Literature and Language
Literature and Language on the MTEL (76) tests close reading of fiction, poetry, drama, and nonfiction; recognition of literary devices and genre features; and command of standard English conventions and vocabulary. Expect questions that ask not only what a passage says but how form and word choice create meaning.
Core concepts
- Theme vs. subject: subject is the topic ('loyalty'); theme is a claim about it ('loyalty can require moral compromise').
- Tone vs. mood: tone is the speaker's attitude; mood is the feeling created in the reader.
- Figurative language: metaphor states a comparison; simile uses like/as; personification gives human traits to nonhuman things.
- Grammar: pronoun case, subject–verb agreement with interrupting phrases, comma splices, and misplaced modifiers are frequent targets.
Worked example
Passage sentence: 'The city wore a coat of soot, and the streetlights blinked awake one by one.' Question: identify the dominant figurative device and explain its effect. Reasoning: 'Wore a coat' attributes a human action to the city, so it is personification, not a simile (there is no like/as). 'Blinked awake' reinforces personification. The effect is to make the urban scene feel alive but grimy-soot as clothing suggests pollution clinging to the city. A strong answer names the device, quotes the exact words, and links them to mood or theme. A weak answer says only 'it is a metaphor because it compares two things,' missing the human attribute.
Traps that cost marks
- Calling every comparison a metaphor; check for like/as and human traits.
- Confusing the narrator with the author.
- Choosing a theme that is only one word.
- Fixing a sentence's meaning rather than its grammar, or missing that 'each,' 'everyone,' and 'neither' are singular.
- Ignoring punctuation that signals shifts in tone.