2.2.

Models to teaching literature

Carter and Long (1991) state there are three models of teaching literature:
1) The Cultural Model which is a traditional approach of teaching
literature where learners need to discover and infer the social, political,
literary and historical context of a specific text. It reveals the universality
of thoughts and ideas and learners are encouraged to understand different
cultures and ideologies in relation to their own. This model views
literature as a source of facts and it is teacher centered where the teacher
passes knowledge and information to the students.

Carter (1988) considers the information-based approach as a way of teaching knowledge about
literature whereby literature is seen to offer a source of information to the students. Thus,
teaching methodologies tend to be teacher-centred as Lazar (1993) points out that the focus on
content would require students to examine the history and characteristics of literary movements
ranging from the cultural, social, political and historical background to a text, thus demanding a
large input from the teacher. Activities deriving from this approach could be lectures,
explanation, reading of notes and criticism provided in workbooks or by the teacher. These
activities usually cater for instrumental purposes such as examinations (Carter & McRae, 1996).

2) The Language Model which is an approach that offers learners an

opportunity to access a text in a systematic and methodical way. This
approach allows teachers to apply strategies used in language teaching
such as cloze procedure, prediction exercises, jumbled sentences,
summary writing, creative writing and role play to deconstruct literary
texts in order to serve specific linguistic goals. Savvidou (2004) asserts that
students engage with the text purely for linguistic practice and literature is
used mechanistically to provide a series of language activities.

The language model seeks greater unification between language and literature. Carter (1988)
asserts that the language-based approach helps students to focus attention on the way as to how
the language is used. Lazar (1993) points out language-based approaches see literary texts as
resources that cater for language practice through series of language activities rather than
studying literature for the purpose of acquiring facts and information. The approach is student-
centred and therefore, activities like prediction, cloze, ranking tasks, role play, poetry recital,
forum, debate and discussions can be used to create opportunities for language use in the
classroom (Carter, 1996; Rosli, 1995).

3) The Personal Growth Model which is an approach that focus on the

personal development of the students including emotions and
personal characteristics. It requires students to relate and respond to the
themes and issues by connecting them to their personal life
experiences. It is influenced by both cultural model and the language
model where the focus is on the particular use of language in a text in a
specific cultural context.

1
These models for teaching literature have been incorporated in various
approaches, as shown below.

2.3. Approaches in teaching literature

What is then an approach? An approach, according to Anthony (1963), was
“a set of assumptions dealing with the nature of language, learning and
teaching”. Brown (2001) defines approach as “theoretically well-informed
positions and beliefs about the nature of language, the nature of language
learning and the applicability of both to pedagogical settings”. Based on the
definitions above, it is clear that an approach will influence teaching
strategies. There are many approaches that can be employed to teach
literature to below average group such as the information-based approach,
language-based approach, personal response approach, paraphrastic
approach and moral-philosophical approach. Stylistic approach is excluded in
this research as learners require a degree of language competence even
before they participate in learning using the approach and therefore it is
more likely to cater for intermediate and advance learners and not
applicable for less proficient group.

2.3.1. Language-based approach

This approach is closely related to the Language Model presented by Carter
and Long (1991) where literary texts are seen as means to helping students’
improve language proficiency. This is done by providing them exposure to
the target language and connecting them to specific vocabulary and other
aspects of the language. A. Maley and Duff (1990) insist that the primary aim
of this approach is “quite simply to use literary texts as a resource for
stimulating language activities”. With the use of language-based
approaches, the focus shifted to the learner, the reading process and
creating language awareness in the learners (Too Wei Keong 2007). In
line with this approach, a language-based framework for reading literary
texts is proposed by McRae (1991) and McRae and Vethamani (1999) which
moves from lexis (vocabulary), syntax (sentences) to coherence (discourse).
It also focuses on phonology (sounds), graphology (visual effect of the text),
semantics (meaning), dialect (variations of standard English), register (tone),
period (archaisms) and function (message in the text).
 Guide students to infer meanings from clues in the text
 Guide students to read between lines
 Asking students to make predictions about what will happen next at
key points of a story
 Guide students to express opinion towards a text
 Set simple language activities in literature lesson
 Generate language practice using the text

2
  Use literary texts solely for small ‘l’.

2.3.2. Paraphrastic approach

This approach deals with the surface meaning of the text (Diana Hwang &
Amin Embi 2007). Rosli (1995) asserts that it allows teachers to use simpler
words and sentence structures compared to the more complicated ones in
the texts and sometimes the teacher can translate it into other languages.
He argued further that this approach is suitable for beginners of the target
language as it acts as a stepping stone in formulating original assumptions of
the author’s work.
 Provide a written paraphrased version as a complementary reading
text
 Teach solely using a paraphrased version of the text
 Guide students to paraphrase the text
 Explain figurative and ambiguous language used in simple words
 Use simple terms to explain what the story is about to students
 Re-tell the text to students to help them understand

2.3.3. Information-based approach

This is an approach that demands a large input from the teacher and it is
closely related to the term Literature with a big ‘L’ proposed by McRae
(1991). It describes the study of literature as “aesthetically patterned artifact
endowed with the knowledge potentials philosophy, culture, morality,
and humanities” (Ganakumaran 2007:2). Carter and Long (1991) further
argue that it involves critical concepts, literary conventions and
metalanguage and the students should be able to use such terms and
concepts in talking and writing about literature. This approach is a way of
teaching knowledge about literature where literature is seen as a medium to
offer a source of information to students (Carter 1988).
 Guide students to identify and read informative extracts in the story
 Provide specific details about the literary elements found in the text
 Elicit information from students about the text
 Explain the main content of the text to the class
 Provide students with background information
 Ask questions to check students’ knowledge based on what they have
read

2.3.4. Personal-response approach

This approach is associated with Personal Growth Model proposed by Carter
and Long (1991) as it aims is to elicit personal response and foster
students’ personal development. Hirvela (1996) argues that this
approach focuses on learner’s response to the author’s text. The learners
would respond to what they think are the author’s intentions and what are
the meanings that could be derived from the text. Vethamani (2003) further
argues that although learners are encouraged to explore various textual
meanings, their interpretation must be in tandem with the text. Rosli (1995)

3
claims that this approach motivates and encourages students to read by
making a connection between the themes of the texts studied and their
personal life experiences.

 Guide students to relate the themes to personal experiences

 Ask students to compare the text to any text they have read earlier
 Elicit students’ response to a text
 Encourage students to express feeling towards the issues raised in the
text

2..3.5. Moral-philosophical approach

This is an approach which incorporates moral values across curriculum. The
focus of this approach is to discover moral values while reading a particular
literary text (Diana Hwang & Amin Embi 2007). It seeks to find the
worthiness of moral and philosophical considerations behind one’s reading
(Rosli 1995). Ministry of Education has outlined 17 moral values to be
inculcated among secondary school students such as being independent,
being honest, being grateful, and respecting others.

 Incorporate moral values in the lessons

 Tell students directly the moral values found in the text
 Ask students the values they learn from the text
 Guide students to search moral values from a text
 Raise students’ awareness of values derived from the text.

2..3.6. Stylistics approaches

Stylistics approaches guide students towards a closer understanding and appreciation of
the literary text itself using the combination of linguistic analysis and literary critics
(Lazar, 1993). This means students are taught to see how linguistic forms in a literary text
function in conveying messages to the reader. Lazar (1993) claims there are two objectives of
this approach. Firstly, it enables students to make meaningful interpretations of the text. This
objective allows students to look beyond the surface meaning of the text. Secondly, it helps
to expand students' knowledge and awareness of the language. Lazar (1993) suggests
activities such as getting students to scrutinize a literary text by marking certain linguistic
features, getting students to look at the language features, extracting possible clues
which contribute to the meaning and interpretation of the text (Carter, 1996).