Romeo, Juliet & HAVO 4: Using Bloemert’s Comprehensive Approach to make canonical literature engaging to HAVO 4 students

Abstract

In the Dutch HAVO curriculum, reading canonical literature is not required and teachers may avoid including it because it is considered unrelatable or disengaging. This study aims to research whether HAVO 4 students can be engaged in canonical literature lessons when taught using Bloemert’s Comprehensive Approach, which integrates the text, context, language and reader approach. Using this approach, a six-lesson-series on William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet was designed and taught to an advanced HAVO 4 class of 11 students at Lingecollege Lyceum in April 2024. Each 50-minute lesson featured three of the four approaches. The language approach was used throughout since Dutch students consider it the most significant. Student engagement and disaffection were measured with a 23-item Likert scale questionnaire designed by Bloemert. In the absence of a control group, results were compared via a T-test to Bloemert’s, who used the questionnaire to establish the general attitude of Dutch secondary school students in EFL literature lessons. Results suggested that the HAVO 4 students were significantly more engaged, both behaviourally and emotionally, and less emotionally disaffected during literature classes than Bloemert’s upper-level students. No significant difference was found in the amount of behavioural disaffection. To gain more insight into the students’ lived experience, interviews were conducted in Dutch with four students (on voluntary basis). They were thematically analysed, revealing three key themes. The ‘position of Shakespeare’ showed that all students recognised Shakespeare but were not initially motivated to study his work. Secondly, ‘experiences and preferences’ showed that students enjoyed the lesson series but for a variety of reasons which suggests that diverse lesson activities are key for HAVO students’ engagement. This high level of diversity can be attributed to the use of the Comprehensive Approach which requires multiple activities and goals per lesson. Lastly, ‘the role of literary education’ showed that the students considered lesson series more suitable for advanced HAVO classes. These findings suggest that the Comprehensive Approach can help make canonical literature more engaging for HAVO students by promoting variety. However, further research with a control group and regular HAVO 4 classes is needed to substantiate these findings.