Introducing literature inthe EFL clasroom: William Shakespeare's night's dream

Abstract

Literature has always been seen as a great pillar for the acquisition and development of a mother tongue; however, this relevance has traditionally become secondary when acquiring a second or foreign language. Either for lack of training or for syllabus constraints, literature continues being a great forgotten within the EFL classroom. For this reason, the purpose of the present work is to design a didactic proposal in which literature is highly beneficial for the acquisition of English as a second language. Thus, through the use of the Shakespearean play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a didactic proposal has been designed to be developed in 7 sessions. This proposal intends that students and teachers become aware of the importance of literature within the EFL classroom. Literature provides students with valuable lexical resources, idiomatic phrases and collocations. Besides, it contributes to enhancing students' personal and intercultural relationships and fosters their critical thinking. To achieve this purpose, this work will be divided into different parts. First, a theoretical framework will be provided, in which the importance of literature and its benefits for second language acquisition will be discussed. This section will also underscore the relevance of using authentic materials in the classroom, the different types of reading (bottom-up vs. top-down and Intensive vs. Extensive Reading), as well as the Three-Model Approach, as described by Carter & Long (1991). This section will provide a solid foundation for our didactic proposal. Following this theoretical framework, a brief description of the centre and the group chosen to implement this proposal will be presented, as well as the justification for the selected materials, the objectives of the proposal and the methodology employed. After that, the didactic proposal will be presented, followed by a description of the assessment criteria and the possible limitations of this proposal. Finally, some conclusions will be provided. Keywords: Literature, Language Acquisition, EFL classroom, Shakespeare, Three-Model Approach.