Abstract
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17227/01234870.38folios95.109 This article reports part of an action research experience that was conducted in an advanced EFL classroom of the language program at a public university in Bogota, Colombia in 2011. The study proposes the incorporation of authentic multicultural literary texts in the EFL classroom as a means to develop intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Data were collected to show how learners acquired cultural knowledge, developed critical intercultural skills, and created positive attitudes -aspects of Byram’s model of ICC– when they read literary shortstories. Findings show that integrating language and literature in EFL constitutes a pedagogical contribution to construct critical intercultural awareness.
Highlights
This article reports part of an action research experience that was conducted in an advanced EFL classroom of the language program at a public university in Bogotá, Colombia in 2011
In view of exploring how language and culture can be enhanced in the EFL classroom, this article argues that one potential means to help EFL learners to develop intercultural communicative competence (ICC) at a critical level is multicultural literature, a significant resource that might prepare students to become critical intercultural beings in this globalized society
Since this study proposes the development of critical ICC through the reading of literary texts, I decided to use two teaching approaches implemented in multicultural education that were suitable to achieve this purpose in the EFL context
Summary
This article reports part of an action research experience that was conducted in an advanced EFL classroom of the language program at a public university in Bogotá, Colombia in 2011. In view of exploring how language and culture can be enhanced in the EFL classroom, this article argues that one potential means to help EFL learners to develop intercultural communicative competence (ICC) at a critical level is multicultural literature, a significant resource that might prepare students to become critical intercultural beings in this globalized society. This exploration is based on an action research procedure carried out in 2011, intending to observe how a group of advanced EFL learners at a public University in Bogotá developed ICC through the critical reading and discussion of American multicultural literary short stories. The teaching of culture has occupied a secondary place, even though there is acceptance of the need to integrate language and culture in many language departments. Byram (1997), Lázár (2003), and Dogankay-Aktuna (2005) assert that the attainment of ICC has been poorly developed because EFL instruction continues giving more importance to the study of the grammatical level of English than to the cultural implications involved in language production
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