A Panoramic Evaluation of Literary Texts in Preparatory Students’ English Text Books

Abstract

Learning language through literature has got a great emphasis in foreign language class room since the use of literary text as a resource for teaching macro and micro skills is very popular within the field of language learning. Literary texts increase the learners’ proficiency of integrated language learning as they enable the learners to apply all macro and micro skills. Of the issues to be considered, the contents, their levels of difficulty, their diversity and the appropriateness of the tasks designed based on the contents. This study evaluated the literary texts in preparatory students English text books. Based on the objectives of the study, both qualitative and quantitative research method was employed. The result of the study indicated that the most of the literary texts are above the language competence of the students and the teachers. Teachers strongly affirmed that they have faced to understand the literary texts’ language. The literary texts are not considering the students’ cultural background since almost all of the texts are written by foreign in a foreign context. Moreover, the majority of the literary texts are not related with the unit topic of the book. Using the literary materials in language class, therefore, should take into account the students’ need, motivation, interests, cultural background and language competence.