An Investigation Of Efl Teachers’ And Students’ Attitudes Towards Using Literary Texts In Efl Classrooms: Gechi Preparatory School In Focus

Abstract

In this study, an attempt was made to investigate the attitude of EFL teachers and students towards using literary texts in EFL classrooms particularly in Gechi preparatory shool. To conduct the study, descriptive survey design, mixed research method was employed. The Data for this study was collected by using questionnaire, interview and observation as the major instruments. In line with this, the study involved four teachers selected purposively and 60 students from both grade 11 and 12 who were selected by using simple random sampling method to be the participants of the study. From these participants 60 students responded to the questionnaire, 4 classes were observed and all of the four teachers were selected purposively and 10 students were selected voluntarily to participate in the interview. Then, after the required data for the study was collected by using questionnaire, interview and classroom observation, descriptive statistics using frequencies, percentages, mean and grand mean were employed in analyzing the quantitative data and the qualitative data were analyzed qualitatively. The overall findings of the study indicated that both teachers and students which were selected for being as the populations of the study had a positive as well as negative attitude towards using literary texts in EFL context even if the degree of positive attitude is high to some extent. Meaning as it was indicated in the analysis and interpretations of the data gained by using the three data gathering tools, there are some students and teachers who had a negative attitude about using literary texts. However, as it was stated in the findings of this study, the majority of the students and teachers explained their ideas as literary texts are the crucial element in EFL classroom even if both teachers and students were not good in using these texts properly due to different challenges such as unfamiliar culture, in appropriate literary texts which has been used on their textbook, lack of training for teachers on how to use literary texts after and before they graduated their first degree, exclusion of literary texts in preparing different exam papers, lack of good classroom management system during the literary lesson and lack preparing brainstorming activities which can motivate students before the engaging them to use the literary texts. Finally, recommendations were forwarded based on the major findings so as to minimize problems encountered and maximize the implementation of literary texts in EFL classroom. This means the concerned bodies should create suitable conditions, which are essential for the implementation of literary texts in EFL classroom.