Investigating the use of literary texts in a pedagogy to teach intercultural communicative competence in an EFL Master’s course in Algeria

Abstract

This thesis addresses a significant question of how literary texts can be used in an EFL classroom to teach intercultural communicative competence. It investigates students’ learning of intercultural communicative competence and their experience of a pedagogy that introduces literary texts for this objective.
The research is interdisciplinary in nature and adopts theories from the field of teaching literature and the field of intercultural education from a global perspective to frame the study, taking into account the local social context.
Adopting an interpretive approach based on social constructionism, this study is based on qualitative data elicited during an action research project, and presents an analysis of the students’ learning and their awareness of their learning experience according to data collected from different sources and perspectives.
The empirical study shows the application of theoretical models from interdisciplinary fields of study to pedagogical practices. In addition, it offers theoretical conceptualizations of key concepts specific to the context of this study taking into account the different political, social and linguistic tensions, especially that the intercultural dimension is emerging in the educational context of this study, Algeria.
Overall, the study shows that, using a specific teaching approach, literary texts have great potential in teaching intercultural communicative competence as well as for intercultural citizenship education. However, the degree to which the students themselves were conscious of their learning outcomes varied. The majority of the students enjoyed their learning experience with literary texts, but some students highlighted some challenges they faced that have significant implications for future research and scholarship.
The study provides valuable insights for teachers and researchers in the area of intercultural education, especially for those in Algeria, or other similar contexts, where the students have limited exposure to diversity within their society. It also has implications to be taken into consideration for syllabus designers who attempt to include the intercultural dimension in their syllabus. Finally, the implications of this study are relevant for teachers of literature or EFL teachers who attempt to introduce literary texts into their pedagogical practices.