Oray’s Publications Impact Factor: 4.845(SJIF) Research Journal Of English (RJOE) Vol-5, Issue-2, 2020 www.rjoe.org.in An International Peer-Reviewed English Journal ISSN: 2456-2696 Indexed in: International Citation Indexing (ICI), International Scientific Indexing (ISI), Directory of Research Journal Indexing (DRJI) Google Scholar & Cosmos. ______________________________________________________________________________ Research Journal Of English (RJOE) Copyright Oray’s Publication Page 101 USING LITERARY TEXTS IN ELT CLASSROOMS: THE PINNACLE OF PROMOTING LEARNER AUTONOMY? ____________________________________________________________ Md. Shazed Ul Hoq Khan Abir Lecturer, Department of English East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh _________________________________________________________________________ Abstract Learner autonomy, in the context of 21st century, is not just a trend that is set newly by ELT specialists which is suitable for language learners of a particular regime, rather it as a – “particularly appropriate idea in non-westerns as in western classroom settings” , described exactly by Smith (2002). Again, literary texts are also being used as materials in language learning and teaching classrooms. This paper reports on a study that investigates how literary texts can be used in language learning classrooms in order to provide more autonomy to the undergraduate students and language learners in a South Asian country, like Bangladesh. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected using a questionnaire administrated to English department undergraduate students of a major public university of Bangladesh, to find out primarily what autonomy in a language learning classroom means to them in their cultural context; how they relate language learning and the use of literary text; and their preferable genre of literary texts for language learning purpose. The paper also discusses the implications of the findings and offers recommendations for the better incorporation of literary text’s use in a Bangladeshi language learning classroom. Keywords: Learner Autonomy, Literary Texts, SL Classrooms, SLA, Bangladesh Introduction: At the dawn of 21st century, language teaching is not a teacher centered job anymore, where an omniscient instructor will dictate the classroom. Rather we consider classroom as a coral garden now where collaborative participation is necessary. Students are allowed to be autonomous to choose the way they want to learn a language. In all the government Universities of Bangladesh (as well as in south Asia, in general) – the tradition in English departments is to teach both English literature and language simultaneously. The honours curriculum here is designed in a way where the students must take both the literature courses and ELT courses in each and every semester. Only after they pass their honours, they are allowed to specialize either in Literature or in Applied Linguistics and