Harry Potter for Language Learners

Hi everyone! This is Nick Rhein, Doris’ co-admin on the Leaky Lounge, filling in while Doris is busy getting her kids ready for school. She will be back here next week!

I’m currently a college student studying to be a high school Spanish teacher, and I plan on using Harry Potter in my future classroom as well, but not always in the ways you might think. I’ll explain some ways that a foreign language teacher or English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor could use the books in their classroom to enhance learning.

Using the Books

It helps immensely when reading texts in another language if the students have already been exposed to the text in their own language. This eliminates the need to explain the plot as you go and helps you focus on your real goal: the language. It also lets you examine English grammar before going into Spanish grammar, which sets up the schema that students will need in order to understand what is being said. A book that holds a student’s attention the whole time is, of course, very preferable, and Harry Potter is famous worldwide many would say for that very reason.

The new vocabulary in the Harry Potter books tends to stick around through the whole series, which is a great benefit. Lechuza (owl) and escoba (broom) are great examples. Many of the other new vocabulary words are more specific ways of describing words that students would already know, like vagar (to roam or wander) instead of andar (to walk) or enterarse (to find out about or become aware of something) instead of darse cuenta (to realize).

The Harry Potter books lend themselves very well to literature circles, as much in the foreign language classroom as in the language arts classroom. Chapters tend to be episodic, so groups can read each episode, digest it, and then express it in a new way before moving on to the next one. Since the first two books in the series are written with younger readers in mind, these are perfect for those learning a new language without making them feel like they are reading books meant for kindergarteners.

Going beyond the Books

While at Lumos2006, a Harry Potter conference held in Las Vegas two years ago this month, my co-admin and I both attended a presentation by a college professor who was discussing a problem she had in her ESL classes. Her students were smart, but they were book-smart: they knew very proper and correct English only. The problem is, nobody speaks like that in the real world. She had to find a way to expose her students to language that can’t be found in a textbook, that doesn’t always follow the rules, and that feels natural and normal instead of uptight, while still being able to present it in a variety of ways and tie it into something that interested the students.

In stepped PotterCast, Leaky’s Harry Potter podcast, and our team of transcription elves to her rescue! She described using the transcripts to show the students the written version of what they were hearing, and having them use it as a springboard for in-class discussions and writings on Harry Potter.