Page 33 - Getting of the fence

2.1 Introduction
Ever since the 1980s, educational research has shown an increasing interest in the
use of literature in foreign language education, resulting in a wealth of practical 2 teaching materials (e.g. Collie & Slater, 1987; Kennedy & Falvey, 1999; McKay,
1982). In 1989 Hall expressed some concern regarding the results of this increasing
interest believing that foreign language education is now introducing literature
“without having sufficiently carefully theorised what literature might offer and how
this potential can best be exploited” (Hall, 1989, p. 30). A few years later Gilroy
and Parkinson (1996) note that “the extreme diversity of foreign language teaching
situations ... precludes any grand consensus on the place and form of literature
teaching” (Gilroy & Parkinson, 1996, p. 210). Showing that there is indeed a need
for a more balanced understanding of the place and form of literature in foreign
language programmes, several scholarly works have theorized what literature
might offer and seem to conclude that literature can be beneficial for foreign
language students in multiple ways, such as stimulating language acquisition,
critical thinking skills, and cultural knowledge of the target language (e.g. Belcher
& Hirvela, 2000; Hall, 2015; Parkinson & Reid-Thomas, 2000). The current trend
seems to be to empirically research these acclaimed benefits (e.g. Early & Marshall,
2008; Macleroy, 2013; Nguyen, 2014; Picken, 2005) moving from mere theory to
actual evidence.
One of the developments in this field of research comes from the Modern Language Association (MLA), a U.S. organization dealing with university level education. In 2007 the MLA encouraged replacing the two-tiered language- literature structure within higher education with a more coherent curriculum in which “language, culture, and literature are taught as a continuous whole” (Modern Language Association, 2007, p. 3). The suggested reform focuses on a unified curriculum that will situate language study “in cultural, historical, geographic, and cross-cultural frames within the context of humanistic learning” (Modern Language Association, 2007, p. 4). In line with recent curricular reforms, more emphasis is placed on interpretative reading, which has resulted in a definite re-emergence of literature in foreign language curricula in the U.S. (Urlaub, 2013). Looking at the foreign language teaching situation in Europe, despite the strong focus of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) on communicative competences, the framework also covers the aesthetic uses of language and the cultural context in which language is set (Council of Europe,
Exploring EFL literature approaches
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