Post-colonial Literature in ESL Curriculum: Using Kaisar Haq’s “Ode to the Lungi” in an ESL Classroom

As literary texts include cultural uses of linguistic expression and reflection of social communication through the usage of different language aspects, many instructors are likely to be benefited using literary texts along with language structure in the ESL classroom. As literature often sheds light on the particular culture and authentic experience, the materials presented may not be familiar to ESL students who may find such text structurally complex. To overcome this problem the practitioner may introduce post-colonial/multicultural texts to meet the needs of cultural diversity. More importantly, the learners in this way get rid of the imposed Eurocentric vision and biases that deem the challenges and representations of various cultural groups.  Postcolonial text may add different dimensions in teaching language stimulating imagination and offering real language use with cultural diversity. This approach will not confine the language teaching to the idea of connecting learners to their everyday world rather it stretches its landscape making the students grasp their history and aware of the fact that language can be means of resistance and opposition. This paper aims to examine the ways of using Kaisar Haq’s “Ode on the Lungi” as a postcolonial text in an ESL situation. As “Lungi” is a common garment in this subcontinent, this poem will act as a highly motivating material in the classroom where the learners will, as a byproduct, get awareness about the socially, politically and economically excluded people who are ‘ridiculously’ clad in modest lungis. Applying both efferent and aesthetic way of reading the learners will be able to experience a crispy postcolonial flavor in the language classroom.