Relevance of Teaching English Literature in the Compulsory English course at Secondary Level

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out attitudesof students and teachers ofthe secondary level towards Teaching English Literature and the relevance ofliterary genres in the Compulsory Englishcourse at the secondary level. Tengovernment schoolswere selected for the study.The researcherused the surveymethod for the study and two sets of questionnaires consisting of only closedendedquestionsfor the students but both closed ended and open endedquestions for teachers. Most of the closed ended questions were to be answeredon a five point likert scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree.Where open ended questions required teachers’ brief opinions.The researcherthen met 80 students and 10 teachers in the selected schools and distributed thequestionnaires to them on the basis of judgmental selection. While analyzingthe data, for each response of the teachers and students has been counted andchanged into percentage.The researcherfound that the students were verymuch interested and motivated with the literature especially short stories anddramas but present compulsory English course has included very limitednumber of literary genresandlanguage of the texts is difficult to understand.They viewed that the numbers of literary genres should be increased. This study consists of four chapters. Chapteronedeals with generalbackground, review ofthe related literature,objectives of the study andsignificance of the study.Chapter twoconsists of the methodology adopted tocarry out the research. This chapter consists of sources of the data, populationof the study, sample population, tools for data collection, process of the datacollection and the limitation of the study.Chapterthreedeals with the analysisand the interpretation of the collecteddata.Chapterfourdeals with the findingsand recommendations of the study.