Exploring Gender Relationships in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and Its Application to English Teaching

• Main Authors: Hsiao-hua Yu, 郁曉華
• Other Authors: Hsiao-chen Chiang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/60725014161154703276

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 英語學系 === 93 === This thesis aims to explore gender relationships in William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and to apply these issues to English teaching. Though Shakespeare’s drama has been valued highly, most teachers in junior high school in Taiwan are reluctant to have it as teaching material. The researcher of the study adopts diverse teaching techniques in order to testify the appropriateness of Shakespeare’s drama as teaching material in junior high school. The whole thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter includes an introduction to gender relationships in Renaissance England and a limited literature review of The Taming of the Shrew in the past fifteen years. It also points out why drama may work as appropriate teaching material. Chapter Two puts an eye on the gender ideologies in Renaissance England. Issues from men’s domination over women to women’s resistance and autonomy as well as the call of love and mutuality are involved. Based on what has been explored in Chapter Two, gender relationships in The Taming of the Shrew are canvassed in Chapter Three. Chapter Four provides an analysis of the teaching material and the teaching techniques. Extracts of The Taming of the Shrew and a lesson plan for the play were offered to ten junior high school teachers. Then questionnaires were used in order to investigate their opinions on applying the play and its gender issues to English teaching. Chapter Five concerns the results and discussion of the teaching application. The results showed that the course helped the students improve both literary and literacy ability. In Chapter Six, a summary of major findings and limitations of the study are listed. Suggestions for further study are also proposed.