Blending literature and foreign language learning: Current approaches

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to discuss the place of literature in foreign language learning and teaching contexts, and to show reasons of using literary texts for the development of communicative competence, intercultural communicative competence, and for individual as well as social human growth. Although literature and language teaching had been following separate paths, currently a strong tendency emerges of integrating language and literature teaching across proficiency levels. This tendency results from the recognition of the roles that literacy, multiliteracies and multimodality play in the life of humans in the 21st century. Respected bodies such as the Council of Europe or Modern Language Association recommend merging literature and language learning to promote translingual and transcultural competence. Empirical evidence supports the claims that experiential reading of literary texts focuses the learner’s attention both on content and form, providing them with rich and meaningful input as well as opportunities for extended output, thus facilitating language learning and language improvement. It also gives access to other cultures and contributes to whole person development. However, if literary texts are to become inseparable from language learning, teachers need to be trained on what texts to use and how to use them to motivate language learners and encourage independent reading. In the chapter, the teaching of language and literature is first reviewed from the historical perspective to show a long-standing rift between language teaching and literature teaching. The case of Poland is discussed on the basis of the author’s personal experiences (retrospections) that point to the crucial role of the teacher in this context. Then reasons for including literary texts into foreign language teaching along with benefits resulting from such a combination are presented and suggestions concerning training foreign language teachers to use literary texts are included.