Challenges in Teaching Literature

1. ASUNTHA A/P AMALANATHAN (760910065252)
BIS 6014 (CLASSROOM TASK – ARTICLE REVIEW)
Title : Challenges in Teaching Language and Literature: An EFL Perspective
“Challenges in Teaching Language and Literature: An EFL Perspective” is an article
published in IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science in the Volume 15, (Sept-Nov
2013) issue. This article was written by Bh.V.N. Lakshmi. The author of this article provides
a preparatory glance for those who wish to see their career prosperity in the Arab world.
The purpose of this article is to investigate current challenges facing by Arabic
students as well as teachers in Arab. The study emphasises on upgrading traditional methods
with current technology and designing innovative practices that can cater to diverse academic
standards of student.
Based on her experiences, the author stated that Arabic students many challenges in
learning English. The challenges can be summarised as linguistic and cultural differences,
lack of understanding of the curriculum, lack of motivation, religious and lifestyle differences
and negative stereotypes. To overcome the challenges the author used Rich Felder’s Effective
Teaching Method to make EFL learning more interesting and enjoying.
According to Richard Felder, he gave emphasis on Learning styles, Teaching styles,
Bloom‟s Taxonomy and In-class activities such as minute-paper, think-pair share,
cooperative note-taking etc to make the teaching more effective. He also mentioned that
identifying the learning styles of the students can help structuring the teaching process.
Adapting to the learning styles the author also modify her teaching styles suggested by Rich
Felder for effective organization of course work. She also sets her educational objectives
based on Blooms Taxonomy. Apart from that, the author also utilizes ICT resources and
multi-media technologies in blending various pedagogies from traditional approach to
modern innovative approaches in her teaching. All these approaches helped the author to
design her own material, lesson plan, hand outs, assignments and in-class activities
effectively which provide improvement in her students.

2. Overall this article is well written with an important message to the teachers. In my
opinion the teacher should be proactive in adopting more effective approach in teaching
literature. The role of a language teacher is primarily important in motivating the students’ to
reach their objectives. They should take into consideration individual differences and adopt
modern techniques that enhance students’ participation and interaction. Cultural similarities
and differences should also give concern to bridge the gap between local culture and English.
This will help to foster a positive attitude towards the literary work being studied and English
literature in general.