Chapter 3

On teaching literature

Why teaching literature?
The world of literature has everything in it, and it refuses to leave anything out. I have read like a man on fire my
whole life because the genius of English teachers touched me with the dazzling beauty of language.
1

The determination of the American novelist Pat Conrad will be assumed during this paper
as the major pillar for the teaching of literature in schools. The reasons that the present research
is based on are subordinated to the above mentioned determination: valuable authentic material,
language enrichment, cultural enrichment, personal involvement and the acquisition of the
literary competence.
In the broad sense literature says something about the fundamental human issues that go
beyond the cultural boundaries, time. This universal feature allows literature to speak to readers
of different countries and thus, literature acquires an everlasting value. In the same time, the
literary language is not made for special teaching purposes as the language used in materials as
city plans, pamphlets, cartoons etc. Literature renders an authentic material exposing learners to
a genuine and undistorted language. The exposure to the authentic material also exhibits the
readers to the texts for native speakers and forces them to become more familiar to some
linguistic conventions as irony, argument, simile, wordplay etc.
The linguistic piece also contributes to the importance of teaching literature thus,
language enrichment unfolds to the students as a discourse that it is not used in daily
communication, but which is configured as a rich contextualized body of text. On the other hand,
the usage of a discourse that is not frequently used in the daily communication may be
considered a less pragmatic solution for the language enrichment, but there is where the clue lies.
Literary language is not meant to be used in everyday communication because it is supposed to
take the readers outside prosaic context and make them to become familiar with a richer lexis,
with a multiple methods of constructing sentences and with different ways of connecting ideas.

1
Conroy, Pat: Goodreads, pp. 1
Language enrichment not only that puts the readers face to face with an unknown body of text
but also forces the readers to go beyond the simple translation of the target language lexis in
order to get the information. It requires to the readers to make an effort and to deduce the
meaning from the context using the linguistic clues from the text and their background
knowledge as well also facing the density of meaning of the lexis. Consequently, language
enrichment is not only about the acquisition of a new lexis but also about the increase of the
creativity through the richness of language beyond the first significance of the words. From
another point of view, when teaching literature the students have the opportunity of seeing
language as an unfolding coherent rule-based system and socio-semantic system which will
confer a feeling of better understanding of the everyday lesson and will cause an impulse for
deepening the actual knowledge and for further reading.
Literature cannot be thought outside the circle of culture. Literature is made of language
and culture. What does culture bring in the literary reading and how does it help students in their
studying? It brings cultural enrichment which represents the background of that very society.
Cultural enrichment deepens the understanding in the societys lifestyle and in the understanding
of the codes and concerns that structure a real society. More than that, literature, i.e. books is a
handy resource for the foreign students and provides a quicker insight into the country whose
language is being learnt than getting into contact with native speakers or living in that country.
We should take into consideration that some students may just learn about a certain culture
without even stepping foot into that country.
Another aspect worth taking into account for teaching literature is the personal
involvement of the readers. Literature may result attractive to some learners since it drags the
readers into the world of the story and makes them actively participate to the act of reading. By
the active participation the reader is invited to emotionally involve in the act of reading and to
develop a response whether positive or negative. The response is a necessary requirement in the
literary act since teaching literature is an arid business unless there is a response
2
. Receiving a feedback
from the part of the readers is more difficult when dealing with non-native speakers. In this very
case, the teacher should be the one who should seek to help students to develop a response.

2
Long, N., Michael: A feeling for language: the multiple values of teaching literature, pp.42
Teaching literature proves being very useful and complex since it allows practising the
four basic areas of learning: listening, speaking, writing and reading. Although reading is the
most common practice, when teaching literature this practice is just the base of what really
teaching literature means. As mentioned before language enrichment faces the readers with
lexical overflowing forcing them to overcome the restrictive elements of language teaching and encourages
learners to test and discover the dimensions of the words.
3
. The enlargement of the significance of the
words is meant to create a feeling for language
4
to the students which not only is an additional item
of information when reading a text, but which will also allow a better understanding of the
figurative language structures and of the cultural implications. Lastly, teaching literature puts
literature in relation to the general cognitive development of the student, to his previous
knowledge of the world and makes him understand the significance of a text and creates a ground
for a motivated language activity
5

What sort of literature should be taught to the Students?
Traditionally, the choice of the literary body of text that should be taught to the students
was directed by the teacher, but Graves
6
in 1983 noticed that young writers tend to produce a
larger quantity of writing when describing something that is related to their life experience and
relevant to their emotions and dreams granting the development of their critical thinking. By this
alternative to the teacher-directed approach, Graves introduces the process-oriented approach
which allows the students to influence the choice of the text that they should like to study. In the
same time, literature has also to be relevant to the cultural needs of the students since the nearer
the cultural reality of the target language to the students, the deeper and better understanding of
the literary text. Following the feature of relevance, the literary text has also to be suitable to the
language level of the students otherwise reading will result in a techy activity and not in a
reading for pleasure.

3
Idem: pp. 59
4
Ibidem: pp. 59
5

6
Morris, Tracy, Charles: The effect of process oriented versus Teacher-Directed Institutional Approaches with
Students of Varying Levels of Social Development within the Community College, pp. 5
Meyer
7
observed that the process-oriented approach is more meaningful as the age and
maturity level of the students increases because the students bring their personality and their
vision upon the world. From the analysis performed by the researchers Cate, Snell, Mann,
&Vermunt
8
results that learners experience several periods in their development: a transition
from external guidance (from the teacher) through shared guidance (by the student together with the teacher) to
internal guidance (by the student alone) and therefore, the process-oriented approach to teaching
literature should apply accordingly to the degree of readiness of the learners.
Therefore, in order to choose a literary text with a beneficial effect on the students which
encourages their response and further reading the teacher should take into consideration students
needs which vary according to the interest, cultural background, language level and maturity of
the students.
Why teaching poetry?
According to Josephine Harts belief poetry is language caught alive
9
which means that
poetry is an authentic material for teaching and for students simultaneously. The authenticity that
poetry benefits of allows the students to develop their language skills in a real context within
which they will have to use the previous cultural background and also be prepared to expand it.
Altogether with the improvement of linguistic skills, students will have the chance to
enrich their vocabulary with words that are not usually used in the L2 textbook and also learn
and practice vocabulary in a meaningful context which will help them to remember words easily.
The very form and features of poetry: stanza rhyme, rhythm, length make it suitable to a
single classroom lesson as opposed to the novel. Simultaneously these features of a poem make it
more attractive to read and listen to for the students.
Poetry in a broader sense is creativity therefore, when studying it students will be able to
notice the stylistic devices in the poem and be encouraged to use them as an example and to use
by themselves as a creative writing.

7
Idem: pp. 11
88
Ibidem: pp. 11
9
Hart, Josephine: Poetry and Performance
Lastly, poetry deals with universal concerns and themes and consequently, personal and
emotional involvement in the lesson and class activity will be greater as well as will also
stimulate critical thinking.
Teaching war poetry
The transition from traditional poetry to modernist poetry is rendered by the war poetry
which at its turn smoothers the impact of the Modernist poetry.
War poetry joins features of poetry as universal actual themes (patriotism,
disappointment, death and love), incipient modernist language (half-broken syntax, manipulation
and use of language etc.), enrichment of vocabulary (military vocabulary, daily common
discourse and elevated discourse), cultural aspects (the British view upon the Great War, the
situation in England) and personal involvement. As regarding the letter aspect, the emotions
provoked by the warfare situation will increase the interests of the students in participating and
providing a response to the literary text. Moreover, the realities of the war will provide a better
understanding of the further Modernist readings.
All in all, teaching literature and poetry is complex process that is meant to explore and
expand the language skills of the students, to present the vision upon the world of a certain
author, to develop critical thinking and to encourage continuous reading.