Teaching English Language through Literature: A Critical Study

Abstract

Literature in a language classroom provides enough space for the learners to comment, justify and mirror themselves. By using literary text the language class can turn out to be lively and motivating. Having formed part of traditional language teaching approaches, literature became less popular when language teaching and learning started to focus on the functional use of language. However, the role of literature in the ELT classroom has been re-assessed and many view literary texts as providing rich linguistic input, effective stimuli for students to express themselves in other languages and a potential source of learner motivation. This paper tries to analyze how literature can be used effectively for teaching English language and also tries to find out whether learning English Language is feasible through the use of Literature at all the stages of language learning.