Literature in English: evaluating its suitability for Semester 1, PISMP (Bachelor of Education Programme) TESL

摘要

Literature seems to always be a course that most often befuddles rather than captivates student teachers of TESLudat the Institutes of Teacher Education. Facing “literary inadequacy” due to lack of exposure to literary criticaludanalysis at the upper secondary and preparatory levels aggravates the problem. Analysis of literary texts at theseudlevels is merely highlighting the occurrences of basic literary devices in prescribed texts but the functions of whyudsuch devices are utilised by authors are not deeply explored by secondary school teachers. Hence, the suitability ofudoffering a literature course at the beginning of an undergraduate programme was investigated, utilising the CIPPudevaluation model developed by Stufflebeam (1971). 73 theory-based self-constructed items were administered toud120 respondents of three TESL cohorts via a cross-sectional survey research design. Reliability value for eachudconstruct using Cronbach Alpha was computed and the overall reliability value 0.959 was obtained, indicatingudthat the research instrument was reliable to fulfil the purpose of the study. Findings and discussion underline theudsignificance of offering the course in the first semester of TESL programme as well as the importance of learningudliterature in the 21st century.