earticle

영어

Are university students writing their own autobiographies in English Literature class? What is the use? They have not entered a society as a “true” member yet and there may be little accomplishment to write about. We assume that writing an autobiography is only for the greatest people and the elderly. However, as a kind of essay, autobiographical writing enables college students to generate many positive aspects such as speculation on their memory with the process of creating meaning out of the past through a student’s present perspective, increase in self-respect, improvement of expressive ability, self-reflection in a meaningful way, and the like. The data for this study gathered through two questionnaires of “before” and “after” classes have undergone frequency and correlation analyses. The result demonstrates that writing an autobiography enhanced students’ class satisfaction, increased more interest in studying literature, helped students to experience literature as a genre interrelated with them and their lives, and ultimately, engendered various valuable outcomes for students’ growth. Therefore, writing an autobiography needs to be encouraged in a literature class setting.