Teachers' preferred practices in teaching literature component in Kuching - Samarahan division secondary schools

Literature component is one of the content that is included in the new English language curriculum for all secondary schools in Malaysia. The curriculum goals have stated clearly that literature component should engage students in reading for enjoyment and self-development. However, it is actually very rare to see that these aspirations being implemented during the teaching of literature component in the real English language classroom setting. The respondents of this study are the English language teachers who have been teaching the subject for more than 8 years. This study aim to identify the kind of practices that the English language teachers use when teaching literature component in class, the reasons behind the selection practices being used and also the teachers’ views on the extent of the practices being used meet the aspirations of the new national secondary school English curriculum goals. In this study, the practices being chosen are greatly determined by their students’ level of proficiency in the language. The reason was mainly because the students did not have the language so it is hard to vary their practices especially towards communicative way. Examination also became one of the concerns in teaching literature to students. They could not teach something without referring to examination because results were important. Lastly, all teachers knew that their practices would not meet the aspirations but they just could not avoid for reasons as mentioned previously