Teaching English Through Literature Using the Basic Skills at Upper-Secondary Level: A Methodological Approach

Abstract

Summary: In addition to its archaic purpose of entertainment through songs and poems about courtly love and knighthood performed by errant minstrels, literature has perpetuated its multifaceted role in the field of education. One cannot speak about the literary genius of a community without linking it to language, culture, and society, which coexist interdependently.

The rationale for writing this paper mirrors the effort of any language teacher who wishes for his or her students to be proficient in the foreign language while using efficient didactic support and consolidating, at the same time, the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Any clever and dedicated trainer should appeal to complementary sources that satisfy the needs of both teachers and students and bring forth tools to invigorate the class atmosphere or simply replace the dull course book text with a “vivid” one.

The scholastic support offered by literary works is based on the generally admitted theory stating that students develop language and literacy skills together with better cognitive processes by means of literature, a fact which has been widely tested and unanimously accepted by researchers and practitioners.