"‘To Put Yourself in Someone Else’s Shoes’: Young Adult Literature in the EFL Classroom"

Abstract

Young Adult Literature (YAL) is still looking for a place as a literary tool in EFL learning/teaching although recent scholarship about reading and literacy shows the benefits of building student motivation, and the clear connection between heightened motivation and YAL. According to researchers, students benefit when they can choose to read books that they can relate to, or texts about topics they have some interest in. Therefore, YAL is not just a useful tool to learn/teach English, but a means to approach other issues, such as gender roles, bullying, or racial discrimination in the classroom.