Why using literature in teaching language?
Language teaching is a complex process. Because, teaching a language not only mean transfer the knowledge of the language, but also teach a new culture, a new way of thinking, feeling & acting. When we teach a language, we will need the strategies, techniques, media and also the good material that relate with teaching learning process in teaching a language. Literature is one of the most important media and material that could we use in language teaching.
First, literature is an original work. Collie & Slater (2010:3) said that “literature is authentic material”, as authentic material, literature is very important for students to know how the native speakers use their language and how the native speakers express their thought and feeling in their language. From authentic material, students can learn and expose a language more, not only words or sentence, but also the philosophy, moral value and particular idiom that used in it. Llach (2007:9) states that “the linguistic criterion defends that literature should be used in language teaching, because it provides the learner with genuine, authentic samples of language, and also with real samples of a wide range of styles, text types and registers”.
Second, literature is a language treasure. According to Collie & Slater (2010:4), when learners learn a language from literature, they certainly discover the native speakers’ thoughts, feelings, customs, possessions or what the native speakers do, believe in, fear, enjoy and etc. Chamber & Gregory (2006:2) tell that “Literature as a subset of story, acts as do all other forms of story, to perform such all-important functions as telling human beings what is important in life”, literature not only tells us what’s worthy of our honorary or abjection, or tells us what it’s like to be those who live in different circumstance, place, time or gender, but literature also tells us what should we pay attention to and what we can afford to ignore. In short, literature and its value tell us what if we live in that way and give the picture of a piece of life.
Third, literature is interesting. Literature provides the language in easy way, such as song, drama, poem and etc. It makes learners easy to understand and use the language and a piece of interesting or important sentence from literature is always remembered by learners. The sentences usually used by learners in daily activities indirectly. Chamber & Gregory (2006:2) state that “Literature is always at the heart of things”, and in this case, literature is the heart of language. So, if we teach a language using literature, we teach the heart of a language to students. From it, students will develop the language more, because they have known the heart of the language. Basiga (2009:26) states that the students who, in their young age, found the interesting story of adventure, knowledge and fun through literature by reading, listening or watching, it will be a habit for them. And it is very useful to enrich their vocabulary, knowledge and character of the language. Literature represents a language in a unique way and it make students interested to learn it more.
Fourth, Literature also is the best media to teach a language. According to Llach (2007:10), literature presents the authentic and varied language material, besides that literature also provides with contextualized communicative situation, real pattern of social interaction and how to use the language. Because of it, according to Collie & Slater (2010:6), students gain familiarity about many features of the language, such as the formation, the function, the kinds of possible structure and the different way to express the students’ thoughts and feelings which broaden and enrich the students’ knowledge and skill. Popp (2005:2) argued that by literature, teacher can provide many opportunities for students to develop and practice skills in reading, writing, listening, speaking, and thinking. Besides that, it is important for learner to know a variety of genre, style and register and to discern the function of each of them.
Moreover, literature is result of language. It means that literature contents the language generally or particularly of special character of the language. According to Popp (2005:267), teacher can teach the specialized language that use by native speakers’, such as language of math, science, social studies and etc. It is very important for students to know about it. Llach (2007:8) states that “Literature and language are closely related and this is a fact none can deny”. Based on the literature that used by teacher, students can use the specialized languages in their place correctly. According to Sakthivel & Kavidha (2010:229), there is interrelationship between life, language and literature. Life provides the base such as experience, imagine or motivation and then language evolves and works are created.
Another reason is teaching a language through literature is a creative and natural approach. Basiga (2009:25) stated that teaching through literature is “the most natural approach to teaching the language” for her. Teaching a language through its literature is natural. Hakes (2008:132) argues that as a teacher, we want to use the authentic material and want their students learn it directly, we want students to read, write, listen and speak about literature. Sometimes, students laugh when they are listening a story or maybe cry. It is natural, because they know and understand the story.
Besides that, literature is easy. We can take literature from everything, we can bring it everywhere, and we can use it everywhere, indoor or outdoor. Besides that, Wolf (2008:19) states that “literature is an available and ready resource”. According to Hismanoglu (2005:54), there are many authentic samples (literature) of language in real-life contexts such as travel timetables, city plans, forms, pamphlet, cartoons, advertisements, newspaper or magazine articles that used material in teaching a language. We can take them from internet, book, magazine or newspaper. We can bring them into classroom and also we can practice directly.
Furthermore, literature gives many opportunities to develop students’ skill. According to Vasquez, Hansen and Smith (2010:29), one of principles for creative language learning is giving students many opportunities to read, to write, to listen to, and to discuss oral and written language texts expressed in a variety of ways. And literature can be used to realize the opportunities. Simpson (2004:2) argued that the linguistic resourcefulness which typifies much literacy discourse creates a valuable nexus for exploring forms, structures, and concept in the language. By literature, students can read a story, write a poem, listen a song, and also can discuss about form, structure and concept in the literature that they have. The discussion of literature (e.g, story, novel, drama, and etc.) and the production of literature (e.g, poem, story, drama script, and etc.) are important practices in the developing students’ skill. For learners, this means that opportunities to create, discuss, share, revise, and edit a variety of texts will help them develop content-area understanding and also recognition and familiarity with the types of texts found in particular content areas.
Finally, Literature introduces critical thinking to students. According to Hakes (2008:122), the critical thinking appears when “a point arises where it is natural to introduce the idea”. For example, when reading a poem, a student should think what the main idea of it. And when the students make a poem, they need to determine the main idea and the words they need. Basiga (2009:25) tells that “When language is internalized, it becomes thought; when thought is externalized, it becomes language”. And in this case, the students think the idea and apply it in works based on their knowledge of literature. Wolf (2008:18) argues that “literature has taken a back seat to a strong emphasis on learning to read rather than readingto learn”. It proves that literature has an important role in learning a language.
Although Basiga (2009:26) claims some assumptions in teaching a language through literature, such as: teacher’s attitude toward literature and students, “literature should be enjoyable”, and the techniques that will be apply by a teacher in learning process. And Gamble & Yates (2002:4) claims about the range of text and the appropriate approaches and literature’s influence for children. As a teacher, we know what should we do, we know the ability of students, the appropriate material and approach that can we use. And we can control the literature’s influence toward our students.
Based on the reasons above and consider the role of literature in our life and its usefulness in teaching and learning a language. Literature is one of the most important media and material in language teaching. So, we should use literature in teaching a language.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Basiga, Brenda. 2009. Teaching English through Literature(The Asian EFL Journal Special Edition, The 1st Asian Cebu Conference, August 2009).
Chamber, Ellie & Marshal Gregory. 2006. Teaching and Learning English Literature. London: Sage publication.
Collie, Joanne & Stephen Slater. 2010. Literature in the Language Classroom. UK:Cambridge University press.
Gamble, Nikki & Yates Sally. 2002. Exploring Children’s Literature (Teaching the Language and Reading of Fiction). London: a Sage Publications Company.
Hakes, Belinda. 2008. When Critical Thinking met English Literature. Oxford: Howtobooks.
Hismanoglu, Murat.2005. Teaching English through Literature. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies. Vol 1. No. 1, april 2005.
Llach, Pilar AgustÃn. 2007. Teaching English through literature: the Waste land in the ESL classroom. Odisea.
Popp, Marcia S. 2005. Teaching Language and Literature in elementary Classroom (second edition). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Sakthivel, V. & Kavidha, N. 2010. Is Literature a Viable Medium for ESL Acquisition?. Journal language in India. VOL. 10, January 1st2010.
Simpson, Paul. 2004. Language through Literature. London: Routledge.
Vasquez, Anete. Hansen, Angeka L, & Smith, Philip C. 2010. Teaching Language Arts to English Language Learners. New York: Routledge.
Wolf, Shelby, A. 2008. Interpreting Literature with Children. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.