International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume V, Issue VI, June 2018 | ISSN 2321–2705

Teaching Life-Skills through Literature

Jinka Jyotsna¹, T.Dwarakanath²

 ¹Research Scholar, Dept. of English, VIT Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
²Research Scholar, Dept. of English, SV University, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract: Why should we teach life-skills to the students of twenty first century? If we observe the present scenario of the students at both the Post-Graduate and Undergraduate levels, they are good at securing grades and ranks. But they are unable to become employable. The recent statistics says that the only 15% of them are able to be employable. What about the remaining 85% of the students? Though they are good at their subject matter, they are not able for employability, to possess the required skills and qualities. If one wants to be employable, one should be skilled not only in one’s subjects, but also one should be skilled in Behavioural, Attitudinal, and Character related aspects too. Besides, one should be able to intelligently deal with time, money and men in decision making.
As English teachers we have a lot of scope to develop our students not only in communication skills but also in life-skills. As per the present context, in the present generation/in the young minds there is no seriousness and proper caring about their lives and even lagging behind in maintaining or balancing the relationships properly with their own family members, teachers, friends, and even with the neighbours. I think the teacher is the right person in moulding their minds to keep them in a right track. In this process to overcome the imbalances we can use literature as an aid or an instrument to teach life skills and make them employable and real citizens of the nation.

Key Words: Life skills, Literature, Personality, employability, English Language.

What is Literature? Literature is a term used to describe a written or spoken material. Broadly speaking, “literature” is used to describe anything from creative writing to more technical or scientific works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to works of the imaginative & creative, including works of poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction.