The Use of Literary Texts to Promote the Process of Learning English Language

Abstract

Teaching English through literary texts is a new trend in the field of ELT –English Language Teaching – to foreign or second language learners. Literature courses are embedded inside the syllabus of colleges of Education, Arts and Languages. So, the students in these Colleges who are taking English as a field of specialization are introduced to literature since their enrollment to the college. But, their standard in English language is beyond the expectations. We as teachers of literature, we begin to think of ways to help these students in raising their standard in English via the available courses of literature. Thus, the researcher in this thesis intended to examine the possibilities of using literary texts as springboard for the development of English language via activities from the literary texts. The study consisted of six hypotheses, which were as follows: firstly, teachers have different attitudes towards literature, secondly, they use various types of activities in teaching literarytexts, thirdly, they assume that maximum benefit can be obtained from using literary texts in language teaching, fourthly, some problems are faced in using literary texts to teach English, fifthly, some strategies can be adopted to enhance the teaching of English through literature, lastly, students benefit greatly from their study of English literary texts. To confirm or reject the hypotheses of the study, the researcher used three tools; two questionnaires and two tests (pre-test and posttest). A questionnaire for teachers, a questionnaire for students taking English as a field of specialization and the tests were for the students.The pre-test was administered before the intervention took place; the second test (post-test) was given after thirteen lectures. The samples of the study were thirty teachers and sixty students. The SPSS program was used to analyze the data that collected from the subjects. The results of study prove that teachers have positive attitude to literature, they include activities in teaching literary texts, the study confirms that teachers of literature benefit by using literary texts in teaching English, they faced problems when they use literary texts in teaching English, they agreed on the suggested strategies to enhance the teaching of English through literary texts, finally students’ responses have shown that they endeavor to use literary texts to improve their level of English. Statistically, there is no significant difference between the two groups in the pre-test, but there is a significantly statistical difference between the two groups in the posttest.