Teaching Literary Texts through Cultural Model to EFL Students

Abstract

This paper examines how the Cultural Model of teaching literature in the Applied linguistics scenario can adopts a trans-disciplinary approach to teaching of language and skills courses. The premise stated is that it does not focus merely on language learning but also makes an impact on other variables like learners’ autonomy and motivation to learn. In the context of EFL, this study also premises that the Cultural Model assists in enhancing the learners’ autonomy and learners’ motivation as literary texts are directly related to their cultural consciousness. The Cultural Model allows both the teachers and the students to go beyond the lexis and consider the literary aspects of a text as it is culturally closer to their consciousness. A questionnaire (for students) and semi structured interview (for teachers) were designed to study the perception of teachers and students and find the relationship between such variables as Learners’ Autonomy and Learners’ Motivation with Cultural Model of teaching literature. The study carried out multiple linear regression tests on a sample of 120 EFL respondents. The data was analyzed with SPSS 25.0 to ascertain the influence of predictors and dependent variables. Results showed the evidence of significant relationship between Learners’ Autonomy and Learners’ Motivation with Cultural Model of teaching literature. This shows that the Cultural Model of teaching literature acted as a predictor to enhance Learners’ Autonomy and Learners’ Motivation. The study recommends that students should not be passive receivers of the teaching content with undeveloped skills but should build in them autonomy and motivation to read, interpret, evaluate and criticize a literary text. Besides, teachers should also make efforts to make students read literary texts in cultural contexts.