The Two Advantages of Using Literature in English Language Teaching Classroom


The Two Advantages of Using Literature in English Language Teaching Classroom

Nowadays in this globalization era, there are a lot of variations used by an English teacher in making variations of his/her ways in teaching English as a foreign language. The purpose is only to make as many improvements as possible related to his/her students' ability in mastering English. One of the well-known ways applied is using literature in English Language Teaching (ELT). Literature is a form and a result of creative artwork whose object is human and their life which uses language as its media. It can also be translated as a group of works of art made up of words in which most of them are written, but some are passed on by word of mouth. Works of poetry or even prose which are particularly written is also identic with the term Literature. The term literature itself derived from the Sanskrit language, the word 'Literature' which means "text containing instruction" or "guidance", comes from the word 'Sas' which means 'instruction' or 'teaching' and 'Tra' which means "Tool" or "media". The term literature itself has a very close and relevant relation with English Language Teaching (ELT). A close look at literature and language shows that the two are closely related. This close relationship is obvious because, from all indications, literature presupposes language. It is inconceivable to discuss literature without reference to language. That is why the use of literature in English Language Teaching (ELT) has a lot of advantages to being applied, but this paper will only be focus on the two advantages of using literature in ELT class which also becomes the favorite advantages admitted by researchers. Most of the researchers have the same opinion of the two advantages below. The two of them are resulting expanding students' enrichment in vocabulary and improving the Cultural knowledge.


The use of literature in ELT is a very interesting method to be implemented in ELT classroom, one of its benefits when it is applied is this is one of the best methods in expanding students' language awareness. There is no doubt that the content of literature material is mostly the authentic material which is the main purpose of Literature is not for teaching English, that is why the content of text learned mostly will be shown in the terms of real-life context which used complicated and varied vocabulary. Not only that literature also presents language in discourse, in which it helps the student's to be accustomed to this style in mastering English well through ELT class. Moreover, Literature also provides learners with a wide range of diction which helps individual abilities in comprehending it. Therefore, there will be many students who are going to be familiar with many features of the written language, reading a substantial and contextualized body of text. Realizing it or not, the students will be able to distinguish the use of each diction in the suitable context. Therefore, students will also naturally become more productive and adventurous as they have known the richness and diversity of the language, it makes they are trying to learn and begin to make use of some of that potential themselves. For instance, the use of the novel as a literature media in ELT classroom, a teacher can start with discussing the beginning story of it, then ask his/her students to continue discussing the next part with the help of the teacher. In line with these arguments, Lazar (1993) states that student's language awareness has been extended as literature was applied in ELT classroom. This view is now getting more powerful when McKay (1982) claims that literature presents language in discourse has been one of the biggest important significant contributions in using literature for language teaching purposes (p.530). This thing has formed the reason why a specific language which should be used and by doing this, it will give the high contribution to the development of students' language awareness.


In line with the previous explanation, another advantage of using literature in ELT class is improving the cultural knowledge. It is because, in relation to learning literature from a foreign language, someone will naturally learn about different cultures which come from the foreign country. In this term, the cultural knowledge can be from American cultures or even English cultures. It depends on literature from what country that will be adopted. By applying literature in ELT class, students will be able to understand more about a certain culture from a certain country. For example, by presenting intrinsic and extrinsic element of literature short story from America, the students will be able to observe how the society in the story behaves, how they interact each other, not only that, they will be able to identify how the foreign writers' usually shows his/her point of view in developing his/her short story. They are just the minority benefits related to advantages of using literature which can improve the students' cultural knowledge. Naturally, these activities will enrich the students' comprehending related to foreigners' culture. Moreover, it is known that mastering English grammatical is not the only thing to be the key success in mastering a language, but also knowing English cultures will give a very good impact in mastering English. In line with these opinions, these arguments have been stronger as it is supported by Collie and Slater (1990) which was rewritten by Murat Hismanoglu (2005), he argues:
 For many language learners, the ideal way to increase their understanding of verbal/nonverbal aspects of communication in the country within which that language is visited or even an extended stay is being said is just not probable. For such learners, literary works, such as novels, plays, short stories, etc. facilitate understanding how communication takes place in that country. Even though the world which was written in a novel, play, or short story is an imaginary one, it presents a full and the colorful setting in which characters from many social/regional backgrounds can be described. The way the characters in doing such literary works argue about the world outside can be analyzed (i.e. their feelings, thoughts, customs, traditions, possessions; the things that wanted to be bought, their belief, worry, savor; how they behave and argue in different settings. The foreign learner can feel the absorption which creates a real context in the community via visual literacy which is also called semiotics which becomes part of colorful created world and it is clearly caused the easiness. Literature is perhaps best regarded as a complement to other materials used to develop the foreign learner's understanding into the country whose language is being learned. Also, literature adds a lot to the cultural grammar of the learner.
From the explanation above it has been stated clearly that the use of literature in ELT classrooms can help students to understand another culture, especially foreigner's cultures.



In conclusion, the use of literature as a media in English Language Teaching is one of the ways which become the popular method applied among English teachers to improve their students' success in learning and mastering English as a Foreign Language. Moreover, many experts agree that the use of literature in ELT cause two benefits when it is implemented during ELT class, they are expanding students' enrichment in terms of vocabulary skill and improving the Cultural knowledge or in other words it will enrich the student's cultural related to foreign language wider. Those advantages above have been supported by some experts who have the same perceptions about it makes the arguments above are getting stronger and stronger. Therefore, the two advantages above have been agreed and proved well, that is why using literature in English Language classrooms are totally recommended. It is suggested for any English teachers to be able to include literature together with the implementation of English in English Language Teaching in order to give some good impacts explained above to the students. 

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