Abstract:

This study emphasizes on the use of literary texts as a key technique in pedagogy of language skills; i.e. reading, writing, listening and speaking and language areas such as; vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. Factors for using literary writings in foreign language classroom and main criteria for choosing suitable literary manuscripts in foreign language classes are focused on to familiarize the reader with the underlying reasons and criteria for language teachers’ using and selecting literary texts. Moreover, literature and the teaching of language skills, benefits of different genres of literature to language teaching and some problems encountered by language teachers within the area of teaching English through literature (i.e. lack of preparation in the area of literature teaching in TESL / TEFL programs, absence of obvious objectives in explaining the role of literature in ESL / EFL, language teachers’ not having the background and training in literature, lack of pedagogically-designed appropriate materials that can be used by language instructors in a classroom context) are taken into consideration. Key Words: Literature, Teaching Literature, The Teaching of Language Skills, Foreign Language Teaching & Literary Competence.

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