Literary Conversation in Foreign Language Teaching - the Role of Literature in DaF Teaching

The status of literature in teaching of foreign languages and role of literary texts in teaching German as a foreign language played in the history of foreign language teaching its important role. By the mid-20th century, the literature was associated with the ideal of higher education and, last but not least, was the main goal of a top foreign language acquisition. With the emergence of audio-lingual and audio-visual methods in the mid-20th century, interest in literature reduces in foreign language classes, if not completely disappears. Communicative method that brings new trend into foreign language teaching primarily for the acquisition of language skills and their use in everyday communication situations, uses literary texts marginally. Up from 70th respectively 80th years of the 20th century the interest in the presence of literature in teaching foreign languages starts to rise again. How literary texts can affect foreign language teaching, how it can enrich it etc., all satisfactory answer to these and similar questions is sought by the study author. She also aims to confirm the hypothesis that the trilogy literature-culture-language forms a single, indivisible theme whole. Therefore, we should not forget the fact that language learning is not only about the acquisition of language skills, but if we want to understand the language in all its complexity, it is necessary to understand and extralinguistic, cultural and literary contexts of the target language. Depending on the research results, which are presented in this study, the author reflects on how literary texts are suitable for teaching foreign languages, or why teachers do not like working with literature, although students are of the opposite opinion. The research results provide a basis for answering the question why literature should be present in foreign language teaching and what positives brings or should bring.