Teaching literary essays to EFL students

Abstract

Research on L1 Arabic students’ academic writing has indicated a general weakness in organizing their ideas. At the university level, there are certain academic writing genres that are required and which students find difficult to produce. The literary texts of the L1 Arabic students, following a course of study in the medium of English, often lack a purpose, supporting evidence, analysis and interpretation. Studies have indicated that with carefully designed methods and scaffolding, the English as a foreign learner can improve in writing in the target language. Based on the genre approach and Feez’s (1998) five steps, this study gives one method that teachers could use to help students organize and support their ideas in writing the literary essay, one required text in literature courses. Pedagogical recommendations are made for EFL contexts.