Can Literature be learned by rote?

In university entrance exams, for many candidates, reviewing Literature remains a big challenge. In fact, the results of Literature exams in recent years and many "unique" essays that were "word of mouth" graded by teachers have shown students' confusion and major shortcomings in both knowledge and skills in taking this subject. Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Thanh Hung (Faculty of Literature - University of Social Sciences and Humanities) shares some personal views on how to teach and learn literature as well as suggests some methods for studying and taking Literature exams for candidates.

- Sir, is Literature a difficult subject?

-Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Thanh Hung (Assoc. Prof. Dr. PTH):In the common understanding, “difficult” here means difficult to get high scores. If we make a convention like that, then currently, learning literature is not difficult, even very easy for bright students with good memories. Why do we say that? Because the literature in current high school textbooks is being compiled and processed according to the technology of the @ era: Everything can be turned into formulas, into “data”, can be memorized, cut, and pasted. Many students can memorize dozens of sample essays. When entering the university entrance exam room, after receiving the questions, they canenterlet the brain spit out five or seven pages easily, the teacher had to give high marks because the answers were not wrong at all.

- Why does the entrance exam every year witness "laugh-out-loud" essays?

-Assoc. Prof. Dr. PTH:This laughter with tears can be understood in two ways. One is due to the tear ducts having to work forcibly from the facial muscles. The other is tears because of bitter laughter, because of sadness. Those funny, humorous essays and sentences reflect the declining quality of teaching and learning literature, and also originate from deviations, sometimes falling into vulgarity in the concept of literature. The teacher believes that if the concept is just a little bit off, the student will do a mile wrong in the essay. However, in reality, in grading, there are cases where the candidate cannot do the test, has to wait for 2 hours to leave the room, not letting time go to waste, "idle hands are the devil's workshop", the candidate has to sit and write nonsense to entertain the grader. They become involuntary clowns.

- In fact, the amount of knowledge in Literature in 3 years of high school is very large and many students "complain" that with just one literary work, there are too many types of exam questions surrounding that work, therefore, it is very difficult to "cope"?

-Assoc. Prof. Dr. PTH:I sympathize with that sentiment. That complaint is very legitimate and understandable.

So, how to "deal" with so many types of questions?

I think it is easy to deal with. First of all, the teachers who grade the Literature exam at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) completely sympathize with the difficulties of the current candidates, so they are not stubborn with the difficult and confused situations of the test takers. The most important thing is whether the candidates really study or not. In short, there are 2 issues to grasp:what the author writes about and how he writes,That is, 2 issues: content and artistic form. If there are 5 types of questions, then try to learn the 2 basic types carefully. When you encounter other questions, think about them, discover the specific requirements of the questions, and write according to those requirements. Each test only needs to use about 5 to 10Keywordsis enough. If there are 5 sample essays for 5 types of questions, then learn 2 basic ones and use 5KeywordsFor each remaining topic, rest assured and wait for high scores. Make a plan.Keywordsto learn quickly, to save time. When marking quickly, teachers often observe the appearance of those keywords. Seeing them, we know right away that the candidate has done the test.

- Nowadays, there are many types of books that solve Literature exam questions, in which students can freely read and memorize sample essays. So can learning Literature be done by "parroting"?

-Assoc. Prof. Dr. PTH:As I answered above, it is possible to "parrot" it. However, I have been grading for a long time, I remember, if you memorize a sample essay and write it, the score I give is usually no higher than 7. That is because I immediately find other errors to subtract, and 7 is the highest.

-So what is the best way to study and review for Literature? How is studying Literature different from studying History, Geography or Foreign Languages?

-Assoc.Prof.Dr.PTH:Both studying and reviewing must have a firm grasp of the content of the work. First of all, you must really read the work carefully. The first reading is reading freely, not bound by what the textbooks instruct. That is the way to read without prejudice. After studying, listening to lectures, reading again, checking to see if it is correct, to see if it is your own understanding. If you are satisfied, that is very valuable. If not, try to remember a few key points, points that cannot be ignored when encountering the work in the exam. Second, you need to study and review systematically, placing the work and the author in a process and stage. That way, it will be easier to do the test, because whensecretcan compare and relate to authors, works of the same period, with the same topic. Many essays are too short because candidates only delve into the work mentioned in the exam, talk about the author as a single writer and do not spare words to praise the writer as a unique phenomenon, forgetting the authors beside, before and after. I am not sure which way of studying is the most correct, but the way of studying as mentioned above is the appropriate way of studying in the current teaching and testing situation.

The difference between studying Literature and studying the three subjects of History, Geography, and Foreign Languages, ultimately comes from the characteristics of this special art form. Before being an ideology, a reflection of life, literature is truly the art of imagination, the art of language. Therefore, it is necessary to study proactively, boldly explore the beauty of images and language, boldly express and affirm opinions. Many times when grading papers, I have the feeling that the candidates are presenting their knowledge before an invisible literary judge. They write very obediently, always afraid of making mistakes, violating the terms that have long been taught in textbooks. Studying and doing papers in that way, literature unintentionally offends.

- Based on your many years of experience in marking papers, what do you think is the structure and content of a university entrance exam for Literature? What is the difference between the Literature exam for group D and group C?

-Assoc. Prof. Dr. PTH:This question should be asked to teachers who have long been trusted by the Ministry of Education to create questions. I only see the simple structure of several small questions combined into one question. Among them, there are very easy questions, creating safety for students with little education. Like a safety rope, whoever does that question can rest assured that they will get at least 2 points to go home. That question is the highest score of 2 points. The scoring scale for the next 2 questions is 3 and 5. Unlike the first question, the last 2 questions require rhetoric, methodical and thoughtful writing. The candidate's perception of the work and creativity, if any, lies in these two questions.

The difference between the D and C literature exams, if any, is insignificant. My opinion is that there should be no difference, because it has no meaning in terms of selection and training.

- What basic mistakes do you see candidates often make when taking the Literature exam?

-Assoc. Prof. Dr. PTH:The most basic error is the error of expression, which includes two levels: grammar and logic. The first point is lost becauseFailed sentence, no sense of punctuation. Then, because of writing in circles, I couldn't find the idea I wanted to say.

-To do well in a Literature exam, in addition to having good knowledge, what test-taking skills do students need?

-Assoc. Prof. Dr. PTH:The most basic skill is the skill of analyzing the question, simply put, you must understand what the questioner wants you to answer. There are questions that are constructed very discreetly, requiring analysis and contemplation for a moment to realize the questioner's deep meaning. There are sentences that are presented frankly and simply like a call: "Analyze and prove...; You should...; You or I should...". In that case, you must underline the core words of the question early, to stick to it, not to stray far from that core. If you make an outline, just do it briefly, try to emphasize the keywords so you don't forget. Write short sentences with few points, write long sentences with many points. Don't be foolish to spend too much time on a sentence with few points. With sentences with few points, we behave according to the motto: answer whatever is asked, don't give redundant answers.

If skill is synonymous with “trick”, then I would like to add this. First, you should not invest effort and time in doing the test on one question, even if it is the highest score question (5-7 for example) in the test. No matter how little or much, you should do all the questions, even the lowest score question (2 points for example). When you add all three questions together, you will see the result, the good score. Second, our people have the concept that handwriting is a person’s character, even in the computer age, if you cannot write beautifully, try to write, line breaks, and present the test clearly and easily to read. Old teachers who read for a long time and wear glasses often have sore ears and a heavy nose.

-Finally, do you have any further advice on studying and taking the Literature exam for university entrance exam candidates this year?

-Assoc. Prof. Dr. PTH:I would like to advise two things: First, do not consider the manuals and sample essays as the standard. Study in a basic way, focus on the textbooks and enter the exam room calmly and confidently as a classy reader of our country's literature. Second, there are hundreds of paths for us to enter life, whether we go to university or not, literature still makes life more beautiful and helps people live beautifully.

Thank you for your suggestions.