Integrating Literature in ESL Classroom: A Survey Study

Teachers are perhaps the most critical component of any system of education. How well they teach depends on motivation, qualification, experience, training, aptitude and a host of other factors, not the least of these being the environment and management structures within which they perform their role. One of the main purposes of learning English is the ability to communicate effectively with other users of the target language. Teaching to communicate in real, everyday situations is very often neglected and students have little chance to practice ordinary language in the class. Many factors can cause the problem of the students’ language skills namely the students’ interest, the material, and the media among others including the technique in teaching English. There are many ways that can be done by the students to develop their ability in English. Therefore, teachers ought to provide learners with opportunities to improve their communicative skills. Although Pakistan experienced massive growth in enrollment soon after independence, such exponential growth has been accompanied by manifold challenges and dilemmas. The stimulus for the present study derives from the view that, in order to develop the capacity of students in the ESL language class, the teaching of language should be taught using literary pieces and should move away from a teacher-centered approach towards a student-centered one. Having used an activity-based and process-oriented integrated approach as a framework, the present study illustrated the impact of the proposed way of literature teaching in an ESL context. It was designed to encourage students to experience literary texts directly as a part of a process of meaning creation that develops their thought processes, imaginative faculties and interpretative skills and ultimately has a strong impact on their learning ability. Such a systematic approach to literature teaching in developing learners’ reading skills, therefore, is likely to enable teachers to have a more student-centered classroom. The present study also iii utilizes the devised teaching activities based on prediction initiating personal growth, in an actual teaching learning context in a selected research environment and explores students' responses to the proposed approach. The obtained data of the present study was collected through the administration of questionnaires which were analyzed descriptively. It was designed for the purpose of diagnosing pre-existing the subjects’ achievement in communicative skills. Besides, it is necessary to create an interesting and enjoyable atmosphere in the teaching learning process in order to make the students easier in improving their communicative skills. The findings suggested that application of the teaching approach proposed by the study notably changed the classroom dynamics in a positive way.