TEACHERS AND STUDENTS ON THE ROLE OF FOREIGN LITERATURE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION
TEACHERS AND STUDENTS ON THE ROLE OF FOREIGN LITERATURE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION

Summary/Abstract: At present, the role of literature as a source of social and cultural competence is negligible. Students have other sources of information and impressions thanks to IT. Their world became image-oriented instead of word-oriented. They do not want to read either in Russian or in English and enter a foreign language teaching department with a non-existent level of philological competence. The paper presents the results and discussion of regular anonymous questionnaires among students of Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education. The questions cover various aspects dealing with teaching and learning literature, such as: Do you need the course of English and American literature for your professional training? If you were a teacher how would you present this course? What are your suggestions to lecturers and teachers conducting seminars? What authors from the recommended list did you actually read? In what language did you read the authors from the recommended list? What other English-speaking authors have you read? What kind of books do you prefer (printed, e-books, audio books)? Student answers to these questions helped to see the main obstacles in the way of teaching and the necessity to find new approaches. The paper also discusses various ways and means of developing philological competence (acquisition of cultural codes) practiced in our University: video-club sittings, intensive work with dictionaries of quotations; optional modules in the course of literature such as screen versions of classics; literature in music; famous themes and plots in painting, student projects dedicated to the anniversary of a writer.

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