Abstract:

This paper will explore barriers to learning as experienced by Slovak high school and undergraduate students when studying literature in the English language. Courses focused on English Literature make up a mandatory part of some university courses specialising in English, teaching English and translation studies. There is quite a high rate of failure in these courses and students often need to revisit them. Through quantitative and qualitative research with students, this paper aims to uncover the challenges faced by non-native speaker learners when studying literature written in the English language.

Why are literature courses so challenging for a significant amount of students? And what are the reasons behind the challenges they experience? The author has already researched the inclusion of literature in the EFL (English Foreign Language) classroom and curriculum in Slovakia, finding that many teachers do not choose to teach literature in the target language at all. Students therefore arrive at university largely unprepared for reading, interpreting and writing analytically about literary texts. Furthermore, the rather traditional design of literature courses at university (a chronological journey through various literary movements from medieval literature through to the Renaissance, the Restoration, the Romantic period etc. and usually culminating in Modernism and Postmodernism) may make it even harder for students to connect with individual texts because of the heavy emphasis on historical context and the extensive reading lists of mandatory, and often very challenging, texts.

What can be done to make literature courses more appealing, accessible and engaging for students and to raise their attainment in the subject? How can universities instil in trainee teachers of English a positive attitude towards literature and its place in the curriculum? This paper will attempt to answer these questions and to propose some potential changes to university literature courses in order to make them more accessible and student centred.

Keywords:

Literature, EFL, student-centred learning, teaching English, second language learners, teaching literature, barriers to learning.