Arab Students’ Perspectives on the Value of Literature

Abstract

While the value of literature has long been the subject of lively debate in Western universities, little attention has been given to how most Arab learners perceive it. The key concern of the present paper is to analyze literature’s value for Arab students in general and for Sultan Qaboos University students in particular. To this end, the study begins with a review of the myriad benefits (social, educational and personal) claimed for literature. It then examines literature’s negative social and learning impacts on SQU students. Based on a questionnaire conducted among 25 prospective SQU English majors, including Translation, Arts and English Education students, the study revealed that literature, in their view, still has a high value on account of its numerous advantages, the most important being its enhancement of their language competence, despite obsolete teaching methods likely to kill their taste for it. Finally, the paper recommends that modes of teaching create a philetic environment, and that new literature circles be created to sensitize students to the value of literature at an earlier stage of their lives in order to cultivate a stronger passion and love for literature in them.