English Language Literature Component: Students’ Perspective and Attitude Towards Malaysian Literary Texts

Abstract

The English language literature component has experienced several changes between the year 2000 to 2025. As a result of the changes, the amount of local literature used significantly decreases. In the latest change, local literary text in English was no longer included despite positive feedback given towards it. This study was conducted to find out the perspectives of secondary school students on the inclusion of local literary texts, the difference in students' attitude towards local literary texts as compared to Western Literary texts, and factors that affect attitudes. This study employed a mixed – method research design involving 180 Form 4 students who participated in a survey and face to face interview with two English secondary school teachers. The results showed that the students’ responses, both for attitude and perspectives towards local literary texts, are generally positive. The teachers, both senior and junior, responded positively towards both Malaysian and Western literary texts too. In conclusion, four contributing factors to students’ attitude towards literary texts are language complexity, unknown cultural aspects, familiarity of context as well as language proficiency.