Shakespeare in the English as a Foreign Language Classroom: Student Perceptions of Linguistic Difficulty, Benefits, and Teaching Strategies

Abstract

This basic, exploratory study with a quantitative approach aimed to describe third- and fourth-year English majors’ perceptions of the influence that reading Shakespeare’s works could have on their English language learning. The study also sought to identify the linguistic difficulties students encounter when engaging with Shakespearean texts and the pedagogical strategies they consider most effective for approaching them. A purposive convenience sample of 80 B.A. in English students at the University of Costa Rica completed an online questionnaire addressing prior exposure to Shakespeare, perceived challenges, perceived benefits for different language skills, and recommended teaching practices. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) to provide a detailed overview of students’ perceptions. Based on the findings, 58.8% of participants believe that reading Shakespeare improved their reading comprehension, 83.8% identified the archaic nature of the language as the principal difficulty, and 78.8% believed that instructors should introduce adapted versions of Shakespeare’s works before the original texts. A semi-structured interview with an expert in Shakespeare for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners helped contextualize these findings which indicate that students associate Shakespeare with specific linguistic gains. This highlights the need for stronger pedagogical links between literature courses and English language development. Based on these findings, instructors should use adapted Shakespearean texts to support students before having them read the original texts.