Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 1,0, Ruhr-University of Bochum (Englisches Seminar), course: Literaturdidaktik, language: English, abstract: "Reading is like an infectious disease: it is caught not taught. And you can't catch it from someone who hasn't got it himself" (Surkamp/Henseler 2).
Although reading is important to develop language skills, the survey PISA 2001 showed that 42% of the German pupils do not think that reading is fun and 31% even think that it is a waste of time. When considering the significance of reading, this is a shocking result. Nevertheless, a reason for this attitude may be the lack of reading motivation among pupils. Developing reading literacy and enjoying reading require the motivation to read. In this context not only the lessons in the mother tongue, but also the teaching of foreign languages must establish this reading motivation and a reading culture.
To prove my thesis, I will first give an overview of reasons for the regained belief that literary texts enrich the teaching of foreign languages and designate arguments for deal-ing with literature in class. In doing so, I will furthermore expose aims and functions of literary texts in the classroom and demonstrate developments and approaches in the teaching of literature. In the following part of my paper, I will have a closer look at the textbook "Cornelsen G21 A6" and its unit "Love Reading" which is about literature and reading. In analyzing this unit, I will examine if the aspects mentioned before have been considered and if the recommended approaches to literary texts have been implemented in this course book. At first the analysis of the unit will refer to its structure, the genres which are introduced and the novel "Looking for Alaska" in particular. Afterwards I will study the tasks set in the unit and methods which were applied. Finally the analysis aims at comparing the learning objectives in the unit to the central standards of the 'Kernlehrplan English'. In the last part of my paper, I will summarize and evaluate my findings as well as discuss the actual significance of literature in the EFL classroom in reference to the fourth unit of Cornelsen G21 A6.
