University of Cincinnati

Finneytown High School

Since July, 1987, university-level instructors who are involved in teacher education in Ohio must spend an extended period of time observing and/or teaching in an elementary or secondary classroom¹⁸⁰. This new certification requirement led to an exchange between a foreign-language (FL) methods instructor and a high school Spanish teacher. Since the original pilot study, the exchange has been repeated or planned for two additional years.

Bernhardt and Hammadou (3) report that they discovered only 78 articles published in the last ten years that deal with FL teacher education. A mere ten percent were products of empirical data. Many, however, urged revision to the methods curriculum. These calls for revision reflect the frustration of cooperating teachers, of student teacher, and perhaps most serious, of the students who are products of many foreign-language classrooms. Areas of concern include the level of language proficiency of preservice teachers, their classroom management skills, and their understanding of second-language (SL) learning theory and ability to incorporate knowledge into methods that promote communicative language development (Hammadou & Bernhardt, 5).

Many writers urge proficiency testing as a focus for both FL teaching and for the methods curriculum¹⁸¹; however; some writers (Lantolf & Frawley, 11; Lee, 13; Kramsch, 9, 10; Savignon, 17) are cautious about adopting the descriptions without extensive validation. Kramsch (10), for example, promotes «interactional» proficiency and argues that FL teachers must be taught to encourage students to negotiate meaning and solve problems. In general, however, text materials and workshop topics suggest that the methods course has changed in the last ten years¹⁸². As our knowledge of language-learning and pedagogical theory has evolved, these materials suggest that the methods course has also evolved to reflect meaningful, communicative, functional, proficiency, and even integrative language goals.

While the concern expressed above seems to focus on the preservice teacher, little attention is paid to the preservice teacher educator, i. e., the foreign-language methods instructor. Jarvis and Bernhardt (8) reported recently that there is cause for both optimism and pessimism in the status of educating preservice FL teachers. On the positive side, many large institutions (and presumably smaller ones, also) now offer specialized foreign-language teaching methods courses; however, the authors express reservations regarding the experience and education of the methods instructor. Many, they suggest, «were trained during the audiolingual period and ...many still view teacher education in terms of components such as use of drilling and "culture capsules" rather than techniques in communicative language teaching» (1). Whether or not this statement is valid (the authors admit that data must be collected regarding the methods demonstrated in specific courses), it is curious that

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these authors are among the few who dare to suggest an examination of the teacher educator in addition to the teacher apprentice. Those of us involved in teacher education may be reluctant to view ourselves as lifelong learners whose approach to teaching methodology and individual learners also must evolve to reflect the current status of the elementary or secondary classroom. Even the methods instructor who holds teacher certification and has two or more years experience in an elementary or secondary classroom is physically distanced from what is going on in the classroom today. Alatis (2) hinted at the methods instructors' privileged position which may cloud the understanding of such vital issues as classroom management and discipline. She recommends first, that preservice teachers have longer apprenticeships, and second, that teaching of management and discipline as they apply to the FL classroom be included in the methods course. Her recommendations imply the need for closer contact between the methods instructor and the FL classroom.

Whereas the connection between language-learning theory and teaching should be self-evident, a variety of opinions exist regarding its inclusion in the methods curriculum. Jarvis (7) advocates a combination of research and clinical experience («pedagogical knowledge») as a key factor in teacher education. Unfortunately, he concludes, there is a dearth of research that is foreign-language specific, the data base having been borrowed from other disciplines. Brown (4), on the other hand, laments that we have «almost too much theory» (54) and too many contexts of instruction to design an effective teacher-education program. He argues that teacher education should emphasize less analysis and more intuition. Larson (12) adamantly insists that preservice teachers should have more experience in the target classroom at the expense of traditional courses in language and theory. In-service teachers, for their part, certainly extol the value of practice over theoretical knowledge. In a study by Richards and Hino (15), the reported value of a particular element of the methods course was directly correlated with its practical application. Teachers reported, moreover, that their most valuable experience was student teaching. Stern (18) suggested that a generic FL methods course may not be appropriate for the variety of contexts of FL instruction. Some programs, he concludes, are simply not educating teachers for what they ultimately must do in the classroom. The question remains, therefore, as Bernhardt and Hammadou (3) point out; «How can clinical field experience best be integrated with methods study?»

This question should be directed toward methods instructors. Both Jarvis (7) and Stern (18) insist that methods instructors need specialized training in order to become teacher educators. With the constant evolution of knowledge and context, teacher educators constantly must reexamine theory as supported by empirical data. In addition to staying abreast with the research, they should also maintain contact with the clinical aspect of foreign-language teaching. The preceding tenet is the basis for the exchange project.

The planning for the pilot Methods Instructor/Spanish Teacher exchange program took place at a meeting of the Curriculum Committee for Secondary Teacher Education in the fall, 1986. That meeting was attended by several local school superintendents, principals, teachers, administrators from the University of Cincinnati, College of Education and the instructors of methodology. It was agreed that the FL methods instructor would participate in an exchange with a Spanish high school program. The schedule was decided by the two participants and arranged for winter quarter, 1987.

The first observation day was in January. The FL methods instructor attended the second-year Spanish class (first period) and the third-year Spanish class (third period). Second period served as a planning period during which the Spanish teacher introduced the observer to the high school staff and facilities. They discussed the curriculum, the students, the materials, the teacher's expectations, and the visitor's role in the two classes.

The first of February the university instructor returned for a week of observation of the second and third year classes. During that time she observed the classroom climate and dynamics that had been cultivated since the beginning of the school year. The students were accustomed to her presence by the time she took over the classes the second week

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of February.

During the second week she taught both classes that she had been observing. The regular teacher stayed in the classroom and occasionally another Spanish teacher came in to observe as well.

The second-year class followed the approximate curriculum that had been established by the regular teacher. Classes had been taught entirely in Spanish and were continued in that manner. Activities included pair-work, extended listening, grammar explanation and practice, and contextualized writing.

In the third-year class, the university instructor was able to select the materials. She incorporated two Afrocuban poems by Nicolás Guillén (Sensemayá and Tengo), which proved especially appropriate since it was also Black History Month, and a play from the Theater of the Absurd, Estudio en blanco y negro by Virgilio Piñera. The poems had been recorded by a graduate student at The University of Cincinnati who is a native Spanish speaker, thus exposing students to the music of the poetry. Students read the play aloud in class. As in the second-year class, other activities included extended listening (unscripted conversations created by native Spanish speakers in the Department of Romance Languages), grammar review and practice, and contextualized writing.

At the University, the high school teacher attended three of the FL methods classes during winter quarter. At the first session she answered students' questions regarding the interests of her students, techniques of instruction, amount of target language used in the classroom, variety of activities, among other topics. Some students stayed after class to continue the discussion and to get advice on a peer-teach session that they were preparing.

In the second class, university students presented a peer-teach grammar presentation. The visiting teacher added constructive criticism from the point of view of a high school teacher.

The final class was devoted to professionalism and professional organizations. Because the visiting teacher is especially active in state and national organizations, she could provide students with many reasons to become involved with their colleagues in FL instruction. The success of her participation was judged through the end-of-term evaluations by methods students. All commented on her positive role in the class, both in giving advice and in providing insight into expectations of a cooperating teacher.

Finally, both the teacher and the FL methods instructor participated in a meeting of the Committee on the Curriculum for Secondary Teachers and reported on the conduct and success of their program.

Several factors influenced the FL Methods instructor's participation in this exchange. Most compelling was the frustration expressed by student teachers over the lack of congruence between what they learned in the methods class and the «real world» of the classroom. They ask, for example, how they can conduct the entire class in the target language when the cooperating teacher speaks so much English; or how they can keep their students on task during pair work; or how they can make every activity meaningful when the text they use is 15 years old. Teacher educators, though usually experienced teachers themselves, find that they may have lost touch with the reality for which they are preparing future teachers. Often the techniques that they develop over the years and that work so well at the university level or in the peer-teaching sessions miss the mark entirely when used with younger students. Only through actual observation can one comment on the context of instruction, including background of the students, their maturity, their interests and motivations, the established climate, and their previous experience. The exchange proposal, therefore, offered the methods instructor an opportunity to test her methods, which had evolved considerably since she taught junior high Spanish 15 years ago.

The prospect of leaving her work at the university was not entirely favorable. First, since her department is not part of the College of Education, she could not automatically expect support from her college to fund a part-time replacement. Her position as language coordinator required a continued presence in the department and her absence for an extended period of time each day would be noticed by the teaching assistants that she supervised. Finally, the prospect of risking

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her reputation as a teacher in front of a group of 15-year olds was somewhat unnerving.

The first two issues were resolved when the college, recognizing the value of the exchange, appropriated funds for an adjunct instructor to help with the language coordination duties. The last issue made her extremely empathic with beginning student teachers!

Her benefits from the exchange were numerous. First, and vital in any apprenticeship, she was extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to work with a teacher who had similar values as she. The students were cooperative, respectful, eager, and accustomed to hearing only Spanish. The cooperating teacher had established a climate that proved to be ideal for a visitor. The resident teacher's influence in the experience was a key factor to its success.

Second, the methods instructor had the opportunity to observe first-hand that activities and techniques (including the use of the target language) she teaches to her foreign-language methods do work with high school students. These activities included an emphasis on authentic listening and reading. The success of natural texts with high school students lent credibility with her methods students.

Third, she confirmed and expanded her beliefs regarding the variety and range of activities that are successful with one group of high school students. Not all of the techniques that work well at the university level or in the peer-teaching sessions work as well with younger students. She was reminded that the amount of material to be covered in class, and homework to be assigned is less than with university students.

Fourth, she recorded techniques of classroom management and discipline that are effective with FL students (such as eye contact, gestures, management phrases, rewards), but that would not be included in a non-specialized methods class.

Finally, she observed that students enjoyed materials that are culturally charged and authentic in nature. She confirmed the importance of appropriate prereading and prelistening activities, and background knowledge of the students as key components to comprehension. While these factors had always been dealt with in the methods class, they now took on even greater importance.

For the resident teacher, the exchange provided a rare opportunity for collegiality. Whereas a foreign-language teacher is rarely observed by a colleague in the field, the exchange allowed both teachers to collaborate on methods and techniques without greatly disturbing the established order of the class. The rapport that developed allowed both to learn about their own individual teaching styles.

The resident teacher also became an observer of her own students from a back-of-the-room perspective. She was able to watch the reactions of her students in learning situations in a way that is impossible when she is teaching. She grew to know several of her students in different ways because of her observations. By the end of the week she felt a renewed spirit that her job entails participation in the growth of her students at times even more than her imparting lessons in Spanish. Having shared with the visitor some of the situations that exist in the classes, the teacher could rethink relationships with her students, as well.

The content of the week's instruction, including poetry and drama provided the resident teacher with ideas to incorporate into her own lesson plans. The fact that students enjoyed the lessons helped to dispel the common opinion that high school students will learn only when faced with a testing situation.

While the majority of the resident teacher's impressions were positive, she expressed a personal frustration regarding the lack of resources at the high school level that are available in universities. The tapes of native speakers, for example, provided the students with extended listening activities. The inclusion of some Latin-American literature underscored the high school teacher's hectic schedule which prevents her from being as creative with her classes as she would like. With five 55-minute classes each day and four preparations, she simply does not have enough time to be more creative. Both teachers agreed that the scarcity of preparation time is a major obstacle to effective high school teaching.

In addition to the positive remarks expressed regarding the high school teaching, both participants profited by the teacher's participation in the Romance Languages Methods

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course. The participation reinforced the high school teacher's interest in teacher education, which had always been strong. Despite having given many professional workshops, this was her first opportunity to work with students who are preparing to become teachers. Working with them and dealing with their questions allowed her to rethink her purpose and the rationale for many of her methods which, after many years in the classroom, have become automatic.

Finally, the pilot program was intended to provide an in-service activity for the foreign-language teachers at the high school level. Unfortunately, scheduling difficulties precluded observation by more than one other teacher, an individual who found the experience to be extremely valuable.

The exchange program established between the University of Cincinnati and Finneytown High School was an excellent experience for all concerned. It provided an opportunity for a teacher educator to leave the university classroom briefly for the high school world for which she was helping prepare future teachers. It allowed an experienced teacher to provide valuable information to teacher apprentices in a non-threatening way. It was important, however, that both teachers were willing to observe and to be observed, to give, and to take advice. It was crucial that home institutions cooperated in allowing time away from the primary responsibilities at each institution.

Equally important as the personal and professional growth on the part of the participants, was the reality that the exchange has opened a door for future communication and resource sharing between the university and the high school levels of instruction. In March 1988, the methods instructor returned to the high school to teach a Spanish 3 class. Some of the students recognized her from the previous year and the word soon spread that something different was happening that week. In future exchanges, student attitudes and reactions will be formally measured with the use of a questionnaire.

The Methods curriculum has benefitted, too. The level of intellectual sophistication and world knowledge of secondary students is kept omnipresent. One cannot assume, without verifying first, that students possess sufficient background knowledge to comprehend a grammar or culture point. Also, when the methods instructor demonstrates techniques to encourage communication or problem-solving, she can add, with authority, that 15-year olds in a specific context and with sufficient preparation can handle the approach.

The university-high school exchange provides the basis for important FL pedagogy research. Since the certification requirement involves many disciplines and many institutions providing teacher education, data can be collected to determine whether or not the exchanges have any effect on factors such as articulation, student attitudes and continued study of the content, teacher attitudes and perceived benefits, and student teacher success.

In the spirit of the state of Ohio's teacher certification requirements, the exchange will not end with the experience of two institutions, nor with the exchange of teachers in one discipline. Foreign-language methodology instructors, however, of ten provide a unique link between a university's college of education and college of arts and sciences. The teacher exchange program can only strengthen this bond.

ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. Hastings-on-Hudson: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language, 1986.

Alatis, Penelope M. «And This Is the Way It Is», in James E. Alatis, H. H. Stern and Peter Strevens (eds.), Applied Linguistics and the Preparation of Second Language Teachers: Toward a Rationale. Washington: Georgetown University Press (1983); 7-1 8.

Bernhardt, Elizabeth and Joann Hammadou. «A Decade of Research in Foreign Language Teacher Education». Modern Language journal 71 (1987): 289-99.

Brown, H. Douglas. «From Ivory Tower to Real World: A Search for Relevance», in James E. Alatis, H. H. Stern and Peter Strevens (eds.), Applied Linguistics and the Preparation of Second Language Teachers: Toward a Rationale. Washington: Georgetown University Press, (1983): 59-73.

Hammadou, J. and E. Bernhardt. (1987). «On Being and

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Becoming a Foreign Language Teacher», in Elizabeth Bernhardt (ed.), Theory Into Practice. Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University College of Education (1987): 301-06.

Higgs, Theodore V. (ed.). Teaching for Proficiency, the Organizing Principle. Lincolnwood, IL: NTC, 1984.

Jarvis, Gilbert A. «Pedagogical Knowledge for the Second Language Teacher», in James E. Alatis, H. H. Stern and Peter Strevens (eds.), Applied Linguistics and the Preparation of Second Language Teachers: Toward a Rationale. Washington: Georgetown University Press (1983): 234-41.

Jarvis, Gilbert A. and Elizabeth B. Bernhardt. «Foreign Language Teacher Education». ERIC Digest. Washington: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1987.

Kramsch, Claire J. «From Language Proficiency to Interactive Competence». Modern Language Journal 70 (1986): 366-72.

——. «Socialization and Literacy in a Foreign Language: Learning Through Interaction», in Elizabeth Bernhardt (ed.), Theory Into Practice. Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University College of Education, 243-50.

Lantolf, J. P. and W. Frawley. «Oral Proficiency Testing: A Critical Analysis». Modern Language Journal 69 (1985): 337-45.

Larson, Darlene. «Teacher Education? Look to the Classroom», in James E. Alatis, H. H. Stern and Peter Strevens (eds.), Applied Linguistics and the Preparation of Second Language Teachers: Toward a Rationale. Washington Georgetown University Press (1983): 275-80.

Lee, James. «Comprehending the Spanish Subjunctive: An Information Processing Perspective». MLS 71 (1987): 50-57.

Omaggio, Alice. Teaching Language in Context. Boston: Heinle & Heinle, 1986.

Richards, Jack C. and Nobuyuki Hino. «Training ESOL Teachers: The Need for Assessment», in James E. Alatis, H. H. Stern and Peter Strevens (eds.), Applied Linguistics and the Preparation of Second Language Teachers: Toward a Rationale. Washington Georgetown University Press (1983): 312-26.

Savignon, Sandra J. Communicative Competence: Theory and Classroom Practice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1983.

——. «Evaluation of Communicative Competence: The ACTFL Provisional Proficiency Guidelines». Modern Language Journal 69 (1985): 129-34.

Stern, H. H. «Language Teacher Education: An Approach to the Issues and a Framework for Discussion», in James E. Alatis, H. H. Stern and Peter Strevens (eds.), Applied Linguistics and the Preparation of Second Language Teachers: Toward a Rationale. Washington: Georgetown University Press (1983): 342-61.

Victor High School, Rochester Chapter, NY

Your bulletin board can be an effective way to teach, decorate and entertain. To make the bulletin board stand out, start with an interesting background. Fabric, newspaper, gift wrap, butcher paper (which comes in a variety of colors), felt or burlap can be used.

Next, select a border that complements the theme. Many different styles, colors and designs are available from catalogs and teacher supply stores. You can also make your own borders by cutting a pattern out of tag board and tracing it on construction paper, making enough pieces to cover the perimeter of your bulletin board. If you have access to an Ellison Lettering Machine, (check the elementary schools in your area), a variety of very interesting patterns can be created and then stapled next to each other around the edge of your bulletin board.

When it comes to bulletin boards anything is possible. Collect items from anywhere and everywhere such as postcards, magazines, maps, brochures, photographs, drawings and newspapers.

When designing your bulletin board, choose a focal point which is recognizable from anywhere in the classroom and large enough to attract the student to the bulletin board to see the smaller items.

The following themes will provide some ideas for effective bulletin boards.

1. Food/Restaurant: To create a bulletin board about food and/or restaurants, use menus, recipes, food boxes, labels magazine pictures, advertisements and photographs. Collect them in a box or file until there are enough to create your bulletin board. Choose a focal point such as a menu or a grocery store advertisement. For an interesting effect use some three dimensional items such as food boxes or plastic forks, spoons and knives. Labeling some or all of the foods displayed will reinforce or introduce vocabulary.

2. Art/Artists: Standard postcardsized prints of famous Spanish and Spanish-American artists that can be purchased from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C. and other art museums are used. (Many art galleries also have prints available in post card and larger sizes.) A focal point for this bulletin board would be to use a museum guide map or a larger sized print, surrounding this with the prints of art work of one or more artists.

3. Geography: This is a «Where is Spanish Spoken?» bulletin board. The focal point is a world map with each Spanish-speaking country marked with either a map pin or a small sticker or arrow. The map is then surrounded with the flags or postcards of flags of all the Spanish-speaking countries, purchased from the United Nations Gift Shop.

4. Cultural Overview: To highlight a specific country, city or cultural topic, use a map of the area, magazine pictures and photographs. Past issues of National Geographic magazines are excellent resources as are postcards from these locations.

To create bulletin boards that teach, design a canvas through the use of interesting background materials and borders and use your imagination and creativity in choosing a theme and focal point.

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Ever since medieval miniaturists decorated the margins of their books with fanciful renditions of heaven and hell and designed painstakingly elaborate upper case letters, visual images of all sorts have been used to increase the reader's understanding of texts and enhance the reading experience. The advent of the printing press did not eliminate the pictorial accompaniments to the graphic signs of books; on the contrary, it allowed texts, along with their illustrations, to be reproduced with a formerly undreamed speed and in quantities large enough for books to become accessible to the lay public. Reaching the salons of the upper classes, books began to lose their sacred quality. The artistic value of their illustrations, however, did not disappear altogether as William Blake's illustrations of Dante's Divine Comedy clearly attest. The Nineteenth Century with its emerging capitalism, expanding middle class, and preoccupation with education witnessed the democratization of reading. The Industrial Revolution ushered in technological advances such as photography, which began the long line of supplementary visual materials available to us today. Photographs, printed drawings and maps, movies, slides, transparencies, filmstrips, and video tapes are all vehicles that can be used to enrich the act of reading just as the primitive and limited illustrations did in medieval times.

Variety and realism have replaced artistic considerations. In literary texts today visual enhancements are subordinate to the word and usually of no intrinsic value of their own. However, the possibilities they offer for explaining, situating, and breathing life into literature makes them effective teaching tools. Their incorporation becomes particularly significant in classrooms of foreign literature, where many students are ignorant of the culture they are studying and perhaps at variance with it psychologically. Furthermore, because young people today have been surrounded

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all their lives by advanced technology, the visual aids fisted earlier are congruous with their way of perceiving reality. I do not propose that video cassettes replace books or that texts not be central to a classroom. I merely suggest that the incorporation of visual aids into the teaching of literature can add a dimension to learning by clarifying meaning and contexts and by deepening students' understanding of literature as an independent art form.

According to their relation to the literary text studied, visual aids can be grouped into three categories: textual, contextual, and intertextual. Textual aids are those supplementary materials which, in the manner of monastical manuscripts, illustrate something mentioned within the fictional text. Contextual materials encompass those items alluding to the concrete milieu in which the fictional reality only figuratively unfolds. Finally the term intertextuality is applied here in Kristeva's broad sense of a transposition of one system of signs into another.

Dating back to those medieval illustrations previously mentioned, textual aids are the oldest type of supplements to literature. They include the innumerable images of Don Quixote fabricated over the centuries which have contributed to bestowing a recognizable physical reality upon a totally imaginary figure. Everyone knows what Don Quixote looks like. What this universal familiarity with Don Quixote's appearance has done is to establish the immortality and supremacy of character over author that Unamuno speaks about in Chapter 31 of Niebla. In the classroom, an illustrator's rendition of a character can infuse life into a fictional subject and orient the student's vision. For example, a crude drawing on the cover of a 1970 Alianza edition of Galdós's Torquemada series fixes in the student's mind, prior to reading, the sinister aspect of this unpleasant protagonist. A book's jacket can even become a part of scholarly hermeneutic reading. In a recent discussion of Esther Tusquets's 1979 novel, El amor es un juego solitario, one critic shows how the visual signs on the novel's cover-the bottom of a window, mysteriously severed from the rest of it and occupying the uppermost space of the page, and the image of a full window placed at some distance below the first-offer a graphic, introductory statement of the disjunction and difference that characterize the ensuing narrative (Servodidio 237). While book covers arouse interest and establish expectations, they can also prejudice reactions and interpretations. For example, the sensual embrace of an attractive couple on the cover of my 1959 edition of Las sonatas by Valle-Inclán contradicted the author's description of the Marqués de Bradomín as «feo» and inevitably colored my first reading of the book. A reproduction of a daguerreotype set within a silver locket on the cover of a modern edition of Clarín's La regenta introduced the protagonist and the theme of secret love, but it also announces to the contemporary reader a regression in time -a feature contrary to the author's original intent.

The deficiencies of textual visual aids can however become an opportunity for the teaching of literature by becoming themselves a point of discussion in the classroom. Students can be asked to evaluate the verisimilitude of illustrations and thus be obliged to read descriptions attentively and focus closely on characterization. Using the illustrations provided, students can also compare their initial expectations with their final conclusions and thus become aware of the unreliability of first reactions and the evolving nature of interpretation. An even more stimulating way to use textual aids is to change the passive process of viewing into an active one. Students draw their own versions of some aspect of a book. If their artistic talent is meager, they bring to class a magazine picture that best approximates their conception of a particular character or place. All the pictures are assembled, and each student defends the reasons for his or her choice. The class, by vote or consensus, then designates the most faithful picture. One variation of this exercise would entail the instructor's bringing to class a number of pictures or illustrations and eliciting the same discussion from the students. Another variation might require students to bring to class items or props mentioned in a play.

Beyond the obvious demand for attention to detail, exercises of this sort allow beginning literature students to delve into works of fiction using the limited, non-technical vocabulary learned in their language courses. A focus on props can prompt a brief consideration of the problems of staging theater. As already suggested, textual aids can open questions concerning divergent interpretations, reader response, and authorial intent. Finally, with

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their own homemade aids, students make connections between their own world and the unknown and often intimidating world of Spanish literature.

In this regard, I would like to highlight one particularly successful technique I have used in teaching a number of different novels. For example, for Galdós's Misericordia, I mimeograph a map of Madrid and show slides of many of the places mentioned in the novel. The map helps students follow the physical maze set up by the author and gain a sense of the hectic life of the protagonist. The slides enable students to familiarize themselves with an environment spatially and temporally far removed from them. The visual images also counteract the difficulty of nineteenth-century vocabulary and syntax. In addition, they teach students the importance of specificity in the Realist novel. Galdós names enough streets and addresses in this novel to show that photographic fidelity along with psychological detachment and materiality was a basic Realist aim.

My second category of visual aids includes any visual material belonging to the concrete world from which a literary work emerges. While any reference to the times and life of an author could be of interest to a literature class, I refer here only to those materials bearing a direct relationship to actual texts. Pictures of authors and their birthplaces or the videocassette biographies now available may increase students' cultural awareness, but they do not enhance their ability to understand literature. Likewise most supplementary materials on the history or the art of a period do not interrelate the literary and the non-literary. However, certain materials on the Spanish Civil War, as for instance the film Caudillo, may help convey the physical and spiritual devastation at the base of much of postwar Spanish fiction¹⁸⁵. One film, without a doubt, intimately linked to literature is El perro andaluz. This twenty-minute classic surrealist film produced by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí is an invaluable tool for any class on the Generation of 27. Although premiered in Paris, this film effectively conveys the emotional impact, the disparate imagery, and the oneiric quality prevalent in Spanish surrealism. Few students seeing the film for the first time are not shocked by the repulsive slicing of the eye or by the grotesque severed hand. In subsequent classes an instructor can easily relate this film to lines from Rafael Alberti such as «perforando tus ojos / largas púas de encono / y olvido» or to Luis Cernuda's reference to a cut hand of plaster. This film not only graphically dramatizes literary images, it also clearly a tests to the interdependence of various arts in the twenties.

One other type of contextual aid is material depicting places or events similar to those in a fictional work. They might include a film of a Holy Week procession for Miró's El obispo leproso, a series of pictures of a dingy café to illustrate Cela's La colmena, or slides of the areas around Soria to accompany Machado's Campos de Castilla. Unlike textual aids, these are not specifically identified in a text; they only provide students with generalized points of reference for their reading. Some might argue that visualization of locale should be left to students' imagination. However, what is often absolute ignorance of Spain and its landscape prevents the stimulation of imagination and worse yet foments misconceptions. American-born students are not the only ones to gain from seeing a few select slides. I have had Latin Americans unable to imagine the great variety of terrain in Spain and even a student from Spain who had never seen a typical small Castilian town. Therefore, in a class on the Generation of 98, where small towns and landscape were an integral part of the search for the essence of Spain, a selection of slides becomes essential to the understanding of its authors.

My third category, intertextual visual aids refers specifically to the transposition of the symbolic, linguistic text to the visual kinetic medium of film or videotape. Books, plays, and zarzuelas have been adapted to the screen in Spain since the 1920s¹⁸⁶, but the increased development of Spanish cinema since the death of Franco has brought with it an increased production of adaptations. In addition, the advent of the video recorder has increased the feasibility of the inclusion of films in the classroom. In fact, entire courses on the Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Spanish novel have been presented through the use of films. One novelist alone, Miguel Delibes, has seen five of his novels transformed into movies¹⁸⁷. Access to films produced in Spain can be difficult, so the choice of films or the choice between film and videotape is often dependent upon practical considerations such as cost, available equipment, and service of distributors.

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In passing it should be noted that besides the obvious advantage in price, videotapes, unlike films, need not take up class time. They can be viewed at home or in the non-book section of the library. While the inclusion of many films or tapes in a class may not be desired, careful selection of a few significant films or tapes can enhance a literature class.

As Wendy L. Rolph has pointed out in her study of Carlos Saura's version of García Lorca's Bodas de sangre, the majority of discussions of film adaptations of literary works continues to be formulated on comparisons of signifying systems (193). Since films and literature are two distinct languages having little in common other than their narrative character (Gimferrer 50-52), comparing film and literature may be like comparing apples and oranges. Nevertheless the comparison of these dissimilar artistic media can serve to highlight certain features of a literary work. In a literature class the deviancies in a film adaptation can be used to increase students' understanding of the written text and of the literary genre. Viewing any film version of a literary work, students immediately learn that an author's personal style and descriptive language are lost for the most part and that novels are an open, panoramic medium whose breadth and depth are minimized by the cinematographic medium, which operates through selectivity.

Film shares more traits with theater than with novels, but film adaptations of plays can also be used in a classroom to illustrate the peculiarities of the dramatic genre. Mario Camus's 1987 film version of Lorca's La casa de Bernarda Alba clearly demonstrates that no matter how faithful, a film adaptation is always different from the play it reconstructs. The film both lacks something and adds something. Although Lorca's plays are rich in plastic, visual, and acoustic effects, their foundation, like that of any play's, is oral discourse. Profiting from the potentials of film, Camus expands the visual dimension of the play. He sacrifices the poetic nuances of the grandmother's scene and adds segments like a bird's eye view of the dinner table and a chiaroscuro shot of Pepe on horseback, scenes which besides being impossible on stage, exploit visual effects.

The predominance of oral discourse in the play is preempted in Camus's film by visual images. For example, the heat of summer and Adela's exuberant sexuality are portrayed through visual manifestations. Scenes too violent or complicated for the stage, like the stoning of the unwed mother and Pepe's ride through the narrow streets of the town, are smoothly incorporated into the film. The inclusion in the movie of elements only alluded to in the play spotlights these subtleties and demonstrates to the student the greater need for imagination in the reading of plays. The descriptive value of a film like Camus's with its initial view of a typical Andalusian town and its authentic scenery, costumes, and props can provide a realistic cultural lesson for students. Some of the movie's gratuitous «costumbrista» elements distract from the play's central concerns, but they nonetheless enlighten students on the environment from which the play emerged.

The results of the clash between the verbal and the visual brings us to two other basic differences between theater and cinema. Theater is a more static medium allowing for less on-stage action than film. This difference can be considered in connection with a discussion of plot structure and particularly with an examination of scenario, implied and reported action, and compositional divisions. Theater is also more contained than film. Viewed negatively this difference makes theater appear more limited, but viewed positively this discrepancy shows theater to be more concentrated. The movement between indoors and outdoors and between different rooms in the house required by the norms of the cinematographic medium adds a dimension of fluidity to Camus's film. But this very fluidity dilutes the intensity of the sense of enclosure and incarceration the play so powerfully conveys. Whether one art form is better than the other is unimportant. What is significant is that a comparison between the two helps make their distinguishing properties apparent to students.

Because we teach a young generation nurtured more on visual images than on the written word, we need to resort to visual aids to introduce them to the exploration of literature. Whether their application is textual, contextual, or intertextual, visual aids provide a beneficial supplementary function in the classroom. They clarify meanings, improve cross-cultural communication, and deepen students' understanding of the nature of literature.

Besas, Peter. Behind the Spanish Lens: Spanish Cinema under Fascism and Democracy. Denver, Colorado: Arden Press, 1985.

«Delibes recibirá este fin de semana el homenaje de Valladolid, que le nombra "hijo predilecto"». La Vanguardia 4 Sept. 1986. Rpt. in Spain: Boletín Cultural Oct. 1986: 7.

Gimferrer, Pere. Cine y literatura. Barcelona: Planeta, 1985.

Kristeva, Julia. «The Bounded Text». Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art. Trans. Thomas Gora, Alice Jardine, and Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980: 36-63.

Rolph, Wendy L. «Lorca/Gades/Saura: Modes of Adaptation in Bodas de sangre». Anales de la Literatura Española Contemporánea 11 (1986): 193-204.

Servodidio, Mirella d'Ambrosio. «Perverse Pairings and Corrupted Codes: El amor es un juego solitario». Anales de la Literatura Española Contemporánea 2.3 (1986): 237-54.

Hispania [Publicaciones periódicas]. Volume 72, Number 4, December 1989