Teaching Literature (TL)
Topic outline
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Course description
Teaching Literature aims to provide a theoretically informed exploration of reading instruction and interpretation of a literary text in EFL classroom settings. It foregrounds active and reflective learner engagement with literature, emphasizing construction of meaning as a dynamic process shaped through text, reader, and intertextual linking.
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Instructor: Dr. Guerroudj Amel
Email: amel.guerroudj@univ-tlemcen.dz
Department: Department of English
Faculty: Faculty of Foreign Languages
University: University of Abu Bekr Belkaid Tlemcen
Availability: I am available on-site on Sunday and Monday, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., for consultation. For inquiries about course content, students are encouraged to use the Course Discussion Forum below. Personal inquiries may be addressed through email.
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Course title: Teaching Literature
Level: Second Year Master
Major: Literature and Civilization
Semester: 3
Duration: 15 weeks
Total course workload: 67.5 hrs
Coefficient: 2
Credit: 4
Mode of delivery: Face to face instruction with online support
Assessment: 40 % continuous assessment and 60 % final examination
Course tracking: Regular monitoring through attendance, formative assessment, assignment completion, active classroom participation, and online interaction.
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This concept map provides a visual representation of four course units, illustrating their key concepts, thematic relationships, and overall progression.
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By the end of this course, learners will be able to:
- Define key foundational concepts, including intertextuality, engaged reading, and multiple forms of text such as linguistic and non-linguistic.
- Explain how meaning is constructed through active interaction and shared connections across texts.
- Apply interpretive reasoning operations, such as predicting, questioning, and summarizing, to a given text through intertextual connections.
- Compare and contrast different reading models, such as intertextual and particularistic reading, or else engaged and disaffected reading.
- Critique effectiveness of teaching strategies, including role of teacher in shaping learning and promoting engaged intertextual reading.
- Design a literature-based lesson plan incorporating at least two texts to promote intertextual reading in a dialogic learning environment.
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To follow this course successfully, learners should be able to:
- Demonstrate basic knowledge of major literary genres, including poetry, drama, fiction, and non-fiction.
- Identify and examine fundamental elements of a literary text, such as setting, plot, language, etc.
- Demonstrate basic reading comprehension proficiency, such as identifying textual evidence and inferencing meaning from context.
- Demonstrate a general understanding of literature reading instruction and pedagogy.
- Formulate a preliminary interpretation of literary text and articulate it effectively in both oral and written forms.
- Demonstrate openess to engage in dialogic learning, including critical discussion, social inquiry, and constructive peer interaction in a classroom context.
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Opened: Friday, 21 August 2026, 12:00 AM
This short diagnostic test aims to assess learners' prior knowledge and identify areas on literature and reading comprehension that may require further review before starting this course.
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General course structure
This course is organized into four units as follows:
- Unit one: Intertextuality and Reading
- Unit two: Interpretive Processes in Literary Reading
- Unit three: Appraisal and Evaluative Stance
- Unit four: Engaged Reading
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Learning objectives
By the end of this unit, learners will be able to:- Conceptualize intertextualty as a theoretical construct; recognizing how linguistic, non-linguistic, and experiential text would function as multi-dimensional configurations for intertextual meaning construction.
- Critically compare particularistic and intertextual reading; examining how reading across multiple texts would extend interpretation and foster understanding.
- Develop a comprehensive account of pedagogical classroom opportunities for arranging intertextual reading in classroom settings.
Overview
This unit aims to introduce intertextuality as a process of reading where meaning emerges as a result of connecting authorial texts, personal knowledge, and other forms of representation. It compares and contrasts intertextual reading versus particularistic reading, highlighting implications of each for stimulating learner's interpretive agency and critical thinking beyond printed language of traditional text. Finally, it also explores authentic opportunities for arranging reading across texts through purposeful selection of reading material and classroom activities. -
Learning objectives
By the end of this unit, learners will be able to:- Define engaged reading as a multidimensional construct.
- Distinguish engaged and disaffected reading based on motivation, knowledge construction, strategy use, and social interaction.
- Evaluate classroom conditions and teaching practices that would foster sustained engaged reading.
Overview
This unit aims to examine engaged reading as an active, purposeful, and socially mediated process of meaning construction. It explores cognitive, motivational, strategic, and social dimensions of engagement; considering further disaffection constructs in educational and developmental reading theory. It also provides a critical overview of what contemporary research and existing theory suggests about proximal environmental influences and teacher-constructed instructional practices presumed to promote engaged reading.
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This final assessment aims to evaluate learners' overall achievement of expected outcomes based on course core units. Specifically, learners are required to demonstrate conceptual precision, critical engagement, analytical reasoning, and a capacity to transfer theoretical insights to authentic literary and pedagogical contexts.