Age as a factor in Russian EFL teacher attitudes towards literature in language education

Abstract

Age as a factor in Russian EFL teacher attitudes towards literature in language education 1. INTRODUCTION As Maley (2001) points out, the role of literature in the classical, humanist tradition of teaching languages was carried over into the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context in the early 20 th century and overall has continued ever since. Gilroy and Parkinson (1996) write, for example, that literature has always occupied a prominent place in EFL for many learners, noting that English textbooks in South Asia are sometimes simply a collection of literary texts. Maley, likewise, observes that literature remains essential to the teaching of language in India. However, as Carter (2007, p. 6) notes, literature "disappeared from the language curriculum" from the 1940s to the 1960s due to, as Maley describes it, a shift in focus from educating a small scholarly élite to mass-producing functionally competent users of English, where literature's 'deviant' language (Gilroy & Parkinson, 1996, p. 213) was deemed unsuitable for language learning. In the last three decades, however, the use of literature in foreign language (FL) education has seen renewed interest, with the publication of several resource books for teachers both in the UK (e.g.

Policies, textbooks, and curriculum constraints to integrating literature into language education: EFL teacher perspectives from Russia

“…Before proceeding to the literature review, it should be noted that this study builds on data gathered via an 85-item questionnaire from 140 Russian EFL teachers, from diverse teaching contexts, regarding their attitudes towards and use of literature as a language resource. Much of that data indicated statistically significant differences in teacher attitudes towards literature based on age, with younger teachers using it less in their lessons and thinking of literature in less positive terms than older teachers, findings that have been reported in Calafato and Paran (2019). The questionnaire, however, also contained a section on the difficulties teachers might encounter when using literature in their lessons (composed of seven Likert-scale items that covered quality of FL educational materials, time constraints, administrative support, training, curriculum, etc.).…”

“…Studies show that Russian teachers of English generally hold positive views about incorporating literature into their lessons and use it to improve learners' vocabulary knowledge, reading skills, and intercultural competence (Calafato, 2018;Calafato & Paran, 2019;Belkina & Stetsenko, 2015). At the same time, Calafato and Paran (2019) indicate that younger Russian teachers of English are using literature to a lesser extent than older teachers; they, moreover, do not enjoy reading literature in either English or Russian as much, and were exposed to literature to a lesser extent throughout their FL education. A lack of exposure to literature when learning an FL, as well as when learning to teach an FL, can certainly negatively affect pre-service teachers' confidence when they, as in-service teachers, encounter literary content, because they have not had the necessary training or classroom experience from which to draw on.…”

“…Should concrete steps not be taken to address the concerns of foreign language teachers in this respect, it is likely that FL teachers will be discouraged from using literature in their lessons, which will negatively affect their students' ability to understand and process authentic texts, as well as their literacy, in a foreign language. Lower levels of literature use among younger EFL teachers already appears to be a reality in Russia (Calafato & Paran, 2019), and younger teachers in Norway similarly exhibit lower levels of literary reading enjoyment (Skaar, Elvebakk, & Nilssen, 2018), which likely has implications for literature use in that country, too.…”

Stylistic Analysis for the EFL Classroom

“…This is not necessarily a bad thing, according to a study of Dutch secondary school students who had positive views of literature in the EFL classroom for the explicit purpose of facilitating language ability (Bloemert, Paran, Jansen, & van de Grift 2019). This is good news for educators like Calafato and Paran (2019) who note that literature became less used in the classroom in the mid twentieth century but has made a recent comeback, much to the benefit, in their view, of both students and teachers, a view which this paper shares.…”

Fear of poetry among preservice teachers in Nigeria

“…Also, literature could help learners develop critical and creative thinking skills. Moreover, poetry specifically facilitates the development of the language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing (Gönen, 2018; Calafato and Paran, 2018; Adejimola and Ojuolape, 2013).…”