Designing a literature reading course with Task-based language teaching

Abstract

1. INTRODUCTION English has become a significant means for Korean university students who need to obtain official language exam scores, jobs and promotions to higher level of positions in society. Students desire to improve their English proficiency. In addition, reading literature has become one of the most significant trends in Korea and many are drawn to literature and the humanities. Hall (2005) noted the increasing tendency of introducing literature to facilitate language teaching since the latter part of the past century. Paran (2008) suggested this is no longer a trend but has become the norm. For university students, it would be great to have opportunities to learn language by reading literature. Literature can bring positive changes since good stories deal with some aspects of human life and can thus contribute to the emotional development of the child and nurture positive interpersonal and intercultural perspectives (Ghoson, 2002, p.177). Therefore, my textbook is designed to be used for university students in an EFL literature intensive reading class. Masuuhara et al. (2008) note that greater emphasis placed on the listening and speaking components of the textbook “works against EFL learners” (p.299). Such a reality gives rationale to this textbook with its focus on reading; with listening, and speaking, and writing skills integrated under the pre-, during, post- reading framework (Brown, 2007, p. 375).