor did not wear anything. Nobody wanted to tell him about his pity condition, except a little boy. This child told briefly that the emperor was almost naked. The emperor was very shy since that event the emperor habit was totally changed.
V. SOCIOGRAM IN TABLEAUX
Moderator: In the next, socio gram will be presented. Socio gram is visual symbol that can be used to appreciate literary, in this case story. By making socio gram, we can identify the relationship between one character to another. Socio gram does not limit the relationship in the main character, but it connects the characters that are in the story. The form of socio gram is akin to the webbing or mind- mapping technique. This sosio gram is collaborated with tableaux.
The direction for tableaux creativity
1. One student goes to the stage by bringing props (The Emperor’s New Suit) in inverted, circled (60 seconds), finally stop in the middle of the stage by showing the props to the viewers.
2. Two students bring two props written ( The Emperor) and ( The Liar), circling in ( 30 seconds), finally the man bringing the prop emperor stop on the left and the liar stops on the right by showing the props.
3. Two students bring two props written (Finest) and (Cloth), circling in 15 seconds, finally stop between the emperor and the liar.
4. Two students bring three props written (greedy), (proud), and ( bad)
5. Two students bring three props written (citizens) (little boy), (naked), circling in 15 seconds
6. Three students bring four props written (heart), (changed),( good), and ( behavior)
7. One student brings two props written (Emperor) and (Naked) circling in 60 seconds following by her troops that accompany him, another student bring dress king.
8. Two students bring two props (the emperor) and (the young child) circling in 15 seconds
9. All the Performers do relaxation moving (to lose stiff), and showing again the props by their own, and stop talking in 75 seconds.
Furthermore, after reading Leo Tolstoy’s God Sees the Truth, but Waits, the students in LA classes appreciate the short stories by writing their responses to their journal writing books. The following is Ria Octarini’ response, one of the examples of literary appreciation that was quoted from their journals.
God Sees the Truth, But Waits is an interesting story that I’ve already read. It’s talking about slander. In this story I can take many moral lessons. I believe that Aksionov is a great man. He shows that if someone did something wrong to you, you must forgive him. The title of the short story fits its main idea. It is when Aksionov was blamed for murdering; he spent many years in the prison. It takes a long time before the truth be heard, just wait because God sees the truth. This is a very inspiring story because it can guide you in all your ways and it can also light your path. It can also make your relationship with our Almighty God stronger. One may say that what is shown in the story is the destruction of Aksionov, an innocent man, through the unequal treatment of law. Ironically, one will find him unknowing rather than innocent, when one looks at it in the spiritual point of view because Aksionov did not know the truth about himself. However, in the end of the story, he realizes that he is not merely a material body but rather a spiritual being and I can consider this justice, for God gives him great compassion, maybe not in his ephemeral "material" life, but in his eternal "spiritual" life. God is everything and must believe in the power of god.
v Interpreting
God Sees the Truth, But Waits. It’s talking about a young merchant named Ivan Dmitrich Aksionov. After he married he gave up drinking. Aksionov was going to the Nizhny Fair, and as he bade good bye to his family. His wife was so afraid if her husband goes in that day. Because his wife dreamt about Aksionov that he returned from the town with hair of grey. But Aksionov laughed as if he doesn't care about that. He didn’t believe it and he still go. When he had traveled half-way, he met a merchant. They put up at the same inn and slept. They had some tea together and they went to bed in adjoining rooms. After a while he rose up for it wasn't his habit to sleep late and continued his journey. Then suddenly, along the way, two soldiers in a troika stopped him, and baan asking questions.for the merchant he met halfway on his travel was found dead. Aksionov answered all the question and he described all that happened. The soldiers and the police-officer unstrapped Aksionov luggage and searched it. They found a knife out of Aksionov’s bag. He was in a jail but he did not know anything about that problem. His family knew about this, but then also suspected him as well as the police officers did.
26 years passed in Siberia and there was another new prisoner met him named Makar Semyonich. Makar ever stayed in the same inn with him. One day Makar tried to make a tunnel. Unfortunately Aksionov saw all the bad action that did by Makar. Makar told him not to tell a word about what he had witnessed or else he will kill him. and after months, they knew each other. Ivan knew it was Makar who killed the merchant ago. but didn't speak or utter a word about it. the soldier searched for escaping plans and found the tunnel. Aksionov was the best prisoner in that jail. The soldier asked him about that but Aksionov said that I cannot say, your honour. It is not God's will that I should tell! Do what you like with me; I am your hands. That night, when Aksionov was lying on his bed and just beginning to doze, some one came quietly and sat down on his bed. He peered through the darkness and recognised Makar. Makar went to Ivan. Aksionov knew it was Makar who killed the merchant ago. Makar thanked him and felt sorry for what he had done to him a long time ago that made Ivan suffer for all this years. He sobbed as well as Aksionov and said that the Lord will forgive you. Makar said that he will confess to the governor so that Aksionov would be sent free--back to his home. Aksionov did not want to go out of prison for he has no family neither home to back to, rather, he waited for his last hour to come. Inspite of what they've talked about, Makar Semyonich confessed his guilt. But when the order for Ivan Dmitri Aksionov's release came, he was already dead.
One important and interesting word according to me is God will forgive you. Because it’s the best way for us who already slander by someone and let God forgive them and give the great punishment. And we must believe that god is always with you.
v Conceiving
In my point of view, Aksionov (After he married he gave up drinking. He was to be a good man. One day he had already slander by Makar. Although he didn’t know about the truth and he never done the big mistake but he had to in a jail for twenty-six years. His wife was dead but he was still in a jail. Aksionov felt so steadfast for his life). Makar (he is a merchant also, they met in the way. They put up the same inn for to night. He klled another merchant but he took a knife in Aksionov’s bag. He had already slander Aksionov and he go way from that problem. He was not a responsible man. He could do something but he could not responsible of all that has been done. He is a cunning man. at the end He admitted everything he had done and would promise to release Makar from prison). Aksionov’s wife (She is a good woman. His wife was so afraid if her husband goes in that day. Because his wife dreamt about Aksionov that he returned from the town with hair of grey. But Aksionov laughed as if he doesn't care about that. He didn’t believe it and he still go. I think his wife was so love and care him).
v Explaining
I think Aksionov do that because he cann’t do anything anymore. He didn’t have any choice to make his life be better. Although he told to the governor about Makar dug a tunnel. His life never go back, his suffer in twenty-six years never can pay. And I think he did it all not because he was scared of Makar but he wants him to feel what he felt for 26 years. He did not want to interfere in their affairs because he was not a god. Well anyways he has been in prison all this time can not be paid or replaced by anything except the truth of which will be shown a god. And god always give the best for people who have been on the slanders but because someone else's fault not the fault of its own. Makar tried to explain all the truth about this problem. He apologizes and will promise to release him from prison. Makar said that he will confess to the governor so that Aksionov would be sent free--back to his home. Aksionov did not want to go out of prison for he has no family neither home to back to, rather, he waited for his last hour to come. But when the order for Ivan Dmitri Aksionov's release came, he was already dead.
v Engaging Response
From this story “God Sees the Truth, But Waits”. I can felt the character’s feeling in this story. The feeling is about aksionov. H e had already slander by Makar. Although he didn’t know about the truth and he never done the big mistake but he had to in a jail for twenty-six years. His wife was dead but he was still in a jail. Aksionov felt so steadfast for his life. But he never replied to all that because he believes god who will punish and avenge all that had she felt so far. They have disposed of all the happiness of his family and separate from each other. God will give happiness to him when he died. And they will get all the replies of the gods. Slander is crueler than murder. You must believe it !!!
I think this story explains that we as humans have to believe in the power of god. God will show you all the truth to us at the right time. We must also pray to god. to always be blessed from god. I can not imagine if I was in a position like him. Can I will survive in that problem. We must be separated with our family for 26 years. 26 years is a very long time for an innocent person or that have never committed the mistakes. But we must wait for a miracle that would be god to us.
If I were as Aksionov. I was sure will not last in that long. Because I was not do a big mistakes to be in prison for 26 years. I can not imagine how my life when away from my family in a very long time. Prison is very frightening for me. And I am very proud of him because he could still survive and wait for the miracle of god.
v Judging Response
I think this story has an interesting story because we can imagine what happened in this story. This story I could learn if there is someone who did something bad to us is we do not reciprocate by doing something bad, too. We pray to god to avenge all that because we are not is a god who can punish someone. And we also must be responsible with what he has done. Be a person who do not harm others but be a person who gives benefit to others. We also have to be patient in controlling our emotions. And also we should not to believe someone that we only known. God Sees the Truth, But Waits was created by Leo Tolstoy. I think what this author tells a story like this because he wanted to remind people that god is everything and must believe in the power of God.
v Connecting Response
I also never experienced what he experienced. but not about the murder, but slander. all people in the world must have experienced things like that but it depends on big or small a problem. and how we can solve all problems. We may not do the same things they have done to us. we must pray that god knows the truth. and god is also the one who will help us solve that problem.
I want to connect the story to my own religion that I can find in Surah Al Humaza (The One Who Slanders)
Woe to every Humazah Lumazah.
Al-Hammaz refers to (slander) by speech, and Al-Lammaz refers to (slander) by action.
This means that the person finds fault with people and belittles them. An explanation of this has already preceded in the discussion of Allah's statement,
هَمَّازٍ مَّشَّآءِ بِنَمِيمٍ
Hammaz, going about with slander (68:11)
The last activity in LA course was applying reader response strategy to Michael Jackson’s songs, Heal the World and One Day in Your Life. Beside writing their response in their journal writing book, they had to discuss their appreciation toward that songs in facebook in internet. The writer made two groups to discuss the song in her facebook. The groups’ names are Appreciation to ONE DAY IN YOUR LIFE by MJ and Appreciation to HEAL THE WORLD by MJ. The figure is the example of the facebook.
The strengths and the advantages of various kinds of activities offered in LA course were responded that 39 students (100%) welcomed the presence of reader response strategy in teaching of English literature appreciation. Strengths and advantages of this learning model can be identified as follows: 66% say that the reader response is very useful, 75% said that it is very helpful, and 90% believed that the response of readers in appreciating threw away the boredom toward literature (Rudy, 2010). This research report strengthened the statements of Carter and Long (1991), Beach and Marshall, (1990), and Moody (1971). Here are two opinions of respondents about the use of reader response strategy.
The seven reader response strategies are the implication of the new paradigm in appreciating literature. Under the old paradigm, We Felt That literature is just boring. The new paradigm gives us the new color in appreciating the literary work .... The new paradigm gives us the new and fresh way to understand the literary works. So students will not be bored and think that literary work is not fun. By involving the student into the story the students Can feel the emotion and the aim of the literary work Itself. (# Kh)
In my point of view, the seven reader response strategies are really useful for sharpening my literary works Towards sensitivity. The more I explore my comprehension by describing, Engaging, conceiving, explaining, interpreting, connecting, and judging, the more I appreciate literary works ... .. really work for my sensitivity and Appreciation Towards literary works .... It makes more valuable literary works and some existed. I think, no difficulty and Weakness in this new paradigm. (# NLP)
I have never known about these seven responses before. ….I used to be under the old paradigm. After being introduced the the seven reader responses, I can explore every aspect in literary works….. The exploration of the literary appreciation by using reader responses can develop our critical thinking so that we can improve our behavior and attitude. (#GU)
The seven reader response strategies are the implication of new paradigm in appreciating literature. Under the old paradigm, we just felt that literature is boring. The new paradigm gives us the new color in appreciating the literary work…. The new paradigm gives us the new and fresh way to understand the literary works. So students won’t be bored and think that literary work is not fun. By involving the student into the story the students can feel the emotion and the aim of the literary work itself. (#Kh)
In my opinin, seven reader responses as a new paradigm are very effective in learning literary appreciation. … The responses are capable to sharpen students’ critical thinking and emotional aspects. (#DS)
Seven reader responses is a new paradigm of reading approach. It is the newest innovation and formula which help students to be active in reading. This strategy can attract students’ interest by asking them questions related to imagination, opinion, and feeling about the story being read. Also, this strategy is effective to make students get involved to the reading material (#MS)
Reader response strategies are the strategies used to appreciate literary works. All those are really useful …. (#BW)
Based on the opinions about the benefits of reader response, it can be concluded that the response used as a new paradigm of literary appreciation is very effective in developing cognitive aspect, sharpening the emotional or affective aspect, and providing a new color in the world of literary appreciation.
Conclusion
The collaboration between reader response strategy and visual symbol response is a research-based literature learning model that has been developed in the last ten years. This collaborative learning model was applied in the teaching of literature to stimulate cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains. It can also be used to develop creative industry in terms of performance art and students’ character. In terms of humanism approach, it can be inferred that those activities in LA course can help the students humanize themselves to be good character people. Therefore, the course in the language education has not neglected anymore and pays attention to the approach that emphasizes values and attitudes since it emphasizes on feelings (personal emotions and esthetic appreciation), social relations (friendship and cooperation), responsibility (the need for public scrutiny, criticism, and correction), intellectual (knowledge, reason, and understanding).
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Introduction
In the field of education, values or ideologies represent the approaches which are easy to identify. Richards (1998:42) exemplifies school-based curriculum development, the teacher as action researcher, and literature in the language curriculum as some values-based approaches. Besides, he also cites some other examples of such approaches, among others: team teaching, the learner-centered curriculum movement, reflective teaching, and humanistic approaches. These approaches importantly have something to do with the system of education, social values, and culture. It is apparent that they are conducted in good team with collaborators not individual work. The humanistic approaches, for instance, focus on human values development in language teaching.
It goes without saying that language teaching entails other essential things will be explored in that area. The things, as insisted by Stern (1992) in We (2006:20), consist of four content areas: target language, target culture, communicative activities, and general language education. The first three areas focus on language, while the other four emphasizes the involvement of learners in reflecting languages, culture, and learning in a generalized way. However, the general language education which includes the learners’ involvement is neglected. In teaching and learning activity, language educations emphasize their teaching more to the four language skills rather than the moral value development. The portion of general language education that covers moral values is very small as illustrated by Moody (1971). Consequently, it is agreeable that based on his insistence, “language teaching requires more than the teaching of language.”
Furthermore, as previously stated, language education needs an approach which aims at fostering a sense of responsibility in students. The aim, according to Cates (1997:2), is mentioned in literature that the importance of moral values of foreign language teaching is avoided. The language education has neglected and does not pay attention to the approach that emphasizes values and attitudes. It is a must that these emphasis are shown in foreign language classroom as devoted by Stevick (1990) in We (2006:26) that works in foreign language learning emphasize feelings (personal emotions and esthetic appreciation), social relations (friendship and cooperation), responsibility (the need for public scrutiny, criticism, and correction), intellect (knowledge, reason, and understanding).
There must be some considerations of the emphasis of general language education in language learning. Cook (1983) cites two levels of consideration when arguing what language teaching should be about, functional and educational. Functionally, students are acquiring “a skill they can use outside the classroom” and educationally, their horizons are widened. This means that the students’ development in terms of personalities and potential is encouraged in the language teaching. It is in line with We’s insistence (2006:20), “The more learners know about language, culture and language learning, the better they should be able to control the learning process and be responsible for their own development.”
The most important aspect of language education is the need for sharpening both cognitive and affective aspects of the students. In other words, not only is the brain developed, but also the feeling is, as pointed out by We (2006) that English language education entails to help students be either creative and critical or wise and intelligent. To be so, it is necessary to make use of literary works as the general language education by reading and responding the works critically as well as aesthetically. Beach and Marshall (1990) pinpoint seven reader responses that consist of describing, conceiving, interpreting, explaining, engaging, connecting, and judging. The first four responses sharpen the cognitive domain while the last three help students sharpen the affective domain.
In English Language Teaching (ELT) field, excellent professional knowledge is not the only indicator of good teachers (We, 2006). More importantly, they are obligated to teach as creative as they can in the classroom to establish students’ ability to think, to speak, to read, to criticize, and to cooperate. Thus, We adds, “good teachers not only are able to balance their thinking and views of teaching and learning wisely, but also take responsibility to teach and guide students to learn wise thinking and to use language for good rather than ill.” Similarly, Alwasilah (2000:28) cites that language education represents culture strategy to prepare good citizens with critical consciousness. Therefore, the development of human values, growth in self- awareness and in understanding of others, sensitivity to human feelings and emotions, active students involvement, and in the way human learning takes place should be emphasized in language teaching since the humanistic approaches applied as insisted by Richards (1998:42).
In EFL curriculum in Indonesia context, there are four curriculum designs: subject-centered designs, learners-centered design, problems-centered designs, and core designs. This paper focuses learners-centered design, which includes two sub-designs, i.e. experience and humanistic design. The experience-based designs view an active transaction between teacher and students to map the students’ interest and need. Meanwhile, humanistic designs concentrate on the students’ need in conducive and supported environment to strengthen their personality, and their achievement is evaluated through the process of learning not the product of learning. It is a matter of fact that the humanistic designs focus more on the integration among cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains (Sundayana, in Alwasilah, 2003:45). As previously proposed, Stern also emphasizes the general language education on the involvement of learners in reflecting languages, culture, and learning in a generalized way.
Based on the foregoing discussion, this theoretical and experience-based paper elaborates ideas of humanistic approach in language teacher education in building good character prospective teachers by exploring the experience of teaching literary appreciation course by the collaboration between reader response strategy and visual symbol response in order that later on they can implement their tasks in classrooms to enhance their students’ language skills and to apply the contribution of the humanistic approach.
The Collaboration between Reader Response Strategy and Visual Symbol Response in the Framework of Humanistic Approach
Reader response approach emerged in literature theory in 1960. Rudy (2006) point outs that the response focused on reader in reading literary works. In the response’s perspective, the creativity and productivity of the reader determine a text. Therefore, no response is totally regarded as precise response. According to Beach (1993:15) reader response came up to the surface as a strong reaction from readers in society to structuralism approach that highlighted the text per se and neglected the role of the reader. Nevertheless, the approach is still necessitated in the new paradigm since it is similar to one of the reader responses in term of describing. To conceive a story without recognizing the story’ structure is impossible.
Beach and Marshall (1990:137) propose seven reader responses, namely: 1) describing, 2) explaining, 3) conceiving, 4) interpreting, 5) connecting, 6) engaging, and 7) judging. These responses are classified into two groups; describing, conceiving, explaining, and interpreting refer to cognitive aspects and the others belong to affective ones. In term of describing, a reader (a student) restates the information that is provided in a literary text after reading it. It seems that the response is too simple, but in fact it entails a process of abstraction. Thus, to include a description of the story, the student has already decided what is important in it. And every student will have distinct description of the importance events. Such distinction can be a crucial point of initiating a discussion.
Next, in explaining a character’s action, students are drawing on their conceptions of characters’ traits, beliefs, or goals to infer a reason for that action. In Weesner Irene, Goodnight, Felix fails to show up at Irene’s house due to his insecure. Therefore, students can initiate their explanation by expressing the reasons for his insecurity. It can be related to an alcoholic father that has hampered his ability to feel positive about himself or in social context he thinks that people like him never really succeed.
Furthermore, when students conceive of the characters or settings in a text, they are moving beyond a description of information to a statement about its meaning. In Irene, Goodnight, for example the students can describe the fact that Felix is nervous in a particular situation. Meanwhile, in making interpretations, students can discuss what a literary text really cites. Interpretation involves generalization that implied by the text. In term of connecting, students may often connect their own prior reading experiences with the literary text. When reading Irene, Goodnight, the students may be reminded of their own awkward moments in conversing with members of the opposite sex. In relation to Indonesia local literature, Siti Nurbaya, they can connect their own culture to the culture posed in the story. According to Rudy (2005) they can also connect the content of the story to their own experience or others, to films that they ever watched, to other story books that they ever read, to social life, and to religion.
In engaging response, students are engaging with a story when they are articulating their personal emotional reaction or level of involvement with the story. The students often have difficulty expressing engagement because they are not consciously aware of how they are experiencing the text.
Ultimately, students have to judge the story by pulling back from it to make evaluative statements about its characters, quality, values, author, and story line. The students can argue that the characters’ behavior was appropriate or inappropriate, rational or irrational, interesting or uninteresting, normal or abnormal, and well-written or not.
Based on the above depiction of the responses, it can be established some guiding questions to facilitate students to appreciate aesthetically literary works by identifying indicators emerged in every response. From her previous studies about reader response strategies, Rudy had already developed guiding questions since 2005. By conducting a research and development (R & D), the following is the guiding questions established in 2007, funded by The Directorate General of Higher Education of Indonesia through a Competitive Research.
Table 1: Reader Response Indicators and the Illustration of Questions
No | Responses | Indicators | Illustrations |
1 | Describing | Character, character-ization, setting, theme, style, | a. What do you think of the character of the story? Is he/she good or bad? b. Where does the story happen? Do you like the setting? Why? c. Does the story tell about good things? d. Is the story reasonable? Is the style of the story communicative of figurative? Explain it. e. What event in the story do you think is very important? Why? |
2 | Conceiving | Reason | Why is the character forbidden to do something? |
3 | Interpreting | Opinion | a. In your point of view, what does the story talk about? |
4 | Explaining | Character’s action, agreement | a. A character is extremely hated by someone but he/she keeps patient and obeys. What do you think of the character’s action? b. Do you agree or disagree of the bad action done by anyone to the character? Why? |
5 | Engaging | Feeling, imagination, thought | a. Can you feel what is felt by the character? What does he/she feel? b. Would you do the same thing if you were the character? Explain it. c. Can you imagine what happens? Explain it. |
6 | Connecting | Experience, Other story, Film, Social life, Culture, Religion | a. Do you have the same experience with the character? Your brother? Parents? Neighbor? Friend? b. Have you ever read book or watched film which is similar to the story read? Tell the story and connect it. c. Can you connect this story to social life? Culture? Religion? How do you connect it? |
7 | Judging | Story line, Moral values, The author | a. Is the story interesting? b. Is the story valuable? What values do you get from reading the story? c. What do you think of the author? |
In 2010, the instrument for guiding students in responding literary works was developed by Rudy through a Competency Research of Directorate General of Higher Education in Indonesia. The instrument was enriched with two other theories, character building and Pavlov conditioning theory.
Some other investigations about reader response strategies have been conducted. Barr (1991) in his book Handbook of Reading Research put forward such inquiries. For instance, Hansen investigated engaging response that readers passively responded the optimistic poem and emotionally influenced their emotion and Shedd found that readers’ attitude affected their emotional involvement in engaging strategy that positive thinking readers to literary works indicate higher emotional involvement than those who have negative thinking. Other researchers that focused their research on that response as cited by Farrell and Squire (1990:180) are Chasser (1977), Golden and Guthrie (1986), and Hansson (1986).
Investigations on conceiving response are conducted by Beach and Wendler about college students’ understanding of characters’ behavior in their psychological aspects, while high school students comprehend it in term of physical aspects. Next, Beach investigated readers that connect their life experiences, Lipson found that reader connect the story to cultural perspective, and Beach and Harstle found that the readers connect the story to their own experiences and personalities. And there are many other investigations that focused on describing (Singer and Donlan, and Newkirk), explaining (Black and Seifert, and Bruce), interpreting (Hunt and Vipond, and Svennson), and judging (Parnell, Binkney).
In Indonesian context, there are two investigations that have been done to finish doctoral program. Firstly, Mulyana (2000) conducted a research on the seven reader responses by applying those to teach Indonesian poetry to university students and the result was the responses can develop students’ appreciation to poetry. Unfortunately, the application of those responses was still vague since he focused profoundly to the principles and the condition of literature learning. Other investigation was conducted by Rudy (2005) to primary school students. The finding was that reader responses applied to short stories can develop students’ writing skill.
Learning from Experience in LA Course
Literary Appreciation (LA) is one of the compulsory subjects in English study program of Teacher Training Faculty at Sriwijaya University Palembang in the Province of South Sumatera, Indonesia. So far most students find it boring to learn it. The teaching of literature is neglected both in Indonesia and abroad. It is obvious that the teaching of literature especially in English study program had applied structuralism approach, known as an old paradigm. Since the approach became the umbrella of literature instruction, the courses, such as prose and literary appreciation were presented conventionally and focused on intrinsic values. The students perpetually appreciated such values. In other words, they only identified the elements of fiction that were really in the literary texts. Therefore, the focus of learning was what were in the text and what the text said about characters, settings, and plot.
Furthermore, it was Rudy’s observation in her literary appreciation class for two semesters since 2006. Firstly, the fifth semester students were asked to read a simple short story and to appreciate it based on their own experiences of responding literary work. The result of appreciation was that all the students summarized the short story and commented on it by identifying the elements of fiction. It was what they knew and it was what they got from their high school teachers.
Next, the students were introduced to appreciate literary works by applying reader response strategy and visual symbol response. They enjoyed it; they read short story and wrote imaginatively by following the direction of a set of guiding questions that helped the students write freely. Rudy (2006) discovered that students really enjoyed the strategy and explored the literary works by expressing their own personal response. They also drew pictures and made socio-gram in order to enrich their interpretation. At last, they had to present their response in front of the class and report it in posters or wall-magazines.
Such technique of teaching contributed to sharpen cognitive aspect as well as affective and psychomotor aspects. This technique falsified the underlying assumptions that literature was merely a recitation subject, that it could not develop students’ language skills, and that it only sharpened students’ brain intelligence. It was strengthened by a research conducted by Rudy (2005) that the collaboration between reader response strategy and visual symbol response was able to promote primary school students’ critical thinking and writing skill. The quasi-experiment design proved that the collaboration response was effective to develop students’ writing skill. It was also expected that such kind of response was able to improve the students’ moral since they qualitatively responded short stories that contained moral messages. The indicators of improving their moral were built by describing the character’s action, conceiving and explaining the character, interpreting what had been done, engaging their feeling, imagination, and thought to the character’s feeling, connecting their own experience, other film and story book to the character, and judging the author, the story line, and values by reading the story.
Based on Rudy’s finding (2009), the development of learning model is that at the end of the students’ activity in learning process, there is a creative performance art to stimulate their psychomotor faculty by collaborating seven reader responses and two of visual symbol responses (socio gram and tableau). The content of the performance art refers to model of teaching as follows:
1. Lecturer explains structuralism approach as the old paradigm of literary appreciation.
2. Lecturer introduces reader response strategy as a new paradigm of appreciation and exemplify each response.
3. Lecturer asks students to browse and read South Sumatra’s folktales in English version.
4. Lecturer asks students to describe the elements of fiction by arguing, comparing, and competing toward the folktales.
5. Lecturer guides students to explain and conceive the folktales.
6. Lecturer asks students to connect the content of the folktales to their experience, other stories and film, other culture and social life, and religion.
7. Lecturer asks students to engage their feeling, imagination, and thought toward the characters of the folktales.
8. Lecturer asks students to interpret the folktales by putting forward the theme and identifying an important word.
9. Lecturer asks students to judge the folktales and the plot.
10. Lecturer introduces visual symbols response and asks students to respond the folktales by applying one the symbols.
11. Lecturer asks students to perform a tableau and discuss the meaning of the performance.
12. Lecturer explains the collaboration between the two responses.
13. Lecturer puts forward the arrangement of performance art.
14. Lecturer shows a scenario of performance art and discusses it with students.
15. Lecturer asks students to arrange performance art by combining the two distinct responses.
Since it is under the study of an R and D, this investigation develops the performance art as the last activity students must perform. It is very different from the previous inquiries that the writer has conducted that also focused on the two visual symbols but they were not arranged in a performance and the students were asked to write their scenario for performance art in group. Having discussed and showed the scenario of performance art written by the writer to the students, she asked them to work in group to create a scenario based on the stories that have been read. Every group created only one scenario. The scenario consisted of five parts: (1) monolog by two students (They retold their own story, other students listened to it carefully), (2) discussion (all students in the group discussed the story by describing, explaining, conceiving, interpreting, connecting, engaging, and judging), (3) tableaux (two or three students selected which part of the story that they liked best to be performed, and other students guessed it), (4) discussion on tableaux (all students discussed it until they could guess what had been performed, and (5) tableaux in socio gram (all students created a performance art in terms of socio gram by the help of colorful papers to show the relationship among the characters of the story).
Here is one of performance art scenario created by a group of students after reading Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor’s New Suit.
I. Monologue
S1 : An Emperor who cares for nothing but his wardrobe hires two weavers who promise him the finest suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "just hopelessly stupid".
S2 : The Emperor cannot see the cloth himself, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing unfit for his position or stupid; his ministers do the same.
S1 : When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they dress him in mime and the Emperor then marches in procession before his subjects.
S2 : A child in the crowd calls out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others.
S1 : The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but holds himself up proudly and continues the procession.
II. Discussion
S1 : the emperor is the main character in this story, The Emperor New Suit. What is the character of the emperor like? Do you like him?
S2 : in my point of view, the character is a bad man. As an emperor, he just thinks all about himself. He always looks for another way to satisfy himself of his strange passion of having good clothes.
S1 : You’re right. The main character is bad. He is also a greedy king. Talking about the setting, I like the setting because the setting makes me imagine about a big place where people from all countries gather there to do many interesting activities.
S2 : I agree with you. I like the setting and the way the author described the characters. By the way, what is the most important event in the story?
S3 : Well, the most important event happened in the story is when the king and the soldier walked along the road in the city. The king wanted to show the citizens his newest and finest dress ever after, but the people cannot see anything. Nobody wanted to tell him about his pity condition, except of a little boy. This child told bravely that the emperor was almost naked. The emperor was very shy since that event the emperor’s habit was totally changed. Nevertheless, the moral values contain in this story. It teaches us about humanity and building good relationship with others. If you are in the same position, will u do the same action?
S2 : Yes, if I am that situation, I will tell the truth. I will be honest as the child when that event happens to me. When people around me choose to keep silent and keep something wrong as a secret without telling him, it will be worthless.
S1 : The king who had a wrong thinking about himself. He was a bad leader because he did not put his citizen’s needs at the top at the top of priority. He always thought about his beautiful dress until one child reminded him about his silly action. Because of his passion to have a good dress, he easily believed two liars who assured him that they could make the finest clothes all the world. They said only good man that could see the good clothes. His soldiers, ministers did not see anything but they did not say anything to the king. When he walked along the street in his city, he met the child and the child told him directly that he did not wear anything. From the event, the man changed the bad habit and be a good king.
S4 : I disagree with the bad action done by the ministers, the soldiers, and also the citizens to the emperor. They were so afraid of telling the truth.
S1 : In your opinion, what is the reason about their action?
S4 : they were so afraid of telling the truth to the emperor that he did not want others to have bad thinking about themselves. They just kept silent, the emperor just continued his mistakes forever.
S5 : So what does the story tell about?
S1 : The story tells about the importance of telling the truth. By telling the truth, we can change the destiny of someone. By telling the truth, we can maintain the bad condition that is happening. We can also learn about being a kind man. It is not good if we keep being a greedy man and do not want think about the people around us. In your mind, do you have memorable word from this story?
S5 : Yes, I do. The word “innocent” is so memorable.
S1 : Why do you fell the word “innocent” is so memorable?
S5 : I choose innocent because it reminds us about a pure heart without any sins. It reminds us to be a good man and always be in a right track.
S6 : I have ever read almost the same story. It is about a greedy giant who died because of his greediness. He asked the villagers to serve as much food as they can, but the giant never felt satisfied. He asked more and more food. Finally, the villagers were angry and they arranged a plan to kill the giant. In the end of the story, the giant died and covered by soil because of landslide create by the villagers. The plot of the story is little bit the same as the emperor’s story. The difference is only at the end of the story. The emperor had a second chance to change his bad habit but the giant did not have that chance.
S2 : Yes, I have. I have ever read a story which is the same as this story. I have ever read a story about a greedy giant who died because of his greediness. He asked his villagers to serve as much food as they can, but the giant never felt satisfied. He asked more and more food. Finally, the villagers were angry and they arranged a plan to kill the giant. In the end of the story, the giant died and his body was covered by soil because of landslide created by the villagers. The difference is only at the end of the story. The emperor had second chance to change his bad habit, but the giant did not have that chance. The emperor is lucky to have second chance because he can be a good emperor in the future.
S6 : Yeah, He is very lucky. You know that to get the second chance in this world is difficult. When we get it, we sometimes do not use the second chance well. We cannot use to change our bad behavior.
S7 : By the way, the theme of this story is about a greedy emperor, right? I do disagree with the emperor because as an emperor, he’s supposed to think not only about himself but also about his citizens. Thinking about his citizens is a must because it is his responsible as an emperor.
S3 : It is nice to discuss about literature. We can criticize the characters and feel what the characters feel.
S7 : That’s right, but don’t forget to connect the story to our own experience, our family and friends’ experience, even our neighbors’ experience. The most interesting thing is if we can connect the story to a movies, books, or novels that we have ever read. Unfortunately, we often forget the title of the movies or novels we have read.
S1 : By the way, is this story interesting? Are there any advantages for us? Let alone, we know that people does like folktale, even they just forget it.
S3 : I think the story is interesting. The most important thing is trough reading folktale and other local literatures, we know the events or story that have been believed or happened in the past and related to the existence of what we can see nowadays.
S4 : Just now, you asked me about the advantages of this story for us, didn’t you? The advantage we get is the moral value from this story. This story suggests us to be honest in everything we do. We have to tell the truth though it will hurt one’s feeling. From this story, we also learn not to be a greedy person because by being a greedy man, we will not have a sensitive feeling toward another people.
S6 : From this story, we also learn not to be a greedy person. It is not only about food but also about many things because by being a greedy man, we will not have a sensitive feeling toward another people. In addition, the story suggests us to be honest in everything we do. We have to tell the truth though it will hurt someone’s feeling.
S4 : As a leader of a country, he should think about his people, his government and his responsibilities. As an emperor of the big company, he should put the citizens (his people) above everything. He can think about himself, his food, or clothes because they are also important for the leader’s life, but don’t forget to think about the citizens that he leads. He has to be responsible to his citizens. That is the characteristic for a good emperor.
S1 : Friends. Actually, we have done literary appreciation. We have elaborated the story, understood, and explained the act of the king, felt and imagined if we were the character in this story. We also have tried to relate the story with our experiences, social lives, book’s stories or novels or films. Then, you have judged this story. Now, let’s try to make tableaux. It is the scene without movement and voice which acts the part of story. Then, your friends will guess it. The purpose of tableaux is to identify whether our friends understand this story or not.
(Four students discuss about this story. One student is as moderator)
III. TABLEAUX
Four students act out the scene when the king and soldiers walked along the road in the city. The king wanted to show the citizen his newest and finest dress ever after, but the people could not see anything because the emperor did not wear anything. Nobody wanted to tell him about his pity condition, except a little boy. This child told briefly that the emperor was almost naked. The emperor was very shy since that event the emperor habit was totally changed.
IV. DISCUSS THE TABLEAUX
Moderator : That act of tableaux just now is taken from one of story’s parts. Is there someone who wants to try to guess what they have acted?
S8 : I will to guess. I think that performance performed when the king wants to meet the tailor of his dress. He really wants to thank to the tailor because the tailor has made the newest and the finest dress for him.
S9 : I think that it is when the king and the soldier walk along the road in the city. The king wants to show the citizen his newest and finest dress ever after, but the people cannot see anything because the emperor did not wear anything.
S10 : I do not agree with those statements. I think it is when the king wants to give the present to his people because he is very happy after being made the dress by his tailor. He thanks to God, so he gives the present to his people.
Moderator : Well, there are three people who have guessed the act of this tableaux. Let’s ask them who has guessed the correct answer among these students?
(The actors of tableaux discuss who has guessed correctly)
S2 : The correct answer is S9. That tableaux is when the king wanted to show the citizen his newest and finest dress ever after, but the people could not see anything because the emperor did not wear anything. Nobody wanted to tell him about his pity condition, except a little boy. This child told briefly that the emperor was almost naked. The emperor was very shy since that event the emperor habit was totally changed.
V. SOCIOGRAM IN TABLEAUX
Moderator: In the next, socio gram will be presented. Socio gram is visual symbol that can be used to appreciate literary, in this case story. By making socio gram, we can identify the relationship between one character to another. Socio gram does not limit the relationship in the main character, but it connects the characters that are in the story. The form of socio gram is akin to the webbing or mind- mapping technique. This sosio gram is collaborated with tableaux.
The direction for tableaux creativity
1. One student goes to the stage by bringing props (The Emperor’s New Suit) in inverted, circled (60 seconds), finally stop in the middle of the stage by showing the props to the viewers.
2. Two students bring two props written ( The Emperor) and ( The Liar), circling in ( 30 seconds), finally the man bringing the prop emperor stop on the left and the liar stops on the right by showing the props.
3. Two students bring two props written (Finest) and (Cloth), circling in 15 seconds, finally stop between the emperor and the liar.
4. Two students bring three props written (greedy), (proud), and ( bad)
5. Two students bring three props written (citizens) (little boy), (naked), circling in 15 seconds
6. Three students bring four props written (heart), (changed),( good), and ( behavior)
7. One student brings two props written (Emperor) and (Naked) circling in 60 seconds following by her troops that accompany him, another student bring dress king.
8. Two students bring two props (the emperor) and (the young child) circling in 15 seconds
9. All the Performers do relaxation moving (to lose stiff), and showing again the props by their own, and stop talking in 75 seconds.
Furthermore, after reading Leo Tolstoy’s God Sees the Truth, but Waits, the students in LA classes appreciate the short stories by writing their responses to their journal writing books. The following is Ria Octarini’ response, one of the examples of literary appreciation that was quoted from their journals.
God Sees the Truth, But Waits is an interesting story that I’ve already read. It’s talking about slander. In this story I can take many moral lessons. I believe that Aksionov is a great man. He shows that if someone did something wrong to you, you must forgive him. The title of the short story fits its main idea. It is when Aksionov was blamed for murdering; he spent many years in the prison. It takes a long time before the truth be heard, just wait because God sees the truth. This is a very inspiring story because it can guide you in all your ways and it can also light your path. It can also make your relationship with our Almighty God stronger. One may say that what is shown in the story is the destruction of Aksionov, an innocent man, through the unequal treatment of law. Ironically, one will find him unknowing rather than innocent, when one looks at it in the spiritual point of view because Aksionov did not know the truth about himself. However, in the end of the story, he realizes that he is not merely a material body but rather a spiritual being and I can consider this justice, for God gives him great compassion, maybe not in his ephemeral "material" life, but in his eternal "spiritual" life. God is everything and must believe in the power of god.
v Interpreting
God Sees the Truth, But Waits. It’s talking about a young merchant named Ivan Dmitrich Aksionov. After he married he gave up drinking. Aksionov was going to the Nizhny Fair, and as he bade good bye to his family. His wife was so afraid if her husband goes in that day. Because his wife dreamt about Aksionov that he returned from the town with hair of grey. But Aksionov laughed as if he doesn't care about that. He didn’t believe it and he still go. When he had traveled half-way, he met a merchant. They put up at the same inn and slept. They had some tea together and they went to bed in adjoining rooms. After a while he rose up for it wasn't his habit to sleep late and continued his journey. Then suddenly, along the way, two soldiers in a troika stopped him, and baan asking questions.for the merchant he met halfway on his travel was found dead. Aksionov answered all the question and he described all that happened. The soldiers and the police-officer unstrapped Aksionov luggage and searched it. They found a knife out of Aksionov’s bag. He was in a jail but he did not know anything about that problem. His family knew about this, but then also suspected him as well as the police officers did.
26 years passed in Siberia and there was another new prisoner met him named Makar Semyonich. Makar ever stayed in the same inn with him. One day Makar tried to make a tunnel. Unfortunately Aksionov saw all the bad action that did by Makar. Makar told him not to tell a word about what he had witnessed or else he will kill him. and after months, they knew each other. Ivan knew it was Makar who killed the merchant ago. but didn't speak or utter a word about it. the soldier searched for escaping plans and found the tunnel. Aksionov was the best prisoner in that jail. The soldier asked him about that but Aksionov said that I cannot say, your honour. It is not God's will that I should tell! Do what you like with me; I am your hands. That night, when Aksionov was lying on his bed and just beginning to doze, some one came quietly and sat down on his bed. He peered through the darkness and recognised Makar. Makar went to Ivan. Aksionov knew it was Makar who killed the merchant ago. Makar thanked him and felt sorry for what he had done to him a long time ago that made Ivan suffer for all this years. He sobbed as well as Aksionov and said that the Lord will forgive you. Makar said that he will confess to the governor so that Aksionov would be sent free--back to his home. Aksionov did not want to go out of prison for he has no family neither home to back to, rather, he waited for his last hour to come. Inspite of what they've talked about, Makar Semyonich confessed his guilt. But when the order for Ivan Dmitri Aksionov's release came, he was already dead.
One important and interesting word according to me is God will forgive you. Because it’s the best way for us who already slander by someone and let God forgive them and give the great punishment. And we must believe that god is always with you.
v Conceiving
In my point of view, Aksionov (After he married he gave up drinking. He was to be a good man. One day he had already slander by Makar. Although he didn’t know about the truth and he never done the big mistake but he had to in a jail for twenty-six years. His wife was dead but he was still in a jail. Aksionov felt so steadfast for his life). Makar (he is a merchant also, they met in the way. They put up the same inn for to night. He klled another merchant but he took a knife in Aksionov’s bag. He had already slander Aksionov and he go way from that problem. He was not a responsible man. He could do something but he could not responsible of all that has been done. He is a cunning man. at the end He admitted everything he had done and would promise to release Makar from prison). Aksionov’s wife (She is a good woman. His wife was so afraid if her husband goes in that day. Because his wife dreamt about Aksionov that he returned from the town with hair of grey. But Aksionov laughed as if he doesn't care about that. He didn’t believe it and he still go. I think his wife was so love and care him).
v Explaining
I think Aksionov do that because he cann’t do anything anymore. He didn’t have any choice to make his life be better. Although he told to the governor about Makar dug a tunnel. His life never go back, his suffer in twenty-six years never can pay. And I think he did it all not because he was scared of Makar but he wants him to feel what he felt for 26 years. He did not want to interfere in their affairs because he was not a god. Well anyways he has been in prison all this time can not be paid or replaced by anything except the truth of which will be shown a god. And god always give the best for people who have been on the slanders but because someone else's fault not the fault of its own. Makar tried to explain all the truth about this problem. He apologizes and will promise to release him from prison. Makar said that he will confess to the governor so that Aksionov would be sent free--back to his home. Aksionov did not want to go out of prison for he has no family neither home to back to, rather, he waited for his last hour to come. But when the order for Ivan Dmitri Aksionov's release came, he was already dead.
v Engaging Response
From this story “God Sees the Truth, But Waits”. I can felt the character’s feeling in this story. The feeling is about aksionov. H e had already slander by Makar. Although he didn’t know about the truth and he never done the big mistake but he had to in a jail for twenty-six years. His wife was dead but he was still in a jail. Aksionov felt so steadfast for his life. But he never replied to all that because he believes god who will punish and avenge all that had she felt so far. They have disposed of all the happiness of his family and separate from each other. God will give happiness to him when he died. And they will get all the replies of the gods. Slander is crueler than murder. You must believe it !!!
I think this story explains that we as humans have to believe in the power of god. God will show you all the truth to us at the right time. We must also pray to god. to always be blessed from god. I can not imagine if I was in a position like him. Can I will survive in that problem. We must be separated with our family for 26 years. 26 years is a very long time for an innocent person or that have never committed the mistakes. But we must wait for a miracle that would be god to us.
If I were as Aksionov. I was sure will not last in that long. Because I was not do a big mistakes to be in prison for 26 years. I can not imagine how my life when away from my family in a very long time. Prison is very frightening for me. And I am very proud of him because he could still survive and wait for the miracle of god.
v Judging Response
I think this story has an interesting story because we can imagine what happened in this story. This story I could learn if there is someone who did something bad to us is we do not reciprocate by doing something bad, too. We pray to god to avenge all that because we are not is a god who can punish someone. And we also must be responsible with what he has done. Be a person who do not harm others but be a person who gives benefit to others. We also have to be patient in controlling our emotions. And also we should not to believe someone that we only known. God Sees the Truth, But Waits was created by Leo Tolstoy. I think what this author tells a story like this because he wanted to remind people that god is everything and must believe in the power of God.
v Connecting Response
I also never experienced what he experienced. but not about the murder, but slander. all people in the world must have experienced things like that but it depends on big or small a problem. and how we can solve all problems. We may not do the same things they have done to us. we must pray that god knows the truth. and god is also the one who will help us solve that problem.
I want to connect the story to my own religion that I can find in Surah Al Humaza (The One Who Slanders)
Woe to every Humazah Lumazah.
Al-Hammaz refers to (slander) by speech, and Al-Lammaz refers to (slander) by action.
This means that the person finds fault with people and belittles them. An explanation of this has already preceded in the discussion of Allah's statement,
هَمَّازٍ مَّشَّآءِ بِنَمِيمٍ
Hammaz, going about with slander (68:11)
The last activity in LA course was applying reader response strategy to Michael Jackson’s songs, Heal the World and One Day in Your Life. Beside writing their response in their journal writing book, they had to discuss their appreciation toward that songs in facebook in internet. The writer made two groups to discuss the song in her facebook. The groups’ names are Appreciation to ONE DAY IN YOUR LIFE by MJ and Appreciation to HEAL THE WORLD by MJ. The figure is the example of the facebook.
The strengths and the advantages of various kinds of activities offered in LA course were responded that 39 students (100%) welcomed the presence of reader response strategy in teaching of English literature appreciation. Strengths and advantages of this learning model can be identified as follows: 66% say that the reader response is very useful, 75% said that it is very helpful, and 90% believed that the response of readers in appreciating threw away the boredom toward literature (Rudy, 2010). This research report strengthened the statements of Carter and Long (1991), Beach and Marshall, (1990), and Moody (1971). Here are two opinions of respondents about the use of reader response strategy.
The seven reader response strategies are the implication of the new paradigm in appreciating literature. Under the old paradigm, We Felt That literature is just boring. The new paradigm gives us the new color in appreciating the literary work .... The new paradigm gives us the new and fresh way to understand the literary works. So students will not be bored and think that literary work is not fun. By involving the student into the story the students Can feel the emotion and the aim of the literary work Itself. (# Kh)
In my point of view, the seven reader response strategies are really useful for sharpening my literary works Towards sensitivity. The more I explore my comprehension by describing, Engaging, conceiving, explaining, interpreting, connecting, and judging, the more I appreciate literary works ... .. really work for my sensitivity and Appreciation Towards literary works .... It makes more valuable literary works and some existed. I think, no difficulty and Weakness in this new paradigm. (# NLP)
I have never known about these seven responses before. ….I used to be under the old paradigm. After being introduced the the seven reader responses, I can explore every aspect in literary works….. The exploration of the literary appreciation by using reader responses can develop our critical thinking so that we can improve our behavior and attitude. (#GU)
The seven reader response strategies are the implication of new paradigm in appreciating literature. Under the old paradigm, we just felt that literature is boring. The new paradigm gives us the new color in appreciating the literary work…. The new paradigm gives us the new and fresh way to understand the literary works. So students won’t be bored and think that literary work is not fun. By involving the student into the story the students can feel the emotion and the aim of the literary work itself. (#Kh)
In my opinin, seven reader responses as a new paradigm are very effective in learning literary appreciation. … The responses are capable to sharpen students’ critical thinking and emotional aspects. (#DS)
Seven reader responses is a new paradigm of reading approach. It is the newest innovation and formula which help students to be active in reading. This strategy can attract students’ interest by asking them questions related to imagination, opinion, and feeling about the story being read. Also, this strategy is effective to make students get involved to the reading material (#MS)
Reader response strategies are the strategies used to appreciate literary works. All those are really useful …. (#BW)
Based on the opinions about the benefits of reader response, it can be concluded that the response used as a new paradigm of literary appreciation is very effective in developing cognitive aspect, sharpening the emotional or affective aspect, and providing a new color in the world of literary appreciation.
Conclusion
The collaboration between reader response strategy and visual symbol response is a research-based literature learning model that has been developed in the last ten years. This collaborative learning model was applied in the teaching of literature to stimulate cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains. It can also be used to develop creative industry in terms of performance art and students’ character. In terms of humanism approach, it can be inferred that those activities in LA course can help the students humanize themselves to be good character people. Therefore, the course in the language education has not neglected anymore and pays attention to the approach that emphasizes values and attitudes since it emphasizes on feelings (personal emotions and esthetic appreciation), social relations (friendship and cooperation), responsibility (the need for public scrutiny, criticism, and correction), intellectual (knowledge, reason, and understanding).
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