Creative and personal responses to literary texts in ELT

Abstract

While there are many benefits to the use of literary texts in English Language Teaching (Xerri & Xerri Agius, 2012), a teacher-centred approach hampers the process of exploiting such texts for language learning purposes. Effective pedagogy places learners at the centre of the learning process by giving primacy to their creative and personal responses. This is in line with Stevens and McGuinn’s idea (2004) that ‘Perhaps the cardinal rule of effective, adventurous English teaching is to recognise, develop and celebrate what is already there in the classroom’ (p. 6). They maintain that ‘A great part of the skill of teaching English lies in fostering the appropriate culture of the classroom to give credibility to students’ insights and experiences, and in making creative connections with and between them’ (Stevens & McGuinn, 2004, pp. 10-11). When learners are asked to engage with literary texts in the classroom, it is important that their personal response is foregrounded and that creative approaches to such texts are given primacy. Teachers who exert complete control over the generation of meaning inhibit learners from truly engaging with texts.