Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

Literature
There is one final matter related to the teaching of English as
a foreign language and reading and that is the place of
literature in the scheme of things. Traditionally one of the
major reasons given for learning English at all has been that
the learner might read Shakespeare in the original. There are
those who might deny the importance of this reason for
learning the language today but it still carries considerable
weight. Clearly learning a language and studying the
literature written in that language are different activities, but
this is not to say that they are unrelated. Much of what has
been written above about reading with understanding, and
appreciating stylistic and tonal differences has clear
relevance to literary study, and is indeed a basic prerequisite
to it. Similarly the ‘best writing’ is clearly a proper object of
study for anyone who wishes to know a language well; the
memorable quality of much good literature must surely be
one of the contributing factors in the foreigner’s building up
of a native speaker—like intuition. Literature does not have
to wait for advanced knowledge of the language, though
clearly some literature is not accessible to the beginning
learner. Even the most elementary learner can derive pleasure
from traditional rhymes and riddles which are fundamental
to a great deal of literary reference, or from linguistically
simple but aesthetically complex poems like Christina
Rossetti’s ‘Who has seen the wind?’ or some of Blake’s

---

Reading
115
‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’. What appears to be
much more important than a solid and extensive knowledge
of the language itself is that students of English literature
should share the cultural assumptions which determine what
kind of a thing it is and what it is for. The conception that
literature is one of the roads to wisdom, that it enriches the
spirit and provides deeper and more significant insights into
the human condition is one that really must be appreciated
before the colourful patchwork of Pickwick Papers or the
dark agonies of King Lear make sense. Conceptions like
these arise out of maturity and that literary sophistication
which grows from knowledge of literature in the mother
tongue as well as in English. Once such conceptions are
gained the linguistic difficulties of reading the literature
become manageable, without them the undertaking involves
Herculean efforts. Once again there is a considerable amount
which has been written on the question of teaching English
literature to foreigners, the English Teaching Information
Centre has a specialist bibliography on it, but probably the
most useful introduction is The Teaching of Literature by
H.L.B.Moody.