Literature and language education: Exploring teachers’ views on teaching foreign language through literature in bilingual secondary schools in Madrid
(Spain)
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid | Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Abstract
This study explores the perceptions of English language teachers of the use of literature in the context of
bilingual secondary education in the region of Madrid (Spain). An approach was adopted under which eighty-one English teacher
participants completed a questionnaire so that a quantitative methodological approach of a descriptive – correlational nature
could be adopted for this study. Results unveiled teacher perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of using literary texts as a
teaching and learning tool, their selection of literary texts and their actual implementation of these texts in their English
classes, as well as the training needs for the effective use of literary texts as a language teaching and learning tool in the
bilingual EFL secondary classroom. The pedagogical implications of the study emphasize the need to redesign and consolidate
teacher training programmes containing literature and innovative teaching aspects both in initial teacher training programmes and
for continued training.
The present study strives to investigate the use of literature in EFL through the analysis of first-hand experiences shared
by secondary school teachers from the region of Madrid (Spain). We align ourselves with the position that the benefits and drawbacks
of the use of literature in EFL are directly proportional to the quality of the implementation of literature in the EFL classroom.
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