What Research Says About Using Literature for English Language Learning and Teaching

What Research Says About Using Literature for English Language Learning and Teaching

  This study aims to review and analyze the articles focused on using literature for English Language Learning and Teaching (ELLT) in the primary Korean journals. A total of 38 literature-related articles out of 2,183 have been published in the 7 prominent Korean journals from 1998 to 2007. The researcher investigated these articles based on various external dimensions-number and percentage of the literature-related articles published, year of publication, participants of study, research methodology, type of study, and type of literature genre used. In addition, the articles were classified under the two subject domains--(a) three elements involved in the transaction with literature (i.e., reader, literary text, and context) and (b) language development through literature experiences. The study revealed that although the interest in using literature for ELLT has become more amplified in recent years, the remarkably small number of the literature-related articles (1.74%) was published during 1998-2007. The genre of literature investigated in the reviewed studies or appeared in English textbooks was mainly fiction; in contrast, relatively little attention was paid to nonfiction. Such unbalanced exposure to literature genre could keep English language learners from developing the awareness of two contrasting, but underlying, texts-narrative and expository texts. In addition, the reviewed studies of the past decade were devoted to mainly explore how using literature is associated with reader, literary text, and context and assure that literature experiences help English language learners attain reading achievement, vocabulary growth, and improvement in listening and speaking.