Page 34 - Getting of the fence

Chapter 2
2001). Furthermore, the Council of Europe believes that besides an aesthetic purpose, “literary studies serve many more educational purposes – intellectual, moral and emotional, linguistic and cultural” (Council of Europe, 2001, p. 56; see also Paran, 2010).
Notwithstanding the international consensus regarding the position of literature in foreign language curricula, this general agreement has not yet reached the majority of classrooms (Paran, 2008). This claim is underlined by Pulverness’ plenary talk in Moscow in 2014 entitled The Ghost at the Banquet: the use and abuse of literature in the language classroom in which he compares EFL literature education to Banquo, the unwanted guest at Macbeth’s dinner table (Pulverness, 2014). Pulverness indicates that the title of his talk seems an appropriate metaphor “to allude to the rather uneasy position occupied by literature in English language teaching” (Pulverness, 2014, n.p.). When foreign language curricula became increasingly utilitarian, literature changed from being a ‘welcome guest’ to an ‘unwelcome ghost’ (Pulverness, 2014). Another issue that needs to be addressed is the fact that the majority of empirical studies in this field are conducted in higher education (e.g. Beglar, Hunt, & Kite, 2012; Lao & Krashen, 2000) whereas secondary school settings are mainly represented by practitioner evidence (Paran, 2008). Paran (2008) calls for empirical research that will show the extent of the inclusion of literature in secondary language classrooms, since “these school settings are, after all, the locus of most language learning in the world” (p. 409).
2.1.1 The position of EFL literature in Dutch secondary education
English is a compulsory subject at pre-university level in the Netherlands and, according to the Dutch core curriculum standards for EFL reading comprehension, students at pre-university level 4 should reach CEFR levels B2 to C1. All students have to take a National Exam in their final year (year 6) as well as various School Exams organised by each individual school taken throughout the final three years. The foreign language literature component is part of the School Exams which means that individual schools can decide in what way and how often literature is taught and tested. Table 2.1 presents an overview of the allocation of the various components.
4 In the Netherlands, secondary education, which begins at the age of 12 and is compulsory until the age of 16, is offered at several levels. The highest level is the pre-university level (student age 12 to 18) and this diploma is the minimum requirement for access to a uni- versity. The exam programme at pre-university level is taught in the final three years (years 4, 5, and 6) and also comprises foreign language literature.
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