Literature enhances critical thinking. This is one of the most important
characteristics of literature. Through literature people experience human emotions,
feelings, perspectives, etc. People have the opportunity to relate their own life and
perspective to what other people think and feel. When a person is reading a piece of
literature, he or she is able to use his/her mind to predict and imagine what is
happening and what is going to happen next. Literature makes people think without
even noticing it. Other subjects such as Science or social studies enhance students to
do some research that involves some critical thinking, however the purpose and
focus is totally different since research requires go from something very general to
narrow it to a specific content.
Literature includes language that can be easily taught through different
activities. According to Carruth (1994) it is extremely important to provide input for
students. Literature is a great language input source it includes all kinds of structures
for instance if the class is focused on grammar such as adjectives, nouns, verbs in
different tenses, articles etc. Using this rich input teacher can take advantage of
moral, values, attitudes and feelings reflected in the story. Something very
important to take into consideration is that when teaching English as a foreign
language, it is important to give students the opportunity to produce the language. If
the class focuses only on input, the opportunity to produce language goes away and
that’s what it is called “Spoon feeding”. According to Rubera (2009) Language
input is as important as language output. A good use of literature in class provides
the opportunity for students to obtain and analyze the language as well as produce it.
Literature is very useful to complement, adjust and supplement the curriculum.
There are all kinds of short stories, songs, poems, novels etc. that can be easily
adapted to what the curriculum requires and in many cases literature complements
it. Most topics not to say all topics can be taught using literature. Since there is a lot
of material, it is easy and practical to adapt it to the class own objectives and
contents. This blog provides different websites of songs, short, stories and rhymes
that teachers can use to take advantage of literature, and obtain all its benefits. It
also provides sample lesson plans and different worksheets that include the English
teaching using literature communicatively.
Literature is authentic material: It is good to expose learners to this source of
unmodified language in the classroom because they skills they acquire in dealing
with difficult or unknown language can be used outside the class.
Literature encourages interaction: Literary texts are often rich is multiple layers
of meaning, and can be effectively mined for discussions and sharing feelings or
opinions.
Literature expands language awareness: Asking learners to examine
sophisticated or non-standard examples of language (which can occur in literary
texts) makes them more aware of the norms of language use
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Literature educates the whole person: By examining values in literary texts,
teachers encourage learners to develop attitudes towards them. These values and
attitudes relate to the world outside the classroom.
Literature is motivating: Literature holds high status in many cultures and
countries. For this reason, students can feel a real sense of achievement at
understanding a piece of highly respected literature. Literature is often more
interesting than the texts found in coursebooks.
The main goal of literary works, communication, has changed with the times,
authors, and styles, not to mention that it has also changed within the same author’s
works, according to his own ideas or principles. With time, the reader felt the need
to interpret the piece of literature, now according to his/her own ideas and
principles, and most of the times, even according to the geographical background of
the production, if that was different from his/her own. This interpretation always
involved serious general knowledge on the culture of the original area the literary
work belonged to, varied and even unexpected associations, as well as an inquisitive
mind and linguistic abilities. But a reader cannot be competent and appreciative
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