Value of literature exploration

According to Mc Rae, representational material is a powerful tool for students learning process. It transcends the objective of the language curriculum. We want our students to comprehend meanings of the language but small "l" goes beyond that. Students receive longer-term benefit from discussions of representational materials.

Comprehension is said to be a beginning, not an ending to small "l" exploration. Students are taught to get in touch with their emotion as well as their imagination. TVs and computers have done a lot of thinking on our behalf in our daily life. Many of us have become "brain dead" individuals who lack the capacity to process information without spoon feeding from the machines surrounding us.

To challenge this phenomena, representational material plays an important role. It becomes a basis for training students to develop their linguistic ability that is derived from their own ideas and thought process. Their mind is trained to busy itself with activities that has been much in the past suppressed or laid dormant. Students would have to deal with activities such as reflection, developing insights, and constructing personal interpretation of small "l" materials.

To do this, teachers need to find text that is interesting, rewarding, stimulating and contains teachable qualities that allows the text to "speak for itself". It should be intrinsically rewarding so as to break the walls of inhibition among students, thus inviting participation and sincere involvement from students.