Page 99 - Getting of the fence

Students’ perspective on the benefits of literature lessons
the elements) and the Text approach (where only 12% of students mentioned any
of the elements). The only element of these two approaches that was mentioned
by a relatively large number of students (27%, which for one element is a large
percentage) was ‘Personal development’. According to Barrette et al. (2010),
studying literary texts in the foreign language classroom could enhance students’
translingual and transcultural competence, precisely because they are confronted
with stories and themes from other historical, cultural and social contexts. However,
when students do not see how this diverse input in their language course could,
for example, enhance their personal development (which is part of the Reader
approach; see Figure 4.1), or how foreign language literature can be studied from
multiple approaches, this is a missed opportunity in the foreign language literary
experience. The fact that the other elements of these two approaches were rarely 4 mentioned or not mentioned at all might be because the students simply do not
see these elements as beneficial for their EFL learning. Another possibility is that these elements are already covered by the literature lessons in their first language or in a different foreign language, with the result that students don’t see the point of repeating this in the English literature lessons.
Even though the majority of the students (61%) mentioned more than one approach, only eight students (1%) provided us with answers that fell into all four approaches. In other words, this group of 635 secondary school students did not regard foreign language literature lessons in what we would call a comprehensive way. Even though each of the four approaches assumes possible benefits for foreign language students, it is their reciprocal relationship that is particularly enriching in foreign language literature lessons (Chapter 2). Therefore, when students, for example, see the foreign language literature lesson as beneficial only for their language development but their teachers approach the texts primarily through a Text approach, one could understand the student question we quoted at the beginning of this chapter about the actual point of reading literature in English.
The findings also show that there is variation in the way students from different schools perceive the benefits of this part of the language curriculum, in spite of the fact that each of the four approaches featured in all schools. Whereas, for example, in some schools the majority of students mention the Language approach (e.g. school E with 95%), in school D this was merely 21% of the students. This suggests that within schools and perhaps even within classes, there is variation in how students perceive the EFL literature curriculum. Therefore, a Comprehensive Approach, where the teacher would teach literature through all four approaches,
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