A Janus Faced Approach to Language Teaching and Literature

Authors

  • Dr. G.A. Ghanshyam Professor of English, Govt. M. L. S. College, Bilaspur (C.G.)

Abstract

A debate often raises its head amongst teachers of English, teaching literature and language. There are some teachers, who claim the superiority of teaching English literature, leaving the monotonous and lesser important work of teaching the language to newly recruited teachers or lesser experienced ones. The task of teaching English language at the primary school level is often relegated to teachers of other subjects having an English medium background. It seems there is a general consensus as to which is more important and which is secondary. What we fail to understand and notice is the complementary nature of both: without a proper expertise over the language one cannot fully comprehend or appreciate literature and without the help of literature there would be a dearth of matter to teach the language. In fact English language teaching and teaching of English literature are two sides of the same coin: Janus faced, but not contradictory

References

Barbetti, Victor & Breant Dean Robbins “What is Janus Head?” www.janushead.org. Accessed on 21.04.2014.

Subbulakshmi, T.V. “Relevance of Literature in Language Classroom with Special Reference to Teaching/Learning Drama” JELT. 49/2. Mar- Apr (2011): 3-8.

Vijay, Patil Ujwala. “Teaching Poetry” JELT. 48/2. Mar- Apr (2010): 31-35.

Porselvi, P. Mary Vidya. “Recovering Folk Cornucopia: Folktale in the English Classroom” JELT. 50/2. Mar- Apr (2012): 7-13.

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Published

01.07.2014

How to Cite

G.A. Ghanshyam. (2014). A Janus Faced Approach to Language Teaching and Literature. Journal of Teaching and Research in English Literature, 6(1), 17–21. Retrieved from https://journals.eltai.in/index.php/jtrel/article/view/JTREL060104

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2014): July

Section

Research Articles

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