Models of Teaching Literature

Carter and Long (1991) proposed three models to justify the use of literature:

1.The Cultural Model

 The cultural model shows how literature helps in understanding and appreciating
different cultures and ideologies together with the developing of one’s perception of
feelings and artistic forms.
 It is a traditional approach of teaching literature.
 This model is teacher centered.
 The cultural model looks at a literary text as a product of culture that can be treated as a
source of information about that culture.
 Cultural ModelCarter (1988) considers the information-based approach as a way of
teaching knowledge about literature literature.

Examples of Activities
 Explanation
 reading of notes
 criticism provided in workbooks or by the teacher (Carter & McRae, 1996).

2. The Language Model

 The language model emphasizes the view that language is the literary medium and that
literature could be seen as an instrument to teach various aspects of language.
 Language model seeks a closer integration between language and literature. 
 It is an approach that offers learners an opportunity to access a text in a systematic and
methodical way.
 The language model tends to be more learner-centered.
 Literary texts are to be used for teaching structures and vocabulary or language
manipulation.
 The view of the language model fails to capture the real essence of literature.
 This model is closely related to Language based approach.

Examples of Activities
 cloze procedure
 prediction exercises
 jumbled sentences
 summary writing
 creative writing
 role play  
3. The Personal Growth Model
 The personal growth model emphasizes that a student understands his/her own society
and culture by reading the literary texts.
 It focuses on the personal engagement of students with the reading of literary texts.
 Literature is to be treated as a resource which aims to develop students' language
competence and literary competence.
 The ultimate goal sought, in this case, is to develop a taste and appreciation of literary
texts, which would transcend the classroom (Zafeiriadou,2004).
 The personal growth model entails students to appreciate and evaluate the texts they read
as "cultural artifacts" and also to achieve an understanding of their society and
themselves as they somehow relate to that "social matrix” (Banegas, 2010)
 This model tends to be more learner-centered.
 This model closely related to Personal-response approach.

References
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de Lisboa. Retrieved November 11, 2021, from:
https://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/6082.pdf
Rahimpour,S. (2020). The impact of literature teaching techniques on the learners’ performance
on academic reading course tests, Iran: Kare Publishing. Retrieved November 11, 2021,
from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337877714_The_Impact_of_Literature_Teachi
ng_Techniques_on_the_Learners'_Performance_on_Academic_Reading_Course_Tests
Rashid, R.A.,Vethamani, M.E.,Basree, S. (2010). Approaches employed by teachers in teaching
literature to less proficient students in form 1 and form 2. Malaysia: ResearchGate.
Retrieved November 11, 2021, from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/47807488_Approaches_Employed_by_Teacher
s_in_Teaching_Literature_to_Less_Proficient_Students_in_Form_1_and_Form_2
Choudhary, S. (2016). A literary approach to teaching English language in a multicultural
classroom.India:University of Rajasthan.Retrieved November 11, 2021, from:
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1132741.pdf

Prepared by
Piojo, Jonalyn R. BSEd 4C