Student Views About the Contribution of Literary and Cultural Content to Language Learning at Intermediate Level

It is well‐known that language students consistently rate the study of literature below the linguistic aspects of their foreign language course. The reasons for this low priority accorded to literary studies are less well understood. One plausible hypothesis was tested: Students do not perceive literary studies to be useful in helping them to achieve their primary goal of oral proficiency. This hypothesis can be supported from the evidence of a survey of a group of intermediate‐level university students of French, but it does not account for all the findings. The phenomenon of “culture panic” may be at least as important.