Abstract
In this article I endeavour to encourage teachers of Secondary Education to use English literature in their English language lessons. Indeed, literature provides a huge amount of authentic reading materials, making the students practise extensive as well as intensive reading, which is crucial for the foreign language acquisition. Moreover, it is an enormous source of motivation, allowing students to give free rein to their imagination and enjoy their English lessons. The election of gothic fiction is linked to this latter purpose: the 19th gothic genre is generally well accepted by adolescents as it represents a way to reflect on themselves through a journey to “self-revelation”. The double personality/identity-theme of R. L. Stevenson’s novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde fits well into their interests and their quest for self-knowledge. It offers them the chance to process what they are going through in this often unstable stage of their journey into adulthood by trying to figure out their place in the world.
 
 Keywords: Reading skill, Literature in ELT, Gothic fiction, R. L. Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Double identity
Highlights
In this article I endeavour to encourage teachers of Secondary Education to use English literature in their English language lessons
The role of literature in the second/foreign language classroom has traditionally had an intermittent presence throughout the history of EFLT, varying in intensity according to the different methodologies or approaches applied to the language teaching
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL) affirms that, The linguistic and cultural competences in respect of each language are modified by knowledge of the other and contribute to the intercultural awareness, skills and know-how
Summary
The role of literature in the second/foreign language classroom has traditionally had an intermittent presence throughout the history of EFLT, varying in intensity according to the different methodologies or approaches applied to the language teaching. Literature, by bringing students closer to the past cultures that still influence our modern societies, leads them to a major understanding of the contemporary foreign cultures, improving plurilingualism and fostering interculturality In this respect, the CEFRL affirms that, The linguistic and cultural competences in respect of each language are modified by knowledge of the other and contribute to the intercultural awareness, skills and know-how. The aesthetic and moral worth of Gothicism as a literary/artistic genre has often been discredited, but the vivid imagery of the genre involving extremes of human endurance catches undoubtedly the students’ attention and the influence of Gothic literature in ELT is currently confirmed by the amount of graded readers based on Gothic novels which are made available by publishers in their yearly ELT catalogues, reinforcing their validity for teaching English and the success of the genre at every level of the EL learning process. This justifies the election of Stevenson’s novel, as, through the main theme of the double identity, it provides plenty of opportunities to tackle a lot of teenager-related issues
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