ATENEO DE NAGA UNIVERSITY

NEA AUXILIO- BESMONTE Principles and Theories of Teaching Literature

MAED ELT PROF. BORJA Ph. D.

ASSIGNMENT #1
ANALYSIS ON AN ARTICLE ABOUT STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING LITERATURE

The study entitled Learning Activities in Studying Literature by Aggabao and

Guiab (2014) surveyed on strategies that work best in teaching literature to suit students
needs in understanding and appreciating literature. This is in response to what (Senechal,
2011) argued as cited in their study that one scenario that leads to apathy in studying
literature is that teachers fail to emphasize the importance and value of analytical
reading of literature. This prompted the researchers to conduct their study to widen the
scope of techniques and how these techniques can be used by the teachers in a way
that would cater to the interest of the students.
The researchers aim to find out the strategy that works best to suit students needs
in understanding and appreciating literature led to answer two questions: 1) what learning
activities are the most interesting and most effective in studying literature based on the
perception of the students; and, 2) what learning activities are most interesting and most
effective in studying literature based on the perception of language teachers.
They used a descriptive survey research where the researchers made use of a
teacher-made survey questionnaire that contains the twelve learning activities such as
concept mapping of a poem, short story, novel; film viewing and critiquing; group
discussion about the selected text; discussion of a topic with a partner; reflective essays;
role playing; story telling using visual aids; teacher-student discussion; listening to a
lecture; individual oral reporting; and, graded oral recitation in studying literature that was
administered to selected students in the university where the researchers are teaching.
Based on the study, the interesting and effective learning activities in studying
literature are discussion of a topic with a partner, writing a poem, listening to a lecture,
individual oral reporting. These strategies are proven to be practical and effective in
analyzing literary texts although at the same time it has been already a routine activity for
students.

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 The researchers also found out that both the teachers and students enjoyed
listening to personal stories and anecdotes which according to them confirms what
Sialongo (2010) says that Literature is a product of a particular culture that concretizes
mans array of values, emotions, actions and ideas. Moreover, Aggabao et.al. (2014)
also discovered in their study that teachers find story telling using visual aids as both
interesting and very effective for through it they discern student creativity.
Graded recitation, although affirmed to be an effective way of measuring the
students understanding of the literary text, was also found to be the least interesting
among the students. It is understood by the language teachers that students have
difficulty expressing themselves in English that they oftentimes hesitate to answer during
oral graded recitation.
The researchers concluded that it is quiet challenging for both the teacher and
students to teach and learn Literature. And that approaches to literature vary its
effectiveness to students in the same way that not all interesting activities are effective
and not all effective activities are interesting. Even so, teachers are determined to make
students learn Literature. This commitment motivates the teachers to discover strategies
and techniques that would make learning Literature in the classroom more fun and
interesting for the students.
Based on how the learning strategies in teaching literature was dispersed to the
variety of respondents ranging from DevCom to IT students, I can assume that the study
effectively represented the diverse types of students learning Literature and that they
were given ample choices with the twelve strategies presented to them. I do agree that
the students response to learn Literature also depends to the students interests and
background, that is, some may like learning literature and some may not. But this difficulty
can be overcome when the teacher is well-equipped with the proper strategy for
teaching Literature that can awaken students interest inside the classroom.
It is good that the researcher also considered the perception of the teachers
although they are studying for learner centered strategies for teaching literature. It gave
teachers the opportunity to consider what they do in class and reflect on the activities
they and their students both like. Therefore, allowing them to reconsider their syllabus for
teaching literature next time.

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 Finally, just like the researchers, I also believe that for the students to be able to
empathize to literary texts they should first see and experience how their teachers model
appreciation of Literature by making its learning interesting and innovative. Teachers
should show resourcefulness and critical thinking in order to apply appropriate strategies
that would cater the variety of student interest in the classroom. Through these, literature
teachers can ensure that the flourishing literature students will embody learners of high
cognitive skills and advanced critical thinking who understands better how to be human
of values, emotions, actions and ideas.

LIST OF REFERENCES

Sialongo, Erlinda B., Josephine S. Cunanan, et.al (2010). Literatures of the World. Manila. Rex
Book Store.

International Refereed Research Journal www.researchersworld.comVol.V, Issue 3, July

2014 [55]. Retrieved November 16, 2016 from https:/www.researchersworld.com

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