Literature as Ideal Material and Rich Source of Lexical Chunks and Recycling of Syntactic structures to Develop Language Skills in ESL/EFL Classroom

Abstract

Literature as teaching material plays a pivotal in EFL/ESL teaching programs. This
article reviews the reasons put forward by scholars and further argues that literature holds a
unique position as teaching material for any aspect of learning language. In the first part it
focuses on authenticity, critical thinking, language skills development, cultural awareness,
sociolinguistic awareness and selection criteria and the classroom method. The second part
argues and demonstrates how literature is the ideal material to explore the lexical chunks, which
repeat and recycle throughout a literary work, leading to their entering the long term memory. It
also argues that literary works are the ideal place to notice variety of well contextualized
grammatical structures repeating and recycling throughout a work and that these structures can
be considered larger lexical chunks.