Popular Approaches to the Teaching of English Literature among Students in Selected Malaysian Secondary Schools

The English literature component was incorporated into the English language syllabus in Malaysian secondary schools in 2000. This component incorporates short stories, novels, poems, and drama. The component has attracted interesting discourse amongst researchers, educators, and policymakers who tried to determine the most appropriate approach to the teaching of English literature to achieve positive literature learning outcomes. This study too attempted to identify the most preferred approaches to the teaching of English literature among students in selected secondary schools in Terengganu, Malaysia. Being the first study of this kind in this region, it employed a descriptive survey method with a structured questionnaire as a data-gathering instrument. The data were collected from a sample of 403 students across four different public secondary schools in Terengganu: SMK Kompleks Seberang Takir, SM Sains Sultan Mahmud, SMKA Dato Haji Abbas, and SMK Kompleks Gong Badak. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics via the SPSS statistical software package, version 20.0. The study found the moral-philosophical approach to the teaching of English literature as the most preferred approach amongst the students, followed by the information-based approach and finally the language-based approach. This evidence shows that teachers of English literature incorporate moral values in their lessons. It is envisaged that the findings of this study could be especially useful in the process of curriculum development, particularly in the Malaysian context. Besides, this study could raise teachers’ awareness of their students’ preferences for literature teaching approaches.