Social and cultural interactions are of great prominence for teaching and learning process. In view of Vygotsky’s theory on socio-cultural learning the importance of co-constructed knowledge and scaffolding is underpinned, which is conducive for assisting and engaging EFL students in the learning process. Constructivism, as a pedagogical tool, is based on some teaching approaches which are prone to meet the aim of teaching literature in EFL. In this sense, teaching literary pieces in the EFL classroom should be taught through appropriate teaching approaches that might foster meaning negotiation and knowledge construction. As Vygotsky stated, the socio-constructivist approach is a solid basis for activating learners’ role and engagement in the classroom enabling them to experience the world so that they construct their own knowledge within meaningful contexts, sometimes through trial and error, because making mistakes is a normal part of the learning process (Vygotsky 1978: 88).

In this respect, a considerable number of scholars view this pedagogical model as an indispensable part of teaching-learning process claiming that, in this day and age, teachers should be more pragmatic and seek for variety of creative mechanisms to set up an engaging and thought-provoking environment for students with various learning paces. Hence, especially such kind of pedagogical intervention can be an incentive to teach multicultural literature in EFL since it becomes a great background to acquire cultural knowledge, to value literature and improve their language competence simultaneously (Schcolnik & Kol 2006: 12-20, Schowalter 2003: 68). Therefore, Inquiry-based, Transactional and content-based approaches are in the focus of the case study.

Implementation of this approach is of great significance, since it mainly gives priority to students’ viewpoints, perceptions and interaction with their peers in the classroom. According to Gellis (2002: 15-35) inquiry-based learning facilitates active learning and enrolls students in critical exploration and in the knowledge construction through a process of meaning negotiation. Inquiry-based learning models diverse activities for studying literature and better connect various students to the literary community of practice. The practices utilized in the classroom supply with a compelling pattern of how literature analysis can be carried out in a way that makes intercultural features accessible for students irrespective of linguistic differences. In this vein, McKay (2001: 319-331) explains that through this model, teachers can prepare their learners for the lesson by means of guided questions that will motivate them to “inquire” the truth. In their firm belief, this model aims at obtaining more applicable and useful knowledge prioritizing learners’ ideas, reflections and criticism.

The transactional approach is of great avail especially for teaching multicultural literature for the purpose of developing ICC. This approach is based on Rosenblatt’s transactional and Bank’s transformation theories (1995: 121-125) which facilitates students to get engaged in transaction with literature about unfamiliar cultures, broadens their horizons to encompass temperaments and cultures various from their own and encourages them to reflect on their attitudes, assumptions and beliefs. One of the most Rosenblatt’s crucial contributions is the humanistic approach to literature in the process of teaching literature in EFL. According to the author, literature comprises features of real life and human experiences, so while reading the literature students strive for perceiving human behavior and circumstances. In light of this assertion, one of the key challenges of English teachers should be the study of literature as a tool of constructing our understanding of reality and the world around us. This notion becomes imperative in the EFL setting since EFL learners deal with the world around them and crave for understanding intercultural conceptions. Consequently, literature is one of the best keys to become more culturally tolerant, respectful and open-minded to various cross-cultural experiences.

The requirement of content-based model is becoming increasingly omnipresent in EFL since foreign languages are currently deemed as the medium through which subject matter is taught. It aims at transferring from the traditional grammar-oriented focus to the study of subject matter, since dealing with topics and the realities of the world is more significant than just learning grammar structures (Stryker & Leaver 1997: 67). The content-based instruction is targeted at combining two types of knowledge simultaneously: content knowledge and knowledge of language since materials are arranged based on contents which challenge learners to consciously reflect on the language (Schcolnik & Kol 2006: 79). In this vein, Richards & Rodgers (2001: 63) claim that for effectively teaching academic subject matter and foreign language skills, EFL teachers should collaborate content-based instruction and literature study. Consequently, McRae (1996: 15) explains that literature is a valuable language tool (with authentic texts), so it can assist language minority students to enhance their motivation, explore prior knowledge, and improve literacy development. Hence, the incorporation of content-based approach favours in applying perfectly selected authentic materials taken directly from the culture under consideration, and make the texts accessible to the students at their level of proficiency. Therefore, in order to successfully achieve these benefits, EFL instructors should design the collaborative content-based literature class meticulously to meet the needs of their students.

The present case study was designed for and carried out in two groups of 20 intermediate EFL freshmen each (total 40 students, 37 females and 3 males) aged 18 to 20. The particular course called “Major English” aims to achieve B2 level of Common European Framework of Reference for Languages at the end of semester. Based on CEFR requirements, a B2 learner can understand the key concepts of complicated texts on both general and abstract topics; can communicate fluently and spontaneously without tension; can convey clear thoughts on any topic and discuss one’s viewpoints on any suggested issue giving the benefits and drawbacks of various options. The participants were regular students; hence, they could easily get enrolled in classroom activities. All in all, the students’ proficiency level is the same, otherwise it would impede difficulties to arrive at reliable results. In the first academic semester of English courses they worked with the communicative textbook “English for Translators” (Part I) (Khachatryan A., Charchoghlyan L., Gabrielyan S., Hakobyan G., Harutyunyan N., 2012) which is a four-part course book intended for the students studying at the department of Translation Studies. Albeit the students did not have any problems in understanding the texts assigned for the course, the reading materials selected were novel to them. It should be also noted that these students had already passed some relevant English courses, including Phonetics and Intermediate Academic Writing, with the same teachers. Furthermore, they had worked on class projects to study cultural content of the U.S. and the United Kingdom. These students had also been delivered adapted and short versions of reading passages and some authentic reading from “Breaking News” and “VOA” websites. However, they hadn’t much dealt with authentic reading materials of the US and UK literature previously. Hence, the piloting phase helped the researchers make some modifications in the content and methodology of the course.

For the purpose of the project, 3 multicultural literary pieces were incorporated in an intermediate English course as a tool to facilitate students to enhance their intercultural communicative competence. For the implementation of the research students were assigned to read and analyze the aforementioned stories within 10 days.

Initially, Inquiry-based approach was utilized when students dealt with the short story “Cat in the Rain” by O. Henry. Proceeding the key points of this approach, a study guide was delivered to students comprising 5 questions with special focus on their reading process. At the initial stage, learners were to read the story on their own by responding the questions during the reading process. At the next stage they were to exchange the feedback of the reading piece with their peers (see questions sample, Appendix A).

In the next pedagogical procedure, the transactional approach was applied during the reading of “The Fire” written by the Armenian-American writer William Saroyan. At this phase, students reflected on the story comparing their own experiences with that of the leading character of the literary work. Through the selected approach students got engaged in revealing and identifying literary topics such as emotions, confrontation with the reality, symbols, key concepts and viewpoints. Furthermore, students were able to speak about psychological depression, values and aspects which will be examined in further findings since these are consistent with the development of intercultural communicative competence.

Analysis was carried out through the content-based approach in reference with the short story “The Story of an Hour” by the American novelist Kate Chopin. The freshmen not only analyzed the characters, exchanged their opinions about feminism, oppressive marriage, but also after carrying out some research tasks on the relevant themes shared their experience and referred to bleak situations where women were different from the traditional ones. The aforementioned will be discussed in the findings of this case study.

Before embarking on research students underwent a diagnosis stage comprising 3 key questions: 1. Are you aware of the notion of intercultural communicative competence? 2. Have you previously read authentic literary texts in English? 3. Have you ever heard of the term American multicultural literature? Regarding question one the vast majority of students (37 out of 40) claimed not to be aware of the term. As for question two, some students (10 out of 40) appeared to have dealt with the authentic literature and for the last question they affirmed that they were not familiar with the multicultural literature.

After the survey students were briefly introduced to the key concepts of ICC, its peculiarities and importance in the literature. This precise presentation was aimed at promoting students’ awareness of the relevant issues in the teaching and learning process and for further implementation in their study.

After the pedagogical intervention a qualitative analysis of the data was gathered from the students’ comments and observations. Questions guiding this study were gathered during class sessions and right after students had read and discussed each short story. Essentially, there were 2 data collection instruments.

Direct observations: Participants were observed during the development of the pedagogical implementation to define how they dealt with the constructivist approaches in the study of literary texts. Descriptive field notes were taken to acquire data of the various situations taking place in class (see Appendix B). Participants were aware of the notes taken.

In-depth interviewing: Students were interviewed and recorded individually (with their prior approval) on one occasion to collect data from their critical responses about the readings and the methodological procedures suggested. Each interview lasted five to eight minutes. It was a structured interview which aimed at asking respondents three key questions: 1. What cultural information have you gained through the reading of authentic literary texts? 2. What was your experience of reading multicultural literary texts in this course? 3. Are you in favour of implementing the aforementioned approaches in this course? The recordings were transcribed directly into a computer file.

Eventually, giving grounds for the incorporation of multicultural literature in EFL setting participants’ viewpoints and applied pedagogical approaches as salient data were taken into account. For instance, several patterns of students’ reflective feedback in regard to the effectiveness of the inquiry-based and content-based approaches are registered in Appendix C.

Before reading the short story “Cat in the Rain”, students were initially asked key questions to enable them to view the story from a more critical standpoint, which was a very productive teaching technique. The mentioned strategy increases students’ engagement in discussion-based classes underlining students’ significant contribution in the negotiation of meaning while interpreting their views on the story. During the pedagogical procedure students individually responded the questions posted in the study guide (Appendix A) trying to explore salient features in the literary pieces. Moreover, the inquiry-based approach provided reflective reading with which EFL learners were enthusiastic to respond questions in order to encourage interrogation of texts and foster critical analysis. Consequently, the scripts of the field notes show that with regard to the first question, most Armenian respondents (15) claimed the key message of the short story was the loneliness and isolation of the American wife, whereas 3 respondents stated that solitude was the result of the age difference between the couple, finally 3 note that it was the outcome of modern life and the immorality of the Western lifestyle. In the character with whom most respondents (16) were sympathetic was the American wife explaining that their sympathy was due to her loneliness, 2 mentioned that it was because of her inability to communicate with her spouse, and 2 referred to her obsession with possession. Significantly, students’ interviews and comments greatly promoted the inquiry-based process for the construction of knowledge. As a result, it has become obvious that through the incorporation of the inquiry-based approach students did not only increase communicative competence, but at the same time gained intercultural information. Assuming field notes, two types of attitudes towards the short story were revealed. The first group of students evidently viewed the story as representing the materialism and consumer culture of the West and the United States in particular. Some members of this group believed that Hemingway was condoning this lifestyle and implying that possessions, even though trivial, could fill the void which may be felt in life. The second group identified the core of the story as one of solitude and loneliness; nevertheless, they did not relate the theme to Western culture, but to contemporary man and the age of industrialization globally. Eventually, the participants in this case study claimed that the story varied from Armenian ones in that it lacked a tight plot and morals, which was deemed to be a distinctive peculiarity of Armenian stories.

William Saroyan’s story “The Fire” carries a great psychological content. The whole story conveys a little boy’s emotions and profound psychological thoughts caused by his mum’s death. Through transactional approach EFL students vicariously reflected on the content of the story trying to analyze the same situation in their own life context. The monitor of the group was the key person to elicit information from her classmates trying to encourage them to actively get enrolled in the discussion. It turned out that some of the participants had experienced cruel blow of life and they had a feeling of injustice, torture and despair. Surprisingly, almost most of the students (14 out of 20) claimed that they experienced such kind of similar emotions such as vanity, intolerance of destroyed hopes and expectations. This activity contributed significantly to discussion of issues related to facing the reality and life pitfalls and how to get over all these. During implication of transactional approach participants implicitly detected intercultural elements in the story trying to compare boy’s cherished image of the family with theirs. Afterwards the students critically discussed the content stating that W. Saroyan developed in the story multicultural literary components and related them to their own cultural background through a process of interaction and self-reflection.

Students’ Voices: In the story I observed that the boy’s sufferings were similar to mine. I was permitted to convey my own experience not to be too critical with the hero’s abrupt and senseless decision to devastate his memories with his Mum. (Arevik, November 4, 2019, taken from interview)

We have a hot discussion on the plot of the story through self-reflection. It was a quite helpful tool to reveal otherness, to share and welcome the hero’s own torments through the story. I like the used approach since it was a new tool for me to analyze the text respectively. (Suzan, November 6, 2019, taken from interview)

Content-Based Instruction approach was one of the effective tools along with the aforementioned approaches fostering ICC, as the students were engaged more in content of the short story identifying values, the concept of feminism, independence and oppressive marriage depicted in the short story “The Story of an Hour”. Students were able to use more advanced thinking skills (HOTS) when learning new information and focused less on the structure of the language.

One of the well-articulated instances pinpointed in the descriptive field notes was when students were able to express their opinions about topics such as freedom, feminism, oppressive marriage scrutinized in the main characters’ behavior and attitudes and transfer them into their own culture. Through in-depth analysis and discussions students better perceived and experienced the new culture.

In the scope of classroom activities, the participants came up with their arguments and points involving all the students in class discussion when they read the selected story. In this respect the field notes disclose how one of the participants after gaining sufficient background knowledge dwells upon the concept of feminism relating it to the main character of the story Louise Mallard. The theme enabled other students to express their views supporting their opinions through the examples from the story. Interestingly the opinions were contradictory. In certain cases, within the framework of the present research students conducted individual studies on the feminism in American and Armenian cultures. Once they have carried out the research, they formed groups with other students engaged in the research activities, shared and compared the accumulated knowledge and experience introducing the outcome and their conclusions. The essential outcome of the CBI application was that in line with fostering ICC students developed their linguistic ability in the target language, constructed meaningful knowledge by using the target language English when dealing with the content. Here are some sheer observations taken from the discussions:

Students’ reflection: We had a very meaningful discussion and learned about unequal roles in marriages, female’s rights and identity in America of the late 19th century. (Eliza, from interview, November 4, 2019)

To my greatest disappointment I found out that women in the American society were repressed in their marriage in the late 19^th century. (Ann, from interview, November 4, 2019)

Surprisingly enough I found out that women who worked during the period of the 19^th century, especially married ones were denied by the society. (Milena, from interview, November 6, 2019)

The aforementioned observations underpin that students were not only competent to exchange their opinions and talk about the content related to the emerging feminism of the late 19th century, but also determine their attitudes towards their own culture and find out their beliefs concerning the criticism of marriage and independence of women. Consequently, they went through the stage of accepting the otherness.

Taking into account these findings, the students went through the stage of the appropriate research tasks aimed at increasing the level of their cultural awareness. Thus, incorporating literature in the EFL classroom has become a great tool to elaborate and develop ICC. This way a piece of literary work as a content served students to elaborate on different related issues. They investigated different literary topics, put forth personal ideas and addressed and arrived at various deductions.

To sum up, with the application of the abovementioned constructivist approaches EFL students were able to build and develop both knowledge of language and culture through a process of communicating and elaborating the meaning of real language in context.