Murat

Hismanoglu:
Why teach
A collective
argument
and
Literature
reasons why Literature should
be incorporated in English
lessons

 According to Collie and

Slater, 4 main reasons which
lead to language teacher to
use literature in the
classroom
valuable authentic material
cultural enrichment
language enrichment
personal involvement

Hismanoglu included 9 collective

WHY TEACH LIT?

(HISMANOGLU)
The following are the reasons:

Authentic material
Cultural enrichment
Universality
Personal involvement
Variety
Interest
Economy and suggestive power
Ambiguity
Non-triviality

1) Authentic material
Students having to adapt to the original
language the writer is writing the
literature with as opposed to the language
that are based on real-life contexts which
are purported towards new learners.
Imformed with different linguistic forms,
how to communicate (how native
speakers communicate among
themselves) and also the meaning to a
particular communicative gesture.

2) Cultural enrichment
Obviously, traveling to a distant place to learn about its culture
and social norms is impossible,novels or short stories and the
likes gives readers or learners an escapism where they learn
about how communication works in tht place or country.
Imaginarium of colourful setting in which characters from
many social and regional backgrounds are described.
Readers can discover the way characters sees the world by
reading about their thoughts, feelings, customs, traditions,
possessions; what they buy, believe in, fear, enjoy; how they
speak and behave in different settings.
Gives insight to other materials used to develop learners
understanding of a country which is based on in that literature.
Adds to the cultural grammar of learners: (i.e.: Good day,
Guvna for British English or I see you for a tribe in Africa.

3) Universality
Provide learners with wide range of individual lexical or
syntactic items.
Students learn about syntax and discourse functions of
sentences, variety of possible structures, different ways
of connecting ideaswhich help develop and enrich
their own writing skills.
Student becomes more productive and adventurous
when they perceive richness of diversity of language
they are trying to learn and begin to use it themselves.
Improve communicative and cultural competence in
authentic richness, naturalness of authentic texts.
Maley, as quoted by author, says that since we are all
human beings, we share the same problemdeath,
love, separation, belief, nature etc. These experiences

4) Personal involvement
Can be useful via relatabilitystudents become the
testbeing drawn to it. Understanding the language
aspect of reading the story takes backseat as focus is
given to pursuing how the story unfolds itself.
Readers feel enthusiastic to find out what happens
feels close to certain characters and shares emotional
responses.
Readers remove identity crisis and develop into
extrovert.
Maleys says that it deals with things which either
constitute part of the readers experience or which
they can enter into imaginativelyrelate to ones life.

5) Variety
Maley
claims
that
literature
includes within it all possible
varieties of subject matterfor
example: law, mountaineering,
medicine and of bull-fighting,
church sermons and nursery talk.

6) Interest
Literature deals with themes
and topics which are in its
core, interestic because its
part of the human experience
and treats them in whats
designed to engage the
readers attention.

7) Economy and suggestive

power
Maley claims that literature is as
strong as its power of advocacy. Even
in its simplest form, it invites readers
or interpreters to interpret beyond
what is explicitly implied.
It suggests many ideas with few
words, literature is ideal for
generating language discussion.
Minimum Input = Maximum Output

8) Ambiguity
Literature speaks subtly different
meanings to different people.
Rare for two people to react identically
to the other person when reading
something.
Infinite fund of interactive disccussion
since literature is not finiteeveryones
perception is different.
Allows exchange of ideas.

9) Non-triviality
Maley says that many of the
more familiar forms of language
teaching tends to trivialize texts
(make it simple). Literature does
not trivialize or talk down. It is
about things which mattered to
the author when they wrote
them. Offers genuine, authentic
inputs.

TO ENFORCE OUR
POINTS
Poems

Novels

Drama

Short
Stories