BENEFITS OF USING LITERATURE IN THE CLASSROOM  2000w

This chapter attempts to emphasize on relevant literature review that illustrate the following details; definition of literature, the importance of pedagogy, benefits of teaching literature in ESL Classroom, trainee teachers, and past studies.

2.1 DISCUSSION OF MAJOR TOPICS OF STUDY

Literature is defined as pieces of writing that are valued as works of art, especially novels, plays, and poems (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2019). For literature in English, William Shakespeare is one of the famous writers who had produced massive masterpieces. He had been widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist (Greenblatt, 2019). Literature is also known as ‘the window of the world’ as it offers the learners or readers the gist of ones’ culture, history, and traditions (Carter & Long, 2019)

Literature in English has been implemented in the Malaysian education system to enhance students’ proficiency in the English Language through the study of a set prescribed literary text, as well as contributing to personal development and character building (Ministry of Education, 2000The claim “the study of literature is fundamentally a study of language in operation” (Widdowson: 1971) is based on the realization that literature is an example of language in use, and is a context for language use. Thus, studying the language of literary texts as language in operation is seen as enhancing the learner’s appreciation of aspects of the different systems of language organisation (O’Sullivan, 1991). By the end of the secondary school English Language program, students should be able to achieve the objectives set for them. Unfortunately, after ten years being in the English syllabus, literature is still not seen as an important role to learn English language in Malaysian