FACILITATING LANGUAGE TEACHING THROUGH LITERATURE: A PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH TO ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS

Abstract

The Contemporary world has witnessed myriads of changes and challenges in the methods and utilization of materials in English language classroom.   With the help of improved technological supports, the teachers and learners are advanced in their expectations in receiving the methods and approaches of learning the language using literature. Literature is generally said to be any piece of art such as stories, poems, and plays especially those that are considered to have value as art and not just entertainment.  There are many good reasons for using literature in the language classroom. Here are a few:

• Literature has got an authentic material. It is good to expose learners to this source of unmodified language in the classroom rather than the modified materials.
• Literature encourages interaction. Literary texts are often rich is multiple layers of meaning, and can be effectively used for discussions and sharing opinions.
• Apart from all these, literature encourages and motivates the whole person by instilling the importance and values of attitude.

There are different models used in teaching literature in language classroom.  They are cultural model, language model and the personal growth model.  The following article aims to focus various methods using such models and materials to teach and facilitate the learners towards learning a language through literature.

Communication has become the very basic qualification for anyone in today’s challenging scenario.  In order to move ahead of the competitors like China and other such countries, we need to equip ourselves with the powerful tool of communication skills especially in English.  Though Indian youngsters are good in academics, when it comes to communication they completely lag behind.  This is not mainly because they lack the fluency of the second language but because they lack the required training for effective communication.  Developing communication skills helps one to excel in the field of profession and improves their quality of life.  It is indeed a vital life skill to learn the ability to communicate information accurately and clearly.