Literary Texts in the English Classroom: An Integrated Approach to English Instruction

영어 교실의 문학 텍스트 -영어교육의 통합적 접근

Literature had been at center-stage in the traditional grammar-translation-focused English classrooms up to the mid-twentieth century. As the Audiolingual Method and the Communicative Language Teaching have gained popularity in the English classrooms, however, literature has receded into the background of English education. The main reasons for using literary texts in the English classrooms for communication-focused English instruction need to be examined. First of all, students can come in touch with the subtle and varied uses of language through literature-based teaching. They also feel close to certain characters in the literary work and share the emotional reponses with them. They get personally involved in the plot of the story. Universal human experience and cultural enrichment are two other merits which can be conferred on students by literary texts. Such linguistic and literary experiences can be significantly integrated into the literature-based instruction. More significantly, the four language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) can be combined with one another and integrated into a literature-focused curriculum for English education. The value of literary texts in the English classrooms can be clearly demonstrated by effective ways of using such texts as Charlotte's Web for integrated instruction. The full array of benefits that literature can bring to English instruction, however, has yet to be fully realized. These potentials need to be materialized into classroom practice.