Use of Literature, Resources and Innovative Methodologies in the English Classroom

Abstract

This research is aimed at analysing English teachers’ perception, use and level of professional development regarding literature, resources and innovative methodologies in the classroom. The type of quantitative investigation method used had a descriptive-com-parative nature, where 70 secondary teachers, that taught English as a foreign language, answered a questionnaire created ad hoc. The results show that teachers consider literature as a great resource for the development of basic competences; nevertheless, most of them do not use it to a great extent and, when they do, it is through reading tasks of textbooks and graded books. We conclude that literature texts are perceived as too difficult, probably because teachers may not know how to select the best-suited works in terms of cognition and interest. As educational implications, we propose for EFL teachers to acquire, during their initial education, the pertinent knowledge about literary works, tasks, ICTs and audiovisual materials for the teaching of English, and how to assess these contents. It is interesting, to point out the limitations of the study, related to the compilation of the best literature works for the English teaching, in order to plan future lines of investigation.

Cuentos de Realidad Aumentada para el aprendizaje de la lengua

“…El uso de cuentos es una estrategia generalizada para la adquisición de competencia comunicativa, de lectoescritura (Torrano-Guillamón et al, 2019), así como de competencia intercultural (García-Yepes, 2017) al ser compartido el relato en el colegio (Díaz y García-Azkoaga, 2016). A través del desarrollo y lectura de cuentos o narraciones de ficción se incentiva el hábito lector y se potencia la fluidez oral y lectora (Fernández Herrera, 2014;Del Moral Pérez et al, 2018;Felipe Morales et al, 2019).…”

Libro álbum y enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera. Un estudio piloto sobre creencias docentes

“…The four teachers participating in our study belong to a minority who use authentic literature as the central element in their EFL classroom rather than textbooks (Bergström et al, 2021;Torrano-Guillamón et al, 2019). This literature, originally intended for native English-speaking children, may pose linguistic difficulties for non-native readers (Macalister & Webb, 2019); however, these teachers demonstrated in the interviews that they had developed several strategies to assist their students in overcom-ing such linguistic difficulties, since their main aim was to work on specific linguistic content that is present in the books.…”

“…More specifically, this work used a multiple case study design (Stake, 1999) to examine the beliefs of several primary EFL teachers. Given the difficulty of finding EFL teachers who base their teaching on authentic literature rather than on textbooks or graded readings (Torrano-Guillamón et al, 2019), a preliminary analysis was conducted in the Spanish province of Huesca to find participants for this study. The researchers contacted 18 bilingual state schools to find potential participants.…”

“…In relation to this, several studies have shown that teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) usually opt for the textbook as the main teaching material in their classrooms (Bakken & Lund, 2018;Bergström et al, 2021;Zhang, 2020). Other works have reported that some teachers deem authentic literature to be a useful tool for foreign language learning, but many lack the confidence or preparation to use it in the classroom (Torrano-Guillamón et al, 2019). However, research has found that working with literature is very effective in foreign language teaching contexts (Bland, 2022;Kim, 2022;Sun, 2020aSun, , 2020b.…”

Integrating Culture in Foreign Language Teaching: Case of Teaching Vietnamese for Foreigners in Vietnam

“…The culturally integrated foreign language teaching model has been discussed by several authors (Chen & Yang, 2016;Maijala, 2020;Omer & Ali, 2011). To raise the standard of foreign language instruction, one of the factors to pay attention to is the development of cultural competence in learners (Babaee & Yahya, 2014;Cakir, 2006;Li, 2016;Sercu et al, 2004;Torrano-Guillamón et al, 2019). Many works have shown that language is used as a primary means through which culture is expressed (Cakir, 2006), and culture plays a very important role in foreign language teaching (Ali et al, 2015;Li, 2016;Omer & Ali, 2011).…”