The Significance of Teaching Young Adult Literature in the English Foreign Language Class

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Didactics - English - Literature, Works, grade: 10,0, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, language: English, abstract: The following term paper will deal with the significance of teaching ethic values in school and how it can take place simultaneously with foreign language classes. In this case, the English Foreign Language Class (EFLC) will be in our focus. Above all, the main topic will be about how teachers can avail themselves of using YAL in order to teach the foreign language contemporaneous with ethical values. In order to do so, YAL will be defined and its importance for the EFLC will be emphasized. In this regard the chances and possibilities will be presented, furthermore the problems and challenges will be explained. Subsequently, the significance of teaching ethic values will be pointed out in combination with the competences which English teachers are ought to foster. Lastly some examples for teaching ethic values with YAL will be presented with the help of chosen novels which can be utilized in the EFLC. Tutorizing literature has always been an essential part of the curriculum for language teaching classes and owns a granted position in the language teaching process. In particular for Mittel- and Oberstufe canonical literature used to be the classical material teachers ought to make use of, whereas in the last years Young Adult Literature (YAL) seems to have a chance of taking its place. While YAL has been utilized in primary schools since the early 1990's, it has made its way into the Mittelstufe toward the end of the 1990's and has slowly started to appear in the Oberstufe nowadays. Several positive experiences, recommended novels, teaching units and additional material are available by now, whereas there is still a lack of systematic analyses concerning the learning goals and teaching possibilities in different school years. In addition, YAL consistently has to deal with its prejudiced reputation as teachers, parents and linguists tend to underestimate the worth and possibilities which underlie non-classical literature.