Santa Felicitas´ Church: learning a foreign language with a local legend

I.S.F.D n°30 Profesor: Bals Biggati

Alumna: Laura Paola Vellere

Santa Felicitas´ Church: learning a foreign language with a local legend Many doubts arise among teachers of EFL (English as a foreign language), such as: whether students really engage to the material or whether the fact of empathizing with the material is meaningful for students. If we work with teenagers, in my own experience as teacher, these doubts are even more usual. It seems as if any activity that teachers propose is not worth trying to do. But yeachers cannot fail when choosing a material if they inquire student’s interests, that is to say, what they really like doing. From this gather of information about students´ interests, teachers will find a lot of ideas to plan their lessons in order to engage them.

Literature for young adults (YAL) could be a good idea to be used within EFL classrooms because it deals with issues related to adolescents’ life or experiences.

Furthermore, it is even better if the YAL material selected by the teacher is close to the students’ culture, as it is proposed by CLIL approach (Content and language integrated learning). When the foreign language is integrated to other themes belonging to the students´ culture the material becomes relevant for them and therefore the learning is much more beneficial.

Considering the ideas pointed out above, The Argentinean urban legend about Felicitas´ ghost (Appendix 1) is an excellent material to use with teenagers in the EFL classroom since it can be classify as YAL and it follows CLIL approach. As a YAL story, young readers may identify with the main character´s feelings and suffering. Felicitas, a young girl, had a tragic end. She was deeply in love with a man but she was courted by another man too. The rejected man couldn´t accept Felicitas decision and killed her.

Choosing the material Taking into account Robert Small´s ideas (as cited in Sarah Herz an Gallo, Donald, 1996) about YAL, there should be certain characteristics in a piece of literature in order to classify it as young adult literature. Some of those characteristics are: • The main character is a teenager.

• The main character is the centre of the plot.

• The main character is usually perceptive, sensitive, intelligent, mature and independent.

I.S.F.D n°30 Profesor: Bals Biggati

Alumna: Laura Paola Vellere

Along with YAL characteristics, it is also important to bear in mind the cultural distance of the material. Choosing a text close to the readers´ culture would be more meaningful for them as CLIL approach (Content and language integrated learning) proposes. CLIL approach for teaching a foreign language refers to situations where subjects, or parts of subjects, are taught through a foreign language with dual-focused aims, namely the learning of content, and the simultaneous learning of a foreign language' (Marsh, 1994). CLIL approach involves learning subjects such as history, geography or others and suggests the use of authentic material. Authentic material means real texts designed not for language students or for language teaching purposes, but for the speakers of the language (Jordan 1997, p. 113). There are several advantages that the use of authentic material provides such as:  interesting and motivating for learners  exposure to real life  more up to date than text books  encourages confidence if handled properly

Discussion Being felicitas´ a real story, it adds an extra seasoning. Students find interesting those materials that are part of their real world or that were part of the history in their country or city. The fact that, the horrifying events in the story are about a real teenager as them, make students stagger because they can put themselves in the characters shoes. The readers and the protagonist, belonging to the adolescence world, go through the same controversial topics such as love, sexuality, identity, family conflicts and death among others. Felcitas´ legend presents many of these key themes and young readers can identified themselves with the characters experiencing new feelings.

Even more, As Gail de Vos claimed, “through stories young adults are able to try out their own fantasies without experiencing real life consequences” (2003).

They can experience characters´ feelings as their own but being in a safe atmosphere. Students engage with the story easily because of the cultural distance since the protagonist and the readers have the same cultural background. In addition, there is an extra advantage because the text is authentic.

I.S.F.D n°30 Profesor: Bals Biggati

Alumna: Laura Paola Vellere

Taking in consideration that Felicitas´ story is written in English for native speakers who visit Argentina, it can be classified as an authentic material which provides authentic cultural information. The authenticity of the events makes the material meaningful and relevant for students. This legend is part of the real story of a well-known Argentinean family. Thus, Teachers of English as a foreign language can work along with teachers of history. With this connection between subjects, the pedagogical intentions of CLIL are fulfilled. Rather than separating the learning of a foreign language from other subjects, CLIL aim is to complement subjects for a more efficient learning because students can take advantage of the connections between subjects and at the same time internalizing and retaining contents.

Apart from defining a material as YAL following CLIL approach, a good piece of advice to choose the most suitable material would be to look at adolescents´ interests in depth. As it was shown in a survey carried out by students from I.S.F.D n° 30 (Vellere and Ricchezza. Ituzaingó, Buenos Aires, 2012) in a secondary school about students´ preferences in TV, most of the teenagers who were interviewed, chose horror. Following teenagers´ preferences, when teachers choose a material, does not mean to have success guaranteed. Probably, students show a good predisposition when the context of the class is relevant for them. In order to deeply understand what relevant means, it is necessary to clarify the term.

Students usually ask why they should learn what the teacher is giving to them.

What teachers believe may be relevant, could be irrelevant for students. Integrating relevant contents for teachers in a relevant context for students could be a successful task with excellent results. Taking into account that teenagers enjoy horror, the teacher can contextualize the lesson in real stories such as Felicita´s urban legend.

Choosing the most suitable material seems to be a difficult task but not an impossible one. The use of “Santa Felcitas´ church” legend with pedagogical purposes could be a great tool for teachers of EFL because it meets characteristics of YAL and follows CLIL approach. Teachers also can find more ideas on those countless real stories in order to engage their students. It is also a great tool to build a bridge between language teaching and the rest of the subjects for the benefits of students´ improvements.

References 

Marsh, David. 1994. Bilingual Education & Content and Language Integrated Learning. International Association for Cross-cultural Communication, Language Teaching in the Member States of the European Union (Lingua) University of Sorbonne. Paris.

I.S.F.D n°30 Profesor: Bals Biggati

Alumna: Laura Paola Vellere



Jordan, R. R (1997). English for Academic Purposes: A Guide and Resource for Teachers. Camxbridge. Cambridge University Press.



De Vos, G (2003) Storytelling for Young Adults: A Guide to Tales for Teens.

Westport, TC: Libraries Unlimited.



Herz, S & Gallo, D (1996), From Hilton to Hamlet: Building Bridges between Young Adult Literature and The Classics. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.



Teaching CLIL: Classroom Benefits. Accesed October 2012 http://oupeltglobalblog.com/2010/11/29/teaching-clil-classroom-benefits/



Teaching English CLIL essentials. Accessed November 2012 http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/2.5_Materials_selection_and _adaptation.pdf



The Argentina Independent. Accessed October 2012. http://www.argentinaindependent.com/life-style/thecity/top-5-haunted-places/



Online dictionary. Accesed October and November 2012. http://www.wordreference.com/es/

I.S.F.D n°30 Profesor: Bals Biggati

Alumna: Laura Paola Vellere

Appendix 1 Santa Felicitas´ Church (Iglesia de Santa Felicitas) This tragic tale of star-crossed lovers is as old as time itself. In 1872, one of the richest and most beautiful women in Buenos Aires, Felicitas Guerrero de Alzaga, |was being courted by two men; a well-known dandy, Enrique Ocampo, and a rugged rancher, Saenz Valiente.

She chose brawn over brain causing the dandy to fly into a jealous rage, shooting her twice before stabbing himself in the heart. Felicitas’s heartbroken parents had an enormous, Gothic church built in her memory, the only church in Buenos Aires not dedicated to a saint or religious figure. Its doors opened to worshippers on January 30, 1876, the fourth anniversary of Felicitas’ death.

According to some, her ghost wanders the grounds, often seen wiping tears from her eyes. A tradition has developed in which women come to the church on January 30, tie a hanky to the gate and ask for help finding their own true love.