Expanding vocabulary and improving cultural understanding.

It can be enriched through the Multi cultural and cross cultural issues in the way of case studies and Analytical Writing analysis.

@Mahmood & Ms Avula, if the student's linguistic level is much below, how can he be able to appreciate cultural issues and world view? In teaching English literature to the non-native context (EFL/EFL), shouldn't language skill be prioritized? I mean to teach literature for literary purpose of what you propose, but the base being the language in the first few semesters. 

considering linguistic competence in both written and oral English as the sine qua non, the main target is developing their critical understanding of their own reality

Hello Mohammad Taher Hossain Salim,

In general, the primary objective of teaching literature is to help learners recognize and appreciate the aesthetic nature of literary genre. However, as you have rightly, explained , this is not possible unless learners have an adequate level of linguistic competence. Since literary genre provides learners with suitable authentic input, it is is a fantastic vehicle for sustaining learners' motivation and helping them increase their  structural and lexical capacities. Therefore, literature can be used by English teachers as a means of raising learners' consciousness about complex ways by which linguistic resources can be utilized for creating  and understanding high quality texts deeply embedded in the domain of language culture.

Best regards,

R. Biria

I think except the linguistic part,to teach the students to feel the

beauty of words is important. May be you can sak you students what they want to learn in your class.

In whichever language literature is taught and knowing that much informal literary learning takes place in all cultures through songs, poems and stories-read, written or narrated; teachers of formal literature classes should emphasise the complexities of human thought to help students direct their lives in a manner that best suits their cultures and environments.  Today electronics has infiltrated multi-cultural societies making students fertile receptacles of a barrage of data which should be filtered so that gross misconceptions of what is acceptable is minimised. Specifically we should aim for identifying right from wrong, good from bad and use our texts, films and images to offer intelligent choices to learners.  

Since reading "Banker to the Poor" by Muhammad Yunis, I have bookmarked the Chittagong University with interest.

@ Christopher, thanks for knowing MY university- University of Chittagong, the university of Dr Yunus. This Nobel Laureate also comes from my locality- Chittagong, but unfortunately enough, I read his Banker to the Poor some 4 years ago only. Thanks and regards. 

So much of that micro theory is being ignored but I am pleased that there has been significant progress.

Apart from linguistic aspect, the learners can be motivated to comprehend the emotional, social and cultural human values for sustenance implied in the texts. This will lead them to recognise and celebrate differencesand accept others and to develop an empathetic perspective.

Literature provides people with understanding of human psychology, people's motivation, coping with challenges and various life situations. Besides, it has deep spiritual and artistic values.   

Individual teachers will look for different goals to achieve--e.g., I work on achieving an advance in emotional intelligence in a course called Literature and Psychology; but in a digital literary studies course, I'm looking for more semantic awareness, etc. It's really the Department as a whole that might help define overall goals--clear writing, close reading, etc. If interested, I can send my department's overall learning goals.

The basic values promoted in the work of literature in addition to the linguistic characteristics of the language being used.

@ Martin Gliserman, thanks for the specification of the literature teaching goal to the collective departmental effort or plan. Yes, I'm so interested in having your 'overall goals' of your department. Could you please send them here or to email [email protected]?

Thanks again.

I agree with Martin Gliserman in that there are wider institutional goals, such as EFL teacher education, in which literature plays a vital part at least in curricula in German-Speaking countries, but there is also, apart from linguistic aims, the aim to enable students to empathise with characters they would otherwise not come across. In Claire Kramsch's words (Context and Culture in Language Teaching, 1993: 131), "the particular voice of a writer among the many voices of his or her community, and thus to appeal to the particular in the reader”. This helps with transcultural learning, creates empathy, and encourages a personal engagement with the text. And if this insight into a particular voice motivates the learner to read more, then all the better!

Literature will enable students to acquire the skills of interpretation and critical thinking. It also should create curiosity to know more about the historic background and learn about cultural differences.

Introducing his students to different types of cultures, civilizations, and ways of thinking and mindsets.

hi. literary texts are valuable means of intercultural and intra-cultural literacy resulting in competence. as a means of transmitting cultural view, values and norms, they should be understood, analyzed and interpreted scantly. therefore, linguistic competence of literary texts seems necessary. in other words, we should investigate language as system highlighting vocab, grammatical structures and semantic meaning to understand the texts. then , they should acquire pragmatic competence regarding the contexts in which they occur. therefore , they can consider language as ideology. best