Teaching EFL Literature in Italian High Schools: A Survey and a Teaching Proposal

Abstract

This thesis attempts to investigate EFL literature teaching in Italian high schools. Our work consists of three parts. Part 1 aims at providing the theoretical framework literature teaching belongs to. Firstly, we focused on the concept and the aims of literary education. Then, we moved on to discuss the pedagogical roles that teachers and students play in the learning process. Lastly, we commented on the main methodological principles currently informing literature teaching. Part 2 is concerned with the research we conducted. In order to collect data, we devised two questionnaires which were administered to a sample of high school students and teachers. Data show that EFL literature appears to be an instrument for both language learning and cultural enrichment. However, EFL literature teaching seems to be primarily concerned with British classics, hingeing upon a traditional historico-chronological approach. Eventually, part 3 puts forward a teaching proposal which we devised in the light of the theoretical framework we discussed in part 1 and the results of the questionnaires we analysed in part 2.