Teaching English through literature in an EFL classroom: Strengthening ties with English literature

Abstract

The aim of this piece of work is to prove that implementing real literature in an EFL classroom is a good way to teach English and a good way to foster reading habits among the students. Thus, I will provide a wide range of reasons in support of introducing literature in secondary schools and I will try to demonstrate that teaching English through authentic English or American literature is the most powerful tool to learn a language. Furthermore, different approaches will be explained such as the personal growth, the cultural awareness, and the linguistic model. Thus, not only grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation will be taught. Culture, history, human qualities, and ethics will also be covered. In order to be able to prove the previous statements, a didactic unit has been designed using real literature and following these approaches. The didactic unit has been implemented in two different groups of 1st of ESO. After the implementation and the analysis of the results, one can conclude that literature is a powerful tool to teach and to learn a language, in this case, English is the language involved.