This paper is a review of literature on how literature can be integrated as a language teaching material in EFL/ESL classes. First, it tracks down the place of literature in language classes from the early Grammar Translation Method (GTM) to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) era. The paper then discusses the reasons for the demise and resurrection of literature as an input for language classes. After that the reasons for and against the use of literature in EFL/ESL classes are enumerated and discussed. For so doing, the researchers draw upon recent ideas on language teaching practice and theories. Finally in a practical move, this paper reviews the past and current approaches to teaching literature in language teaching classes. Five methodological models for teaching literature are proposed.
Poetry like other literary genres exists to be enjoyed and appreciated. The difficult task facing any instructor is to develop this sense of appreciation and enjoyment in students who are not interested in poetry. For a long time, literature in general and poetry in particular, was purged from the teaching programmes on the ground that it made no contribution to learning a foreign language for practical purposes. Fortunately, in the past few decades there has been a renewed interest in using literature in the language classroom. Despite the renewed interest in teaching literary texts in the classroom, little has been written about teaching poetry to college-level students in Iran. Many English instructors along with many university students do not enjoy English poetry. Even a majority of them express a negative attitude towards poetry. No one can deny that poetry is difficult not only for EFL students, but also for native speakers. My long experience in teaching poetry to Iranian college students has forced me to come to the conclusion that the students’ negative attitude towards poetry can be ascribed, among many other facts, to (a) inappropriate selection of the texts and (b) ineffective teaching methodology. This study suggests a new approach to teaching English poetry in EFL situations. The purpose of this study was to determine the relative effectiveness of this approach in improving the students’ attitude towards English poetry at college level at Allameh-Tabataba’i University in Tehran-Iran
The urge behind the current study was to argue for the development of critical thinking in language learners as an important element in EFL classes. A host of ways such as explicit teaching of critical thinking skills and using special programs have been hypothesized to improve learners' critical thinking ability. As a contribution to the current attempts to implant critical thinking in teaching and learning processes, the present study proposed employing literary texts in reading comprehension classes. To attain this goal, firstly, 34 learners were targeted as the participants of the study. Next, the pre-test of the study including a critical thinking test and a reading comprehension test was administered. Based on the results of the pretest, the participants were assigned into two homogeneous groups-experimental group and control group. Subsequently, both groups went through a 15-session reading comprehension course. The materials for the experimental group were literary texts extracted from different literary books and short stories. On the other hand, the materials for the control group were non-literary texts in the reading comprehension sections of books such as Interchange, Topnotch and Spectrum series. The same teaching method emphasizing critical thinking skills was used for teaching both groups. At the end of the course, a post-test including a International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2012 www.macrothink.org/ijl 564 critical thinking test and a reading comprehension test was administered to assess learners' critical thinking and reading comprehension. The findings of the study revealed that literary texts, as they require imaginative and creative thinking and are rich in reasoning and inference, can serve teachers tremendously to improve learners' critical thinking ability. The results of the study have significant implications for teachers, researchers and material developers.
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