Do we need literary texts in language classroom? An investigation on students' perceptions

Abstract

In Bangladeshi English language teaching situation, literary texts are not highly valued. There are several misconceptions regarding the use of literary texts to teach language and this paper has examined this issue from students' perspective. The participants of this study were mixed ability tertiary level students who were attending a general English course. The aim of the study is to introduce literary texts in the upper levels both Secondary and Higher Secondary English language learning. In this regard, students' responses were collected through questionnaires and individual interviews. Special attention was given to comparing the views of the similar type of questions found in both questionnaire and interview. The usefulness of using literary texts from students' perception was carefully scrutinized to obtain a reliable and comprehensive result. From the findings, it was evident that students generally enjoyed the lessons. It was also found that students considered literary texts as the best source to learn vocabulary and language in use. Some of them found non- literary texts more motivating as it would help them in other subjects. However, the majority of the students indicated that interest was more powerful than usefulness in effecting their motivation to reading short stories. Finally, students were quite positive about the literary texts. It is hoped that the findings could shed some light on what English teachers and material developers should consider while selecting and designing activity around a literary texts to make a language class interactive and enjoyable to the learners.