Teaching English Literature in the Vietnamese EFL Context: Towards a Language and Literature-Integrated Model

2. The Roles Of Literary Works In Efl Classes

The term ‘English literature’ in this chapter refers to the literature written in the English language about the English-speaking world. In EFL classes, especially in Vietnam, the selected literary works for literature courses are still canonical texts of British and American literature. They come in different genres such as plays, novels, short stories and poems, and they vary in literary ages. For the important relationship between language and literature, literary works should be included in the language teaching, as Collie and Slater (1987) argued, to “develop a broader range of activities which are more involving for our students” (p. 5). In particular, literary works serve the following functions.

First, literary work functions as authentic material in language teaching. Although most literary works are not written for language teaching purposes, it exposes learners to actual speech events because its language depicts real-life contexts. Reading literary texts familiarizes learners with different linguistic forms and meanings, as well as communicative functions (Carter & Long, 1991), and so literature strongly supports language learning, accordingly.