Some Recommendations for Integrating Literature into EFL/ESL Classrooms

Many EFL/ESL learners find English language classrooms boring, partly because of the fact that learners are engaged in those activities they consider unrelated to the requirements of out-of-class communication in the L2. One solution offered to this problem is to introduce literature and literary texts into language classrooms. Many researchers support the proposal that literature needs to be incorporated into language teaching curricula, both for children and adults. However, researchers and ELT practitioners do not agree as to what are the most effective procedures for integrating literature into language classrooms. It is the purpose of the present paper to offer some recommendations that would help language teachers maximize the efficacy of their literary materials. Ten recommendations will be proposed with a specific focus on short stories and novels along with the rationales as to why it is thought that the recommendations would be helpful for literature-based language classrooms.