Teaching classics to EFL students is teaching them latin

Abstract EN

The present paper entitled ‘Teaching Classics to EFL Students is Teaching them Latin’ is an attempt to redraw the boundaries of literary studies in EFL Departments.

The teaching of literature has always adopted a diachronic approach, i.e.

from the Norman-French period to the Victorian era.

Yet, many of the literary texts studied in the English language curriculum provide outdated contexts and obscure expressions which fall far outside the range of any literary use of language.

In the light of such an assertion, which is actually backed up by many teachers and students alike, we are to deal with the linguistic usefulness and sociolinguistic validity of literary works that were written centuries ago.

That would lead us to say that ‘much water has flowed under the bridge since then’.

This is another way of questioning the place of classic literature in an educational context in which Modern Standard English has imposed itself as the sole medium of instruction and communication between native and non-native speakers of English.

The answer to that question forms the general lay-out of the present paper.