Meetings with Olga Tokarczuk and Her Works in Polish as a Foreign Language Clasroom. Description of Selected Forms of Including Literary Content in the Teaching of Polish as a Foreign Language to Humanities Students

Abstract

The article discusses Polish as a foreign language (PFL) classes using the method of teacher introspection and a study of two cases of didactic events. Their participants were humanists: foreign students of the Faculty of Philology at the University of Lodz The aim of the article is to present the work technique of a foreign language practitioner introducing literary content into PFL classes, as well as linking the applied forms of work with theories relating to the cultural teaching of foreign languages. The lectures on poetics delivered by the writer Olga Tokarczuk in the spring of 2018 at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Lodz were the direct inspiration for the discussed classes. In the first part of the article, the didactic practices described were referred to the methodological literature. Attention was drawn to the necessity for the teacher to make a decision about the choice of an approach that implies working with the text (aesthetic, pragmatic or strategic approaches) and a specific attitude towards the text (in line with the objective, interactive or subjective model). The second part discusses the course of two classes. During class 1, the learners developed their competences in the field of comprehension, linguistic analysis and base text processing, which was a combination of two genres: report and profile. During class 2, they undertook activities in the field of interpretation and linguistic analysis of Olga Tokarczuk’s short story. The tasks performed by learners were discussed and selected effects of students’ work were presented and assessed. The concluding third part of the article presents the procedure of introducing literary content into teaching PFL, distinguishing the introductory phase consisting of stimulating interest in the creator, the second phase focusing on creating a portrait of the author and / or a report including such a portrait, and the third, target phase, in which learners are offered access to the original text. The need for simultaneous development the communication and mediation activities as well as the cultural and academic competences during this type of classes was emphasized. It was found that the best strategy in conducting classes using literary works in groups with a humanistic profile, is a discursive approach , allowing for insight into the text from many perspectives and processing it.