Teaching English through literature

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How will the course help you?

By the end of Teaching English through literature, you'll be able to:

• identify how literary texts can be used to present language and develop reading, listening, writing and speaking skills in an engaging way
• use literature to develop your learners' reading and listening (receptive) skills
• use literature to develop your learners' speaking and writing (productive) skills.

What resources can you access any time?

• A free workbook with extra learning content and resources connected to the course contents
• A dedicated Facebook community of course participants with up-to-date insight, resources and innovative teaching ideas for you to try out (Facebook account required)
• Learning content related to our courses on Facebook and YouTube
• Live events and recordings with course tutors and language teaching experts on Facebook and YouTube
• Sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date on when our courses open.

What are the self-study modules?

Module 1 – Foundations of teaching English through literature

The aim of this module is to demonstrate how literary texts can be used to present language and develop reading, listening, writing and speaking, while keeping learners actively engaged and motivated. You will recognise the role of literature in life and in learning a language, apply criteria for selecting appropriate literary texts as well as identify how different language skills are developed through using literature in English classes.

Module 2 – Developing receptive skills through literature

The aim of this module is to demonstrate how to exploit literature to develop receptive skills. In terms of language development, reading and listening are termed as receptive skills, as these processes involve the act of receiving the language. You will recognise the role of literature in developing receptive skills, evaluate how literary texts provide appropriate opportunities to develop listening skills as well as use a list of factors to select appropriate texts for your learners.

Module 3 – Developing productive skills through literature

The aim of this module is to enable you to help learners develop the productive skills of speaking and writing through literary texts. The module includes a wide range of activities to help you enhance your learners' language skills. You will identify different aspects of speaking for responding to literature, use graphic organisers as a strategy for planning writing as well as structure a literature lesson that integrates reading, listening, speaking and writing skills.

Course reviews

What have other teachers said about how Teaching English through literature helped them?

"I introduced some of the literary texts studied on this course to some students and applied the techniques that we learnt as well. For example, pre-reading and post-reading activities or activities to develop critical thinking about the texts. I'm also trying to do some integrated skill activities when approaching a literay text."

Course participant, Brazil

"Taking up this course has strengthened my knowledge that indeed literature can best serve as channel for language learning and teaching."

Course participant, Philippines

"Thanks to this course, I can listen to my students and their preferences about literature, I provide them cultural background before starting each lesson, I guide them, provide them with visual support and help them to guess, identify and anticipate what the stories would be about. They feel more confident when reading stories because their needs are covered."

Course participant, Argentina

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