Literature From the Learner's Perceptive

Abstract

#This study is a survey that aimed to investigate the attitudes of the students of English department to literature courses. The idea of this research originated in the students' frequent complaints of the rationale behind including literature in the syllabus of the department. The reasons they cite are that it does not help improve their English, and it is irrelevant to their future careers. The samples of the study were 20 students of level ii and 20 of level iv those who have not experienced English literature and those who already studied it, respectively. Five main and four sub-hypotheses were suggested. The first main one regarding their interest in literature was rejected for both groups do not mind having literature. The second was accepted because both see that literature does not help improve their English. The next two main hypotheses were accepted for it was found that both groups prefer modern to old literature (3.1) and prose to poetry (4.1). The relevant two sub- hypotheses (3.2) and (4.2) were rejected because there was a difference between the two groups. It was also found that novel was the number one preferred genre because of its ordinary non-poetic or archaic language.