Teaching language through literature: an ELT based study
Abstract
The present study aims to: firstly, highlight the effectiveness of using literature in ELT classes in an interesting and innovative manner in Pakistan; secondly, to help language teachers develop a thoughtful and principled approach to using literature in the language classroom; thirdly, to provide teachers with the tools for developing their own classroom materials and for using these materials in a way that is relevant to their learners’ needs. This paper explores the text of ‘Good Bye Mr. Chips’, a famous novel by James Hilton (1934) for teaching at the Intermediate level. For the analysis of data, insights are taken from the works of Dubin & Olshtain (1977), Collie & Slater (1987) and Robinette. B. W (1978). It was found that activities like role plays and a lot of pair work and group work not only caused reduction in anxiety level of students but also increased their level of interest and enthusiasm. It also concluded that for facilitating language teaching and learning, the formation of a variety of activities based on learners’ needs from carefully and properly selected texts is unavoidable. Future researchers can exploit similar literary texts following the same frameworks for language teaching purposes.
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