Question: Which is more
effective in teaching a literary skill, like irony, direct instruction or a
method in which students develop their own methods of interpreting irony?
Answer: Both methods
were statistically superior to no method at all. “(1) a direct method…which
attempts to give students conscious control of the interpretive strategies
experienced readers use to understand irony [or] (2) a tacit method, which
seeks to have students develop their own strategies through extended practice
with the genre.” P. 254.
Comment: Both methods worked. The key, of course, is
to teach the skill, directly or indirectly, the latter being the “discovery”
approach. The latter would probably take more time. But both worked. RayS.
Title: “Teaching the
Interpretation of Irony in Poetry.” Michael W Smith. Research in the Teaching of English (October 1989), 254-272.
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