Traditional and Contemporary English Literature Teaching Methods in a Lebanese EFL academic context: A quasi-experimental study

Abstract

Many university instructors face challenges in literature classes. Students get bored of long hours of teacher-centred lectures, so they sign-in to the on-line class but neither participate actively nor interact. They rarely read the assigned literary texts; instead, they resort to open access study guides and summaries available online. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of integrating Traditional and Contemporary Methods of teaching English literature on the students’ critical thinking skills, academic literary analysis, EFL communicative skills, digital literacy and their attitude to value English Literature. A quasi-experimental research is conducted on two sophomore literature classes (n=30) at a Lebanese university. The adopted theoretical framework is based on: the constructivist cognitive apprenticeship, critical thinking skills, literature teaching methods, and digital literacy skills. Data collection instruments employed in this study are: (a) the students’ formative assessment scores pre, mid and post intervention, (b) the perception of the students (post intervention) and (c) the participation level of the students. Research findings reveal that the students’ formative assessment mean scores shifted from M = 61.8 and SD = 9.3 to M=72.4 and SD = 6.89 post intervention; their (post intervention) perceptions were positive, and their participation level markedly improved. Recommendations and implications for further research are discussed.