Teaching materials using literature in the EFL ESL classroom. By Lindsay Clandfield. Level Starterbeginner, Elementary, Pre intermediate, Intermediate, Upper intermediate, Advanced Type Reference material An article discussing ways to use literature in the EFLESL classroom. Literature has been a subject of study in many countries at a secondary or tertiary level, but until recently has not been given much emphasis in the EFLESL classroom. It has only been since the 1. EFL teachers. The purpose of this article is to look at some of the issues and ways in which literature can be exploited in the classroom. There are also links to classroom activities and lessons with literature that you can download and use straight away. What is literature First of all, any method or approach towards using literature in the classroom must take as a starting point the question What is literature The Macmillan English Dictionary gives the following definition literature noun. Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Many authors, critics and linguists have puzzled over what literature is. One broader explanation of literature says that literary texts are products that reflect different aspects of society. They are cultural documents which offer a deeper understanding of a country or countries Basnet Mounfold 1. Other linguists say that there is no inherent quality to a literary text that makes a literary text, rather it is the interpretation that the reader gives to the text Eagleton 1. This brings us back to the above definition in the sense that literature is only literature if it is considered as art. Before doing any study of a literary text with your learners, one idea would be to ask them what they think literature is. Attached below is a short discussion lesson you can do with your students on the subject What is literatureWhy use literature There are many good reasons for using literature in the classroom. The earliest edition as seen on Google books was released in 1985. This release contained 379 pages and had an ISBN of 9780521287234. A well known edition of the book. Issuu is a digital publishing platform that makes it simple to publish magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and more online. Easily share your publications and get. Here are a few Literature is authentic material. It is good to expose learners to this source of unmodified language in the classroom because they skills they acquire in dealing with difficult or unknown language can be used outside the class. Literature encourages interaction. Literary texts are often rich is multiple layers of meaning, and can be effectively mined for discussions and sharing feelings or opinions. Literature expands language awareness. Asking learners to examine sophisticated or non standard examples of language which can occur in literary texts makes them more aware of the norms of language use Widdowson, 1. Raymond Murphy. Second Edition. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY English Grammar in Use. With over 9000 resources, including lesson plans, worksheets, audio, video and flashcards, onestopenglish is the worlds number one resource site for English. Microsoft Office Publisher Pdf. Eslflows guide to ESL lesson plans, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, games and activities for English as a Second or Foreign Language for teachers and. Teaching materials using literature in the EFL ESL classroom. By Lindsay Clandfield. Level Starterbeginner, Elementary, Preintermediate, Intermediate, Upper. Lazar 1. 99. 3. Literature educates the whole person. By examining values in literary texts, teachers encourage learners to develop attitudes towards them. These values and attitudes relate to the world outside the classroom. Literature is motivating. Literature holds high status in many cultures and countries. For this reason, students can feel a real sense of achievement at understanding a piece of highly respected literature. Also, literature is often more interesting than the texts found in coursebooks. Different models of teaching literature in class. There have been different models suggested on the teaching of literature to ESLEFL students Carter Long, Lazar. How the teacher will use a literary text depends on the model they choose. The cultural model views a literary text as a product. Intermediate English Grammar Cambridge University Press Pdf' title='Intermediate English Grammar Cambridge University Press Pdf' />This means that it is treated as a source of information about the target culture. It is the most traditional approach, often used in university courses on literature. The cultural model will examine the social, political and historical background to a text, literary movements and genres. There is no specific language work done on a text. This approach tends to be quite teacher centred. The language model aims to be more learner centred. Put It In Reverse 3. As learners proceed through a text, they pay attention to the way language is used. They come to grips with the meaning and increase their general awareness of English. Within this model of studying literature, the teacher can choose to focus on general grammar and vocabulary in the same way that these are presented in coursebooks for example or use stylistic analysis. Stylistic analysis involves the close study of the linguistic features of the text to enable students to make meaningful interpretations of the text it aims to help learners read and study literature more competently. The personal growth model is also a process based approach and tries to be more learner centred. This model encourages learners to draw on their own opinions, feelings and personal experiences. It aims for interaction between the text and the reader in English, helping make the language more memorable. Learners are encouraged to make the text their own. This model recognises the immense power that literature can have to move people and attempts to use that in the classroom. Attached below are two lessons which draw on a combination of the language approach and the personal growth approach. Both are based on short texts either extracts or poems. Using literature over a longer period of time the set novel or reader. The above lesson plans are all based on short extracts or poems and can therefore easily be used over one class period. However, there are very good reasons for encouraging learners to read books. Extensive reading is an excellent way of improving English, and it can be very motivating to finish an entire book in another language. In addition, many international exams have certain optional questions on them that pertain to set novels each year. One option that is now available to language teachers is the wide range of simplified and inexpensive versions of literary texts, called readers see Onestop Shop for a list of readers for different levels. Setting up a class library of novels and readers, if you have the resources, is an excellent idea. Tim Bowen and Jonathan Marks, in their book Inside Teaching, recommend the following ideas for extensive reading of literature Hold brief classroom discussions on what learners have been reading progress reports. Ask learners to describe a book they like in such a way to make others want to read it. Select a short novel which has been recently made into a film or TV series with which your learners are familiar. In addition, there is a list of general questions about novels or readers attached at the bottom of the page that could be given for students to answer in written form they are based on questions from the Cambridge First Certificate Exam. DIY literature lesson plan. In our first Methodology article on Using Literature, there were two sample lesson plans based on an excerpt or a short story. Both followed a similar lesson plan format, outlined below. This sort of lesson plan works well for extracts from stories, poems or extracts from plays. Stage one warmer. There are two different possible routes you can take for this stage Devise a warmer that gets students thinking about the topic of the extract or poem. This could take several forms a short discussion that students do in pairs, a whole class discussion, a guessing game between you and the class or a brainstorming of vocabulary around that topic. Devise a warmer that looks at the source of the literature that will be studied. Find out what the students already know about the author or the times heshe was writing in.