<![CDATA[Using literary material for developing language skills has once again achieved much rationale for both L1 and L2 learners in the last two decades. In my paper I would like to explore the possibilities and loopholes of teaching language through literature in Bangladesh at tertiary level by providing a birdâs eye-view of survey into the reality of our language classrooms. Our English language classes follow traditional lecture-based teaching techniques and use almost no literary materials for teaching language. Mostly âreferentialâ materials are taught by Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) method which are exclusively confined to everyday real-life situational use and does not engage learnersâ imaginative faculties. Therefore, in this paper I have tried to demonstrate how literary texts or ârepresentational textsâ can develop English proficiency, foster critical thinking and involve learners in creative language use. I have also critiqued our teaching approaches; student evaluation; irrelevant material selection and rote learning during exam. As a result the gap between language and literature in our academia is widening and hampering adequate language acquisition. Although critical practices like- Literary Theory and Cultural Studies have come to academic forefront and impressive curriculum such as- World Literature in English, Comparative Literature and Applied Linguistics and ELT gained much popularity, learnersâ basic linguistic competence failed considerably. I have tried to recommend ways to solve these problems by bridging the gap between language and literature by introducing language-based teaching approach and integrating language and literature in our English classrooms.
Keywords: representational material, referential material, language-based approach, stylistics, literature with a small âlâ, literary language, imaginative language use, literary and linguistic competence]]>
