USING LITERARY TEXTS IN EFL CLASSROOMS: CULTURAL AWARENESS AND VOCABULARY ENRICHMENT

Abstract

This study was conducted to find out the influence of literature on vocabulary and cultural enrichment in EFL classrooms. A qualitative research design was adopted. A literary text was integrated into an EFL class with 19 students who were studying in the English Preparatory School of one of the universities in North Cyprus. After having 8 weeks of teaching (50 minute each lesson), data were collected by interviewing 5 volunteering participant EFL students who were Kazakh, Pakistani, Georgian, Turkish and Turkish Cypriot and 3 EFL teachers who were Turkish and Turkish Cypriot. In order to collect data, semi-structured interviews were carried out with the participants by the researcher. The participants were selected purposively. The findings of the study revealed consistency between the participant EFL students’ and EFL teachers’ perspectives. They all pointed out the benefits of using literary texts in contributing to learners’ cultural awareness and vocabulary enrichment.

Key words: Literature, language teaching, cultural awareness,vocabulary enrichment.

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