Literature in Language Teaching: Teacher Versus Student Opinions

Abstract

Literary texts are returning to school curricula, albeit in a different format: digital and multimodal, in the form of audiobooks and films. Although the theoreticians like Ghosn (2002) and Khatib, Rezaei and Derakhshan (2011) have reminded us about the value of literary text in a language learning curriculum of advanced levels, the views in the classrooms differ as we can see in Ghazali, Setia, Muthusamy and Jusoff, (2009) research on the student and teacher reaction to the use of literature in language learning. Since Latvia is also undergoing curriculum reform, which introduces literary texts in language learning, this research aims at comparing the views of teachers and students on the use of literary texts. The content analysis of the teacher response suggests that their opinions on the benefits of reading literary texts are closer than they realise. The students, just like the teachers, do see the value of literary texts in studying language, learning about culture and developing thinking skills.