Pedagogies for Stimulating Students' Responses to First Language Oral Literature: An Action Research Project in a Secondary School in Bhutan

Abstract

This paper explores the role of Bhutanese folk literature as pedagogic resource for culture development in secondary education in Bhutan. The study was conducted with a Grade 11 class in a secondary school in south west Bhutan using an action research approach. In this study, Bhutanese folk literature includes genres that exist in the oral form as well as those in English translations. We found that students' exploration of their own folk literatures developed not only their understanding and appreciation of their own cultural identities but also their respect for cultural diversity. The focus of this paper is the five pedagogical strategies we used to achieve the success as evidenced in improved student knowledge and attitudes. We found that active processes such as collecting oral literatures in the students' home languages and discussing them for their literary, aesthetic and cultural values greatly assisted their learning of the English curricula.