Attitudinal and motivational factors for the use of literary texts in the FL class

Abstract

Many people deserve my whole hearted thanks for helping me in various respects and at various stages of this thesis to make it a reality. I first of all wish to express my indebtedness to my supervisor Prof. Sophia Papaefthymiou-Lytra who guided me to articulate and organise this work and whose continual advice, insightful criticism and valuable feedback were instrumental in my own learning. I also owe profound thanks to Prof. Costas Evangelides, member of my supervising committee, who reacted in helpful details to various stages of this work and whose encouragement reinforced my interest in literature teaching. I should also like to express my gratitude to Assoc. Prof. Anastasia Papaconstantinou, member of my supervising committee, too, whose useful and instructive suggestions gave me insights particularly into the field of motivation. This work has greatly benefited from the continual guidance, constructive comments and encouragement of all the members of my committee.None are, however, responsible for whatever shortcomings are to be found herein. I am especially grateful to Prof. Ronald Carter for being so generous with his time in personal communication and for providing enthusiastic comments on various drafts of the whole work. Similarly, my deep gratitude is due to Prof. Steven McDonough and Marie Gilroy for their instructive comments on the construction of the early questionnaire, and to Willis Edmondson and Pamela Mills for providing me with the latest papers they presented at International Conventions. I am also indebted to Prof. Christopher Brumfit and Mick Short for the stimulating discussions which provided me with new perspectives during my visits to Britain, and iii for the ample bibliographic suggestions that Prof. Brumfit offered me. I should also record very special thanks to Savvas Papapetrou for being greatly instrumental with the statistics; to Neil Stourton and Dorothy Berwick-Laskarides for helping me with the proof-reading; and to Assoc. Prof. Mary Sifianou for her helpful suggestions and comments on the earlier version of this manuscript.I would also like to express my appreciation to the Ministry of Education for the paid leave-of-absence I was granted and all the senior high school teachers and principals who allowed me to conduct research in the Greek FL classroom. My sincere thanks are also due to all the students who willingly filled in the questionnaires and granted me fresh ideas.Very specific thanks, by right, go to my friends and colleagues Christina Ayiakli and Eleni Manolopoulou for their generous help and useful suggestions throughout this work, and their constant support during all these years of our common cause.Last, but definitely, not least, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my family: to my parents for their overall support; to my children, Penny and Tania, for their never-tiring love and for putting up with an "absent" mother on several occasions; and above all, to my husband, Stelios, for his patience, understanding, and warm encouragement during the years of...