Holy Verses in the EFL/ESL Classroom as Literary Text: Teaching Reading

Abstract

There are many advantages of using literary texts in the EFL/ESL classroom. The EFL/ESL teachers use literary texts in the classroom for many purposes and it’s been a very popular practice now-a days. The use of a religious scripture as a literary text in the EFL/ESL classroom, on the other hand, is also getting popular todaythatoffers some extra benefits along with the benefits a literary text usually provides. Different translated versions of the world’s major religious scriptures like Al-Quran, Bible, etc. are now being used in the classrooms to teach different languages around the world. The purpose of the present study was to find out the suitability and appropriateness of the classroom application of the holy verses from Al-Quran in the EFL classroom environment to teach reading. The study also investigated the impacts of using holy verses in the EFL classroom through taking into account students’ interest, motivation, and participation in the classroom. By using some suitable verses of Al-Quran in English and developing some readingactivitieson the selected verses, the study taught the reading skill to the tertiary level EFL students, and found the whole approach very much positive, interesting, and motivational to the students.