Teachers’ use of literature in the Estonian EFL classroom in stages II and III of basic school and upper secondary school: reasons, selection processes and approaches

Abstract

While the inclusion of literature in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching has been debated quite fiercely in the past, it has become a steady fixture by now. Extensive research has been conducted into the benefits and problems of using literary texts for the purposes of EFL teaching and how these texts can be employed. However, the topic has not been studied very much in Estonia, which has prompted the writing of the thesis at hand. The goal of the thesis is to investigate to what extent, how and for what purpose teachers of EFL in Estonia teaching in the II and III stages of basic school and the upper secondary school stage use literary texts in the EFL classroom.