Teaching Environmental Issues through Literature

Mia FitriaAgustina, M. A.

mia.fitria.agustina@gmail.com

English Literature, FIB, UNSOED, Purwokerto

Abstracts

This paper aims to explain how literature can be a mean to create awareness on ecological issues. It is proven that literature can move humans to do many beneficial actions. Hence, through literature, to build generation who always concern about literature is something possible. In the form of poetry, prose, and drama; literature shows that there are many things that can be done to maintain our earth. To be specific, this paper is going to describe steps to create an activity to promote ecological awareness. There are twoliterary works used to help the explanation. Those are “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury, and “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett. The steps can be divided into pre activity, while activity, and post activity. In pre activity, there are some things, such as, eliciting the issues or giving a questionnaire. In while teaching, the activities are reading, explaining, re-reading and discussing. Finally, in post activity, some activities can be done, for example, storytelling, presenting, or writing.

Keywords: literature, teaching, and environmental issues

Introduction

Our earth is getting old shown through many environmental problems happening. It is so hot now since humans are getting bigger that causes the land to be opened for humans needs. To open the land trees are cut down, animals are pushed away far deeper into the forest, and ecosystems are forced to change. It is also so sad that there are many extinct animals. It can be predicted that in the future, the generation will not recognize some animals as they are vanished. The generation may only see the animals in the museums or movies.

The problem mentioned has been solved by many efforts. Not only through laws but also through creative ways are conducted to get the solution. Literature is one of the creative ways. Ecological approach, one of literature criticisms, promotes ways to deal with the environmental issues. Therefore, it is used to evoke the readers to be more concern on what is happening in our environment.

To be more focus, there are two literary works used to support the explanation, namely, “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury, and “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett. “A Sound of Thunder” is a short stories talking about time machine that can bring us back to the previous time. The machine is mainly for doing hunting especially hunting dinosaurs. The unique thing in the story that may evoke readers’ attention is if we change the past we may change the future. Thus, this is the power of the story that may be used as an instrument to teach ecological issues. While, “A White Heron” is a short story about a hunter who hunt a white heron, one of the endanger animals. The interesting part of the story is about how the hunter manipulates a pure heart of a girl to show where the heron is.He seduces the girl both with money and love. Finally it can be concluded that those two short stories are going to helpa lot in explaining the step to create activities to promote ecological awareness.

Literature Review

1. Teaching

Effective teachers have to know the characteristics of their learners in order to set appropriate methods for their students. Moreover, teachers have to take consideration of the students differences when they design certain activities that they want to carry out in their class. Thus, age is one of important information that can be used by the teacher as one consideration in deciding the class activities since teaching children, of course, will greatly be different from teaching adults, since those two kinds of learners hold different characteristics.

As it is stated, teaching adults must be different from teaching teenagers or kids. Adults have unique characters; thus, teaching them needs strategies. They also have special needs which are important to be considered when the teacher wants to decide class activities. The characters of adult learners are as follows:

1. Adult learners are capable of dealing with abstract rules and concepts of language (Brown, 2001). Because of this character, many teachers for adult class tend to think that adults do not need many fun activities such as games and songs since they can learn the language through merely abstract concept. However, Brown (2001, p. 90) warns that “too much abstract generalization about usage and not enough real-life language use can be deadly for adults, too”.

2. Adults have life experiences and knowledge (Harmer, 2007&Malcom Knowles in Lieb, 1991), so they often use these experiences to help them learning new knowledge. This enables teachers to use a wide range of activities (Harmer, 2007) and activities which can relate the adult’s life experience and knowledge are more preferable. So, using materials, such as their favorite songs, their favorite news program, etc., that most of the learners are familiar with may be beneficial for the teaching and learning process in adult class.

3. In learning, Adults are goal-oriented (Knowles in Lieb, 1991). They often have clear understanding of why they are learning a language and they only react positively to activities that can help them achieve their goals. That is why teacher, as quoted from Knowles, Lieb (1991) points out, “must show participants (learners) how this class will help them attain their goals. This classification of goals and course objectives must be done early in the course.”

4. “Adults often bring a modicum of general self confidence (global self-esteem) into the classroom” (Brown, 2001). This means that the teacher should to respect the learners and “these adults (learners) should be treated as equals in experience and knowledge and allowed to voice their opinions freely in class” (Knowles in Lieb, 1991). Brown (2001) also suggests that although adult egos are not as fragile as children’s, teacher should never underestimate the emotional factors that adults bring to their language learning.

5. Adults are autonomous and self-directed (Knowles in Lieb, 1991). Therefore, teachers must actively involve in the learner throughout the teaching and learning process. The role of teachers in adult class is more as facilitator who guide the learners to get their own knowledge rather than supplying them with facts (Knowles in Lieb, 1991).

Good teachers of adults should take those factors into account when they want to design classroom activities. Every activity designed for the class should match the characters of adult learners in order to maximize the result of the teaching and learning process. Here are some suggestions in designing activities for adult class. It is suggested that activities in adult class

1. allow the students to be involved in a more indirect learning through reading, listening, speaking and writing and at the same time allow them to use their intellects to learn consciously where appropriate (Harmer, 2007).

2. enable the learners to use their multiple senses (Brown, 2001). Avoid only transmitting knowledge and don’t "spoon-feed" the learners. Variations in activities will also allow the adult learners to develop their multiple intelligences.

3. encourage the students to use their own life experience in the learning process (Harmer, 2007).4. can be modified to suit the learners’ learning tastes (Harmer, 2007).5. may not offend the adults self esteem and ego. The activities should not embarrassed or

humiliating to the learners.

2. Ecocriticism

Ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and physical environment (Glotfelty, 1996). It connects literature and the physical environment used earth-centered approach to do the research. The theory firstly coined by William Rueckert in 1978 and he stated that ecocriticism means the application of ecology and ecological concepts to the study of literature. In his essays, Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism, he connected relationship between the science of ecology and the study of literary criticism. Besides, the definition proposed by Rueckert concerns specifically with the science of ecology.

Thus, the ecocriticism theory is a theory which combines ecology and earth study in literary works and it is acting like a bridge between the literary works and the environmental issue happened in the surrounding. Ecocriticism is acting as a tool for critical response between the texts and the environmental issues that people are not yet hear about it. It explains land’s histories and the newest condition of land use and abuse and the theory tries to open people’s eyes and realize that the environment is yelling through images and works which the environmentalist showed in literary works. It also becomes a tool for critical response to unheard dialogue between the text and the environmental issues. Barry (2002) says that the ecocentred reading on the house and it environs. Moreover, ecocriticism is considered as an interdisciplinary of literature which combines ecology and earth study. Nature is not only the focus of ecocritical studies, but animals, frontier, cities, specific geographical regions, rivers, mountains, deserts, Indians, technology, garbage, and the people also the other topics of ecocritical studies.

Research Method

There are two kinds of data in this paper. Those are primary data and supporting data. The primary data are taken from a short story entitled “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury and “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett. Therefore, monologues, dialogues, and narrations in the novel which explain about ecological issue especially about the important of animals are sorted as the data. While, supporting data are taken from books, magazines, journals, essays, and articles. Those supporting data are necessary to create activities to promote ecological awareness.

Then, technique for data collection is conducted through several steps. Those steps are reading and re-reading, note taking, and data reducing. Reading and re-reading are done to get the comprehension of the subject of the study. After that, note taking is conducted to create activities to make students be aware of environmental issue especially about animal extinction. Finally, the next step is data reduction which is important to be done as this step determines the data used to create activities on ecological problems.

The last is technique for data analysis. The data which are collected and sorted in the previous process are examined and interpreted based on the ecological problems found in the short stories. In this step the sorted data is presented and explained. Next, after presenting and explaining, the data is going to be interpreted. This step involves supporting data to strengthen the finding. Moreover for some data, the

implicit one, they are significant to be explored further. Thus, the interpretation also needs more process to make the finding more valid and more reliable.

Discussion

There are three parts of discussion, such as, pre-activity, while activity and post activity. The parts are based on the necessity to remind what the purpose of the activity is. This is important to give psychological effects more on the topic. When people are reminded about something over and over again, they are going to be more aware on what is happening. The detail on the activities is going to be explained as follow.

1. Pre-activity

In this kind of part, there are some activities that can be done to start the topic. Those are eliciting the topic or giving questionnaire. Right before the activity is conducted, several questions are addressed to get the answer. The answer is important to get to know the background knowledge. When the knowledge is more or less the same the next activity then can be proceeded. Here are the examples of questions for “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury

Do you think you can change the past? Why? Do you believe in time travel? Why? If accidently something happened when you did time travel, do you think it can change the

present and what is/are the change/changes

While, question for “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett are:

Do you love money? Do you want to get some money? What do you do if you can get money by showing or giving information about thing or animal

that you love the most?

By asking the questions, it is hoped that the background knowledge on the issue is quite the same. When it is the same to move on into the second step of the activity is easier too. If the level of the students is lower that university students, this pre-activity can be done in more fun way, for example, playing the students some short video about animals, or telling a story about unfortunate animals in Kalimantan when forest fire happened.

2. While Activity

In this part, the activity can be divided into parts. The first is introducing the short stories. The introduction can be giving the students the summary of the story. However it is important to challenge the students in some important part, so the students are interested to read it by themselves and find the missing part told by the teacher. For example, in “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury, the teacher can describe the story as time machine story where the characters may go to the past. The missing part can be how they go to the past or what happen during the journey, and when the characters have been in the past time. It may also about several restrictions that must be done in the past moment. It is not different from “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury, the teacher may also omit some challenging part of “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett. The part can be if Sylvia takes the money from the hunter, or if Sylvia tells the hunter where the heron is.

After giving an introduction, the teacher may help the students with some vocabulary. It is important to be done to help the students to comprehend more the story. Here are some examples for“A White Heron”:

huckleberry bushes: Gaylussacia, of the heath family, erica, is a shrub that produces a dark blue edible berry.

a little white heron: the snowy egret. It was hunted nearly to extinction for its feathers, which were used in women's hats

salt marshes: See Jewett's A Marsh Island (Chapter 7 for example) for a description of salt marsh life.

whippoorwills: this species of nightjar has a distinctive nocturnal song (Research, Allison Easton).

housebreaker: Jewett may mean one who escapes from a house as well as one who breaks in. See Jewett's sketch, "The Confession of a House-Breaker," in The Mate of the Daylight and Friends Ashore (1883).

cat-birds: Probably the Gray Catbird, named because its characteristic call note is a cat-like mew. While for “A Sound of Thunder” are:

Expendable: adj. not strictly necessary; capable of being sacrificed Correlate: v. to bring (one thing) into relation (with another thing); calculate Paradox: n. something that seems illogical, but that in fact may be true Resilient: adj. capable of springing back into shape or position after being bent, stretched, or

compressed Primeval: adj. of or having to do with the first or earliest age; primitive

After addressing the vocabulary then the teacher allows the students to read the story for about 15 minutes. The next thing that can be done, then, is discussing the story. After discussing the story, talking about environment issue is needed to be conducted. “A Sound of Thunder” is about animal problem (Agustina, 2015). In the short story, this animal issue illustrated both directly and indirectly by the author, Ray Bradbury. This animal concern is about the roles of animals in this earth. Each of the animals mentioned in the story shown that those animals have important roles to maintain the balance of the earth. Those animals are a tyrannosaurus, a mouse, and a butterfly. A little bit different from “A Sound of Thunder”, “A White Heron” is about animal extinction (Agustina, 2016). In the story, a girl named Sylvia knows where Heron lives; therefore, a hunter needs her to tell about the Heron. The hunter seduces her with both money and love that makes it be difficult to be refused by a girl who feels love on him and who needs money.

3. Post-ActivityThe last step of activity can be ended by asking the students to produce both in the form of

speaking or writing. Through the discussion, students can be asked to give report to certain case of animal problems. Otherwise, students can write something larger than animal issues as long as it is about environmental issue. Many other activities may be applied too to increase students’ creativity. Students can draw environmental issue then explain their picture in front of the class. Otherwise, they may tell a story based on the pictures. They may also write some more environmental issues and solve it in their own group or conduct larger group of discussion.

ConclusionThrough some step, the activity to promote awareness is not impossible to be conducted. The pre,

while, and post activity will certainly help the teacher to raise students’ awareness on ecological issues. With literature as the media, the teacher must not be afraid that the teacher will be lack of the media. Finally, the step to create activity can be applied on any other literature; poem, prose, or drama.

References

Agustina, Mia Fitria. 2016. Using “White Heron” to Boost Students’ Empathy on Environmental Issue. Proceding on Seminar NasionalBahasa&Sastra.UniversitasTrunojoyo.

Agustina, Mia Fitria. 2015. Applying Ecological Approach in A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury. Proceeding of 4th English Language Teaching, Literature, and Translation, International Conference 2015.Faculty of Language and Arts, Sate University of Semarang.

Barry, Peter. 2002. Beginning Theory. Manchester: Machester University Press.Bradbury, Ray. “A Sound of Thunder”.Brown, H. Douglas. 2001. Teaching by principle. San Francisco. Longman Denzin, Norma K, and Lincoln, Yvonna S. 2000.Handbook of Qualitative Reasearch. London: Sage

Publication Inc.Garrad, Greg. 2004. Ecocriticism. New York: Routledge.Glotfelty, C. (1996). The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Edited by CheryllGlotfelty and Harold Fromm. Georgia: University ofGeorgia Press.Harmer, Jeremy. 2007. The practice of English Language Teaching. England. LongmanHarmer, Jeremy. 2001. How to Teach English. England. LongmanJewett, Sarah Orne. “White Heron”.Retrieved on 6th May 2016.

http://www.public.coe.edu/~theller/soj/awh/heron.htmLieb, Stephen. 1991. Characteristics of adult learners. http://honolulu.hawai.edu. Data retrieved on June

16, 2007.Yearley, S. 1996. Sociology, Environmentalism, Globalization: Reinventing the Globe. London: Sage.

DATA PRIBADI:

Nama Lengkap : MIA FITRIAAGUSTINA

Tanggal Lahir : 17 AGUSTUS 1979

Alamat : Jl. Pemuda Gg. 1 Cluster Pemuda No. 1 RT 7 Rw 6 Purwokerto Barat

Nomor HP/Telp : 08562890472

Email : Mia.fitria.agustina@gmail.com