ELTWeekly Newsletter Vol. 3 Issue#90 | June 20, 2011

Introduction

This research article aims at emphasizing the use of fiction (novel) as a resource to improve the sentence structure of students. Sentence structure is also called “Syntax”. In the dictionary definition, syntax is a grammatical arrangement of words in sentences, but in a broader sense, the structure of a sentence is a unifying relation also. The words combined with one another must form a cohesive relation in a sentence. In order to write with correct sentence structure, a deep knowledge of grammatical aspects and a clear understanding of syntactic cohesion are indispensable. In recent years, the role of different genres of literature as a basic component and source of authentic texts of the language has gained currency to a great extent. There has been a continued debate on this issue as to how, when, where and why fiction should be incorporated in the ESL/EFL curriculum. This research by providing a pragmatic approach explores various strategies of using fiction to teach grammar/syntax in the language class.

The novel has a great capacity to catch the attention of the reader due to its story-telling method and its linguistically rich environment helps learners in acquiring competency in different areas of language. So far as the sentence structure is concerned, novel can be proved a powerful pedagogical tool in relation to the target language. Novels provide real life-like settings and characters and characters speak to each other, therefore, variety and versatility of sentence structures are copiously found in novels. (more…)