Top 10 Tips: Using Literature

Students often find it difficult to engage with reading and writing instruction and practice,
particularly when large, intimidating texts are involved. This is the second in our series of
insight blog posts, aimed at helping teachers to overcome this problem. Here are the Top 10 Tips
for Using Literature, from teacher-trainer Edmund Dudley.
For many English teachers, love of the language and love of English literature go hand in hand. But is it
the same for our students? Sadly, most teenage learners of English do not seem too excited about the
topic of literature, associating it with dusty texts and tedious book reviews. In this article, we will look at
some tips for using literature in simple and motivating ways in the EFL classroom.
1. Do judge a book by its cover!
Having a large collection of graded readers, short stories or novellas in your classroom is a great way to
make literature available to your students, but in itself it does not guarantee that students will be
fighting to get their hands on the titles. Many of them may not even take the trouble to look at the
books. That is the first thing to tackle. Design simple quizzes that get students to make predictions about
a books content based on the cover.
Example: The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The book tells the story of a scientist who discovers that some dinosaurs are
still alive and living in
a) Africa b) Asia c) South America
(Oxford Dominoes / Literature Insight, Insight Pre-Intermediate p.92)
In these activities, the students do not have to read anything - in fact they do
not even have to open the book. You can, of course, get them to look through
the book quickly to find the answer. In any case, by asking them to make a
prediction we can focus their attention on the books available and, with luck,
generate some interest in reading.
2. Make the most of blurbs
The blurb is the text on the back cover of a book. It provides key background information and a summary
of the plot. Activities that get students working with blurbs can be an effective way to continue the
process of generating interest in titles and encouraging students to get the books in their hands even if
they do not actually open them up.

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Again, remember that a successful classroom activity about literature does not have to involve forcing
your students to read books in class. Activities such as reading blurbs and matching them to titles help
the students to practise language while also tempting them to look closer at the titles available in your
class library.
3. Work with short extracts
Sometimes, less is more. Resist the temptation to give reluctant students long passages to read - there is
actually a lot that you can do with a short extract. One simple activity is to show students a single line
from a story they have not read and get them to use their imagination to make sense of the gaps in
meaning. For example, you could take this line from The Railway Children:
Tell him the things are for Peter, the boy who was sorry about the coal, then he will
understand.
The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
(Oxford Dominoes / Literature Insight, Insight Pre-Intermediate p.90)
Who is Peter? What things does he need? Why? What happened with the coal? And who will
understand? Students have not read the book, so they have no way of knowing the answers to these
questions. Instead, encourage them to think creatively. In class, get students working in small groups to
come up with imaginative answers to the questions. Once you have listened to all the suggestions, the
students are likely to be curious about the actual answers contained in the story.
4. Reading for pleasure? Make sure its not too difficult
Be aware of the language level when selecting a text. It is important to make sure that the texts we use
are at an appropriate level and that the activities connected to the text are as engaging as possible.
When it comes to reading for pleasure also known as extensive reading we should make sure that
the language level of the texts we use is below the level the students are actually at. That way, they will
be able to read faster and also focus on the story without having to stop at regular intervals in order to
look up the meaning of new words in a dictionary. By contrast, if the texts we use contain too many new
words or structures then the experience of reading them stops being pleasurable and begins to resemble
hard work.
5. Analysing language? Make the challenge enjoyable
The activity of analysing language can be made more engaging if we use extracts from literature to
introduce the features of language we would like to focus on. For example, the following short extract
from Alices Adventures in Wonderland contains two examples of antimetabole (the repetition of words
in successive clauses, but in transposed order). Ask students to read the text and identify the two
examples:
Then you must say what you mean, the March Hare said.
I do, Alice said quickly. Well, I mean what I say. And thats the same thing, you know.
No it isnt! said the Hatter. Listen to this. I see what I eat means one thing, but I eat what I see
means something very different.
Alices Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
(Oxford Dominoes / Literature Insight, Insight Pre-Intermediate p.87)
Ask students to explain the difference in meaning between say what you mean and mean what you say,
and between see what you eat and eat what you see. They can provide a spoken explanation, put

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something down in writing, or even demonstrate the difference by drawing pictures. As a follow-up,
collect further examples of antimetabole on the board or on a specially made poster, complete with
illustrations.
Note that although in this lesson we are focusing students attention on the language and how it works,
by the end of the class you might find yourself with some students who are suddenly more interested in
finding out more about Alice
6. Exploit audio and video
Using literature in class does not always have to involve reading. Exploiting adaptations of literary
classics on DVD or listening to extracts from audiobooks can be more motivating than working with texts
only, especially if your students have negative associations with reading as an activity.
Alternatively, consider combining text and video in the same activity. For example, choose a short
extract (max 2 min) from the DVD version of a work of literature, making sure it contains no dialogue.
Play it to the class and ask them to describe what is happening and what they think is going to happen
next. Then provide a gapped text from the book which corresponds to the scene the students have just
watched. See if they can fill the gaps with an appropriate word. In each case, there can be more than one
acceptable answer for any one gap.
7. Get in the act
Experiment with different ways of responding to an extract, text or clip. For example, why not encourage
students to perform a mini-drama or re-enactment of the scene you have been studying? Drama
activities can be extremely motivating for students, especially if a variety of roles are made available
which exploit the strengths and skills of different students. For example, not everyone has to be an actor;
some students might prefer to work on the script, to design scenery illustrations, or to be the director.
You could even make a movie. These days, we do not need expensive camera equipment and the help of
technicians in order to shoot film many students have smartphones, which they can be encouraged to
use in order to film performances. Upload the results to YouTube or a private data sharing site, and
enjoy.
8. Encourage students to write creatively
Does this sound too ambitious an aim? Well, if we ask our students each to write an entire short story in
English, then perhaps it might be. On the other hand, a simple activity like Write the first line works
extremely well in class as an initial creative-writing task. Here is how it works:
Show the students the cover of a book and elicit some information about its plot, perhaps by using quiz
questions (see tip 1). Do not let students open the book. Ask everyone in the group to imagine how they
think the story begins. Provide them each with a slip of paper and ask them to write their opening
sentence. Meanwhile, write the actual opening line on another slip of paper.
When the students are ready, collect all the slips of paper, mix them up and read them out one by one.
Students vote for which opening sentence they think is the best. The most gratifying feature of this
activity is that the real first line is rarely the one that gets the most votes. In this way, students gain a
lot of confidence, which can be further harnessed in subsequent creative-writing activities.

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9. Get them talking

When we work with texts there is always a temptation to focus too much on comprehension; in
extension activities, however, we need to make sure that we fire up students imagination as well.
Design follow-up activities based on open-ended prompts. Aim to get students working together and
give them plenty of scope to express their thoughts and opinions.
Try simple speaking activities which explore the possible opinions and motives of characters in the story
you are looking at. Interviews, fishbowl debates and empty chair activities can all motivate students to
get involved and express their ideas, while also activating the language explored in the text. In the case
of The Railway Children, for example (tip 3), the question Was Peter right to steal the coal? could be the
starting point for a whole-group follow-up speaking activity using one of these techniques.
10. Make the most of art, illustrations and drawings
The illustrations contained in graded readers can be shown to students before reading as a way of
generating interest in what happens. Encourage students to make speculations based on the illustrations
and, if several illustrations from the same book are being used, invite students to order them and explain
the possible chain of events.
Alternatively, get the students to respond to a text by creating artwork and illustrations of their own. For
example, ask students to listen to an extract from the audio version of a story and get them each to
sketch what is being described. Or you could ask students to design a poster for a film-version of the
book, based on a striking incident in the text they have been working with.
In conclusion
As we have seen, bringing literature into the EFL classroom does not necessarily mean dull and difficult
lessons. Nor does it guarantee that students will be motivated and engaged. We need to choose texts,
topics and tasks carefully, bearing in mind our students language level, needs and interests. Most of all,
we should be careful about overdoing it: often the best way of raising interest in literature is leaving
students wanting a little bit more.

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