Integrating novels and short stories into English language teaching

Abstract

Novels and short stories can be seen as motivating and authentic materials in English Language classes (Lazar, 1993). It is because novels and short stories are rich in not only language, but also, cultural aspects of the foreign language. Therefore, novels and short stories may act as great sources of language and culture in English as a foreign language classes. The language instructors’ role is important in teaching English through these sources. By the language instructors, the level and needs of the language learners need to be taken into consideration while selecting and using these literary texts. Researchers such as Byram (1989) and Brown(2007) claim that it is not any possible to separate language and culture from each other, for this reason novels and short stories can be seen as great sources both for language and for culture of the target language. Thanks to literary translation, it really is possible to be aware of other cultures of the world with the help of novels and short stories’ translations. In the following paper, it is aimed to show how using novels and short stories in EFL classes may develop students’ knowledge of English while increasing their cultural awareness. In that sense, togetherness of language and culture in language teaching, novels and short stories in the language classroom and ways to overcome cultural problems while using novels and short stories in EFL classes will be presented.