Page 88 - Getting of the fence
P. 88

                                Chapter 4
 confidence in reading English literary texts and most preferred the short stories to the course book.
Paran (2008), however, warns that we should consider the findings of these studies with caution. Most of the courses investigated were electives or were part of a curriculum the students had voluntarily selected as part of their university degree. In addition, it is secondary schools rather than universities that are “the locus of most language learning in the world” (Paran, 2008, p. 490). Since EFL is compulsory for most secondary school students in the Netherlands (as opposed to the elective nature of other foreign languages such as French or German) this group of students is relatively large. Therefore, due to this large number, we believe that this particular group of students is extremely valuable for educational research and curriculum design.
Two large-scale studies shed some light on secondary school students’ perspectives on EFL literature courses. Akyel and Yalçin (1990) surveyed students in five different secondary schools in Turkey. They demonstrated that students’ English language proficiency was related to their appreciation of the inclusion of literature in the EFL classes. Schmidt (2004), taking a narrower focus, explored the reality of German EFL classes using Shakespeare and the possible connection between pupils’ interest in Shakespeare and the ways in which Shakespeare was taught. Most students indicated that they accepted Shakespeare as an obligatory author in their EFL course, but this was not related to an actual interest in his works. However, despite Paran (2008) call for more “systematic enquiries into the views of the learners” (p. 490), such studies are still few and far between. Our study seeks to explore this under-researched area.
4.2.3 Research questions
The principal objective of the present study was to use the perspectives of adolescents to inform EFL literature teaching. Furthermore, due to the divergence in EFL literature curricula in Dutch secondary education (Bloemert & van Veen, accepted), we wanted to find out whether the perception of students from different schools would vary. Studying the difference between schools could suggest a possible relation between how literature is taught and how students perceive literature education. These objectives led to the following two research questions: (1) What are the benefits of EFL literature education according to Dutch secondary school EFL students, and (2) are there differences between the perception of students from different schools?
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