LITERATURE IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

INTRODUCTION
The inclusion of literary works in ESL/EFL classes has attracted more interest among
teachers, and more and more studies on how to use literature in EFL/ESL classes are
conducted. This interest in using literature in language teaching lies in three
interrelated elements: authenticity, culture and personal growth. First of all, literary
texts can be more beneficial than informational materials in stimulating the
acquisition process as they provide authentic contexts for processing new language.
Since literary texts contain language intended for native speakers, literature stands as
a model for language learners to become familiar with different forms and
conventions (Collie and Slater, 1991, 4; Ur, 1996, 201). Containing real examples of
grammatical structures and vocabulary items, the literary texts raise learners
awareness of the range of the target language and advance their competence in all
language skills (Povey, 1967). Second, using literature in language teaching has the
advantage of providing cultural information about the target language. Literary texts
increase foreign language learners insight into the country and the people whose
language is being learnt (Collie and Slater, 1991), which fosters learners ability to
interpret discourse in different social and cultural target language contexts (Savvidou,
2004). Finally, since literature enables students to understand and appreciate other
cultures, societies and ideologies different from their own, it encourages personal
growth and intellectual development (Carter and Long, 1991, 2-4).

LITERATURE REVIEW
What is Literature?
According to Boas (1931) literature is the record of experience interpreted by
personality that behind every book which the race has preserved is a human being s
eager effort to give life meaning, to create beauty, to express vivid emotions and
ideas, to make men aware of themselves and the life they lead. The above extract
presents an integrated meaning of the value and the importance of literature.
Why use Literature?
1. Motivating material:
Literature exposes students to complex themes and fresh, unexpected uses of
language. A good novel or short story can take the students to foreign countries and
fantastic worlds. A play or a poem can bring up certain dilemmas and powerful
emotional responses. All this can be transposed to their real lives.
2. Access to cultural background:
Literature can provide students with access to the culture of the people whose
language they are studying.
3. Encouraging language acquisition:
Obviously, at lower levels, students may be unable to cope on their own with an
authentic novel or short story in English. Any extensive reading we encourage them
to do outside the classroom would probably need to be of graded material, such as
graded readers. But at higher levels, students may be so absorbed in the plot and
characters of an authentic novel or short story, that they acquire a great deal of new
language almost in passing.
4. Expanding students language awareness:
One of the debates centred around literature teaching in the language classroom is
whether literature language is somehow different from other forms of discourse in
that it breaks the more usual rules of syntax, collocation and even cohesion. Using
literature with students can help them to become more sensitive to some of the overall
features of English.
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5. Developing students interpretative abilities:

Literary texts are often rich in multiple levels of meaning, and demand that the
reader/learner is actively involved in teasing out the unstated implications and
assumptions of the text. Thus, by encouraging our students to grapple with the
multiple ambiguities of the literary text, we are helping to develop their overall
capacity to infer the meaning, and this can be applied in real life.
6. Educating the whole person:
Apart from all the linguistic benefits, we cannot forget the wider educational function
of literature. It can help to stimulate the imagination of our students, to develop their
critical abilities and to increase their emotional awareness. If we ask the students to
respond personally to the texts we give them, they will become increasingly confident
about expressing their own ideas and emotions in English.
Approachs of Literary Criticism
1. Moral / Philosophical Approach: Moral / philosophical critics believe that the
larger purpose of literature is to teach morality and to probe philosophical issues.
Advantages: This approach is useful for such works as Alexander Popes An Essay
on Man, which presents an obvious moral philosophy. Finally, it does not view
literature merely as art isolated from all moral implications; it recognizes that
literature can affect readers, whether subtly or directly, and that the message of a
work--and not just the decorous vehicle for that message--is important.
Disadvantages: Detractors argue that such an approach can be too judgmental.
Some believe literature should be judged primarily (if not solely) on its artistic merits,
not its moral or philosophical content.
Checklist of Moral/Didactic Critical Questions:
What enduring truth is revealed in the theme of this work?
How are the actions of the protagonist rewarded and the actions of the antagonist
punished?

2. Formalistic approach to literature, once called New Criticism, involves a close

reading of the text. Formalistic critics believe that all information essential to the
interpretation of a work must be found within the work itself; there is no need to
bring in outside information about the history, politics, or society of the time, or about
the author's life. Formalistic critics spend much time analyzing irony, paradox,
imagery, and metaphor. They are also interested in the work's setting, characters,
symbols, and point of view.
Terms Used in New Criticism:
Tension - the integral unity of the poem which results from the resolution of
opposites, often in irony or paradox.
Intentional fallacy - the belief that the meaning or value of a work may be determined
by the authors intention.
Affective fallacy - the belief that the meaning or value of a work may be determined
by its affect on the reader.
External form - rhyme scheme, meter, stanza form, etc.
Objective correlative - originated by T.S. Eliot, this term refers to a collection of
objects, situations, or events that instantly evoke a particular emotion.
Advantages:

This approach can be performed without much research, and it

emphasizes the value of literature apart from its context (in effect makes literature
timeless). Virtually all critical approaches must begin here.
Disadvantages: The text is seen in isolation. Formalism ignores the context of the
work. It cannot account for allusions. It tends to reduce literature to little more than a
collection of rhetorical devices.
A Checklist of Formalistic Critical Questions:
How is the work structured or organized? How does it begin? Where does it go
next? How does it end? What is the works plot? How is its plot related to its
structure?
What is the relationship of each part of the work to the work as a whole? How
are the parts related to one another?
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Who is narrating or telling what happens in the work? How is the narrator,
speaker, or character revealed to readers? How do we come to know and
understand this figure?
Who are the major and minor characters, what do they represent, and how do
they relate to one another?
What are the time and place of the workits setting? How is the setting related
to what we know of the characters and their actions? To what extent is the setting
symbolic?
What kind of language does the author use to describe, narrate, explain, or
otherwise create the world of the literary work? More specifically, what images,
similes, metaphors, symbols appear in the work? What is their function? What
meanings do they convey?
3. Psychological Approach: Psychological critics view works through the lens of
psychology. They look either at the psychological motivations of the characters or of
the authors themselves, although the former is generally considered a more
respectable approach. Most frequently, psychological critics apply Freudian and/or
Jungian (archetypes) psychology to works.
Advantages:

A useful tool for understanding some works, in which characters

manifest clear psychological issues. Like the biographical approach, knowing

something about a writers psychological make up can give us insight into his work.
Disadvantages: Psychological criticism can turn a work into little more than a
psychological case study, neglecting to view it as a piece of art. Critics sometimes
attempt to diagnose long dead authors based on their works, which is perhaps not the
best evidence of their psychology. Critics tend to see sex in everything, exaggerating
this aspect of literature. Finally, some works do not lend themselves readily to this
approach.
Checklist of Psychological Critical Questions
What connections can you make between your knowledge of an authors life and
the behavior and motivations of characters in his or her work?
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How does your understanding of the characters, their relationships, their actions,
and their motivations in a literary work help you better understand the mental
world and imaginative life, or the actions and motivations of the author?
How does a particular literary workits images, metaphors, and other linguistic
elementsreveal the psychological motivations of its characters or the
psychological mindset of its author?
To what extent can you employ the concepts of Freudian psychoanalysis to
understand the motivations of literary characters?
What kinds of literary works and what types of literary characters seem best
suited to a critical approach that employs a psychological or psychoanalytical
perspective? Why?
How can a psychological or psychoanalytical approach to a particular work be
combined with an approach from another critical perspectivefor example,
biographical, formalist, or feminist criticism?
4. Mythological / Archetypal: A mythological / archetypal approach to literature
assumes that there is a collection of symbols, images, characters, and motifs (i.e.,
archetypes) that evokes a similar response in all people.
Advantages: Provides a universalistic approach to literature and identifies a reason
why certain literature may survive the test of time. It works well with works that are
highly symbolic.
Disadvantages: Literature may become little more than a vehicle for archetypes, and
this approach may ignore the art of literature.
Checklist of Mythological Critical Questions
What incidents in the work seem common or familiar enough as actions that they
might be considered symbolic or archetypal? Are there any journeys, battles,
falls, reversals of fortune, etc.?
What kinds of character types appear in the work? How might they be classified?
What creatures, elements of nature, or man-made objects playing a role in the
work might be considered symbolic?
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What changes do the characters undergo? How can those changes be

characterized or named? To what might they be related or compared?
What religious or quasi-religious traditions might the works story, characters,
elements, or objects be compared to or affiliated with? Why?
5. Sociological approach examines literature in the cultural, economic, and political
context in which it is written or received. Art is not created in a vacuum, critic
observed, it is the work not simply of a person, but of an author fixed in time and
space, answering a community of which he is an important, because articulate part.
Sociological approach explores the relationships between the artist and society.
Sometimes it looks at the sociological status of the author to evaluate how the
profession of the writer in a particular milieu affected what was written. It also
analyzes the social content of literary workswhat cultural, economic or political
values a particular text implicitly or explicitly promotes. Finally, it examines the role
the audience has in shaping literature. A sociological view of Shakespeare, for
example, might look at the economic position of Elizabethan playwrights and actors;
it might also study the political ideas expressed in the plays or discuss how the nature
of an Elizabethan theatrical audience (which was usually all male unless the play was
produced at court) helped determine the subject, tone, and language of the plays.
Criteria for Selecting the Text
1. The students cultural background:
When considering this factor, think about how far the students cultural background
and their social and political expectations will help or delay their understanding of
the text. For example, it would be difficult to understand Jane Austens novels
without knowing about the class system and the values of society in England at that
time. On the other hand, it is also true that remote texts may arise the students
interest.

2. The students linguistic proficiency:

You might need to ask yourself questions like:
- Are students sufficiently familiar with the usual norms of language use to recognise
when these are subverted?
- How much of the language in the text will students be able to infer?
- Will students find it useful and enjoyable to study the text, or will they feel
demotivated by the difficulties of the language?
- Even if the language is difficult, will students be motivated by other factors to study
the text?
3. The students literary background:
If the students have some kind of literary competence in their mother tongue, they
may already know similar conventions for reading and interpreting literature in
English.
4. Availability of texts.
5. Length of the text.
6. Exploitability of the text.
7. Fit with syllabus.
Why Short Stories?
Despite its benefits for students, some objections are always raised against the use of
literature in public schools due to overcrowded classes, overloaded syllabus and
limited timesome problems commonly met in elementary to high public schools in
almost all developing countries. First, the deviated and figurative language of poetry
necessitates very long time to grasp. Second, the length of novel will make it difficult
for such classes to finish. Finally, drama can be used in classes, but it will be difficult
to act out a play in crowded classes within limited course hours. Considering these
objections, it is obvious that among literary forms, short-story which is defined by
Poe (in Abrams, 1970: 158) as a narrative that can be read at one sitting of from onehalf hour to two hours, and that is limited to a certain unique or single effect, to
which every detail is subordinate seems to be the most suitable one to use in public

schools. Since it is short, and aims at giving a single effect, there is usually one plot,
a few characters; there is no detailed description of setting. So, it is easy for the
students to follow the story line of the work.
This reason, that short stories are the most suitable literary genre to use in English
teaching due to its shortness, is supported by Collie and Slater (1991: 196) when they
list four advantages of using short stories for language teachers. First, short stories are
practical as their length is long enough to cover entirely in one or two class sessions.
Second, short stories are not complicated for students to work with on their own.
Third, short stories have a variety of choice for different interests and tastes. Finally,
short stories can be used with all levels (beginner to advance), all ages (young
learners to adults) and all classes. Pardedes (2011) study at Christian University of
Indonesia revealed that the majority of English teachers training students basically
found short stories interesting to use both as materials for self-enjoyment and of as
components language skill classes. The findings denoted that only 0.37% of the
responses went into Disagree criterion; and 18.4%, Neutral. The other 81.5%
went into the criteria of Agree and Strongly Agree.

ENGLISH LESSON PLAN

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Subject

: English

Grade/Semester

: XI/I

Time Allocation

: 90 minutes

Skills

: Reading

A. Standard Competence
Reading
5. Understanding the meaning of the short functional text and simple essay in form of
a recount, narrative and procedure in the context of everyday life and to access
knowledge.
B. Basic Competence
Reading
5.2 Responding to the meaning and rhetorical stages of essays written text accurately,
fluently and accepting in the context of everyday life and to use science in text
form: recount, narrative, and the procedure.
C. Indicators
1. The students are able to find out the main idea of the short story.
2. The students are able to describe the characters in the short story.
3. The students are able to identify the specific details or information from the short
story.
4. The students are able to find out the reference of words stated in the short story.
5. The students are able to find out moral value from short story.
D. Learning Goals
After finishing the teaching and learning process, the students are hoped to be able:
1. To find out the main idea of the short story.
2. To describe the characters in the short story.
3. To identify the specific details or information from the short story.
4. To find out the reference of words stated in the short story.
5. To find out moral value from short story.
E. Material
Short Story: Bill by Zona Gale
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F. Method/Technique
Communicative learning
G. Learning Procedure
Pre activities:
Time Allocation
20 minutes

Activities
1. Teacher checks the students attendance.
2. Teacher shows the picture about the short story and warms up
the story (See appendix 1).
3. Teacher asks about the story of Bill that has been been
assigned as a homework in tha last meeting and Teacher also
gave questions to guide their reading at home such as:
a. Who is the main character of Bill?
b. Where/when does the story take place?
c. What is the problem (conflict) in the story?
d. How is the conflict resolved?

While activities:
Time Allocation
60 minutes

Activities
Exploration
1. Teacher asks students to make some groups consists of 5-6
students in order to to make student easier to explore the story.
2. Teacher asks students to discuss and find out main idea of the
short story.
3. Teacher asks them to discuss and identify the characters of the
short story.
4. Teacher gives some questions about supporting detailes of the
story and moral values to comprehend the text in group
discussion (See appendix 2).
5. Teacher gives matching words (reference )
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6. Teacher and students check and discuss the answers together

and take the moral value from the story.
7. If there is an extra time, teacher asks students to perform
spontanuously it as a movie trailer in 2 minutes for each
group.
Post activities:
Time Allocation
10 minutes

Activities
1. Teacher asks students What have you learnt from the short
story?
2. Teacher gives conclusion about todays material

H. Source/Material/Tool
Short Story: : Bill by Zona Gale
I. Evaluation
Reading comprehension: comprehension questions and matching reference words.

REFERENCES

Abrams, M.H. 1970. A Glossary of Literary Term. New York: Rinehart.

Carter, R., and Long, M.N. 1991. Teaching literature. Harlow: Longman.
12

Collie, J., and Slater, S. 1991. Literature in the Language Classroom. (5th ed.).
Glasgow: Cambridge University Press.
Pardede, P. (2011). Short Stories Use in Language Skills Classes: Students Interest
and Perception. [Online]. Available

at:http://www.researchgate.net/publication/256453850_SHORT_STORIES_USE_I
N_LANGUAGE_SKILLS_CLASSES_STUDENTS
%27_INTEREST_AND_PERCEPTION. Published in Zacharias, N.T. & Manara,
C. (2011). Bringing Literature and Linguistics into EFL Classrooms: Insights from
Research and Classroom Practice. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing,
101-108.
Povey, J.F. (1967). Literature in TESOL Programs: The Language and the Culture.
TESOLQuarterly, 1,40-46.
R. P. Boas, The Study and Interpretation of Literature, Harcourt: Brace and Company
Inc., 1931.
Savvidou, C. (2004). An Integrated Approach to the Teaching of Literature in the
EFL Classroom. The Internet TESL Journal, 10 (12) Retrieved July, 2010,
from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Savvidou_Literature.html

Appendix 1.

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Appendix 2.
14

Reading Comprehension Questions.

Answer these questions with the correct answers!
1. What is the main idea of the first paragraph?
2. Who is the main character of the short story?
3. Describe about the characters of the story! Which one do you like?
4. Why did Bill let Minna go?
5. What is an important moment when something happens that affects everything?
6. What is paragraph five tells about?
7. How did Minna spend her childhood?
8. Where did Minna and Bill live before Minna left his father?
9. When was Bill sick and how did he respond to it?
10.How is the ending of the story? What is the moral value of the story?
Reference Words
Match each word/phrase in column A with the definition/synonym in column B
that most closely!
A (words)
make an excuse
get well
a tired person

B (synonym/definition)
provide an apology
require
a tiresome person

lonely

bow

oblige

item of clothing

kneel
garment
tuck

push
without friends or companions
recover, healed

Appendix 3
BILL
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(ZONA GALE)
Bill was thirty when his wife died, and little Minna was four. Bills carpenter shop
was in the yard of his house, so he thought that he could keep his home for Minna
and himself. All day while he worked at his bench, she played in the yard, and when
he was obliged to be absent for a few hours, the woman next door looked after her.
Bill could cook a little, coffee and bacon and fried potatoes and flapjacks, and he
found bananas and sardines and crackers useful. When the woman next door said it
was not the diet for four-year-olds, he asked her to teach him to cook oatmeal and
vegetables, and though he was always burned the dishes in which he cooked these
things, he cooked them everyday. He swept, all but corners, and he dusted, dabbing at
every object; and he complained that after he had cleaned the windows he could not
see as well as he could before. He washed and patched Minnas little garments and
mended her doll. He found a kitten for her so that she wouldnt be lonely. At night he
heard her say her prayer, kneeling in the middle of the floor with her hands folded,
and speaking like lightning. If she forgot the prayer, he either woke her up, or else he
made her say it the first thing in the morning. He himself used to pray: Lord, make
me do right by her if you see me doing wrong. On Sundays, he took her to church
and listening with his head on one side, trying to understand, and giving Minna
peppermints when she rustled. He stopped work for a day and took her to the Sundayschool picnic. Her mother would of, he explained. When Minna was old enough to
go to kindergarten, Bill used to take her morning or afternoon, and he would call for
her. Once he dressed himself in his best clothes and went to visit the school. I think
her mother would of, he told the teacher, diffidently. But he could make little of the
colored paper and the designs and the games, and he did not go again. Theres
something I cant be any help to her with, he thought.
Minna was six when Bill fell ill. On a May afternoon, he went to a doctor. When he
came home, he sat in his shop for a long time and did nothing. The sun was beaming
through the window in bright squares. He was not going to get well. It might be that
he had six months. He could hear Minna singing to her doll.
16

When she came to kiss him that night, he made an excuse, for he must never kiss her
now. He held her arms length, looked in her eyes, said: Minnas a big girl now. She
doesnt want Papa to kiss her. But her lip curled and she turned away sorrowful, so
the next day Bill went to another doctor to make sure. The other doctor made him
sure.
He tried to think what to do. He had a sister in Nebraska, but she was a tired woman.
His wife had a brother in the city, but he was a man of many words. And little Minna
there were things known to her which he himself did not knowmatters of fairies
and the words of songs. He wished that he could hear of somebody who would
understand her. And he had only six month.
Then the woman next door told him bluntly that he ought not to have the child there,
and him coughing as he was; and he knew that his decision was already upon him.
One whole night he thought. Then he advertised in a city paper:
A man with a few months more to live would like nice people to adopt his little girl,
six, blue eyes, curls. References required.
They came in limousine, as he had hoped that they would come. Their clothes were as
he had hoped. They had with them a little girl who cried: Is this my little sister? On
which the woman in the smart frock said sharply: Now then, you do as Mama tells
you and keep out of this or well leave you here and take this darling little girl with
us.
So Bill looked at this woman and said steadily that he had now other plans for his
little girl. He watched the great blue car roll away. For the land sake! said the
woman next door when she heard. You done her out of fortune. You hadnt the right
a man in your health. And then the other cars came, and he let them go, this
woman told her husband that Bill ought to be reported to the authorities.

17

The man and woman who walked into Bills shop one morning were still mourning
their own little girl. The woman was not sadonly sorrowful, and the man, who was
tender of her, was a carpenter. In blooming of his hope and his dread, Bill said to
them: Youre the ones. When they asked: How long before we can have her? Bill
said: One day more.
That day he spent in the shop. It was summer and Minna was playing in the yard. He
could hear the words of her songs. He cooked their supper and while she ate, he
watched. When he had tucked her in her bed, he stood in the dark hearing her
breathing. Im a little girl tonightkiss me, she had said, but he shook his head. A
big girl, a big girl, he told her.
When they came for the next morning, he had her ready, washed and mended, and he
had mended her doll. Minnas never been for a visit! he told her buoyantly. And
when she ran toward him, A big girl, a big girl, he reminded her.
He stood and watched the man and woman walking down the street with Minna
between them. They had brought her a little blue parasol in case the parting should be
hard. This parasol Minna held bobbing above her head, and she was so absorbed in
looking up at the blue silk that she did not remember to turn and wave her hand.

CONCLUSION
EFL teaching has aim to help students to communicate fluently in the target language,
teachers should provide an authentic model of language use. To do it, she/he should
18

focus not only on linguistic but also on literary and cultural elements. Since short
stories offer these elements, they are highly beneficial to use in ESL/EFL teaching
programs. However, the selection of short stories should be done in reference to the
course objective, the learners profile, and the story content in order to make the best
of it. Since every teaching situation is unique, the use of one single piece of literature
varies from classroom to classroom and from teacher to teacher. Short stories can be
used to provide different activities for reading class. Short story creates a meaningful
context to teach different language focuses and to improve the students interpretative
strategies. Last but not least, the same story may also serve for some other language
focuses or skills such as vocabulary development.

THE WRONG HOUSE

James N. Young

19

The night was dark. And the house was dark. Darkand silent. The two men ran
toward it quietly. They slipped quickly through the dark bushes which surrounded the
house. They reached the porch, ran quickly up the steps, kneeled down, breathing
heavily, in the dark shadows. They waitedlistening.
Silence. Perfect silence. Thenout of the blacknessa whisper: We cant stay
out here . . . . Take this suitcase . . . . Let me try those keys. Weve got to get in!
Tentwentythirty seconds. With one of the keys the one man opened the door.
Silently, the two men have entered the house, closed the door behind them, locked it.
Whispering, they discussed the situation. They wondered if they had awakened
anyone in the house.
Lets have a look at this place. Careful, Hasty! Oh, there isnt anybody
awake! And the soft rays of a flashlight swept the room.
It was a large room. A living room. Rugs, carefully rolled, lay piled on one side.
The furniture-chairs, tables, coucheswas covered by sheets. Dust lay like a light
snow over everything.
The man who held the flashlight spoke first. Well, Blackie, he said, were in
luck. Looks as if the familys away.
Yeah, gone for the summer, I guess. We better make sure, though. Huh.
Together they searched the house. They went on tiptoe through every room.
There could be no doubt about it. The family was away. Had been away for weeks.
Yes, Hasty Hogan and Blackie Burns were in luck. Only once in the past ten days
had their luck failed them. It had been with them when they made their big robbery
their truly magnificent robberyon the Coast. It had been with them during their
thousand-mile trip eastward, by automobile. It had been with them every moment
but one.
That moment had come just one hour before. It came when Blackie, driving the
car, ran over a policeman. And Blackie, thinking of the suitcase at Hastys feet, had
driven away. Swiftly.
There had been a chase, of course. A wild, crazy chase. And when a bullet had
punctured the gasoline tank they had to abandon the car. But luck or no luck, here
20

they were. Alone, and without a car, in a completely strange town. But safe and sound
with the suitcase.
The suitcase lay in the centre of the table, in the center of the room. In the
suitcase, neat little package on neat little package, lay nearly three hundred thousand
dolars1
Listen, said Mr. Hogan. We have to get a car. Quick, too. And we cant steal
oneand use it. Its too dangerous. We have to buy one. That means that we have to
wait until the stores open. That will be about eight oclock in this town.
But what are we going to do with that? And Mr. Burns pointed to the suitcase.
Hide it right here. Sure! Why not? Its much safer here than with usuntil we
get a car.
And so they hid the suitcase. They carried it down to the cellar. Buried it deep in
some coal which lay in a corner of the cellar. After this, just before dawn, they slipped
out.
Say, Blackie, Mr. Hogan remarked as they walked down the street, the name
of the gentleman were visiting is Mr. Samuel W. Rogers.
How do you know?
Saw it on some of them books. Hes surely got a wonderful library, hasnt he?
The automobile salesrooms opened at eight oclock, as Mr. Hogan had supposed.
Shortly, before nine, Mr. Hogan and Mr. Burns had a car. A very nice little car. Very
quiet. Very inconspicuous. And very speedy. The dealer lent them his license plates
and away they rode.
Three blocks from the house, the stopped. Mr. Hogan got out. Walked toward the
house. Hed just go around to the rear, he thought, and slip in.
Fifty yards from the house he stopped. Stared, swore softly. The font door was
open. The window shades were up. The family had returned!
Well, what a bad luck. And what could they do? Break into the cellar that night,
and pick up the suitcase? Notoo dangerous. Mr. Hogan would have to think of
something.

21

Leave it to me, kid, he told Mr. Burns, You drive the car. Ill do the special
brain work. Lets find a telephone. Quick!
Ten minutes later, Mr. Hogan was consulting a telephone directory. Yes, there it
wasSamuel W. Rogers, Plainview 6329. A moment later he was talking to surprise
Mr. Rogers.
Hello, he began, is this Mr. Rogers, he saidand his tone was sharp, official,
impressivethis is Headquarter, Police Headquarters, talking. I am Simpson.
Sergeant Simpson, of the detective division,
Yes, yes! came over the wire.
The Chiefthe Chief of Police, you know,here Mr. Hogan lowered his
voice a littlehas ordered me to get in touch with you. Hes sending me out with
one of our men to see you.
Am I in trouble of some kind? asked Mr. Rogers.
No, no, no. nothing like that. But I have something of great importance to talk
to you about.
Very well, came the voice of Mr. Rogers. Ill wait for you.
And, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Hogan continued, please keep quite about this. Dont
say anything to anybody. Youll understand why I see you.
On the way back to the house Mr. Hogan explained his idea to Mr. Burns.
Within ten minutes Sergeant Simpson and Detective Johnson were
conversing with the surprised Mr. Rogers. Mr. Rogers was a small man. Rather
insignificant. He had pale blue eyes. Not much of a chin. A funny little face. He was
nervousa badly frightened man.
Mr. Hogan told the whole story. Somewhat changed. Very much changed. And
Mr. Rogers was surprised, but delighted.
He accompanied Mr. Hogan to the cellar. And together they dug up the suitcase.
Took it to the living room, opened it saw that it had not been touchedthat it really
did hold a small fortune. Bills, bills, bills!
Mr. Hogan closed the suitcase.

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And now, Mr. Rogers, he announced, in his best official manner, Johnson and
I must run along. The chief wants a reportquick. We have to catch the rest of the
robbers. Ill keep in touch with you.
He picked up the suitcase and rose. Mr. Burns also rose. Mr. Rogers also rose.
The trio walked to the door. Mr. Rogers opened it. Come on in, boys, he said
pleasantlyand in walked three men. Large men. Strong men. Men in police uniform
who, without fear, stared at Mr. Hasty Hogan and Mr. Blackie Burns.
What does this mean, Mr. Rogers? asked Mr. Hogan.
Its quite simple, said Mr. Rogers. It just happens that I am the Chief of
Police!

Comprehension and Discussion Questions

1. What seemed to indicate that the family was away for the summer?
2. What was the single occasion during the previous ten days that the luck of Mr.
Hogan and Mr. Burns had failed them?
3. Why did they have to abandon their car?
4. Where had they obtained the large sum of money which they carried in the
suitcase?
5. Where did they finally decide to hide the suitcase?
6. Why did they choose a rather quite, inconspicuous car?
7. When they again went back to the house, what did they discover?
8. When Mr. Hogan called Mr. Rogers by telephone, who did he say he was?
9. When Mr. Hogan and Mr. Rogers were about to leave, what three men were
waiting for them?
10. Who did Mr. Rogers happen to be?

A. Match the word in the left-hand column with the word in the right-hand column
which has the SAME meaning:
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1. Yellow-haired

__________charming

2. Whisper

__________brunette

3. Silently

__________frankfurters

4. Speedy

__________hamburgers

5. Hot dog

__________frightened

6. Brown-haired

__________foolish

7. Terrified

__________speak softly

8. Grown-up

__________blonde

9. Enchanting

__________fast

10. Silly

__________quietly
__________adults

B. Use the following expressions in sentences of your own:

1. Kneel down
2. Have to
3. Have got to
4. Be in luck
5. Make sure
6. Be away
7. Run over
8. Get in touch with
9. Be in trouble
10. Keep quite
11. Safe and sound
12. Shortly before
13. Shortly after
14. On the way back

C. Some of the nouns ending both in tion and ment from adjectives with al.
He had some very educational experiences while he was travelling aboard.
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Change the following nouns to adjectives by adding -al. Then use each of resulting
words in a sentence of your own:
1. Environment
2. Government
3. Vocation
4. Division
5. Recreation
6. Tradition
7. Ornament
8. Occupation
9. Conversation
10. Addition
D. Rewrite the short story by your own words and write the moral value you can get
from the short story.

LITERATURE IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

25

Definition of Literature
Eagleton (1996) defines literature as imaginative writing in the sense of fiction.
Literature is a term used to describe written or spoken material. Broadly speaking,
"literature" is used to describe anything from creative writing to more technical or
scientific works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to works of the creative
imagination, including works of poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction.
Literature represents a language or a people: culture and tradition. But, literature is
more important than just a historical or cultural artifact. Literature introduces us to
new worlds of experience. We learn about books and literature; we enjoy the
comedies and the tragedies of poems, stories, and plays; and we may even grow and
evolve through our literary journey with books.
Ultimately, we may discover meaning in literature by looking at what the author says
and how he/she says it. We may interpret the author's message. In academic circles,
this decoding of the text is often carried out through the use of literary theory, using a
mythological, sociological, psychological, historical, or other approach.
According to Scott (1962), there are five approaches to literary criticism, they are
Moral, Psychological, Sociological, Formalistic, and Archetypal.
The Moral Approach
Moral / philosophical critics believe that the larger purpose of literature is to teach
morality and to probe philosophical issues. Practitioners include Matthew Arnold
(works must have high seriousness), Plato (literature must exhibit moralism and
utilitarianism), and Horace (literature should be delightful and instructive).
Advantages:
This approach is useful for such works as Alexander Popes An Essay on Man,
which presents an obvious moral philosophy. It is also useful when considering the
themes of works (for example, mans inhumanity to man in Mark Twains
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Huckleberry Finn). Finally, it does not view literature merely as art isolated from
all moral implications; it recognizes that literature can affect readers, whether subtly
or directly, and that the message of a work--and not just the decorous vehicle for that
message--is important.
Disadvantages:
Detractors argue that such an approach can be too judgmental. Some believe
literature should be judged primarily (if not solely) on its artistic merits, not its moral
or philosophical content.

The Psychological Approach

Psychological critics view works through the lens of psychology. They look either at
the psychological motivations of the characters or of the authors themselves, although
the former is generally considered a more respectable approach. Most frequently,
psychological critics apply Freudian and/or Jungian (archetypes) psychology to
works.
Advantages:
A useful tool for understanding some works, in which characters manifest clear
psychological issues. Like the biographical approach, knowing something about a
writers psychological make up can give us insight into his work.
Disadvantages:
Psychological criticism can turn a work into little more than a psychological case
study, neglecting to view it as a piece of art. Critics sometimes attempt to diagnose
long dead authors based on their works, which is perhaps not the best evidence of
their psychology. Critics tend to see sex in everything, exaggerating this aspect of
literature. Finally, some works do not lend themselves readily to this approach.
The Sociological Approach
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It says that art is not created in a vacuum; it is the work not simply of a person, but of
an author fixed in the time and space, answering to a community of which he is
important, because articulate apart.
The sociological critic is interested in understanding the social milieu and the extent
to which and manner in which the artist responds to it.
The Archetypal Approach
Mythological / Archetypal:

A mythological / archetypal approach to literature

assumes that there is a collection of symbols, images, characters, and motifs (i.e.,
archetypes) that evokes a similar response in all people. According to the
psychologist Carl Jung, mankind possesses a collective unconscious (a cosmic
reservoir of human experience) that contains these archetypes and that is common to
all of humanity. Myth critics identify these archetypal patterns and discuss how they
function in the works. They believe that these archetypes are the source of much of
literature's power.
Advantages:
Provides a universalistic approach to literature and identifies a reason why
certain literature may survive the test of time. It works well with works that are
highly symbolic.
Disadvantages:
Literature may become little more than a vehicle for archetypes, and this approach
may ignore the art of literature.
The Formalistic Approach
A formalistic approach to literature, once called New Criticism, involves a close
reading of the text. Formalistic critics believe that all information essential to the
interpretation of a work must be found within the work itself; there is no need to
bring in outside information about the history, politics, or society of the time, or about
the author's life. Formalistic critics spend much time analyzing irony, paradox,

28

imagery, and metaphor. They are also interested in the work's setting, characters,
symbols, and point of view.
Advantages:
This approach can be performed without much research, and it emphasizes the value
of literature apart from its context (in effect makes literature timeless).
Virtually all critical approaches must begin here.
Disadvantages:
The text is seen in isolation. Formalism ignores the context of the work. It cannot
account for allusions. It tends to reduce literature to little more than a collection of
rhetorical devices.

Why

use

literature?

There are many good reasons for using literature in the classroom. Here are a few:

Literature is authentic material. It is good to expose learners to this source of

unmodified language in the classroom because they skills they acquire in dealing
with difficult or unknown language can be used outside the class.

Literature encourages interaction. Literary texts are often rich is multiple layers of
meaning, and can be effectively mined for discussions and sharing feelings or
opinions.

Literature expands language awareness. Asking learners to examine sophisticated

or non standard examples of language (which can occur in literary texts) makes
them more aware of the norms of language use (Widdowson, 1975 quoted by
Lazar 1993).

Literature educates the whole person. By examining values in literary texts,

teachers encourage learners to develop attitudes towards them. These values and
attitudes relate to the world outside the classroom.

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Literature is motivating. Literature holds high status in many cultures and

countries. For this reason, students can feel a real sense of achievement at
understanding a piece of highly respected literature. Also, literature is often more
interesting than the texts found in course books.

Collie and Slater (1995) explain some benefits of using literature in language learning
process. First, literature is authentic material. Learners are thus exposed to language
that is as genuine and undistorted as can be managed in the classroom context. In
reading literary texts, students have also to cope with language intended for native
speakers and thus they gain additional familiarity with many different linguistic uses,
forms and conventions of the written mode: with irony, exposition, argument,
narration, and so on.
Second, students can have cultural enrichment. Reading the literature of a historical
period is, after all, one of the ways we have to help us imagine what life was like in
that other foreign territory: our own countrys past. Literature is perhaps best seen as
a complement to other materials used to increase the foreign learners insight into the
country whose language is being learnt.
Third, students can have language enrichment. Language enrichment is one of benefit
often sought through literature. On the positive side, literature provides a rich context
in which individual lexical or syntactical items are made more memorable. Reading a
substantial and contextualized body of text, students gain familiarity with many
features of written languagethe formation and function of sentences, the variety of
possible structures, the different ways of connecting ideaswhich broaden and
enrich their own writing skills.
And the last is personal involvement. Above all, literature can be helpful in the
language learning process because of the personal involvement it fosters in readers.
Engaging imaginatively with literature enables learners to shift the focus of their
attention beyond the more mechanical aspects of the foreign language system.
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Strategy: Dramatic Reading

Purpose: To make readings more memorable.
Description: Modeling dramatic reading and then asking students to read important
passages aloud with as much dramatic flair as they can manage.
Rose and Nicholl (1997) remind us that we tend to remember more than twice as
much of what we say aloud than what we read silently. This suggests the advisability
of frequently asking students to talk about what they are reading, as by using Directed
Reading (Strategy 15-6). Vocalizing can be even more memorable when the words
are spoken dramatically, with emotion. We can take advantage of this by, first,
modeling for students how to read dramatically; we might demonstrate by reading an
important definition or a key text passage. Then we ask a few students to read a
sentence or two aloud dramatically, with as much feeling as they can generate.
Finally, we might recommend that all students take any portion of a reading that they
want to remember and say it dramatically, aloud or silently to themselves. And when
we want to emphasize a key definition or idea in class, we can always invite a few
students to read it aloud to the class, being as outrageously dramatic as they dare.
Invite students to have fun with the strategy. And expect them to remember more of
what they read. Teachers report it almost always works out that way.

References
Collie, Joanne. and Stephen Slater. 1995. Literature in the Language Classroom.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Dixson, Robert. J. Modern Short Stories in English.

Eagleton, Terry. 1996. Literary Theory. USA: Blackwell Publishing.
Harmin, Merril. and Melanie Toth. 2006. Inspiring Active Learning. USA: ASCD.
Scott, Wilbur. S. 1962. Five Approaches to Literary Criticism. New York: Collier
Books.

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