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Using Literature in Teaching English As A Second Language A Case Study of Arda College

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International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD)

Volume 4 Issue 2, February 2020 Available Online: www.ijtsrd.com e-ISSN: 2456 – 6470

Using Literature in Teaching English as a


Second Language: A Case Study of Arda College
Dr. Gulnaz Fatma1, Shama Al Ajam2
1Language Instructor, 2Graduare Student-English Language and Literature,
1,2jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT How to cite this paper: Dr. Gulnaz Fatma


English language teaching is becoming more popular throughout the world | Shama Al Ajam "Using Literature in
since English language got the place of a global language. Teaching English as a Teaching English as a Second Language: A
second language would be more interesting and easy if it is taught through the Case Study of Arda College" Published in
local colors of understanding. Literature is the best source to make language International Journal
learning easy and fascinating. For the beginners of English language learner, of Trend in Scientific
there are large numbers of stories which can be taught in classrooms. Short Research and
stories, specifically children stories, short poems and novellas can be good Development (ijtsrd),
source to arise interest among learners. Literary texts provide chance to come ISSN: 2456-6470,
across different type of emotions, expressions and sentence structures. Volume-4 | Issue-2,
Literary language enables learners to differentiate between formal and February 2020, IJTSRD30244
informal language. Literary text can be taught through audios or by showing pp.1030-1034, URL:
movies based on literary work with English subtitles which not only will www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd30244.pdf
improve their pronunciation and but also will help to improve their listening
for English language. Reading literary text during language learning builds a Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and
rich vocabulary for a new learner. International Journal of Trend in Scientific
Research and Development Journal. This
Learning language through literature also help the learner to know other
is an Open Access article distributed
cultures very closely, because literature of different languages provide with
under the terms of
the platform of various cultural values, rules and regulations, and prepare the
the Creative
mind of readers to accept the differences between cultures and respect the
Commons Attribution
values of others.
License (CC BY 4.0)
This research will help the teachers and students as well which would be (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by
mainly focused over the students of English department only. This is an /4.0)
objective research; a survey among the students would be done by the
researcher itself, in which short text of different genres of literature would be
given to be taught during language learning classes. The data of the research
would be calculated by SPSS.

KEYWORDS: English, Language, Literature, Culture, Learning, English as Second


Language, Saudi Arabia
INRODUCTION Background of the Research:
Second language learning can be made easy and enthusiastic It is seen that there is a fashion nowadays to learn English
by adding some creative things in it as study material is the and most of the students from non English countries are
most important thing which teachers are supposed to heading toward English speaking countries to learn the
prepare before entering the classrooms. It is very language thoroughly by being in the touch of native
challenging job to select the study material for the beginners, speakers. This paper emphasizes on including literature in
so that it can make the learning process easier and confident. language learning courses so that English language learners
As this research is centered on literature, as a source of can understand the language from the prospective of their
learning English language, a major part of discussion will be native speaker instead of learning the basic dialogues added
focused on different genres of literature. Reading, writing in the curriculum. In this competitive age of education it
listening are the basic skill to learn English, all these skills comes on the institution to design a course which can give a
can be learned and understand by the use of literature. comprehensive knowledge to the students.
Literature of a particular language has always had a cultural
affect on it, while cultural knowledge and social Statement of problem:
understanding are not the things which can be avoided Learning a second language through books leaves a empty
during language learning. Literature of a particular language place in understanding the language acutely until and unless
can be studied for many purposes in which cultural learner is unaware about the culture, tradition, and historical
knowledge comes on the top which provides a lot of background of the people of that particular language.
knowledge to the learner of that particular language. Although movies, music, and social media now a day’s
Studying literature during language learning also helps the fulfilling this emptiness profoundly yet in classrooms its
students to enhance their creative thinking skill. difficult and inappropriate to play movies specially in
language learning classes, so now the question arises how a

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD30244 | Volume – 4 | Issue – 2 | January-February 2020 Page 1030
International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
language learning class can provide a complete or absolute to be learn yet material for learning cn not be ignored or
knowledge to the learner. In this paper the responsibilities of avoided.
teachers and institustion will be discussed in this regard.
Literature used in EFL and ESL classrooms has had several
Objective of the study positive effects in many fields. It is seen that people who are
The research aims at: fond of reading fiction grasp more command on language
1. Opening up new platforms in learning English as a than the people who study English as a language. Fiction
seconding language. helps to enhance the knowledge of diverse sentence
2. Developing interest in literature in learning the trend of constructions, diction, and also passive narrations. Readers
different traditional cultures of others inside and of fiction go across to real life conversational sentences
outside the classrooms. which sharpens their wittiness in argumentative language.
Since the fictional world of writing still dominated by English
Questions of the study speaking people or the people who find English in their
To meet the foregoing stated objectives the following family as a native or first language, so there are less chances
research questions are raised: to have inaccurate construction of sentences. Generally it is
1. How can Literature be a rich source of earning English seen that something which seems very serious to make the
as a second language? people understand can be easily explained by the medium of
2. Are the students and teachers of Jizan University aware a provided situations or by creating a scene where speakers
of the importance of the different literary genres which are made to speak the dialogue in such a form that reader
can be taught in classrooms? starts thinking in the same point of view. Literature is always
rich with personal narratives based on first on second hand
Research Methodology: experiences, this type of literature must have grasp the
Participants reader’s attention as a theory Reader Response Theory
The paticipats sample selected for this study consisted of advocates the response which is given by readers by reading
students at Jizan University the purposive population of the such type of texts. Reader response theory is all about
study consisted exclusively of studnts of translation. The reader’s reaction after reading a text. All the specific text,
study is done among Sixty undergraduate students at Jizan read in novels or in a literary work generally seen to be
University in Jazan. They are selected randomly for this compared by the readers with their own life experiences.
research. Reader’s response theory can be use by teachers to offer new
ideas in class rooms, from elementary level to the higher
Instrument education. Literature not only helps to improve the reading
The current study used one tool which was questionnaires. writing and speaking skills but also provides with the
Sixty questionnaires were taken for assessment, which was cultural knowledge because every language is associated
suitable for eliciting suitable response. with its culture.

Procedures Literary texts are always full of emotions, compassion, mercy


Permission to undertake the study was first obtained from and some other negative thinking. Every literary work has its
the dean of the college. The teachers on their parts informed own purpose of writing and shows the consequences of good
the students about the study and asked for their consent and and bad simultaneously, so reading a cutting of a newspaper
clarified that their participation would not affect their and reading an interesting story of literary text makes
academic grades. After obtaining students consent different atmosphere in classrooms. Like this literature
questionnaires were administered in a group with proper produces good source and context to organize these
instructions and no specific time was assigned for it. activities. Generally, language learning only provides with
the overview of a particular language while, literary stories
Literature Review: brushes up the insight and critical thinking of their readers.
The most important thing about selecting the literary genre This is the responsibilities of class room teachers to teach
for the students is to check the level of understanding of the language as a social fact where cultural knowledge is a basic
students, if the students are inspired by themselves the its thing to understand. If teachers apply this technique of
goes easy on teacher to select a material which can motivate teaching a language then this will be helpful to arrange an
them to learn the language more curiously and happily. It’s actual performance of communicative language by the
the responsibility of a teacher to give cultural knowledge to learners. When nonnative speakers of English learns English
the students, otherwise unknowingly people do big mistakes language in this literary based classrooms, they find social
while applying there own culture on others. Katherine, an and historical approach of the language which becomes
American citizen, share her experience of Seoul Korea, when fruitful while students turn their attention in to the field of
she as a teacher went to class and addressed to students. She writing, it helps them to create an imaginative world but
says she was amazed by the questions asked to her about her based on the real culture and context of that related country.
age, her marital status and so on she says “I was amazed by
their question…..how old are you??? Are you married??? Why Data Analysis:
are you not married??? Why did you come to Korea??? I was Result and discussion of finding:
really shocked and overwhelmed after some days I realized The analysis of the questionnaire Figure 1 presents that 70%
there must be some cultural rule both of us are missing.” of the students among 45 participants who answer the
(tapestry 3…Karen Calisi and Susana christie). It is very questionnaire were positive that literature can help to learn
important to know the cultural concepts for new language language more easily and enthusiastically, while 30% of the
learning. Although consideration of lexical, syntactical, participant were negative about it, they preferred to study
structure and discourse analysis are more important points language in a traditional manner.

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD30244 | Volume – 4 | Issue – 2 | January-February 2020 Page 1031
International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
Figure1:

Figure2:
1. The analysis of the questionnaire Figure 2 presents that 65% of the students among 45 participants who answer the
questionnaire were agreed Do you think fiction helps to learn the daily conversational sentences? while 35 % of the
participant were negative about this.

3: The analysis of the questionnaire Figure 3 presents that 51% of the students among 45 participants who answer the
questionnaire were agreed that movies play important role in learning English as a second language, while 49% of the
participant were negative about this.

Figure3

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD30244 | Volume – 4 | Issue – 2 | January-February 2020 Page 1032
International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
Figure 4:
2. Figure four presents the analysis of the question four in which they were asked “Is reading prose; such as novels, short
stories and essays are a good source to improve writing skill?”. Students found this question different, 45% of the
students among 45 participants who answer the questionnaire were agreed that reading prose; such as novels, short
stories and essays are a good source to improve writing skill, while 20% of the participant were negative about this,
and rest 35% of students were uninterested to give the answer.

Figure 5:

Figure 5 presents the ananlysis of the question five in which they were asked “Do you like culturally diversed class rooms”.
Students found this question unintersting, 35% of the students among 45 participants who answer the questionnaire were
interested to study in a culturally diversed classroom, while 10% of the participant were negative, they wanted to study with
their nationals only, and rest 55% of students were uninterested to give the answer.

Figure 6:

3. Figure 6 presents that 82% were positive when they were asked “Do you want a class where teachers use literary text in
teaching English language? they were interested to learn English language with the help of English literature, while 18% of
the participant were negative or ignorant about the using of literature in ESL class rooms

Conclusion: process will not only open the way of writing style yet by
English language has taken place of being the first global reading aloud text, students would improve their reading
language so cultural knowledge of English language becomes skill and also by repetition of the same reading in a lecture
an essential part of learning. Many theories of learning can they will learn the style of that particular author. By
be applied in classrooms to fulfill this purpose of teaching rewriting the text, students would be able to relate their own
literary text in ESL classrooms reader response theory plays experience with that specific text which will open the way of
an important role in learning. Although reader-responsee new ideas and new ways of writing style. This job can be
theory is a developing field of literary studies but it’s very done by a group of the students in which every group will
useful to assess about our own reading style. Through reader discuss and edit the text four or five times before coming to
response theory a classroom teacher can make number of the teacher; as a result a good writing style can be expected
activities to be conducted classrooms. A literary text can be from the students. Generally, course material provided in
given to the students to read aloud and then every student language learning lacks passion, enjoyment, intellectual and
can be asked to explain the text in their own words, this critical thinking.

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International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
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@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD30244 | Volume – 4 | Issue – 2 | January-February 2020 Page 1034

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