The future of literary texts in the L3 classroom

Abstract

What will the L3 classroom look like in the future? In the debates about foreign language (FL) educational politics and methodology, little has been said about literature. Still, it is my claim that the question of literature is intrinsically related to fundamental FL issues such as aims, content and methods. To ask whether the L3 classroom of the future will include literary texts is therefore also to ask about the future disciplinary identity of the foreign languages. The present article investigates the use of literature in foreign language teaching and learning, and provides a kind of “thick description” that comes from mapping the question within a broader context. I start with the main didactic and epistemic perspectives on the use of literary texts within the field of foreign languages (FL) itself. These perspectives from within will be amplified by introducing what I have termed two competing discourses of literature and education (“literature as suppressive” and “literature as suppressed”), and by showing how they can be related to FL teaching and learning. These are in turn framed within the macro perspective of educational philosophies and the functions of school in society. Finally, I will consider the specific Norwegian case, with a particular focus on the L3 subject curriculum of the last curricular reform (LK06), and its consequences for the use of literary texts.