MARXISM

Marxism or communism was from Europe industry society context. The industrial revolution in Europe in the 19th century, created a social inequalities in society. This gap occurs between the bourgeoisie (capitalists) with the proletariat.

The capitalists collect money and benefit at the expense of proletarians (workers). The proletarians  conditions is very sad because they were forced to work long hours with minimum wage, while the results of their work is only enjoyed by the capitalists. Many proletarians must live in rural and slums areas. Looking at this situation, Karl Marx and Jorgen Hagerman criticized through a thought to change that situation.

Marxism is a theory to equate the social and economic status between proletarians and bourgeoisie. The essence of this theory is wishing a freedom as free as possible for proletariat that can be an intact human being.

The positive and negative impact will appear from this application of Marxism theory. The positive impact is an equality of social status, where the marginal opportunity (proletariat) to fulfill his living desire and human right will be exposed widely, be sides, an opportunity to improve the quality of living as well. But it will emerge a condition of society-centric materialist society.

Marxist Literary Theory

It is a form of critique or discourse for interrogating all societies and their text in terms of certain specific issues – including race, class, and the attitudes shared within a given culture.

Marxist literary theories tend to focus on the representation of class conflict as well as the reinforcement of class distinctions through the medium of literature.

The pioneers: Karl Heinrich Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)

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FEMINISM THEORY

FEMINISM THEORY

Feminism is the belief that women should be allowed the same rights, power and opportunities as men and be treated in the same way.

Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, religion and social rights for women.

Feminist theory aims to understand gender inequality and focuses on gender politics, power relations, and sexuality.

The discussion was focused on the social, political, and religious condition of women.

Application of feminism theory in literature

Feminist Literary Criticism (Feminist Criticism)

Feminist literary criticism is literary analysis that arises from the viewpoint of feminism. Basic methods of feminist literary criticism include:

Identifying with female characters: This is a way to challenge the male-centered outlook of authors. Feminist literary criticism suggests that women in literature were historically presented as objects seen from a male perspective.

Reevaluating literature and the world in which literature is read: This involves questioning whether society has predominantly valued male authors and their literary works because it has valued males more than females.

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GENETIC STRUCTURAL APPROACH

GENETIC STRUCTURAL APPROACH
(study of human science)

It was found by a Rumanian-French philosopher and sociologist, Lucien Goldman.

The genetic structuralism research regards a literary work from intrinsic and extrinsic elements. It studies both the internal factors (it means literary work itself) and external one (concern on social background (the interesting one from the author, etc.).

The genetic structuralism theory aims to analyzing the character of the work or the author’s worldview through a character that is created by an author in every situation and even in the story. In details, this theory attempts to analyze the literary work from two elements, those are: intrinsic and extrinsic element. Intrinsic element is the structure of literary work and the extrinsic element is the social condition or history that forms the literary work like novel.

To support this theory, Goldman builds five categories that relevant to each other:

1.      Human realities

2.      Collective subject

3.    Word view (there is relation between the structure of works and the structure of society, because both of them come from the same structure activities (activities of human being))

4.      Structure of literary work

5.      Dialectics of comprehension and explanation

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STRUKTURALISM

Structuralism is a system of ideas used in the study of language, literature, art, anthropology and sociology, which emphasizes the importance of the basic structures and relationships of that particular subject. In this case, it focuses on the study of structuralism theory in literature especially in literary work.

            

Structuralism is used to analyze the relationship between one element with other element in a literary work. In the structural studies, the analysis focuses on the developer elements of literary work itself (what the moral value is, who the characters are, when and where the events in the texts happened, etc.), without considering the external elements of literature, including the reader, author biography and social background.

This analysis is not only limited to analyzing the intrinsic elements but also more important is the linking relationships among elements.

This theory developed in France between 1950 and 1960 begin with the work of Ferdinand de Saussure. The pioneers of structuralism are Aristoteles, Ferdinand de Saussure, Claude Levi-Strauss, and formalist (Jacobson, Shklovsky, Erchenbaum, and Tynjanov).

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The definition of LITERATURE

Literature means the entire writing or essay that contains some good values which are written in beautiful language. It is used for expressing certain thoughts or ideas.

Robert Frost said,” Literature is a performance in words”

Literature is divided into written and oral literature. The literary categories are novel, short story, poem, essay, biography, any other form of writing which is deviated from this general category, drama, painting, calligraphy.

Literature is for pleasure or entertaining, spiritual edification, broadening of knowledge, or may be just to pass time, without anyone forcing us to read them.

Literary theory or Theory of Literature in a strict sense is the systematic study of literature and the methods for analyzing literary work.

Literary theory and literary criticism are interpretive tools that help us think more deeply about the literary work that we read.

The most common or popular critical theory are Structuralism, Genetic Structural Approach, Semiotic, Marxism, Feminism, and Psychoanalysis.

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Time-line of FLT (Foreign Language Teaching) Method

Historical overview of foreign language teaching (FLT) method

-          Sixteenth Century : The grammar-Translation method

It was the dominant method for many centuries and was best exemplified by the formal teaching of the classical language (Latin and Greek). Language analysis, memorizing paradigms and complex grammar rules in order to be able to read and translate literary texts and to learn to write similiar texts were supposed to train the mind of the student. The FL was hardly ever used in class and no language communication skills were developed.

-         By the end of nineteenth century: The common term-the direct method

This method presented discussion in the target language as the major priority.

-         In the 1920s and 1930s : The audio-lingual method

The audio-lingual method was used by United States Army for “crash” instruction in foreign language during world war II. It has students listen to or tapes of language models acting in situations.

-         1970s : The cognitive code learning

This approach introduced the four principle language skills for the first time: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Oral communicative competence became the focus. Comprehensible auditory input became important and speaking in the target language began to occur. Learning about the language was overemphasized.

-         In the early 1980s : The natural approach

The method reflects what is sometimes called second  language acquisition tradition and is based on Krashen’s monitor theory. Among the fundamental tenets of the theory is the principle that the only valuable knowledge of a language can be obtained through acquisition, an unconscious process that is the same as first language  acquisition. Within the natural approach teacher should provide learners with comprehensible input that is fine-tuned to a level a litle above the learners’ current level of competence. The focus of classroom activities should be on meaning, not form, and classroom atmosphere should br positive so as keep the affective filter low.

-          The present:

1.     Comunicative language teaching (CLT), it refers to a number of approaches that are based on the belief that language is not just a system of rules but a resource for creating meaning.

2.    Task-based language learning, it represents a new approach to language learning that, in many ways, stands on the opposite end of form-based language learning.

3. Computer-assisted language learning (CALL), It has been confirmed as having a great motivational value. It enables shy learners to practice by speaking up and not feeling anxious as they, for instance, do speech-recognition activities on the computer by  themselves.

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Teori pemerolehan bahasa kedua (The Acquisition of Second Language Theory)

Teori pemerolehan bahasa kedua (The Acquisition of Second Language Theory)

Oleh Stephen Krashen

            Bahasa dikuasai melalui proses bawah sadar (unconscious mind) dan bisa berlangsung melalui komunikasi yang natural. Komunikasi semacam ini terjadi pada masa kanak-kanak.

            Comprehensible input merupakan metode pertama dalam pengajaran pemerolehan bahasa kedua yaitu dengan mendengarkan dan memahami tentang apa yang disampaikan oleh pembicara, ketika anak terus dibiasakan dengan berbahasa kedua maka anak tersebut akan terbiasa dan akan memahami bahasa dengan sendirinya. Affective filter memiliki peranan penting dalam pemerolehan bahasa kedua, dalam hipotesis ini ada tiga hal yang memiliki peran penting dalam pemerolehan bahasa kedua seseorang, tiga hal tersebut adalah sebagai berikut:

1) Motivation (motivasi)

2) Self-confidence dan

3) Anxiety (rasa takut)

Oleh karena itu jangan pernah padamkan lampu motivasi, tingkatkan rasa percaya diri dalam berbahasa dan kurangi rasa takut dalam menggunakan bahasa kedua.

            Language acquisition device (LAD) adalah alat pendukung input pemerolehan bahasa dengan cepat dan akurat sehingga anak-anak akan dapat memahami bahasa dengan baik contoh: ketika mengajarkan tentang buah (fruits), akan lebih baik bila mengajarkannya dengan menggunakan media/alat-alat nyata seperti flashcard, pictures, dll. Karena dengan menggunakan media/alat-alat tersebut maka anak-anak akan memperoleh pemahamannya (Acquired knowledge). Kemampuan anak dalam berkomunikasi menggunakan bahasa kedua diperoleh setelah anak mempelajari bahasa tersebut (learnt knowledge). Sehingga Output/goal dalam pembelajaran bahasa akan dapat mencapai target.

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