Teaching English through Literature in the EFL classroom

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to show that teaching English through literature in the EFL classroom can work. But the most interesting part is that it is addressed to a specific group of students that is serving judicial admission measures, so they have a lack of motivation towards school, and the teachers’ work in this centre is more complicated. For this reason, I have created a didactic unit based on the novel Jane Eyre, because they can feel identified with some of the episodes that the main character experiences in her life. Furthermore, as Jane Eyre is a biography, it is also a point in favour, due to their interest in this kind of novels. Something really surprising for me, when I was doing my internship, was the fact that some of the students read Jane Eyre as a freereading option at the beginning of the academic course. Moreover, I have chosen a graded book because it can motivate them to continue reading a novel that they can understand and follow, due to its easy vocabulary and grammar constructions that are adapted to them. The kind of activities that we can find in the didactic unit are dynamic and easy to complete, because there is not a unique correct answer, so they can be creative and express their own ideas and opinions towards the novel. These are divided into three different sections: pre-reading activities, while-reading activities and post-reading activities. They foster the improvement of the four main communicative skills which are the reading, speaking, listening and writing. The results of the implementation are explained at the end of the paper, so we will see how students worked and if we can confirm the main points that are defended here. Finally, it is important to mention, that this didactic unit will be used as a complement to their daily English lessons, and not as an alternative to them.