MULTIPLE VALUES OF

LITERATURE IN
LANGUAGE TEACHING
 OVERVIEW
I. Three Main Schools of Thought on
Literature in L2 Settings
II. Reasons for Teaching Literature: Voices
and Perspectives
III. Issues
IV. Synthesis
WHY TEACH LITERATURE?
PERSPECTIVES ON LITERATURE TEACHING
THROUGH TIME (CARROLI, 2008)
 Teaching the Canon
 Teaching Language
 Teaching Culture

Lit in L2 p2.pdf
Lit in L2 p3.pdf
VOICES IN SUPPORT OF LITERATURE TEACHING AND
INTEGRATION (AS CITED IN CARROLI, 2008)
According to Widdowson (1981), we participate
in the creation of human experience by being
exposed to the language of a particular text
and in the process, we get to learn and use the
same language.

“Literature is an efficient vehicle for foreign

language acquisition (Krashen, 1985).”
“Literature extends L2 classroom beyond its four
walls into the community of target language
and culture (Mitchell, 1989).”

“Literature is an organic whole for cultural

analysis and non-banal context for
composition writing (Gajdusck, 1988).”
“Literature [has the] ability to represent the
particular voice of a writer among the many
voices of his/her community and thus to
appeal to the particular in the reader
(Kramsch, 1993, pp130-131).”

If educators make students aware of the links

among words, languages and culture,
literature can be at once “a world in a text”
and “words in literature are an authentic
material in context(Carroli, 2008).
FOUR MAIN OBJECTIVES FOR USING
LITERATURE IN A LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
(COLLIE & SLATER, 1987 AS CITED IN SUDHEER &
RAO, 2013)
• Acquaintance with valuable authentic
material
• Cultural Enrichment
• Language Enrichment
• Personal Involvement
WHY SHOULDN’T LITERATURE BE USED?
ISSUES/OPPOSITIONS PERTINENT TO THE
USE OF LIT. IN L2 INSTRUCTION
(CARROLI, 2008; AFSAR. 2011; WALIA, N.D.)

o Challenges to using literature:

o Subsiding humanistic subjects due to shifts
(reading text to visual text, vocational
studies, xenophobia [US context, Debevec
Henning, 1993])
o Too much focus on content of text,
neglecting the communicative purpose
o Occasional exclusion of poetry because of
the complexity of its structure and syntax
o Little empirical grounding for Literature’s
contribution to L2 teaching

o Difficulty at the language level

o Text selection impeding comprehension

o Cultural difficulty
ISSUES
 Choice of appropriate text
 L2 educator’s ability to provide references/
connections
RECENT STUDIES/ ARTICLES IN SUPPORT OF
LIT.’S INTEGRATION TO LANGUAGE TEACHING
litinlangteaching.htm
(Exploiting Lit in teaching ESL)
littextinlangtching.pdf
(Literary Texts in Language Teaching)
littextinlangtching3.pdf
(Integrating Literature with Language in the
Language Classroom)
litinlangclassroom.pdf
(Incorporating the metaphors of daily life into the
English/ language arts curriculum)
REFERENCES
Afsar, A. (2011). Literary texts in language
teaching. International Journal of Academic
Research 4 (3)
Carroli, P. (2008). Literature in second language
education: Enhancing the role of texts in
learning. Continuum International Publishing
Group
Soter, A. (2014). Incorporating the metaphors of
daily life into the English/language arts
curriculum. Literacy Learning: the Middle Years.
Sudheer, P. A. & Rao, A. R. (2013). Teaching
functional english to students of technology
through literature. IUP
Suntharesan, V. (2013). Exploiting literature in the
teaching of ESL. Language in India
Walia, D. (n.d.). Integrating literature with
language in the language classroom.
International Online Language Conference.