What is the role of literature study in EFL education?
How can the study of literature make its maximum
contribution within the total field of EFL education?
These are the two major questions which this paper
attempts to answer.
The urge that prompted this study comes from the author's
deep concern with the study of English at advanced
levels in foreign language institutes in China. Research
and study of the students and other circumstances at
these language institutes show that it is possible as
well as desirable for advanced students there to take
up the study of literature.
Literature study was the only approach to language
teaching before the 1940's. In the modern approaches
to language teaching, attention has been given to the
study of language itself, and the study of literature
has been quietly pushed into the shade. It is the
author's belief that, as H.L.B. Moody puts it: 'the
pendulum has perhaps swung too far from one extreme to the
other'
After much research and study about the value of
literature in language classrooms, the author intends
to show in this paper that the study of literature in
language classrooms can be expected to:
a) improve students' general linguistic ability;
b) provide an insight into the culture associated
with the target language;
c) through reading, develop students' comprehension
and ability to read between the lines .
Parallel with these points, this paper is also intended
to establish a theoretical basis for three aspects of the
study of literature in EFL:
Literature as language; (see: Chapter Three)
Literature as experience; (see: Chapter Four)
Literature as art. (see: Chapter Five).
In Chapter Six of this paper, tentative suggestions are
given concerning the problems of selecting appropriate
materials for advanced foreign Language learners, and
how literature study can be carried out both in and
outside classrooms. The limitations of the study of
literature in certain circumstances arc also considered
in Chapter Six.
It is hoped that this paper will serve as a basis for
further study and research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218848 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Zhang, Xiu Rong, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Liberal Studies |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Xiu Rong Zhang |
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