Page 87 - Getting of the fence

Students’ perspective on the benefits of literature lessons
on the text itself and information about the context, and encouraging the learners to make connections with the text, all the time ensuring that support is being given to language learning. This then results in what we have called the Comprehensive Approach which, we suggest, is likely to support high quality teaching and learning.
4.2.2. Students’ perspectives on foreign language literature education
Recent understandings of teaching show that teachers’ approaches to teaching
influence the way in which learners learn (Beausaert, Segers, & Wiltink, 2013).
Many and Wiseman (1992) found that different approaches to L1 literature
significantly affected the content of the students’ written responses. In a foreign
language context, Tutaş (2006) found that how literature is taught affects the
learners’ stance towards the texts as well as texts they read later. In other words, 4 whether teachers teach through a Comprehensive Approach or only through, for
example, the Text approach, could have an effect on how students experience and learn from foreign language literature.
Students’ perceptions of a learning environment influence how much they learn and therefore have an impact on the efficacy of the instructional environment (Brown, 2009; Entwistle, 1991). Indeed, whenever a teacher’s teaching approach is compatible with a student’s learning approach, it creates a situation of congruence (Vermunt & Verloop, 1999). In other cases, existing learning strategies are called upon but are not necessarily compatible between teacher and students. This may lead to so-called constructive frictions, which Vermunt and Verloop (1999) claim “may be necessary to make students willing to change and to stimulate them to develop skills in the use of learning and thinking activities they are not inclined to use on their own” (p. 270). Understanding how students view foreign language literature could not only help teachers create a situation of congruence and constructive frictions but also help them design a strategy in order to reconcile possible differences. In our view, therefore, a move towards an integrated language- literature curriculum should take into account student perspectives as well, in order to maximize learning (see also Peiser & Jones, 2013).
However, few researchers have studied students’ perspectives in the field of foreign language literature education. An early study in the Higher Education context, Martin and Laurie (1993), found that the main reason students of French at an Australian University were studying French was related to linguistic interest. In contrast, Liaw (2001) found that her Taiwanese management students enjoyed the inclusion of literature in a language course. Moreover, the students gained
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