Literature comes to the aid of pedagogy: Teaching speaking through literature

Abstract

Literature has been widely used in teaching second language, in fact, only a century ago the main aim of language teaching was reading the literature of the foreign language. However, today the primary goal of language teaching is communicative competence and literature is one of the resources of language teaching among other resources. One of the fascinations of literature lies in the enjoyment that it offers. Literary texts provide us with much aesthetic, intellectual and emotional pleasure in that the writers often seek to delineate their vision of human experience through a creative, emotive use of language. Literature has been shown to be an effective resource for all language skills, grammar, and vocabulary. It provides ample topics for discussion, composition, and reading. The present study explores the ways literature can be used for teaching speaking. Different literary genres, such as poetry, short story, and drama could be applied for practicing and enhancing speaking. Different techniques and exercise types can be used for applying literature in teaching speaking. Scenarios, improvisation, role-play, simulation, split exchanges, speculation on context and other techniques have been widely used in second / foreign language. The present study discusses these literary works and techniques in detail and offer suggestions for applying literature in teaching speaking.