The didactic use of the BBC's tv series. Sherlock for teaching English as a foreing language

Abstract

The art of presenting a story in stand-alone instalments at regular intervals began in Victorian England with the popularization of serial literature. The beginning of the phenomenon of serial literature was marked by the stories of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, a work that began to be published in sequential parts in April 1836, ending with the last delivery in November 1837. Charles Dickens presented a total of twenty part issues in which a series of adventures of a group of protagonists portrayed the life of the time with sense of humour and extravagant characters. The publication of a novel in instalments is the closest thing to the broadcast of episodes that forms the basis of a TV series as a narrative form. In the 19th century, the editors discovered that they could use serial fiction as a way to engage readers since they developed a fictional relationship with the story they were reading. That same discovery was made by television channels in the 20th century when they came to the conclusion that serial fiction created a commitment on viewers.