USE OF LITERATURE 

IN LANGUAGE 
TEACHING

                                                          Presented
by:
Merin Mathew
Roll No. 952
MA English, Semester II
 TWO DIFFERING POSITIONS ON 
USE OF LITERATURE
The Non­Essentialist Position
 not even help the development of second language 
competence and proficiency (Edmondson, 1997). 
 regards no or limited value of using literature

 “… literary texts have no essence that distinguishes 
them from other type of texts” (Yuksel , 2007)
 McKay (1982) ­Structural complexity and unique use 
of language will not help the teaching of grammar
 Linguistic difficulty +  need to know about the culture 
of the target language makes language teachers 
reluctant to benefit from it
 The Essentialist Position
McKay (1982) claims : “literature presents language in
discourse”
Spack (1985): creating more culturally-tolerant language
learners, serve as a stimulus for writing and composition

Affective  Cultural  Psycholinguistic 

Arguments Arguments Arguments
Pleasure Cultural experience Focus on form
Motivation Inter-cultural Discourse processing
Personalisation experience skills
Stimulus for language Inferencing
acquisition Tolerance of ambiguity
Critical thinking
Develops students’
interpretative abilities
 3 APPROACHES IN LAZAR’S 
LANGUAGE­BASED MODEL

  Language­based model: 
  integrating language and literature syllabuses

 emphasizes the use of grammar, lexis, and discourse categories 
to make aesthetic judgment of literary texts.
  Literature as content:
 Literature ­ basic course content 

 Literary texts –analyzed based on historical and cultural 
backgrounds, genre, rhetorical devices.
 Literature for personal enrichment:  
 gives students a chance to reflect on their personal experiences, 
opinions, and feelings
 Texts ­ basic stimuli for the classroom activities.
 TRADITIONAL APPROACH COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

 Starts with comprehension of simple   Learners negotiate meaning
reading passages
 Contains grammatical exercises, 
 Learning by tasks in 
vocabulary questions,drills authentic context
 Language concerns are relegated to   Motivating and interesting  
20    issue 
texts
 Advanced level­  lecture­ based 
teaching  Learners assisted in early 
 Curricula­ intuitive, justified by  stages to deal with authentic 
tradition
language materials
 Readers have nothing to contribute 
on their own account  Critical reading
 Cultural difficulties are dismissed  Gives space for culture and 
Preferable for those who mastered 

differences
language, unfamiliar with literature
INDICATIVE HISTORY­KRAMSCH AND 
KRAMSCH (2000)
Until 1914
Traditional view­ literature as purpose and end of LT­GTM, Direct Method
1918­29
 Literature as a source of reading potentially accessible to literate learners
1929­45
Increasingly irrelevant
Luxury supplementary material for more advanced students
1939­45
As a source of solace in a troubled world
1945­57
As content and entertainment
Seen as appropriate to advanced level study
1957­79
 Humanistic phase
Culture included literature
Growing precision over how to teach literature in language classes
Readability studies to foreign language text  selection and teaching
1979­end of 20th  century
Rise of CLT
Proficiency movement­ vocabulary acquisition, reading strategies, reasoning skills
Researches in Psycholinguistics and Discourse  Analysis
learner­ centredness of reading
Insulation of literature study in  language departments
Literariness, linguistic creativity, play and metaphor
 CONCLUSION
 Attempts to move teaching of literature from 
testing of facts to more complex ideas of 
comprehension
 Relating new knowledge to established 
understanding
 Affect for literary reading experience
              

                THANK YOU