Page 42 - Getting of the fence

Chapter 2
the Text, Context, Reader, and Language approach. We therefore suggest that a Comprehensive Approach to foreign language literature teaching and learning in which all four approaches are addressed in an interrelated way could enrich the foreign language literature lessons and enhance student learning. Other studies that promote the idea of integrated literature curricula are for example Barrette et al. (2010), Hoecherl-Alden (2006), Macleroy (2013), and Paesani & Allen (2012).
With regard to the uneasy position of foreign language literature curricula in Dutch secondary education and in response to Paran’s (2008) call for empirical research in secondary foreign language classrooms, this study reports on a survey (n = 106 Dutch EFL teachers in secondary education) providing insight into how literature is approached in the EFL lessons. Furthermore, due to the huge amount of curricular freedom of foreign language literature curricula in the Netherlands, we explore whether teacher demographics, such as level of education and/or years of teaching experience, and curricular factors, such as the number of hours literature is taught per year and/or the final percentage of the literature component in the foreign language literature curriculum, are related to how literature is approached in these lessons. This study was therefore guided by the following two research questions:
1. How do EFL teachers approach literature at pre-university level in Dutch secondary education?
2. Which teacher demographics and curricular factors are significantly related to the reported occurrence of the four foreign language literary teaching approaches?
2.2 Method
2.2.1 Instrument
In an attempt to operationalize the Text, Context, Reader, and Language approaches, we constructed a list of initial underlying elements for each approach. These elements were based on: a literature review; previous categorizations of foreign language literature teaching approaches (e.g. Carter & Long, 1991; Sage, 1987); the three Dutch Core Curriculum Standards for foreign language literature; the CEFR; a priori introspection; and the researcher’s professional experience as an English language teacher and her current job as an ELT teacher trainer in
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