







































English Language Teaching,  
Applied Linguistics and Literature 

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2024) 
Available online at https://jurnal.iainponorogo.ac.id/index.php/eltall 

 
 

24 

ELTALL 

DECONSTRUCTIVE READING ON TRADITIONAL 
NARRATIVES IN ENGLISH COURSE BOOK 

 
 

Rahmat Setiawan 
Universitas PGRI Adi Buana Surabaya, Indonesia 

rahmatsetiawan@unipasby.ac.id 
 

Eliasanti Agustina 
Universitas PGRI Adi Buana Surabaya, Indonesia 

eliasanti@unipasby.ac.id 
 

ABSTRACT  

This research aims to explore deconstructive reading on traditional narratives in 
coursebook and how the EFL pre-service teachers’ insights on it. This research imposes 
its theoretical framework in the concepts of Deconstruction, EFL Pre-service Teachers, 
Literature, Traditional Narrative Text, and Coursebook. The type of this research is 
qualitative, the approach is case study. The data in this research are text fragmentations 
from the narrative texts and the statements of the EFL students. The first source of the 
data is the narrative texts in the coursebook. The second source of the data is interview 
with some EFL pre-service teachers from various university in Surabaya. The techniques 
of data collection in this research are documentation and non-structured interview. The 
technique of data analysis in this research is thematic analysis. The result of the analysis 
is narrative texts provided by Kemendikbud in English coursebook seem to be 
conventional and it requires EFL teachers with good sense of literature to help out 
students to make the meaning relevant with the life they live today. Some interviewed 
EFL pre-service teachers put some insights that meaning in the traditional narrative texts 
in the English coursebook. For them, traditional narrative is important, but the 
interpretative meaning should be deconstructed in more various meaning, not in one-
sided claim which one is true and false.  
 
Keywords: EFL Pre-Service Teacher, Literature, Traditional Narrative Text, and 
Coursebook 
 
INTRODUCTION  

Narrative text can be immaculately perceived as a well-established bridge 

to learning foreign language and it is the fundamental pivot of how narrative text 

is a must-involved material leaning on English coursebook pages in Indonesia. 

To its relevance, regarding its kernel, narrative text, whose soul is literature, can 

be also biased to phrases learning a language with literacy, moral value, culture, 

and simultaneously, likewise to what literary works typically can propose. 

However, the problem sneaks to appear on the surface when its moral values are 



Deconstructive Reading on Traditional Narratives in English Course Book (Rahmat Setiawan, et al.) 

 
25 ELTALL : English Language Teaching, Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5 No. 1 (2024) 

 

not certainly pertinent to these current insights. This is the focused area of this 

research; there is mystified moral values proposed by traditional narrative texts 

used by coursebook which is distributed publicly to students.  

Moral is a set of mentality concerning civilized manners. In contrast, 

demoralization refers to moral damage. The terminology of moral is constantly 

referred to good and bad humans (Audi, 2011). Then, attitude with moral is called 

morality. Simply, morality is an attitude manifested in an act out of someone. A 

good act out must be selfless and it determines the value of moral. Selfless refers 

to norm, law, and custom. Conclusively, morality is an attitude conformity 

developing us as a hostage of values and it obligates us ideologically to deal with 

(Chanan, 2018). 

Narrative text, one of literary works, with its story intimacy, distributes 

moral value; the story, the plot, the conflict, and others shade the readers feel the 

poetic, touch the meaning, and dive to the sea of conflicts. Conflicts can rouse the 

readers’ empathy, sympathy, and moral. It leads the readers to a corridor of 

interpretation of moral value from the conflicts, whether it is virtuousness, 

depravedness, clemency, fortitude, inducement, and other things. Therefore, it is 

decisive to see narrative texts in learning and teaching moral values, especially 

to students who require developmental issues (Dymock, 2007). Narrative texts 

decorate pages of language coursebook for teaching, one of them is English 

Language Coursebook Grade X, published by Kemendikbud (Ministry of 

Education and Culture). 

With all due respect, Kemendikbud utilizes narrative texts as a bridge in 

English language teaching and learning. It is also about how to make the students 

learn about moral and cultural value. Government, with its prescribed and 

programed edification, namely schools, set out a heritage and legacy of morality 

carried out systematically via the narrative texts. In school, teachers, whose 

background is from language education, are well-established with moral 

understanding and they, in the classroom to students, have responsibility to both 

teaching technically (material) and non-technically (moral value) (Veugelers, 

2010).  

In English subject, literature pieces are distributed to students with the 

intention of improving students’ English competence and it is manifested in 

narrative texts. This literary material drives the EFL students to comprehend the 

depth of meaning of the narrative texts in the everyday-life context and to access 

cavernous knowledge, value, and insight. EFL Students are also projected to be 

able to captivate new terms, lexis, words, or phrases in the narrative texts, thus 

they can enrich vocabularies (Barkhuizen, 2008). Talking to this depth, moral 

values can be implanted furtively to this kind of mode. Therefore, materials about 



Deconstructive Reading on Traditional Narratives in English Course Book (Rahmat Setiawan, et al.) 

 
26 ELTALL : English Language Teaching, Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5 No. 1 (2024) 

 

narrative texts, in English subject, are not just about language learning, but it is 

also about dispensing moral values.  

Education, at its purest, is a strategic and decisive mode for a nation to 

upsurge and escalate from exertional strain. Likewise, for the Indonesian, it has 

come to an urgent status to lean education as a top-listed priority to revolute the 

nation. Firmly, the energy to generate quality of human resources has been in the 

law about the national education system. Law No. 20, 2003, regarding the 

National Education System, the government strives and systematizes a sort of 

national education system that can upsurge the religious belief in God, good 

character, ethics, manners, and so on, in line with intellectual vision (Suryadarma 

& Jones, 2013). It is some kind of characteristic in Indonesia whose tradition, 

culture, and values are still considerably important to be maintained. 

That elaborative root, Indonesia, with all due respect to the tradition. 

culture, and values, then it comes to a logically rational exposure to escalating a 

discursive issue that moral values must be preserved in the community; one of 

ways is through traditional narrative texts in coursebooks. All barebones in 

education field participate; it is one of real act out representatively supply this 

agenda. The finest haven to operate the agenda is through formal education; and 

school. Schools can afford both cognition and affective simultaneously; flaring 

horizon and implanting morals systematically (Eggleston & Turiel, 1985). To 

crystalize those insights, the highlight is on issue that learning English, for EFL 

students in Indonesia, can be through narrative texts in the coursebook they use. 

Preserving cultural heritage is, indeed, noteworthy, but vicissitudes in the 

paradigm of society also, inevitably, encourage multi and even radically 

dissimilar interpretations. To reinforce this critical outlook, deconstruction 

becomes a channel giving access to this vulgar interpretation. Deconstruction here 

will not be discussed philosophically in depth, such as the study of complicated 

semiotics à la Ferdinand de Saussure which Derrida criticized, or discusses of 

Hegel’s dialectic which is full of dilemmas and complexities. Deconstruction here 

will be aligned with a critical thinking orientation because the main substance of 

deconstruction is the reading of texts or phenomena in an open, dynamic, and 

non-structural way. This elasticity of meaning interpretation will make us realize 

that there are other potential meanings that we have so far ignored. For example, 

when we think that black always represents evilness, immorality, or depravity, 

deconstructive reading will help people to open up that not everything that is 

black is evil, immoral, or depraved. When we read, for example, fables, fairy 

tales, or folk tales, we always think about the wrong and right sides that are 

completely separated, as if the world is total and absolute in structure, whereas 

behind the good there can be bad, in evil there can be good. This is what teachers 



Deconstructive Reading on Traditional Narratives in English Course Book (Rahmat Setiawan, et al.) 

 
27 ELTALL : English Language Teaching, Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5 No. 1 (2024) 

 

need when they teach, especially when they explain about morality and meaning 

(Dasli, 2019; Kakoliris, 2009; Selden & Atkins, 1986; Winter, 2011; Zappa, 2019). 

In other words, in a deconstructive reading of the story of Malin Kundang, 

students, at this stage, may see that parents are not always right, life cannot just 

rely on the help of a fairy godmother, or other mystical powers, and so on. 

STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) education vaccinates 

literacy (Shaffer et al., 2019). Literacy drives us all to tend to be intellectual and 

of course, critical (Ardianti et al., 2020; Handayani, 2020). In other words, it 

always raises questions about extending critical interpretations to traditional 

narrative texts, for instance, Malin Kundang’s mother may commit a mistake 

when cursing her son. These cliché biases are the basis for this research to be 

carried out. 

Theoretically, moral, in literary work, is the seed a writer implies to allocate 

and recommend (Cooper, 1994). Accordingly, a writer conveys moral and moral 

is inherent part of human life in society. Society lives in an order, order is in the 

mode of certain rules, discipline, and restrictions which are conventionally 

dictating us (Veugelers, 2010). The order aims at creating civilized human. In that 

matter of logic, moral is in the circle of issues, between right or wrong. Shortly 

speaking, moral value polishes the individual to be a part of community whose 

moral value has been well-established (Audi, 2011). Hence, moral refers to 

cognizance of good and bad for social structure. Moral in society is required on 

every individual in all walks of life. Every individual in behaving, thinking, and 

doing social things must pay attention to the order, rule, law, and etc. By 

following the moral value, human life is going on the right way. It is the only way 

to save human life from violence, pain, and suffer. In short, moral 

instantaneously turns out to be redeemer of the human, for the importance they 

have in the conservancy of human values (Balliu, 2015). 

Deconstruction is an authoritative opposition to the structuring of meaning. 

This concept was first outlined by Derrida in his novelty book, Of Grammatology, 

where he explored the interaction between language and the construction of 

meaning. There are several main features in deconstruction; first, the inherent 

desire to have a center, or focal point, for constructing any understanding 

(logocentrism); second, everything is text so that all constructions and every 

construction can be deconstructed; and, last, meaning exists because of 

differences, but not hierarchical differences, so that nothing is higher or lower. 

These characteristics find the possibility of deconstruction as a process that 

constantly questions the basis of the received meaning. Derrida regards 

deconstruction as a problematization of world foundations, such as morality 

(Gnanasekaran, 2015; Greaney, 2021; Kelly, 2020; Stocker, 2006; Thomassen, 2009; 

Yegen & Abukan, 2014). Narration usually fights for a superior meaning and that 



Deconstructive Reading on Traditional Narratives in English Course Book (Rahmat Setiawan, et al.) 

 
28 ELTALL : English Language Teaching, Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5 No. 1 (2024) 

 

usually becomes the message or moral value offered. Therefore, deconstruction 

is a means to interrogate the relationship between texts or narratives with the 

centralization of their meaning. 

Literary work technically provides touches for language skill learning such 

as reading, writing, listening, and even speaking. It also shades on vocabulary, 

grammar, and pronunciation learning. Plus, language teachers also take literary 

work such as drama, poetry, and short stories for teaching material. In global 

perspective, translation of literary works can also provide students a space to 

learn (Khatib et al., 2011). Literary works, with its fun and flexibility, wake 

language teachers, especially foreign language teachers, up to see that literary 

texts are so expedient. On the other side, if the students are conversant with the 

literary texts, it smooth up the process of learning on a faster way (Paran, 2006). 

Consequently, literature through literary works have significant things for 

language teaching. Literary work mostly has unique material, cultural 

enrichment, and of course, emotional-personal involvement (Isenberg, 1990). 

Terminologically, narrative is derived from the word of narration, which 

means telling a story or event. Narrative, in a complex understanding, is a series 

of conflicts set up in sequential elaborative plots. In other words, narrative, or 

prose, whose subject is a series of events, at least, consists of elements such as 

orientation (how things start), complications (how problems come and affect), 

and resolution (how things come to an end) (Herman, 2009). Narrative text is a 

type of writing presenting a series of events and is arranged chronologically 

according to the time sequence. In narrative text the events written can be a real 

one or be imaginary (Short & Leech, 2013). Generally, sentences in narrative text 

aim to entertain the reader by providing readers with knowledge about the 

conflict in the story, with regardless its fictious or non-fictious state. To the extent 

of its existence in coursebook, the purpose of narrative text is both entertaining 

with an aesthetic experience to the readers and adding knowledge, information 

and insight to the readers/students (Cardozo & Tomitch, 2021; Dhillon et al., 

2020; Nafsiah, 2019; Rosnaeni et al., 2020). 

In English subject, narrative, whose elementary body is formed in the past 

tense style, can be very useful for students. This past tense is also rooted to a 

logical reason that it tells the nature of events, it tells stories, that have happened 

in the past. Of this nature, sometimes, students get trapped in an overlapping 

consideration between narrative and recount texts. To extricate the two types of 

text, students must be able to understand the essence of the story. Narratives tell 

events or events in time of sequential series which are complex (Alasuutari et al., 

2012). The story is told in fictional style, it is an unreal story, just a reverie, a trance, 

or even an ideology of the writer. On the other side, recount is a text, similarly 

speaking, telling events occurring within a relatively simple time series. Recount 



Deconstructive Reading on Traditional Narratives in English Course Book (Rahmat Setiawan, et al.) 

 
29 ELTALL : English Language Teaching, Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5 No. 1 (2024) 

 

text aims at explaining the occurred events as it is, or real events (Nurkholijah & 

Hafizh, 2020; Sukma, 2015; Yunita, 2018).  

The point of the core of the existence of narrative text for language 

learners, or EFL learners, nails at the use of it as a media to learn and to polish 

students with meaningful message, such as morals, values, etc. It enhances 

students’ discourse skill with developed knowledge (Hill et al., 2021). The EFL 

pre-service teachers cannot just teach the text without stimulating their critical 

way of thinking or the narrative text with its meaning becomes a set of cliché 

biases. 

 

METHODS  
The type of this research qualitative and the approach of this research is 

case study. The data in this research are text fragmentations from the narrative 

texts and the statements of the EFL students. The first source of the data is 

narrative texts (Story of Issumboshi, Malin Kundang, and Strong Wind) in the 

coursebook entitled, “Bahasa Inggris” published by Kemendikbud, in 2017. In 

consists of 224 pages. It is used for Senior High School Grade X, the ISBN is 978-

602-427-106-0, written by Utami Widiati, Zuliati Rohmah, and Furaidah, edited 

by Helena I. R. Agustien, Emi Emilia, and Raden Safrina. The second source of 

the data is interview with some subjects; they are some EFL pre-service teachers 

from various university in Surabaya. The techniques of data collection in this 

research are documentation and non-structured interview. The main proposed 

questions are: 1) How do you know about literary narrative text in the English 

coursebook? 2) In your opinion, why is it important to keep using traditional 

narrative texts in the coursebook? Are the moral values provided by the narrative 

texts relevant to the today’s values? And, what should be change to be suitable 

with the values students need? The technique of data analysis in this research is 

thematic analysis. 

 

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION  

There are three narrative texts in the English coursebook: Issumboshi, Malin 

Kundang, and Strong Wind. Story of Issumboshi (page 157-159) narrates a story of 

an old couple having no a child. It seems that it was set in Japan. The couple 

found a crying tiny baby His size is as big as little finger. Then, they fostered, his 

name is Issumboshi. Awkwardly, Issumboshi maintained small, alias, he could 

not grow bigger. This strange case turned into mockery. The bully frustrated him 

and drove him to venture to the capital. Over there, she met a princess, then she 

liked him. In a day, the princess got trouble; she was caught by a demon. 

Issumboshi helped her from the demons. The demon ran away, left a magic 

hammer, Issumboshi asked the princess to wish something, then Issumboshi 



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started growing to be a nice young man, and ended with happy marriage. The 

moral value seems to crystalize to perseverance, motivation, and struggling.  

The Legend of Malin Kundang (page 172), on the other hand, narrates a story 

of a young boy, Malin Kundang, who left her mother to pursuit his success. The 

problem is, after he reached the peak of success, he held a party of his wedding, 

and when his poor and old mother came to release her longing, Malin ignored 

and denied her. She was so disappointed, saddened, and furious. Finally, bad 

thing happened to Malin; he turned out to be a stone, regret, but it was too late 

to regret. The moral value seems to crystalize to obeyance and parental. 

The Strong Wind (Page 183-185) narrates a great warrior, Strong Wind, who 

could make his body unseen, but only his sister could see him clear. He vowed 

that he would marry woman who could see him clear. Many of them tried to trick 

just to be his wife. Finally, there was a man with his three daughters; two were 

charming and the one was ugly because her sisters scorched her face with ashes. 

When her chance came, she told the truth that she could not see the man. This 

uprightness made the man pleased, then, the woman turned to be beautiful and 

the story ended with common good part: good marriage. The moral value seems 

to crystalize to honesty. 

From EFL pre-service teachers’ perception, it can be resulted a simplified 

elaboration here: question about opinion of literary narrative text in the English 

coursebook, the subjects mostly responded that it is important; question about 

the importance to keep using traditional narrative texts in the coursebook, the 

subjects mostly stated that it is important to keep it up because it is part of culture; 

question about the relevance of the moral values provided by the narrative texts 

to the today’s values, the subjects mostly claimed that the moral values seem to 

be contextualized with the todays’ perspective; and question about moral value 

changes the students should see, the subjects mostly propose some various 

deconstructive interpretation. 

On the other hand, life cannot just start with perseverance, motivation, 

and struggling like in the story of Issumboshi. Children and parents can be 

mistaken, like in the story of Malin Kundang. To achieve things, sometimes we 

cannot just be honest, like in the story of Strong Wind.  

The discussion firstly comes to Issumboshi. Lonely old couple had a child 

but he had tiny body. He struggled because of being a victim of mockery, then 

he decided to go to the capital, as it is in this part, 

 

One day, Issumboshi said, “I will go to the capital to study and become 

a respectable person. Then I will come back.” ... At once they began to 

prepare for his trip ... “Is he safe? With such a small body?” ... 



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Issumboshi went on the trip with a big wish in a small body 

(Kemendikbud, 2017: 158).  

 

In the capital, he found a job in a palace and one day, the Princess went out 

to worship at the Kiyomizu Temple, then there were demons trying to kidnap 

her, as it is quoted in these lines,  

 

“Issumboshi tried to help her, but the demon caught him and threw 

him into his mouth. Issumboshi, who was swallowed, jabbed and 

jabbed the demon’s stomach ... Issumboshi jumped at the demon and 

stabbed his eyes ... one demon, who was left behind, trembled while 

holding the magic hammer (Kemendikbud, 2017: 158). 

 

The moment when the demon attacked the princess becomes the spotlight 

of how Issumboshi turned his life. He got the magic hammer, then he asked the 

princess to make a wish. 

 

“Princess, please wave this magic hammer and make a wish that I may 

become big,” said Issumboshi. The Princess waved it and asked, “May 

Issumboshi become big!” ... He grew into a nice young man ... The 

Princess and Issumboshi then got married, and they invited 

Grandfather and Grandmother to live with them in the palace. They 

lived happily ever after (Kemendikbud, 2017: 159). 

 

Like other similar twists, from zero to hero, from just a poor boy to a great 

prince. This formula seems to provoke a simple issue common sense can 

accumulate: never give to reach, or, nothing is impossible, and so on. Those 

motivational phrases, indeed, are the spotlight of how this story proposes. 

However, when it is relevantly related to the result of interview with some EFL 

pre-service teachers, this could be a bias. A subject stated, “the moral is simple, 

from nothing to something, from nobody, to somebody, but we need to see, the 

moral is not about the result, but the strategy. We can be successful, not because 

a will, but a plan.” Another subject stated, “Issumboshi is a clever boy.” The 

statements interpretatively reach out a pointbreak that the moral value shifts, 

from idealism (everything will be happy at the end) to pragmatism (happiness 

can happen with good effort). The claim to say that Issumboshi is a clever can 

also refers to strategy he did; poor boy with abnormal body and becomes prince, 

it is not just about magical things, but also strategic things. 

The second discussion comes to Malin Kundang. It is a story of a boy whose 

mother was angry at him and finally he was cursed to be a stone. His mother was 



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angry at him because Malin left her to sail and he came back with success, but he 

denied his mother. 

 

An old woman, who was Malin Kundang’s mother ... wanted to hug 

him to release her sadness of being lonely after a long time. When his 

mother came near him, Malin Kundang ... denied that she was his 

mother. She had pleaded ... But he kept refusing to do it and yelling at 

her ... “Enough, old woman! I have never had a mother like you, a dirty 

and ugly woman!” ... Finally, ... he had turned into a stone 

(Kemendikbud, 2017: 172).  

 

The nuance seems to be decorated in violence; curse. Common people 

always bring an issue of this kind of interpretation, that a child should not, or 

must not, do bad things to mother. Malin denied the presence of his mother then 

it irritated the mother’s feeling. Doing bad things, especially to our mother, is 

something we cannot deal with. This is the moral value in general understanding. 

However, the bias is provoked by some subjects in the interview. There is a 

subject questioning back to a simple question, “does every parent good parents?” 

another subject stated, “it is important to introduce story of Malin Kundang, but 

I am little bit disappointed, a mother should not curse her son.” The other subjects 

pinpoint the same line when it is about cursing mother. Cursing mother, which is 

the highlight of the story, cannot be used as the good example. In Indonesia, 

feudalism nails in the root of ideology. Parents seem to have power over the 

children. Thus, this story can be seen as the manifestation of this sort of ideology. 

The problem is, this way of perspective can be deconstructed. Malin was wrong 

when he denied his mother, but the mother was also wrong when she cursed his 

son. It means that, the right one cannot be put in one side, because the both have 

the same mistake. It means that everyone can be wrong, no matter what the status 

adhered to them. Parents can be mistaken, so do the children. Openness, 

flexibility, or deconstructive can be seen as a relevant perspective. Digital, 

technology, and literacy have brought civilization a higher point of view. They 

have liberty or freedom to speak and share ideas, they can subjectively propose 

points of view, and so on. Moreover, there are many cases they consume from 

social media exposing that the parents can also have cruel sides. Therefore, moral 

value should be shifted from absolute right, to contextual right.  

The third discussion comes to Strong Wind. This should be a simple 

analysis; a man looking for a wife. He was a great warrior who could make 

himself invisible. He tested every woman who wanted to his wife. Of course, like 

Cinderella-styled story, ugly woman found her love.  

 



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One day the youngest daughter went to try and see Strong Wind. She 

was wearing rags, and burn covered her face. People laughed at her, 

but she kept going. When she got to Strong Wind’s tent she waited. 

When Strong Wind was coming, his sister asked the girl, “Do you see 

him?” “No,” the girl answered. “I don’t see him.” Strong Wind’s sister 

was surprised because the girl had told the truth ... Then Strong Wind’s 

sister knew that the girl could really see him. He had let her see him 

because she had told the truth ... Then the sister washed the girl, and 

all the burns went away. Her hair grew long and black again. The sister 

dressed the girl in fine clothes. Strong Wind came and the girl became 

his wife. The girl’s two older sisters were very angry, but Strong Wind 

turned them into aspen trees ... (Kemendikbud, 2017: 183-185) 

 

The ugliest won the finest. The moral value sleeps on the issue of honesty. 

Honesty brings us luck. Of course, this seems not to offer some biases. In critical 

thinking style, this can be ceased in a pausing phrase: a strong man doing 

selection for wife sounds so patriarch. Some subjects are tickled with this kind of 

issue when the interviewer proposed an improvised question about it. A subject 

replied, “I think you are right in that point of view.” Another subject stated, “I 

never think so, but as a candidate of a teacher, I must be more open minded like 

this.” The rests assumed that the meaning of the text should be biased to be more 

flexible. Of course, it is crucial to clarify that the text contains patriarchal issue 

and it can ideologize generations to maintain it, while gender equality and 

feminism are something people echo loudly. It can also establish a mindset for 

the generations that man is powerful over woman, man is free to select to whom 

he can marry with, and so on.  

Reflectively, this is the realm of literary work. literature is inimitable. It 

refers to the inventive idea manifested to material words. It is also supposed to 

grasp that literary works were intentionally not born for language teaching 

purpose. The writers, typically, wrote just for self-expression, legacy, feat, and so 

on. Even so, what the writer wrote must be pertinent to real-life frameworks, such 

as society, culture, psychology, and other things. In a class, students are firmly 

conversant enough to what they read; literature is a valuable material, 

forthrightly speaking. Students relish the text, deal with the language skills, and 

excavate knowledge. In that matter of perspective, literature must be with 

linguistic forms, functions, and communicative meanings (Yimwilai, 2015). 

Literary work can afford cultural enhancement, augmentation, or 

amelioration. For many learners, the virtuous way to elevate their comprehensive 

understanding of aspects of communication is by practicing. For these learners, 

literary works, such as novels, drama, short stories, etc., can ease their 



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consideration in communication. Reading gives facts and language comes after. 

Even if the world of literary work is unreal but the meaning is touching reality. 

A reader can discover how the character feel, think, behave, talk, and so on. These 

things can sustain the foreign learners to experience the life through the fictional 

story. Thus, literature can be better perceived as a counterpart to escalate the 

foreign learners’ understanding toward culture and language itself (Zare, 2012). 

Furthermore, literary work can improve the enrichment of language skill. 

Literary works provide students a space to gain vocabularies and knowledge 

simultaneously. Students can absorb meanings from new vocabularies by 

reading literary works. As we know, literary works, mostly, use unusual terms 

to represent or explain things. Students can also learn grammar or language 

structure and of course, its function. Even if it is just a fiction, aesthetic over logic, 

beauty of structure, but there must be the leeway developing and enrich the 

students, for instance, flexible structure with no syntactical and semantical error. 

By reading literary works, it drives students to the peak of productivity. When 

they are asked to finish reading a novel, for instance, they must try to learn the 

words, and it can also the starting point of how they are interested in using new 

words from the works. Thus, upgrade cultural and communicative competence 

from the texts is not an illusion (Teranishi et al., 2015). 

Reading literature allows for intimate engagement. Reading helps people 

become personally involved or familiar. Students begin to comprehend a literary 

piece when they read it. They are aware of the words’ or phrases’ intended 

meanings. Students become more motivated to identify the issue or point of 

contention. They experience a closeness to the characters. This finding is crucial 

to the process of acquiring a language. The learning approach places a high focus 

on choosing literary texts that are relevant to the needs, interests, and language 

proficiency of the students. They can learn during this process without fear 

(Yimwilai, 2015). 

On the other hand, there are standards for choosing literature for EFL 

students. Teachers must take their students’ needs, motivations, interests, 

cultural background, and language proficiency into consideration while 

choosing literary books. Students’ positive responses may be an indicator. Before 

learning a text, students should enjoy it. When the text is interesting and 

significant, students can comprehend it. Choosing the text has application to 

everyday life. It ought to be related to the experiences, emotions, or dreams of 

the students. It's crucial to choose literary works with simple language. Students’ 

comprehension may be facilitated if the language is straightforward. They can 

take pleasure in doing so. The focus of the students' attention is on it. The aim of 

literary works is to make reading enjoyable. All of these initiatives aim to assist 

pupils in overcoming language learning challenges (Guest, 2002). For EFL 



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35 ELTALL : English Language Teaching, Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5 No. 1 (2024) 

 

students, literary works are very useful for EFL students to learn English in fun 

way (Paran, 2006).  

Those all are the color of how literature is juxtaposed in EFL realm. The 

purpose of involving literature in English language learning is absolute and 

directive, while the shifts of perspectives open the biases. The English pre-service 

teachers put insights about how the meaning in the texts should be guided well 

and relevant to the life in this era. The challenge of making relevant the 

traditional narrative text, the meaning of it, and the mindset of the students is 

absolute. The biases become important to discuss when the real case in the reality 

is in the contrast to the meaning of the narrative text, for instance, Malin Kundang 

teaches us how not to deny a mother, but sometimes, in reality, there is a case 

showing a mother violently tortures her child. Of course, there are many cases 

which cannot be leaned here elaboratively in details. 

In the interview, an EFL pre-service teacher, nicknamed X, elaborated the 

question about opinion of literary narrative text in the English coursebook, the 

subject stated, “... important (the narrative text as part of learning English), we 

(are) lazy to read. We never practice. If we read many books, maybe, we can (be) 

good in speaking English.” Another subject, nicknamed Y, stated, “I think it is 

important. English is practice. Reading is practice. We need the (narrative) text to 

improve (the English skill).” It is also similar to the last subject, nicknamed Z, 

speaking the same substance that, “Yeah, (it is) important. We can learn (English) 

from them (the narrative text).”  

Question about the importance to keep using traditional narrative texts in 

the coursebook also provides the predicted responses; the subjects mostly stated 

that it is important to keep it up because it is part of culture. subject X stated, “... 

we need (to keep) culture. Traditional story (narrative text) should be kept.” 

Subject Y stated, “... yeah, students need (to) know (it). It is part of tradition. 

Generation should use it for learning.” The last subject, Z, stated, “Old story 

(traditional narrative text) is important. Government should put it on the book 

so students and teachers can use it for learning.” 

Question about the relevance of the moral values provided by the narrative 

texts to the today’s values, the subjects mostly claimed that the moral values seem 

to be contextualized with the todays’ perspective. Subject X stated that “... the 

story (the traditional narrative text) has moral learning. It is important to learn 

from that. You are right, yeah, the example, Malin Kundang. Mother should not 

curse son (Malin) and Malin should not be bad (harming) his mother. I think it 

opens my mind.” Subject Y stated that “... right, the moral must (be) good. I think 

we must read more because not all meaning in the (traditional narrative) text is 

right (if it is applied) now. Subject Z stated “I never realize it (the example of 

deconstructive reading on the narrative text). Thank you. You’re right, I just 



Deconstructive Reading on Traditional Narratives in English Course Book (Rahmat Setiawan, et al.) 

 
36 ELTALL : English Language Teaching, Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5 No. 1 (2024) 

 

know (that) we need to think more about moral value (in the traditional narrative 

text).” 

Question about moral value changes the students should see, the subjects 

mostly propose some various deconstructive interpretation. Subject X gave 

interpretation on Cinderella, “... so, Cinderella was lazy because she complained 

(on the household tasks), oh yeah, maybe Tom is not wrong at all and Jerry is 

wrong.” Subject Y gave interpretation, “... so woman is not lower than man, 

right? I remember film, Megamind, it is about a boy, ugly, wanted to be a hero, 

but people hated (him) and loved his friend who is cool like Superman. Megamind 

is good but he was disliked so he became bad. Film Wreck-it Ralph also (has the 

same). Joker, Batman’s enemy, if you know.” The subject Z gave interpretation, 

“... years ago, I watch Brave and Raya (a film about a brave princess who loves 

masculine things). It is deconstruction?” 

From those statements, it can be dragged into a simplified point that they 

(EFL pre-service teachers) have insights that moral value should be taken from 

deconstructive reading because it can stimulate critical view in reading text. It is 

important because they are the candidate of teacher and they teach from what 

they know. With this kind of ideality, EFL pre-service teachers can be a bridge to 

hype up the students to learn English while opening their mind to deconstructive 

reading. 

 

CONCLUSION  
In conclusion, with all points of literature and how it is useful for EFL 

learners, whether it is a fun to learn language with literary works, literary works 

must provide meaning. EFL teachers should have the capacity to do 

deconstructive reading. Deconstructive reading is ability to read with analyses 

the specify of a text’s critical difference from itself. EFL teachers should 

understand that there must be biases in the interpretation of the text. They should 

not claim authoritatively about one-sided meaning. EFL teachers must provide 

critical space, open their mind with flexible interpretation, and discuss instead of 

claim the meaning. Literary works is mysterious abyss, the meaning is mystified, 

and learning the depth of it requires open-mindedness. Narrative texts provided 

by Kemendikbud in English coursebook seem to be conventional and it requires 

EFL teachers with good sense of literature to help out students to make the 

meaning relevant with the life they live today. Plus, some interviewed EFL pre-

service teachers put some insights that meaning in the traditional narrative texts 

in the English coursebook should be more critical and accessing the students to 

questions instead of accepting; classroom is not doctrine space, learning should 

be enlightening.  

In suggestion, for them, traditional narrative is important, but the 

interpretative meaning should be deconstructed in more various meaning, not in 



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37 ELTALL : English Language Teaching, Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5 No. 1 (2024) 

 

one-sided claim which one is true and false. That is the point of biases or 

mystifications of moral value provided by the traditional narrative text in this 

research. If traditional narrative cannot drive the students to be more clinical in 

perceiving and critical in thinking, then moral and meaning behind the text is 

actually a cliché. 

 

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