2011 International Conference on Languages, Literature and Linguistics

IPEDR vol.26 (2011) © (2011) IACSIT Press, Singapore

"On the Use of Novel as a Teaching Material in EFL Classrooms:

Why and How?"

Nodeh 1, Kiani 2 +
1
MA Student of English Language and Literature at Shiraz University, Iran
2
MA Student of English Language and Literature at Beheshti University, Iran

Abstract. For a long time language has been kept distinct from literature in educational curricula but the
current educational trend favors an interdisciplinary outlook in the academics and that has led to a renewed
concentration on the use of literature in EFL classrooms. Through literature, language learners are exposed to
authentic communicative events in a more meaningful context in contrast to routine classroom dialogues.
Literature, furthermore, helps language learners experience the target language as a more personal
intercultural process which, consequently, contributes to their cognitive growth and their understanding of
the relationship between language and culture. The present study first focuses on illustrating the use of novel,
a dialogic narrative discourse in which parameters of setting and role-relationships are defined, as a teaching
material in EFL classrooms. Then in the next step, following task-based approach as a method which requires
students to do meaningful tasks using the target language, this paper aims at providing a wide range of
practical ideas, tasks, and activities regarding the use of novel for teaching vocabulary, structures, or
language manipulation. The results of the paper show that through exposure to literature as a contextualized
body of text which contains genuine and undistorted language, a significant improvement in students' cultural
recognition, speech fluency, verbal and nonverbal skills, reading comprehension, inferential interpreting, and
lexical and syntactical awareness is acquired.
Keywords: language, literature, culture, novel, EFL classrooms, authentic communicative events, task-
based approach.

1. Introduction
For a long time language has been kept distinct from literature in educational curricula but the current
educational trend favors an interdisciplinary outlook in the academics and that has led to a renewed
concentration on the use of literature in EFL classrooms. EFL Students have fairly limited access to spoken
English; therefore, written English often takes on primary importance for stimulating language acquisition.
Novel is one of these written sources through which language learners can have access to authentic materials
in real-life context which is not to be found in routine classroom dialogues prevalent in many EFL
classrooms.
Therefore, the present paper is an attempt to shed light on the use of novel, as a literary text containing
many linguistic and cultural elements of the target language which may help a language learner to have a
deep understanding of the target language and culture, in EFL classrooms. The first half of the paper sets to
analyze the reason why using novel and what is the benefits of using novel in EFL classrooms. Different
critics' ideas with regard to the use of literary texts such as novel for teaching language to language learners
are provided in this part of the paper. The next part, goes onto the how part and proposes a few activities
which could be used when a foreign language teacher employs novel as a teaching material. Following task-

+
Corresponding Author. Tel.: +989119736246; fax: +981714435443.
E-mail address: [email protected].
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based approach, therefore, in this part of the paper a wide range of practical ideas, tasks, and activities
regarding the use of novel for teaching vocabulary, structures, or language manipulation is provided.

2. Method
As it was mentioned earlier, purpose of the present study is to investigate the use of literature,
specifically focusing on novel, in EFL classrooms and the practical methods which an EFL teacher can use
when dealing with EFL students. Therefore, a general understanding of the debates around the use of
literature in EFL classrooms is also required. All in all, this study is needed to have extended material
providing one with the theoretical reasons for using novel in EFL classrooms to provide grassroots for the
study. Hence, the first half of the discussion part is devoted to theoretical ideas; it is given to analyze
different critics' ideas about the use of literature in EFL classes and, therefore, more light is shed on the use
of literature, including novel, in EFL classrooms through examining general debates on the topic. Then,
following task-based approach as a method, which focuses on asking students to do meaningful tasks using
the target language and in which assessment is primarily based on task outcome or appropriate completion of
tasks rather than on accuracy of language forms, the next part of the discussion provides a wide range of
practical ideas, tasks, and activities regarding the use of novel for teaching different language skills.

3. Discussion and Results

Though language has been kept apart from literature in educational curricula in many parts of the world,
there are a lot of "continuities" between "the study of the language and the study of its literature" (Carter,
1996, p. 12) which would be very much helpful for EFL students in their process of language learning. By
the way of using literary texts as a teaching material in EFL classrooms, students are exposed to "authentic
communicative events" (Hardison & Sonchaeng, 2005, p. 594) in a more meaningful context compared to
the context in which the current routine dialogues, used in most EFL classes, appear.
McKay (1986), going with this idea, added that one of the advantages of using literary texts with
language learners is that these texts serve to present language in discourse in which "the parameters of
setting and role-relationships are defined" (p.191) and make them more aware of the culture the language of
which they are learning. Lazar (1993) also advocated this idea saying that through exposure to authentic
materials in real life context, students' awareness of role-relationships increases. Therefore, through using
novel in an EFL classroom, teachers can help students to increase their knowledge of how what people say in
a conversation "reflects their relationship and relative status." Moreover, through using literary texts in
classroom, students will learn how, in a different culture, "non-verbal features" of a conversation, which is
described in the text, reflect "relationships of the characters and their attitudes towards each other" (p. 137).
Thus, Wagner believes, learning language through its literature leads students to experience the language
they are learning as a more "personal intercultural process" which may contribute to their "cognitive growth"
and may also, to use Schmenk's words, "enhance learners' reflection on their social identities, and the
relationships between language and culture" (qtd. in Hardison and Sonchaeng, 2005, p. 594). McRae (1996)
also went with this idea noting that literary discourse is a "culturally-rooted language which is purposefully
patterned and representational." It helps students "develop sensitivity" to language, enhance their cultural
knowledge and awareness, and "develop skills in inference and implicature, cultural recognition, questions of
social status, register, and point of view" (p. 27). Since a literary text contains both explicit and implicit
layers of meaning, therefore, having grabbed the literal meaning of the text, students are actively involved in
teasing out the unstated implications of different characters' speeches and gestures which consequently
improves their inferential understanding, cultural awareness and their perception of social status. Durant
(1996) supported this idea saying that EFL students "rarely have easy access to social matrix within which to
locate register variations, nuance, or bodies of cultural assumptions mobilized in inferential interpreting."
Thus, through using literary texts where "inferential concerns form the main pedagogic interest," (p. 72) one
can help students develop their understanding or awareness of these aspects of language.
Therefore, using literary texts, including novels, is "ideal for developing an awareness of language use,"
since it broadens students' "understanding of conversational discourse" (McKay, 1986, p. 191) through
putting them in a real-life context. Novels help language learners to be able to understand more easily the
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sarcasms, ironies, and any other implications that lie behind the apparent meanings of a text. As a matter of
fact, a work of literature enables students to draw inferences and understand "what is implied behind the
literal meaning" (Lazar, 1993, p. 19) of what characters say in the dialogues through the multiple levels of
meaning hidden behind the literal level.
Salter (1987), also affirming literature as one of the best sources available to all language learners
helping them to heighten their cultural and linguistic awareness, maintained that for many language learners
having a visit or an extended stay to enhance their understanding of life in the country where the language
they are learning is spoken is not possible; therefore, he concludes, literature is perhaps one of the best ways
to increase the "foreign learner's insight into the country whose language is being learnt." Literature offers a
"bountiful and extremely varied body of written material" through which students are exposed to language
that is genuine and undistorted. Furthermore, the world of a novel, play, or a short story offers "a full and
vivid context in which characters from many social backgrounds can be depicted" (p.4-5). Through these
texts language learners can increase their awareness of how these people, coming from different social
backgrounds, speak and behave behind closed doors and also heighten their understanding of these people's
thoughts, feelings, and customs.
Asserting that "language enrichment" is one of the benefits sought through literature, Salter (1987)
mentioned different aspects of this enrichment. Through a "contextualized body of text," students' familiarity
with many features of written language, including the formation and function of sentences, the variety of
possible structures, the different ways of connecting ideas" (p. 5) increases and all these help students
broaden and enrich their writing skills.
Furthermore, using novel in EFL classrooms helps students to improve their reading comprehension. The
reason is that it encourages them to read or listen for the "gist of the events" (Lazar, 1993, p. 145) or to guess
the meaning of new words from the context in which they are used instead of looking up every new word in a
dictionary. Talking about the same issue, Povey maintains that using these authentic materials with language
learners enables them to improve, not one or two but, all of their language skills "because literature will
extend linguistic knowledge by giving evidence of extensive and subtle vocabulary usage, and complex and
exact syntax" (qtd. in McKay, 1986, p. 191). Salter (1987), going with this idea, argued that through using
literary texts, including novels, "lexical or syntactical items are made more memorable" (p. 5). Besides,
having acquired "greater insights into conversational language" through using literary texts in EFL
classrooms, language learners will learn how conversations are "ordered and sequenced" in English, what
kinds of "formulaic expressions" (Lazar, 1993, p. 137) it is appropriate to use in different contexts, and how
specific phrases or idiomatic expressions are used in that language. It, in fact, helps students to acquire a
great deal of new language almost in passing.
Now the question is how one can use novel in an EFL classroom. McCarthy (1996) proposed a few
performance activities engaging students in creating dialogue and performing their own scripts based on the
literary text. He maintained that these activities "mirror and highlight the key linguistic mechanisms of the
text," mechanisms which are more comparable to modes of everyday speech. He, calling these performance
activities as "reconstruction activities," (p. 97) maintained that through some meaningful activities, features
of discourse are discussed by students in lay terms, the terminology and specific mechanisms of language
such as tension, irony, and conflict is absorbed by students; moreover, they encourage personal response on
the part of the participants.
Besides, if a part of the story is performed like a play in the classroom, through this "performance"
(Hardison and Sonchaeng, 2005, p. 59) and through assigning different roles to students, interaction between
students increases. This approach is compatible with interactionist theory of second language acquisition.
Furthermore, according to Liu, interaction helps students to acquire "communicative competence" (qtd. in
Hardison and Sonchaeng, 2005, p. 594). Therefore, this role-playing, which is a very crucial element in CLT,
“gives students an opportunity to practice communicating in different social roles” (Larsen-Freeman, 2000, p.
134). McCarthy (1996), supporting this idea, maintained that such an approach increases students'
communicative competence. In a dramatic text conversations are coherent and organized; they also "orient

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towards certain norms," and reveal, in their manipulations of and deviations from such norms, "the tensions,
conflicts and power struggles that human beings are involved in when interacting" (p. 91).
Having students "perform" (Lazar, 1993, p. 138) an extract of a literary text, the teacher can also provide
them with an opportunity to improve their oral skills. For instance, it helps them to improve their
pronunciation through practicing different sound patterns and through experimenting with different forms of
intonation. Moreover, using literary texts as a teaching material in EFL classrooms and making students read
or perform a part of the text, helps students to raise their awareness of various elements of speech such as
breathing, volume, pitch, stress, rhythm, and individual sounds," and also helps them to "enhance pitch range,
speech fluency, [and] intelligibility" (Hardison and Sonchaeng, 2005, p. 594).
Additionally, performing an extract of the text and discussing it in class will increase students' "active
participation" (Hardison and Sonchaeng, 2005, p. 594). The reason is that each work of literature contains a
few dilemmas which give students source for discussion and, therefore, arouses them to share their opinions
about the topic and engage in discussion. This active participation increases students' self-confidence and
also improves their oral skills.
Lazar (1993), suggesting using novel in EFL classrooms, also proposed a few techniques, tasks, and
activities for using novel in EFL classrooms. This critic classifies these activities into three groups: pre-
reading, while-reading, and post-reading activities. In the pre-reading part, she suggests, the teacher can
create students' interest in the story and thus engage them in discussion. The teacher can do so through
asking students to make general predictions about the story via the cover of the book or the pictures included
within the pages of the story. S/he can also ask students to start group discussions about "what the title of the
story suggests" and then make predictions about the story based on its title, based on the first paragraph of
the story, or based on three or four words chosen from the story by the teacher. Moreover, the teacher can
divide students into different groups and ask them to do mini-projects, "presented as a talk, essay, or poster,"
(p. 83-4) about the cultural background of the story and then provoke discussions through comparing and
contrasting the historical and cultural background of the story with that events which happened in the same
period of history in their own country; (of course, this is more applicable with the higher level EFL students.)
Through these methods the teacher stimulates interest in the students to take part in class discussions and so
helps them to improve their oral and conversational skills and also heightens students' knowledge of the
culture of the people the language of whom they are learning.
Then, in the next step, that is while-reading activities, the teacher can ask students to perform a series of
activities which improves their reading and writing skills. They can ask a few overall questions to check
whether students "have understood the gist of the story" or not. S/he can also ask them to write a brief
summary of the story. Moreover, the teacher can give a few "jumbled sentences which summarize the plot
and ask students to re-order them" (Lazar, 1993, p. 55). Another method is using "sentence completion"
activities; that is the students are given the beginning of a sentence about the story which they then complete.
This method helps the teacher to check students' understanding of the text or helps them to understand the
"cause and effect" relationships within the story. (Lazar, 1993, p. 55) Therefore, almost all these methods
used in while-reading step help students to improve their reading comprehension and writing skills.
The last group of activities which can be used by the teacher when using novel as a teaching material in
EFL classrooms is post-reading activities. The teacher in this step can ask students different critical questions
which raise critical debates among students and stimulates them to take part in discussions. Through this
method students are given a chance to improve their oral skills. Moreover, students can also be given a few
writing activities after reading story. The teacher, for instance, can ask students to find the specific "stylistics
features" (Lazar, 1993, p. 87) used in the story and write a few paragraphs using the same methods used by
the author of the story. This method, mostly used for higher level students, makes students to be more
conscious of the stylistic features of a specific piece of writing and also helps them to improve both their
reading and writing skills.
Almost all the activities and tasks proposed as a method for using novel in EFL classrooms help students,
in one way or another, to improve their language skills, including reading, writing, and oral skills. Moreover,

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they help them to heighten their knowledge of the culture, the language of which they are learning, as one of
the crucial elements in learning a foreign language.

4. Conclusion
Through the three groups of activities and tasks proposed for using novel in EFL classrooms, students
are given a chance to improve almost all their language skills. Moreover, performance of an extract of the
story, as another activity already proposed in the present paper for using with novel in EFL classrooms,
enhances students' understanding of non-verbal features of conversation such as gestures and body language
and, thus, enables them to draw inferences from what is said and acted during the course of conversations.
Beside non-verbal skills, performing a text heightens students' oral skills such as pronunciation and
intonation. Furthermore, using literature and role-playing enhances students' active participation and
subsequently increases their self-confidence. Moreover, through using novel, students are given a chance to
confront "authentic materials" in real-life context and this leads them to enhance their understanding of
conversational discourse. Novel, additionally, improves language learners' awareness of role-relationships
reflected through the conversations within the text. They will learn how what people say in a conversation
reflects their relationships and their attitude towards each other. Therefore, through using novel as a teaching
material in EFL classrooms, teachers enable students to improve almost all their language skills and also to
acquire a great deal of language almost in passing.

5. Acknowledgements
I should express my sincere gratitude for the authors and publishers who have given the permission for
use of copyright materials identified in the text.

6. References
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[2] Hardison, M Debra & Sonchaeng, Chayawan. Theater Voice Training and Technology in Teaching Oral Skills:
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[3] Durant, Alan. Designing Group Work Activities: A Case Study. In: Ronald Carter and John McRae (Eds.).
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[4] Larsen-Freeman, Diane. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press, 2000.
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[6] McCarthy, Michael. Reconstructing and Deconstructing: Drama Texts in the Classroom. In: Ronald Carter and
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[8] McRae, John. Representational Language Learning: From Language Awareness to Text Awareness. In: Ronald
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