Introduction

The integration of new technologies in education has become even more necessary in the 21^st century, including handling hardware and software, as well as working with web-based content. They way students process information has changed and digitalization has also influenced their interests. Reacting to these changes imposes a tremendous challenge to teachers (Figueroa 2015: 42). They have to include modern, authentic materials and to offer their learners strategies to acquire vocabulary on their own when meeting unknown contents.

In this paper, it is stated that English is the lingua franca of computing, what has to be taken into consideration when making curricular decisions. Game design can serve as a meaningful topic in the EFL (English as a foreign language) classroom, since it is related to the students’ interests and reality. I will present methods such as task-based language learning and teaching, as well as theories concerning vocabulary acquisition and learning strategies. Throughout the paper, those methods and theories will be connected to the topic of game design and combined with ideas for the implementation in the EFL classroom. Finally, I will suggest three websites which offer game creators, along with recommendations for further research. This paper is aiming at giving inspiration and an overview for educators who wish to implement innovative teaching methods to encourage their students to a more self-determined learning attitude.

Suggestions for further reading

Although not mentioned in this paper, the following texts are highly recommended for further research concerning games, gamification and game design in the EFL classroom.

Caponetto, I, Earp, J. & Ott, M. (2014). Gamification and Education: A Literature Review. Retrieved 15. December 2017 from: www.itd.cnr.it/download/gamificationECGBL2014.pdf.

Garris, R., Ahlers, R., & Driskell, J. E. (2002). Games, motivation, and learning: A research and practice model. Simulation and Gaming, 33 (4), 441–472.

Levy, M. (1997). CALL: Context and Conceptualisation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ybarra, R., & Green T. (2003). Using technology to help ESL/EFL students develop language skills. The Internet TESL Journal, 9 (3). Retrieved 15. December 2017 from: http://iteslj.org/Articles/YbarraTechnolo.

Fullerton, T. (2008). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games (2nd ed). Burlington, MA: Elsevier.

Schell, J. (2008). The Art of Game Design. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kauffman Publishers.

References

Construct 2. Retrieved 15. December 2017 from https://www.scirra.com/construct2

Dudeney, G. & Nicky H. (2007). How to teach English with Technology. Harlow: Pearson Longman.

Eckerth, J. (2008). “Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching – Old Wine in new Bottles?” Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching. Ed. Johannes Eckerth & Sabine Siekmann. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. 13-46.

Ellis, R. (2003). Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press.

Figueroa Flores, J. (2015). “Using Gamification to Enhance Second Language Learning.”. Digital Education Review, 21. Retrieved 15. December 2017 from: http://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/der/article/view/11912/pdf. 32-54.

Gamestar Mechanic. Retrieved 15. December 2017 from: http://gamestarmechanic.com/

Gardner, D. (2013). Exploring Vocabulary. Language in Action. London: Routledge.

Hatch, E. & Cheryl B. (1995). Vocabulary, Semantics, and Language Education. Cambridge [u.a.]: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Kersten, S. (2010). The Mental Lexicon and Vocabulary Learning. Tübingen: narr Verlag.

Nunan, D. (2004). Task-Based Language Teaching. Cambridge [u.a.]: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Scratch. Retrieved 15. December 2017 from: https://scratch.mit.edu/.

Siekmann, S. (2008). “Peer Scaffolding and Orientation towards the Task during collaborative WebQuests.” Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching. Ed. Johannes Eckerth & Sabine Siekmann. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. 143-172.

Sykes, J. M. & Reinhardt, J. (2013). Language at Play. Digital Games in second and foreign Language Teaching and Learning. Boston [u.a.]: Pearson.

Thornbury, S. (2002). How to teach Vocabulary. Harlow: Longman.

Willis, D. & Willis, J. (2012). Doing Task-Based Teaching. Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press.

Introduction

Who is Medea? First of all, she is a woman. More specific, she is the main character of Euripedis’ eponymous Greek tragedy Medea whose story seems to be timeless, as it has been adapted and retold countless times. But are we looking at her destiny or is she just mirroring ours? She is a symbol and she is unique; her deeds are truly ambivalent.

In 2015, Rachel Cusk, a British writer, presented her version of Medea in the Almeida Theatre, London, with the help of the director Rupert Goold. Her version offers many approaches for interpretation and does not depend on the original play, nevertheless this paper compares both versions, Cusks and a translation of Euripides’ version of Philip Vellacott, in order to explore in how far Medea’s motives and her perception have changed. Especially since the late 1960s, when the interest in gender aspects of Greek tragedies increased (Foley 2004: 77), Medea has been most popular as a framework for revision of gender issues in this genre (ibd.: 103). She “has been used to explore feminist rage […] and female exploitation” (ibd.: 104) and personifies ambiguous gendered perceptions, what isolates her and lets her appear as a dangerous creature. It is this part of her, the dangerous, monstrous part, that serves as a basis for the central thesis of this paper: In Euripides’ version, Medea is presented as a “monstrous-feminine figure”, whereas Cusk created a Medea who the audience can identify with more easily, since her deeds are less cruel. In order to prove this process of transformation, the term “monstrous-feminine” will be clarified first. For this purpose, relevant findings of British feminist film theorist Barbara Creed are presented and transferred to Euripides’ version of Medea to verify the first part of the thesis. The reader’s knowledge of Euripides’ Medea is taken for granted, but before referring to the thesis again, a summary of Cusk’s play is given. The main part is divided into a chapter concentrating on the statement that the audience is (more) likely to identify with Cusk’s Medea and another chapter focusing on the motivation and the extent of her revenge. In addition to other sources, a text written by Cusk herself, as well as an interview with her by Susanna Rustin are included to confirm certain statements based on her intention. 

Conclusion

The original version of Medea is about a woman who kills her children after her husband left her for another woman. She seeks for revenge and is driven by anger, which derives, inter alia, from her jealousy. She turns out to be monstrous-feminine and superhuman. She constantly personifies the other and leaves the audience with an ambivalent impression. Cusk’s Medea, on the other hand, is about a woman who refuses to subordinate herself to motherhood and “who speaks of the exhaustion, the isolation and sheer slog of being a mother, [that] is deemed to be unnatural” (Gardner 2015). Although she is angry, her behavior must be interpreted as a constant defense against injustice and unequal treatment with a minimum of action (especially no physical violence) and a great use of words. Moreover, Cusk’s Medea acts within a legal framework and stays genuine. She does not just talk about the importance of truth, but also acts it out with all its negative consequences. This honesty cannot be found in the original translation, in which Medea lies to everyone except the chorus (Easterling 2003: 191). These qualities enable the audience’s identification with her instead of the sole pity and understanding brought up for the “original” Medea.

Becoming active, seeking for revenge and accepting the drastic consequences without moaning is usually perceived as masculine characteristics. Creed argues that from a misogynistic perspective “femininity is never violent – not even in the imagination” (ibd. 1993: 156) and that “women by definition are ‘pure’ creatures […] [who] need men to ‘guide’ them through life’s stormy passage” (ibd.). This view exists in both versions and is attacked by Medea. However, the act of killing the children misses and therefore the role of the audience changes. The audience is no longer just looking at the narrative and enabled to judge in the end, but is meant to identify with Medea and question our (pre-)conception of gender (Cusk 2015b; Rustin 2015). Medea is neither monstrous, nor the other, she is us and fighting for our justice, too. Cusk mentions that the play “demonstrates, with bitter irony, that a woman is better protected by conventional passivity than by independence and autonomy” (ibd. 2015b), but probably speaks through Medea when she says: “Out of suffering comes truth” (Cusk 2015a: 21) and “I’d rather be dead than unfree” (ibd.). Furthermore, she says that what interested her was “the contemporary struggle to reconcile feminist principles with institutional modes of living” (Cusk 2015b), which Medea has to fight the same way many self-determined women nowadays have to. Unfortunately, the end of the play is as pessimistic and tragic as our reality, 2.500 years after Euripides wrote Medea: “nothing, fundamentally, has changed” (ibd.). At least, the intelligent and confident female protagonist is no longer presented as monstrous-feminine.

References

Chadhuri, S. (2006). Feminist Film Theorists: Laura Mulvey, Kaja Silverman, Teresa de Lauretis, Barbara Creed. London: Routledge.

Creed, B. (1993). The Monstrous-Feminine. London: Routledge.

Cusk, R. (2015a). Euripides Medea: A new version by Rachel Cusk. London: Oberon Books.

Cusk, R. (2015b, September 30). Medea is not a psychotic - she's a realist. Retrieved from Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/actors/medea-rachel-cusk/

Easterling, P. E. (2003). The Infanticide in Euripides' Medea. In J. Mossman, Oxford Readings in Classical Studies: Euripides (pp. 187-200). Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Foley, H. P. (2001). Female acts in Greek tragedy. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.

Foley, H. P. (2004). Bad Women. In E. Hall, F. Macintosh, & A. Wrigley, Dionysus Since 69: Greek Tragedy at the Dawn of the Third Millenium (pp. 77-111). Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Gardner, L. (2015, October 5). Rachel Cusk's Medea: A lesson in gender politics ancient and modern, onstage and off. Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2015/oct/05/rachel-cusk-medea-gender-politics-ancient-and-modern-almeida

Rustin, S. (2015, October 3). Rachel Cusk interview: ‘Medea is about divorce … A couple fighting is an eternal predicament. Love turning to hate’. Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/03/rachel-cusk-interview-medea-divorce-almeida-theatre-london-feminist-euripides

Vellacott, P. (2004). Medea by Euripides. In S. Dutta, Greek Tragedy (pp. 129-182). London: Penguin Books.

All online sources were last retrieved 2018, January 5.

Why does multilingual-sensitive teaching matter?

The answer to the question why multilingual-sensitive teaching matters is as simple as it is complex: The content and the way we teach must be modified, since “classrooms around Europe are becoming increasingly more linguistically and culturally diverse” (Abney & Krulatz 2015: 1). This paper presents a selection of approaches and strategies adapted to the multilingual classroom[1] and examines the role of teachers, as well as of students. Besides advantages, demanding aspects that are worth being considered are mentioned, too.

Requirements for teachers in the 21st century include the creation of an atmosphere where diversity is welcomed and multi-literacy is facilitated, offering multimodal input and opportunities for interaction. Each classroom is unique and especially immigrant students let diversity increase. English turns away from being the object of study, but becomes a tool for meaningful communication (ibid.: 2f).

The presented authors demand the development of a linguistic repertoire, which includes all acquired languages. They argue that all participants in a classroom can learn from each other, valuing every language and making use of linguistic resources in a creative and conscious way, corresponding to the direction recommended by the Council of Europe. Furthermore, the results of two studies have been included, one concerning migrant students’ self-perception (Leichsering 2014), the other one focusing on the differences of applied learning strategies between monolingual and multilingual students (Mitits 2016). As multilingual-sensitive teaching cannot be defined as a strategy, but rather as a practice mirroring an attitude, this paper can only broach this complex discussion.  Further reading containing reflected experiences is suggested to conduct an in-depth review.

References

Abney, S. & Krulatz, A. (2015). Fostering multilingual competence in the EFL classroom. Nordic Journal of Modern Language Methodology, 3 (2), 1-9.

Council of Europe. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (2001). Online version. Retrieved 28. Februar 2017 from: www.coe.int/lang-CEFR.

Cummins, J. (2005). Teaching for Cross-Language Transfer in Dual Language Education: Possibilities and Pitfalls. Retrieved 28. Februar 2017 from: http://www.tesol.org/docs/default-source/new-resource-library/symposium-on-dual-language-education-3.pdf?sfvrsn=0.

De Florio-Hansen, I. (2006). Intercomprehension – and beyond? Anmerkungen zu einem Gesamtsprachenkonzept. In: H. Martinez & M. Reinfried (Eds.), Mehrsprachigkeitsdidaktik gestern, heute und morgen (pp. 27-33). Tübingen: Narr.

Elsner, D. (2015). Inklusion von Herkunftssprachen – Mehrsprachigkeit als Herausforderung und Chance. In: M. Bongartz & A. Rohde (Eds.), Inklusion im Englischunterricht (pp. 71-116). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Edition.

García, O. & Wei, L. (2014). Translanguaging. Language, Bilingualism and Education. Basingstoke [u.a.]: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hufeisen, B. & Marx, N. (2007). How can DaFnE and EuroComGerm contribute to the concept of receptive multilingualism? Theoretical and practical considerations. In: J. D. ten Thije & L. Zeevaert (Eds.), Receptive Multilingualism: Linguistic Analysis, Language Policies, and Didactic Concepts (pp. 307-322). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Leichsering, T. (2014). Rethinking Urban Schools – A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Multilingualism in Frankfurt/M, Germany. In: A. Otwinowska & G. De Angelis (Eds.), Teaching and Learning in Multilingual Contexts. Sociolinguistic and Educational Perspectives (pp. 98-121). Bristol [u.a.]: Multilingual Matters.

Mitits, L. (2016). Language learning strategy profile of monolingual and multilingual EFL learners. Selected Papers of the 21st International Symposium on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (ISTAL 21). Greece, Europe: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. 698-713.

Reich, H. H. & Krumm, H.-J. (2013). Sprachbildung und Mehrsprachigkeit. Ein Curriculum zur Wahrnehmung und Bewältigung sprachlicher Vielfalt im Unterricht. Münster [u.a.]: Waxmann.

Schuch, J. (2015). Inklusion und Mehrsprachigkeit: Die Rolle von Sprachbewusstheit im multilingualen Spracherwerb. In: M. Bongartz & A. Rohde (Eds.), Inklusion im Englischunterricht (117-143). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Edition.

Üstünel, E. (2016). EFL Classroom Code-Switching. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Online Ressource: Berlin [u.a.]: Springer.

Introduction

When searching for literature concerning the “diverse”, “inclusive” or “heterogeneous” classroom, many results can be found. However, these adjectives often contain a more complex understanding than the one which will be presented in this paper. I want to concentrate on the heterogeneous classroom consisting of students whose experiences with literature differ to a great extant. There might be students who have not read a whole book in their entire life and regarding their future plans, do not see the need of doing so; on the other hand, some students might be able and willing to achieve a higher graduation based on literacy skills. A class can be heterogeneous due to several aspects, such as intelligence, linguistic talent, biographical background, learner type and learning strategies (Thaler 2012: 129). Internal differentiation aims at encouraging each individual to develop communicative competences such as reading competences.

In this paper only current literature has been used to examine the advantages of graphic novels in the EFL classroom. The insights will be supported by results of a study comparing a graphic novel and a traditional novel in L2, a significant and almost unexplored research field. Based on my own experience as a teacher in a 10^th grade, I am convinced of the motivational effect achieved by graphic novels. Learners who are familiar with literature will appreciate the variety of the format and are likely to enjoy the entertaining and mind-engaging aspect, whereas reluctant readers profit from a simplified introduction to literary elements and the positive influence on their self-concept as readers. Besides the definition of relevant terms and references to the compliance with the curriculum, reasons for increased intrinsic motivation, advantages for different learner types, as well as supported reading strategies will be presented. The implementation of graphic novels fits not only educational standards, but also the changed reading habits of a generation grown up with new media. Reading competences, language learning and literal and visual literacy can be improved with graphic novels.

Bibliography

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