Teaching Language with Literature and Literature with Language: Analysing, Interpreting, Discussing, Translating
Abstract
We discuss various ways of teaching the Finnish language through literature - and vice versa - taking a philological and functional approach. Highlighting the role of literature in cultural language learning, we employ and evaluate central concepts of Modern Philology and New Philology, entering into recent debates.
We understand philology in broad sense, as a discipline foregrounding the connection between language, texts and cultures, in which language is viewed as part of a culture. A major methodological tool in this approach to teaching language and literature is literary translation, traditionally used, but also abhorred, as a method of teaching foreign languages.
While throughout the article, we discuss teaching Finnish as a foreign language outside Finland, in the closing section, we present our current project, also based on a philological approach, but aimed at teaching Finnish language as a foreign language through literature to advanced adult students with im/migrant backgrounds in Finland.