Pedagogical Aspects of Literature:

The principal aim of this article is to lead discussion on the relevance of literature in a language class
and propose guidelines to language teachers to deal with a literary text for pedagogical purpose.
Here, pedagogical purpose will be treated in a broad sense referring not only to the classroom
teaching but also to all the phenomena associated with teaching of language (through literature)
including planning to implementation of the plan, and which comprises syllabus designing, textbook
writing, preparation of teaching materials followed by actual teaching in the classroom. The
discussion in the article is basically limited to theoretical facets of teaching with special focus on
what? Why? How? and supposed to be beneficial in actual professional practice.

There is no doubt literature occupy an important space in different

aspects of human life. It is equally important for the people involving
different field of study. From a layman to a philosopher, from a sociologist
to a psychologist, from a language teacher to a syllabus designer, people of
different profession are equally attracted to and benefited by literature. For
different professional and people of society it bears equal value of different
nature. Therefore, the value attached with literature seems kaleidoscopic in
nature. In order to perceive the nature to its kaleidoscopic image and value,
literature is interpreted as a comprehensive field of study involving the
following fundamental aspects.
• The Philosophical Aspects

• The Sociological Aspects

• The Psychological Aspects

• The Pedagogical Aspects

• The Recreational Aspects
Among these different aspects of literature the present discussion is limited
to pedagogical aspect of literature with special reference to second
language learners of English.
From lomg ago literature has got high priority in academic practice.
But the reason behind its inclusion academic practice is context specific
that basically influenced by goal of the course, methodology and/or

1
 philosophy adopted by the pedagogues, etc. Language teaching has been an
unvaried reason of using literature in academic sector. Literature for
language teaching is beneficial in many ways and the following are the
three questions supposed to be crucial to develop a preliminary insight into
the use of literature in a language class.
 What is there in literature that is significant for L2 or FL
learners?
 What is/should be the destination of using literature in language
classroom?
 Toward achieving the destination: How can we reach to the
destination efficiently?
A serious attempt to find out the answers to these questions so as to provide
an insight into literature teaching is as follow:

What is there in literature that is significant for L2 or FL

learners?
We use literature in second language classroom because it is pedagogically
significant for language learners. Literature is made up of language and it is
the language that our learners need to master, therefore, it is clear that a
careful implementation of a literary text in a language class is beneficial for
a number of reasons. Broadly speaking, it seems beneficial form two
perspectives: Linguistic and psychological. From linguistic perspective it
helps learners to acquire the different language and language associated
skills. The important language skills that we expect to be strengthened
through the use literature in a language classroom are:

• Vocabulary
• Language Structure
• Cultural and Contextual Use and Interpretation of language
Similarly, literature in L2 classroom is equally significant from
psychological point of view for the following reasons:

2
 • Motivating learners

• Arousing interests in the learners towards the language lesson

• Building confidence in the learners
The more a language teacher is conscious of these fact the more s/he can
make the literature beneficial for his/her learners making the language
class more efficient through focusing on the core of it. .

What is/ should be the destination of using literature in

language classroom?
Teaching literature in a language classroom has some specific purposes. It
has its own specified route and destination. The destination of teaching
English literature is usually discussed under 'Why Use Literature in
Language Classroom’. Regarding why aspect of teaching literature in a
language classroom we can quote Lazar (1993: 15-19). Under the topic
'Examining the reasons for using literature in a language classroom' she has
listed the following reasons:

• Motivating materials
• Encouraging language acquisition

• Expanding language awareness

• Developing students interpretative abilities

• Educating the whole person

Collie and Slater (1987) have also expressed similar view in their book
'Literature in the Language Classroom'. According to them literature is
significant for language learners mainly because:
• It is valuable authentic material

• Helps learners in cultural enrichment

• Help learners in language enrichment

3
 • Personal involvement
As we observed the reasons for using literature in language classroom, we
found that literature is used in language classroom mainly because it is
beneficial for learners to fulfill their language needs, find out cultural and
contextual association of language in order to interpret it efficiently and
help learners involve in language practice with high motivation.

Toward Achieving the Destination:

To get maximum advantage from teaching of literature in language
classroom is a complex task. For this, we as pedagogue need to be careful
in different stages of language teaching from syllabus designing to actual
classroom teaching and act of evaluating the learners. The following four
activities are considered to be the most important:

• Selection
• Organization

• Presentation
• Assessment Procedure and provision of feedback
Selection: selection of appropriate literary text is the first and most
fundamental activity toward producing successful language teaching
programme through teaching literature of the target language.
Selection of a literary text should be based on:
• Interests and the age of the learners

• Learners linguistic level of proficiency

• Purpose and needs of learning language

• Learners previous acquaintance with the text

• Training, experience and overall competence of the teachers

4
The text selected need to be interesting and challenging side by side. The
interest it arouses in the learners draw their attention in the lesson and the
challenge it impose help them acquire the proficiency that has not been
mastered yet.
Apart from the mentioned above duration of the programme,
socioeconomic status of the learners, and their family environment can also
provide significant clue for the selection of a literary text.
Organization: The text selected need to be organized properly. The first
text should be preparation of the second text in some way. The beginning
should not be frustrating instead, it should be exciting and the following
should lead to the genuine language practice. For this the text need to be
organized on the basis of difficulty level of the language used, cultural
acquaintance, textual familiarity, etc.
Presentation: It is the stage of actual teaching in the classroom. The text
selected appropriately and organized meaningfully need to be presented
effectively. For effective presentation we need to do the objective judgment
of the context we are dealing with the teaching should be based on the
learners level, objectives of the course in general and current lesson in
particular and other situational factor. For effective presentation, we can
utilize the clue provided by Collie and Slater (1987) in their book called
literature in the language classroom.
1. First Encounters
2. Maintaining momentum
3. Exploiting Highlights
4. Ending
Such guidelines help form the basis for designing more specific, more
fruitful, and more relevant language lesson but again it is the language
teacher who needs to have basic understanding of his or her context in the
light of the public theories to make the insight more fruitful.

5
The actual classroom activities can be in the form of implementation of the
following like techniques (these techniques are some of the techniques
suggested by Collie & Slater 1987 and Lazar 1993):
• Using title and cover • Role play
design
• Parallel writing
• Visual prompt
• Text comparison
• Biographical lie detecting
• Choose the
• Glossary preparing prediction
• Keeping back the title • Role play
Assessment Procedure & provision of feedback: Assessment is
inherent part of academic practice or teaching learning process. It
is the source of motivation and incentive for the labour and
sincerity. Therefore, teaching of literature should have adopted an
appropriate procedure of assessment. By appropriate procedure of
assessment we mean the assessment technique based on the
objectives of the course that requires real language skills and
elements so as to exert positive wash back. The assessment should
always be followed by the feedback, which might be in the form of
suggestion or the level of achievement with clear reason of being
assigned the respective level of achievement (such as score in the
examination) with clear reason of being assigned the respective
level.
Conclusion
Teaching language through literature has been an extensively
practised for the purpose of language teaching. However, it is not
the only and undisputed practice. In spite of the voices against
using literature in language classroom, it has been proved highly
beneficial and the more debate, discussion, and study we carry out
in this field the more beneficial it seems to be because such
activities help us to be aware of its possible limitations and
strengthen the strength it has. Its affectivity, to a large extent lies in

6
the theoretical knowledge and practical skill, stratagem that a
language teacher possesses in dealing with a literary text in
language classroom. To put it in nutshell, the affectivity of
teaching language in general and teaching language through
literature largely determined by ‘What? Why? and How?' aspects.
The relevance of literary text might vary fro the context to context
but the job of an ELT professional is to assess the value as
objectively as possible in the phase of planning and try to make it
as effective as possible in the stage of implementation but the
reverse can cause the chaos be cause of the dilemma in language
teaching.
References:
• Brumfit, C. J. & R. A. Carter (eds.) (1986) Literature
language teaching. Walton:OUP
• Carter, C. A. & M. Long (1991). Teaching Literature.
London: Longman
• Collie, J. & S. Slatter (1987). Literature in Language
Classroom: A resource book of ideas and activities.
Cambridge: CUP
• Lazar, G. (1993). Literature and Language Teaching.
London: Longman
• Regmi, L. R. (2004) .Teaching Language through
Literature: Some Illusion and Realities. Journal of NELTA.
Vol. 9 No. I & II
• Widdowson, H.G. (1975). Stylics and the teaching of
literature. Essex: Longman