Teaching English literature in general educational institutions of Ukraine

Abstract

This article deals with the role of authentic children’s literature in foreign language teaching. The acquisition of a foreign language is a long and complex process in which language learners encounter a myriad of teaching methods and strategies. The importance of the study lies in the fact that literature, which is a crucial element of language and culture learning, is relatively neglected in foreign language teaching in schools. The aim of this paper is to explore, analyse and present, based on the scientific literature, the role of authentic literary works in language teaching, highlighting the advantages and at the same time describing the disadvantages and the difficulties encountered so that teachers can better adapt if they wish to use this approach in their own pedagogical repertoire. Literature contributes to a deeper knowledge and acquisition of the target culture and different languages and thus plays an essential role in the process of foreign language learning. Authentic, i. e. original, English-language literature provides teachers with an excellent opportunity to use appropriate language samples and examples to demonstrate real language use. The main purpose of using literature in foreign language classrooms is to promote learners’ overall language skills [5; 6; 17; 21]. Literary texts contain many examples of real-life language that are not found in textbooks. At the same time, literature is often criticised as being inappropriate to learners’ language level, challenging both syntactically and lexically. The literature analysis and its synthesis are presented in detail in the article. This paper also introduces prominent scholars in the field and analyse the latest research on the study of literature in the English classroom in primary and secondary schools. Finally, conclusions are drawn, and the case for further study of the issue is argued.