Marjorie S.

Toledo

Use of Literature in Teaching English

As I browse the research , entitled as “Use of literature in teaching English “ I already get the
idea or the research itself. The author wants to emphasize the use of literature as a popular
technique for teaching both basic language skills (i.e. reading, writing, listening and
speaking) and language areas (i.e. vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation) in our times. In
my elementary up to senior high school days our teacher already introduced to us what is
literature and as far as I remember poetry, drama, short stories belongs to literature.
Accordingly, literature broadly is any collection of written work, but it also used more
narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction,
drama, and poetry. There are a lot of benefits that we can get upon studying literature and
why should literature be part of education as they aid in helping students in terms of
developing language skills (i.e.reading, writing, listening and speaking) and language areas
(i.e. vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation). According to an online article, although most
Filipinos are not native English speakers, they have little difficulty in speaking grammatically
correct English (Barcelon, 2015). Taking this into consideration which tells that even though
the Philippines as of 2019 has a literacy rate of 91.6 % Filipinos are having difficulties in
developing speaking skills components: pronunciation, vocabulary, fluency, and coherence
that is why it is necessary. Thus, Literature plays an important role in the English programs of
many non-English speaking countries.

On the contrary, I was not able to find what methodology they used in coming up with this
research because it was not stated on the text however I get the gist of this research. It is true
that through literature , students can have a wider understanding in terms of grammar,
pronunciation, vocabulary and the ability to speak the universal language fluently. In order to
develop these skills, school should be the first one to execute means and strategies and plan
to take action into this matter because it will really aid in building students the abilities, skills
and performance.

Lastly, I agree that literature is not only a tool for developing the written and oral skills of the
students in the target language but also is a window in building a competent, well- rounded
and responsible learner. Without literature, language cannot exists, they need to go hand in
hand as they help each other in bringing and developing a better version of learners.