Teaching of ESL through Literature

Introduction
Language is the blood of every culture, tradition and society. It plays a vital role in establishing social relations through effective communication and interactions and provides identity in a society. The absence of this can be felt only by the people with speech or hearing disabilities who participate but only partially in social interactions. In India, we have English as a common language that bridges this gap.

The Indian government has framed curricula to include and teach English from primary level onwards but a few states are still reluctant to adopt English at primary level. Other states have introduced the teaching of English at all levels. In order to facilitate easy learning and comprehension, literatures related to people and societies can be used to teach English.
Therefore, the author theoretically examines, in the Indian context, the place of literature in the teaching and understanding of English as a second language. The conceptual issues related to learning ESL, an overview of the problems of learning of English language in India, learning English language through literature andthe benefits of using literature to teach English are discussed in the consequent paragraphs.

Conceptual Issues
To be able to learn and understand, we basically have two concepts — the concept of language and literature. In order to have a clear understanding, let us know the few definitions. Language generally is defined as a system of communication by written or spoken words, which is used by the people of a particular country or area. There are different types of languages, which include first language (mother tongue), second language, body language, modern language, etc. But in this article, the point of study islearning...

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...e in the students.

Works Cited

Adesuyi, V A, 1991. Relationship between students’ exposure to English Literature and Performance WASC English Language among secondary students in Ondo state.An unpublished M.A. Thesis, University Of Nigeria.

Corbin, F, 1996. Poetry and Hard Fact. College English 27 (5), 341-346.

Lado, R, 1964. Language Teaching: A Scientific Approach. McGraw-Hill-Inc. Ist Edition. Library of Congress, New York, pp. 239.

Onukaogu, C.E. 1999. Effective and Efficient ESL and Nigeria Mother Tongue Literacy Lierature: Can English be a Catalyst? Language Culture and Curriculum, 12(2), 143-155.

Sivasubramaniam S, 2006. Promoting the prevalence of Literature in the practice of foreign and second language Education: Issues and insights in English Language Teaching and research articles. Asian EFL J, 8(4):11. http://www.asian-efl-journal.com./Dec 2006.