THE ROLE OF LITERATURE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS

ABSTRACT

This research investigates the role  of literatures in the  English language teaching and learning using some selected secondary schools. This was carried out to unveil the role of literature in the early stage of learners in learning the English language. The research focuses on the secondary stage of education to investigate the effect of literary materials on the learners. Such materials like literary texts and the electronic viewing materials will be used to teach some of the learners, while some of the learners was taught without such materials. After that, the two groups were examined to get the authenticity of the research result based on the role of literature in the English language teaching and learning at the early stage of the learners.

Chapter One: Introduction

1.1 Background to the Study

It is quite obvious that previously, literature used to be an integral part of the English language teaching and learning process. Some scholars like Akwanya, A.N. and Otagburuagu, E.J. noted this in their “English Language Learning in Nigeria: In Search of an Enabling Principle,” and “The English Language in Nigeria: A Historical Perspective”. Otagburuagu laments:

In the early days of English language learning and teaching in Nigeria, literature used     to be an aspect of the English language   curriculum.   Literature   has   a   way   of   relating language to culture and the society. Literature can help the acquisition of vocabulary and language structure. Therefore, any language programme which omits literature has created a gap between linguistic structure and actual usage. (91)

Akwanya calls the removal of literature from the teaching of the English language a divorce between language and literature and decries that this divorce seems to undermine all the efforts of teaching and learning (iv). Many other scholars such as Kramsch, look back, with nostalgic feelings, to those days when literature used to be an integral part of the language curriculum and the foregone intellectual benefits of the inclusion. Kramsch, C. opines: “The study of language in those days meant the study of literature” (554).

The removal of literature from the curriculum of the English language and total concentration on the grammatical competence of the learners is a problem to the effective learning and teaching of the English     language. The removal of literature from the curriculum and the dominance of grammatical approach to learning the English, more especially as they concern secondary education, are what inspire this study. Moreover, there have been some contributions from some

scholars on the role of literature in English teaching and learning. Lazar asserts that literature should be seen as an invaluable resource of motivating material and as a bridge to provide access to cultural background (ii).   Parkinson and Reid Thomas argue that literature provides a good model for good writing and that it is memorable, and challenging. It also helps to assimilate the rhymes of a language; therefore it facilitates intelligence and sensibility training (9-11).

Many teachers consider the use of literature in language teaching as an interesting and worthy concern (Sage 1). Perhaps, this consideration by many teachers helps to enhance the psycholinguistic aspect of language learning as it focuses on form, discourse processing skills, and improvement of vocabulary expansion and reading skills. Literature, in addition, has experienced revival with the advent of communicative approach in language teaching. It provides learners with authentic pleasurable and cultural material (Hall 45).

The  incorporation of a  novel as a part of literary texts  in our English language syllabus should be a strong justification as part of the authentic material to improve the learner’s communicative competence. According to Lazar, when using a novel, teachers should look at both possible drawbacks, educational as well as linguistic opportunities (204). A novel provides a more involving motivation source for pedagogic activities and it also engages learners intellectually, emotionally and linguistically. Furthermore, it provides a picture of another culture. In the same vein, Widdowson argues that the act of reading a novel enhances meaning making process and language capacity in the learners

(246).

A crucial development for the role of literature in second language teaching programmes, according to Hall, was the burgeoning of the communicative language teaching approach, notably from the 1980s, particularly in more privileged educational institutions, often replacing a ‘grammar-translation’ model

of language teaching whose final humanistic aim was to enable the students to read successfully the classic literature of the language (205). Maley, for example, taking the humanistic line, advocates the use of literature because it is intrinsically motivating  to  talk  about  death,  life,  love  and  the  like,  large  themes  which otherwise escape ‘communicative’ syllabuses, preoccupied, as they tend to be, with timetables, tourism and other exchanges and transactions (23). Kroskrity sees language and communication as the linguistic construction of membership (106). In fact, for Bakhtinian, linguistic dialogue is seen as the fundamental form of speech, so that ‘cultures are continuously produced, reproduced, and revised in dialogues among their members’ (Mannheim & Tedlock 2). Based on this grammar-translation, Akwanya argues that the Transformation Generative Grammar, which is the theory of language that has been dominant in Nigerian institutions for more than thirty years, lacks reading and literature (37). Akwanya further argues that if we re-center literature and reading in our educational system, the demand for new works will build up. He attributes language mastery to over- all intellectual development and to the fact that the quality and quantity, as well as the degree to which reading is sustained as a life-long engagement, all have to do with the quality of the intellect (37).

There are three models that justify the use of literature in the teaching of the English language. There is the cultural model which shows the facilitation of the language learning process by literature with regards to the understanding and appreciation of different cultures and ideologies. There is also the language model which emphasizes the fact that language is the literary medium and that literature could be seen as an instrument to teach specific vocabulary and structures. The Personal Growth model entails students engaging with the reading of literary texts, appreciating and evaluating cultural artifacts and, in broad terms, the understanding of our society, culture, ourselves as we function within that social

matrix. Carter and Long, though more concerned with literature in adult English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom, similarly contend that justification for literature in  the  curriculum falls  under three  headings: culture,  language and personal growth (1).

The last model, which is the personal growth model, covers the cultural model  and  language  model  since  cultural  understanding  presupposes  some cultural knowledge and in order to engage with a text and evaluate it, one must resort  to  language to  achieve  such a  purpose.  Perhaps,  language lies  on  the borderline between oneself and the other (Bakhtin 293).

From the above contributions from some scholars, it is obvious that their arguments have been to point out the essence of including literature in the study of the English language and they have been able to indicate the failures in effective teaching and learning of the English language, but none has been able to narrow the  argument  down  to  the  early  stage  of  the  educational system  (secondary education) where there are more noticeable communicative incompetence due to the  lack of discourse approach to  learning the  English language. This  study, however, sets out to expose the need for the inclusion of literature in the study of the  English  language  in  secondary  education  as  this  is  the  stage  where  the linguistic  background  and  competence  the  learners  can  easily  be  built  and sustained as the learners continue in their linguistic adventure. In addition, this is the stage where various learners should be competently fed with the appropriate language learning skills such as the discourse approach through literary works to facilitate a communicative competence before the various learners follow their different respective careers later in higher institutions. From my personal experience, having graduated from English department, I observed that currently, there is an inclusion of literature in English language as a course in our various higher institutions and this is one of the reasons why this study centers on the role

of  literature  in  the  English  language  teaching  and  learning  as  it  concerns secondary education.

The need for language teachers to use  literature in the teaching of the English language, therefore, forms the thrust of this study. The pressing need for effective communicative competence among learners of the English language as a second language has attracted some attention from researchers. Arguments, suggestions, examinations and conclusions of the researches of this sort are mostly geared towards achieving communicative competence among learners. This section, however, is to examine a selection of these empirical studies which focus special attention to the role of Literature in teaching and learning English as a second language.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

It is obvious that some other researchers have done some research works on this area of study but none has been able to include the use of visual dramatic acts in form of educative English based movies along with other literary texts at the earlier stages of the learners which are what the researcher utilized in this work.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

This study is carried out to examine the role literature can play in facilitating the teaching and learning of the English language more especially at the early stage of the learners. There have been observations from scholars, like Akwanya and Otagburuagu, that the omission of literature from the English language curriculum really reduces the communication competence of the learners. Akwanya specifically states:

Up to the shift in the educational policy in Nigeria of which the outcome was a downward trend in competence and mastery of English, the teaching of this    language had gone hand in hand with the  teaching of  English literature. The  change  in policy required that this be stopped and that a  new methodology of language teaching be adopted (26).

With the above scenario, obviously in the time past, literature was part of the English  language  curriculum.  This  different  understanding of  literature  from language is  a “divorce between ‘language’ and ‘literature’ in the  educational curriculum” (Akwanya, iv). Akwanya further states that this divorce “seems to undermine all the efforts of teaching and learning. And if literature is not returned to  the  English  language curriculum, the  downward trend  in  competence and mastery of English may remain with us and continue to belittle the efforts of the teachers in their approach to language teaching and learning”(iv).

1.4 Significance of the Study

In spite of the importance and efforts invested in the teaching and learning of the English language, the communicative incompetence on the part of the learners still lingers. As far as this communicative incompetence is a problem, it affects both the teachers and the learners. Therefore, this research is relevant to the teaching and learning of the English language. In fact, it is mostly significant to the curriculum designers, teachers and learners of the English language.

In every sense, teachers, being the role models, will draw from this study that the approaches they adopt and the materials they choose can make or mar the competence expected of their learners. This is mostly significant to the teachers of the English as a second language. Therefore, the study keeps the teachers of the English language rightly informed on the appropriate texts for the effective teaching of English as a second language.

In another related vein, this study could also be a guide to the learners of English as a second language based on the use of discourse approach to learning the English language instead of concentrating only on the grammatical aspect of the language. The learners will draw from this study the benefits of literary texts in enhancing their contextual usage of words.

Finally, curriculum designers will find this study very relevant as it is a strong suggestion to  the  reasonable  need  to  include  literature  in  the  English language curricula. This inclusion, as they will realize, ensures an increase in the mastery of the English language.

1.5 The Scope of the Study

The learning and teaching of the English language occur at every level of formal education development: primary, post primary, and tertiary institutions. But this study covers only secondary education. There are obvious reasons for this.  This  is  in  accordance with the  learners’  need  for  solid  background  for communicative competence which helps to make their future language learning process more facilitative. Perhaps, some scholars claim that at the earliest stage of teaching and learning programme, the learners lack the intellectual enrichment to be able to acquire some linguistic learning factors like interpreting the text of literature. Ugwuanyi, in his Masters Degree Project: Developing the Communicative Competence of Second Language Speakers of English through Literature, quotes Akwanya as saying: “At earlier stages of educational development (say primary and junior secondary), students may not be well equipped to be able to ‘agitate the text(s)’ of literature” (Akwanya, Enabling). But we should not forget the importance of children’s literature in strongly building their vocabulary and widening their contextual usage of the vocabulary acquired.

This study will cover the vocabulary usage, more especially the contextual usage of words in an effective communicative context.

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