Literature In Modern Times :: essays research papers

CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION1.0 PresentationFrom the very beginning of human species, literature existed face by side. Human life, in the form of human passions, feelings, loves, sufferings, and human score existed in the literatures. Human legends started with the very infernal region age, recorded in the stone scripts. It was a human need to communicate the past to the future generations. Poetry, as an art form, has been for many centuries praised, contemplated and has continued to affect man. Man has used poem to express love and grief, birth and death, innocence and guilt, heaven and hell in a to a greater extent effective right smart. In order to progress to such(prenominal) a way of expression the poet does not have any other(a) material at his disposal except terminology. However in poetry, this verbiage itself, turns out to be the goal of the poet rather than only an instrument for communication. Her/his way of expressing ideas and emotions summarises the poets craftsmanshi p and creativity. What the poet does is that he/she illustrates and exemplifies how language can be used to achieve the most effective way of expression. Poems deal with universal themes such as love and hate, birth and death, innocence and guilt, heaven and hell, which are familiar to each readers. For this reason, believing in the importance of literature and the contribution of poetry to language article of belief and learning, we have decided to use poetry to act as a means to enrich the language awareness of ELT majors.1.1 Background of the choreUntil the late 60s and early 70s the teaching of literature in foreign and second language classes was an activity whose vindication was assumed to be obvious. Poetry and literature in general became the forgotten man since then, and this can be ascribed to the advent of communicative language teaching. With the devious emphasis of the study of English for practical purposes, technical or otherwise, as well as an emphasis on the sp oken language more than on written language, the role of literary texts in the language classroom and the relationship between language teaching and literature teaching in the EFL context seemed to be totally neglected. Looking through TEFL/ TESL writings in the 70s and 80s, one can find humble about the teaching of literary texts and hardly anything controversial. Although poetry has been the focus of by-line for ages, it has not got its deserved place in English language teaching.