A Quest For Literature In Elt Coursebooks

The mission of literature in ELT has undergone a change for the last century. Once both a vehicle and an aim for teaching foreign language, literature now seems to remain out of center. Although it has various benefits for language learners, it reaches language classes only when the teacher is willing to make use of it, which is suggested by the studies conducted on teaching literature (Ross, 1991; Timuçin, 2001; Wang, 2009). Following the language teacher, coursebooks are the second primary input source in a classroom. In other words, if a teacher is reluctant to use literary texts in the lesson, the coursebook is the only provider for literature to be benefited. Therefore, this study aims at exploring to what extent literary texts and literary elements are used in ELT coursebooks. ELT coursebooks used in the preparatory schools of state universities in Ankara were analyzed for literary texts and elements. In addition, two ELT coursebook series which were published in the last 20 years and are not used anymore were analyzed in order to see whether ELT coursebooks differ with regard to the quantity of literary texts and elements in the last 20 years. In total, 22 coursebooks from different levels were analyzed. The finding reveals that ELT coursebooks contain bits and pieces of literature and there has been decrease in the number of literary texts in the currently used coursebooks.


Introduction
The role of literature has shown varieties in the history of language teaching.It was not only a main tool, but also the mere purpose of teaching language when the Grammar-Translation Method was the ultimate way of teaching language.But with the breakthrough of the Communicative Language Teaching, literature was discharged from its previous functions as Widdowson also states it was "purged from the programme" (1985, p. 180) and became an eccentric source which was not used as frequently as it was.However, as Paran points, "glimmers of hope appeared" in the late 1980s and early 90s (2006, p. 1).Literature again turned into one of the most hot-debated topics in ELT field.As reported in Paran (2006), numerous publications including academic papers, methodology handbooks, resource books, textbook for learners and articles came into existence.However, the interest in literature seems to be lost in the last decade.
Although there exist a few arguments against the use of literature in ELT (Tümer, 2010) such as literature does not serve to learners' needs since it has complex and deviant syntactic structures and lexical items; studying literature requires certain cultural elements, which hinders learners from totally understanding the text (McKay, 1982); literature inherently reserves innumerable benefits for EFL classes.To begin with literature is authentic, which enables foreign language learners to deal with language, themes, texts addressed to native speakers (Collie & Slater, 1987).It is motivating, bringing up interesting issues, very humane topics to be discussed and creating a meaningful context for teaching any subject (Khatib, Rezai & Derekshan, 2011).
Nothing can be a more helpful resource for extensive reading than literature as it offers plentiful texts to be read, analyzed and reflected on.Literature provides learners with cultural background which is necessary for understanding any text written in the target language.
Literature is perhaps one of the best sources for storing opportunities to do any kind of activities in L2 learning process towards language acquisition, varying from grammar practice to lexical activities, from improving interpretive abilities to promoting discussion questions.What is more, it expands learners' language awareness by exposing them to sophisticated use of language which is rare to be found somewhere else, thereby; it drives them to reflect on language use (Lazar, 1993).At last but not least, literature enables personal development for learners, encouraging them to reflect on their own feeling, experiences and ideas as well as engaging them in activities which require them to use their imagination and creativity.
Despite its aforementioned advantages, literature becomes a subsequent resource following coursebooks.In other words, use of literature in language teaching is dependent on teachers or instructors' preference; it requires an extra effort and time to bring literature into classrooms.That's why there are methodology handbooks and resource books in order to guide willing language teachers how to integrate literature into teaching (Collie & Slater, 1987;McRae, 1991;Lazar, 1993).In a similar way, the majority of the studies conducted on literature teaching are generally about how a language teacher has implemented literature-integrated language teaching.(Ross, 1991;Timuçin, 2001;Wang, 2009).What is more, there is a book, a collection of published articles, each of which is report of a case study, explaining, when, where, and how the implementation takes place (Paran, ed., 2006).The reason why the researcher refers to this book is that each study is a case study, which suggests that studies about literature in ELT are contextually-bounded, whose results cannot be generalized to other contexts as literature implementation does not take place frequently.The rest of the studies are about what students or teachers think about the role of literature in ELT (Hirvela & Boyle, 1988;Küçükoğlu & Arıkan, 2011;Kırkgöz, 2012).However, formal teaching in EFL classroom does not only engage teachers and learners but also coursebooks which have multi-functions in a language classroom.As a basic resource for both teachers and learners, a coursebook is "a map which shows where one is going and where one has been.It provides language sample and offers variety" (McGrath, 2006, p.10).In other words, coursebooks provide great convenience to teachers by guiding them how and what to teach, reducing the preparation time, forming a basis for evaluation of teaching process, they have utmost significance in EFL context (Yıldırım, 2012: p.140).Therefore, it is impossible not to refer to coursebooks when it comes to the role of literature in EFL classrooms.
There are a limited number of studies conducted on how much space textbooks allocate for literature.Gilroy & Parkinson (1996) analyzed a few methodology and stylistics books for teachers and textbooks for learners.They found that in many countries the EFL textbooks are still bunches of literary texts.In Turkish context, only one study was found.Yıldırım (2012) investigated what sorts of literary references are used in the reading texts in ELT coursebooks and whether there is a difference between elementary and upper-intermediate levels of ELT books in terms of literary elements.He searched six coursebooks in total, one elementary one upper intermediate book from the same series.He found that the use of literature is not only uncommon but also limited to upper-intermediate levels, implying that literature is not used in ELT coursebooks.
Giving the importance of coursebooks in ELT context and as without touching upon the coursebooks it would be hard to seek for the role of literature in ELT, the present study will try to find preliminary answers to these following questions: 1-) To what extent are literary texts used in ELT coursebooks? 1. a) Among novels, stories, poems and plays, which literary genre is mostly allocated in ELT coursebooks?1.b) Apart from literary texts, are there any literary references in ELT coursebooks such as references to writers, characters, novels, poems or quotations by literary figures?
2) Do ELT coursebooks differ with regard to the quantity of literary texts and literary references they contain in the last 20 years?

Methodology
The present study is descriptive in design and is based on a quantitative analysis of the literary texts and references in ELT coursebooks used in the preparatory schools of state universities in Ankara and in two different ELT coursebooks which were published in the last 20 years and are not employed anymore.The method particularly adopted is content analysis.Content analysis is defined as "a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from texts (or other meaningful matter) to the contexts of their use.It provides new insights and understanding of particular phenomena" (Krippendroff, 2004, p. 18).Within the context of this study, through content analysis 22 ELT coursebooks in total were analyzed in terms of the number they include literary texts and literary references namely, quotations by literary figures, references to literary works, characters and writers.
The following table includes information about the books used in this study: In other words, the books which are not studied in the universities are not widely available in Turkish markets.Headway series is only composed of three books and as for Opportunities, the books in the list above are the top level books of the series which means that there is no advanced level book.Thus, comparison Opportunities with Headway will be based on the fact that the books of the series in this study are linguistically the most developed ones.

Data Gathering-Analysis Process:
In the first step of data gathering process, each book is analyzed page by page and the numbers of literary texts are counted.The numbers of reading passages under "Reading" title and reading passages under the title of "Speaking", "Writing", "Listening", "Grammar" are also computed.Then literary texts in the books are categorized according to the major literary genres: novel, story, play and poem.Extracts from informative books like travel books; biographicalautobiographical books or descriptive books like dictionaries are not concern of this study.When the numbers of the literary texts are transformed into the percentage, the number of reading passages in the reading part will be the basis for Success, Language Leader and New English File as the literary texts are present only in this part.However, for Headway-Advanced and Opportunities series, reading passages in the other part, writing, speaking etc. will be taken into account as some of the literary texts are present in these parts.
In the second step, every book is read line by line in order to investigate whether there are any components related to literature.During the investigation, 4 components are determined, namely quotations, references to writers, literary works under 4 afore-mentioned categories and characters from the literary works.Quotations only uttered by literary figures, poets, novelists etc., are taken into consideration.
Numerical data for one book will be compared with the other books in the same series.
As for the changes in the quantity of literary texts and references in the course of time, three Leader will be chosen for comparison as these books are the highest-rank books of this series.

Findings and Discussions
The result of Success Series from Ankara University is presented first.Among the books that are studied in the preparatory schools of universities, Language Leader is the one series that has the greatest number of literary references although it has very few literary texts.Elementary book includes 4 quotations, 4 references to novels, resulting in 8 literary references in total.At the pre-intermediate level, 5 quotations and one reference to a novelist are regarded as literary references, which means 6 references in total.Intermediate book has one reference to a novel and 2 quotations.Upper-intermediate book is composed of 17 references to various writers, one reference to a novel and 4 quotations in terms of literary references.One thing that should be highlighted is that 3 out of 4 quotations are taken from novels.Advanced book includes one reference to a novel, 4 references to writers, one reference to a character and 7 quotations.Literary references in New English File series follow a similar path with other books since there are no quotations, no references to characters.Furthermore, there is no track of references to stories, plays and poems.Elementary book includes 3 references to novels and 3 references to writers.Pre-intermediate book has one reference to novel and two biographical references to literary figures.At intermediate level, 4 references to novels and 3 references to writers are observed as literary references.Upper-intermediate book is no exception and there are two references alone, one to a novel and the other one to a writer.When it comes to the findings of the books that are not studied anymore, there is an increase in the number of literary texts and for Opportunities in the number of literary references.Pre-intermediate book has 6 literary texts out of 32 reading passages (18.7%).However, only one literary text is an extract from a novel.Summaries of 4 literary works; 3 novels, 1 poem, are used in this book.An adapted version of a short story also exists.At intermediate level, 7 texts out of 43 are regarded as literary (16%).One extract from a novel, one adapted version of a novel, 2 summaries of novels, one summary of a poem and two summaries of short stories comprise literary texts in this book.Upper-intermediate level book has 12 literary texts out of 55 reading passages (21.8%).5 extracts from poems, one extract from a novel, an adapted version of a novel and one adapted version of a story, 3 summaries of novels and one summary of a story are literary texts in this book.
Pre-intermediate book includes 14 literary references, namely, 4 quotations, one reference to a novel, one reference to a play and 8 biographical references.At intermediate level, 4 quotations, one reference to a novel and 31 references to writers are found as literary references.
Upper-intermediate book contains 7 quotations, 23 references to writers.(1996).Only in Success series, at elementary level one literary work is present.This finding also supports the concern addressed to teaching language at lower levels, which claims that lower level students do not have necessary "ability to generate valid interpretations of a text" (Lazar 1994, p. 115) Ten literary texts are detected in the 4 series and 8 out of 10 works are taken from novels, 2 from short stories.There is no place for plays and poems in these books.Based on this fact, it can be said that the book writers may also agree with Killander who states that "Indeed, teaching poetry within FLT is a challenge" (2011, p. 5618).Furthermore, the results also support Brindley's view that as poetry has lots of elliptical, metaphorical and allusive language, it has nothing much to offer for an EFL learner (1980).
while Language Leader has the fewest number of literary text.In Headway and Opportunities, there is a linear progression in the numbers of literary text.In other words, as the level goes up, the numbers of the literary texts also go up.However, this kind of a progression is not found in Language Leader nor in New English File and Success.Furthermore, the number of literary texts goes down while the level goes up in Language Leader; that is to say, the upper-intermediate book has 2 literary texts while advanced book has only one.What is more, a diminishment in the diversity of genres has also been noticed.While in Headway extracts from four genres can be found, Opportunities rules out plays and Language Leader gives only place to novels.
Literary references in Headway take a very small space in comparison to literary texts.
Both Opportunities and Language Leader outweigh Headway in terms of numbers of references.
The reason why Opportunities has such a huge quantity of literary references is that at the end of the books, there are literature spots which give summaries of literary works and introduce the development of genre to which the literary work belongs by giving references to numerous writers.In addition, there are quotations at the end of each unit like in Language Leader.Stories and poems do not find themselves a place in the references across three series.
In general, the coursebooks include a great number of reading passages, varying from 20s (Headway) to 70s (Language Leader) including reading passages incorporated with other skills part.However, the quantity of literary texts among these passages is very limited.Most of the passages are generally in the form of articles taken from newspapers or internet which inform learners about the latest developments in various areas such as technology, medicine, fashion.In terms of authenticity, they are equal to literary texts (McGrath, 2006).On the other hand, the use of language in articles is not representational but referential, aim of which is to report and describe the experiences (McRea, 1991).However, the language of literary texts is representational, which enables readers to re-create the experiences by using their imagination and creativity (Widdowson, 1992;Rosenkjar, 2006).Thus, exposing learners to a great amount of referential language instead of representational language in ELT coursebooks may not give them enough chances to use their imagination and creativity.
ELT coursebooks are inherently full of cultural elements of the target language.It could be either British or American culture depending on where they are published.The cultures of the learners as well as different countries are also present to some extent.A lot of diverse cultural topics are frequently presented such as how the educational system of Britain is, what kinds of foods are popular, how the law system works in Britain etc.However, the cultural component which is related to language more than anything, literature is scarcely used as a source for language teaching in ELT coursebooks.This fact particularly becomes more visible in the recently published books.Usage of limited numbers of literary texts and literary references makes learners deprived of benefits of literature, especially engaging learners' imagination and creativity.As it is a universally-known fact that teachers are supposed to cover the syllabus they are assigned, they may not have chance and time to bring extra materials to language classes so literary texts in the coursebooks might be the only literature language learners are exposed to in language classrooms.

Conclusion
Analysis of 22 ELT coursebooks from different levels and different series illustrates that literary texts and references are not used as frequent as Gilroy & Parkinson (1996) suggested.
Besides, there is a limited space for literature among many possible chances to make use of it, which makes literature a "peripheral instrument to improve reading skills" (Yıldırım, 2012: p.147).Despite numerous advantages of using literature in language teaching, it seems that the book writers do not prefer to utilize it.Therefore, teachers and instructors in material development units are left with a huge duty to supply learners with literary texts which will function as a way of extending reading, encourage learners to use their imagination and creativity unlike referential texts in the coursebooks.
The researcher tried to include as many coursebooks as possible.However, the numbers of the series for the out-dated books may not be sufficient enough to make generalization.Thus, a replicable study can be done with a larger number of books.In addition, a further study can be duplicated, with a questionnaire or interview with instructors investigating whether they bring literary texts to classrooms as a supplementary source for teaching.
books which were published within a ten-year interval, namely Headway published in 1991, Opportunities published in 2001 and Language Leader published in 2011 were compared among themselves.Data from three books, intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced of Language

Table 1 : ELT coursebooks used in the present study Name of the Book
Among the book series that are listed above, Success is used in Ankara University, English Limited in Gazi University, Language Leader in Middle East Technical University and Yıldırım Beyazıt University and New English File in Hacettepe University for the 2012-2013 academic year.Headway and Opportunities are chosen to be analyzed since these books are the only ones the researcher has as outdated books.The number of the books in each series shows varieties as the researcher was able to find only those books which are studied in the institutions.

Table2: Reading Texts and Literary Texts in Success Series
As can be seen in Table2, at the elementary level there is only one literary text, in the form of 3 extracts from a novel among 24 reading passages, corresponding to 4% of the reading passages.However, in pre-intermediate level book, there exists no literary text among 32 reading passages.Intermediate book contains 2 different literary texts out of 32 (6%) reading passages.First one is a long extract from a novel; second one is also a long extract from not a novel but a short story.Upper-Intermediate book includes two literary texts from two novels among 27 reading passages (7%).These texts are composed of two long extracts from the novels.

Table 3 : Literary References in Success Series
As for literary references, elementary book includes only one biographical reference which can be counted as literary references in the whole book.Pre-Intermediate book contains 7 literary references; 2 quotations, 1 reference to a poem, 4 biographical references to novelists.At intermediate level, 4 quotations were detected and as a difference from the previous books, there exists a reference to a character from a novel, namely Charles Dickens' hero Mr. Pickwick fromThe Pickwick Papers (p.113).Therefore, in total there are 5 references.On the other hand, the number of references goes up in upper-intermediate book, resulting in 12 references.They are composed of 6 quotations, 5 references to novelists.English Unlimited of Gazi University is the one series that has no literary texts in its different level books.Unsurprisingly, it contains very limited number of literary references unlike its name suggests.Elementary book includes 2 references, one reference to a novel and one reference to a poet.In pre-intermediate level book, only one reference to a novel is noticed.Similarly, intermediate book has just one reference to a novelist.

Table 7 : Literary References in Language Leader Series
New English File of Hacettepe University bears resemblance to other series in terms of lack of literary texts at elementary and pre-intermediate level.Intermediate book includes one literary text, a short story without its final paragraph.

Table 13 : Literary References in Opportunities Series
On the basis of ELT coursebook analysis, it can be understood that bits and pieces of literature exist in currently-used ELT coursebooks.Literary texts are not preferred as reading passages in spite of numerous benefits they have as stated in the literature review part.Among the four series, Success has the maximum number of literary works in its reading part with 5 literary texts.English Unlimited has no literary text at all at elementary, pre-intermediate and intermediate level.As upper-intermediate and advanced level books are not available to the researcher, the results are only applicable to these books.This fact must be stated since at elementary, pre-intermediate and intermediate level, Language Leader series has no literary text either.However, in upper-intermediate and advanced level books, literary texts are present, but not so numerous.New English File is also likewise Language Leader.At elementary level and pre-intermediate level, there are no literary texts and only one literary work has found itself a place in intermediate book as well as in upper-intermediate book.While these findings are compatible with Yıldırım's result, suggesting "the use of literature is both rare and restricted to upper-intermediate level" (2012, p.147); they do not support Gilroy & Parkinson's findings