Using literature as a didactic resource for teaching English with primary students: the little prince Nayda FLA 1

The purpose of this work is to study children’s literature and its significant advantages   for learning English as foreign language, through the design and implementation of a didactic unit centered on the Little Prince Saint-Exupéry (1943) for students in primary at school.

In this work, it is expected that children not only learn English as a foreign language, but also they learn it in a meaningful way by learning the English culture, its beleifs, values and the way they see the world. In addition, by using literature with children, they will learn real content in real scenarios, in which students get acquinted with English litearature. The methodology that follows the teaching of literature is the  communicative approach.

Authors such as Curter & Brumfit (1991), Ellis and Brewster (2014), among others will support this work, in order to understand the way teachers should use literature for teaching English, taking into account : the student’s caracteristics, age, student’s linguistic and cognitive needs, as well as, students likes and dislikes.

Finally, taking into account that this work will propose a didactic unit for teaching English through literature, its objectives will be centered on : improving student’s langage skills, creating critical thinking on students, fostering creative skills, among others.