Abstract: This paper deals with the role that literature plays as a linguistic and cultural input in the English Secondary School classroom. It includes a historical overview analyzing the place that literature has occupied in the English as a foreign language classroom to shed light on the opportunities and benefits that literary materials offer. A practical proposal has been designed considering the communicative approach, the task-based learning and the students’ motivation to be applied in the 3rd year of ESO. As this sequences has not been applied yet, a discussion is included in order to reflect on the strong and weak points and how it can be improved.