In the educational context, the linguistic aspect of language learning should be observed in parallel with intercultural communicative competence since this interwoven unity will facilitate students to enhance cultural understanding and develop critical reading skills, thus acquiring novel cultural frames of reference and a transformed world view. The aim of the article is to underpin the significance of short story inclusion in the EFL classroom as a powerful tool to foster ICC. The three socio-constructivist approaches suggested in the article are targeted at working on multicultural literary texts at cognitive and critical levels by focusing on the development of intercultural communicative competence. The article is a case study experience carried out in an intermediate EFL classroom at YSU in Armenia, in 2019. The qualitative analysis of the data provides us with valuable insights about the integration of literary texts in teaching language and constructing cultural knowledge through social interaction. The results can be further utilized by textbook writers and implemented in teacher training courses.
The increasing tendency of intercultural contacts and interaction as well as the application of English as the global language pose drastically changing challenges to EFL education worldwide. In the past if the chief goal of foreign language education was to promote learner’s near-native linguistic competence, currently, English predominantly serves for communication between representatives of different cultures who speak it as a second or third language. Therefore, in view of exploring how language and culture can be increased in EFL teaching and learning process, the article posits that one of the effective means to assist EFL learners to develop intercultural communicative competence at a critical level is the incorporation of multicultural literature, a conducive tool that might prepare students to become critical intercultural thinkers in this globalized scenario.
Currently teachers are well-aware of the fact that one of the essential objectives of language teaching is to facilitate learners to communicate effectively with people from various cultural backgrounds. Albeit there are many approaches to assist EFL learners to attain communicative competence in English, EFL instruction in the Armenian context, still has shortage of incorporation of ICC since classes are chiefly based on the study of language forms and communicative functions. In this sense, a myriad number of scholars such as
Another view suggested by
The present article is a case study conducted in Yerevan State University in 2019 which aims to suggest mechanisms of promoting intercultural communicative competence through inclusion of literary texts. In this respect the key objective of the study is to incorporate authentic literary short stories in an intermediate English class based on the concept that literary texts are ideal means to assist EFL learners to evolve intercultural communicative competence. With these goals in mind, the following two questions are under consideration of this research:
According to Byram’s well-known model ICC consists of three key components:
Byram’s model has been used as the theoretical backbone of the present study. We have intended to explore if the integration of literary texts based on short stories and cultural points of EFL learners can affect their level of ICC. More specifically, the role of literary texts in providing a platform for identifying intercultural issues was investigated.
By and large, the materials suggested for reading such as newspapers, magazines, and books are obviously charged with diverse levels of cultural expression because, over all, they are the product of a specific society vitally depicting cultural content. Yet, it is important to point out that literary texts are considered challenging to be assimilated and understood by EFL learners.
In the view of outstanding scholars such as
Intercultural communicative competence is the key aim to attain second language learning, it is of paramount importance to take into consideration the incorporation of carefully selected literary texts, if possible, at all levels of instruction. Whereby, we are exposed to read or listen to various literary pieces from a very early age in our own language, such as, fairy tales, legends, and other literary works from children’s literature, reflecting the specific heritage of our own culture and traditions. At the same time, selecting adequate literary pieces, we might enable the EFL learners to perceive diverse cultural expressions (
The incorporation of literary texts can stimulate reflection on cultural diversity, enhance perception of the source culture, accordingly foster tolerance and openness towards target culture. Relevant literary pieces not only enable students to develop a platform for critical thinking of other cultures but also impact on students’ vicarious experience of foreign attitudes and values. Therefore, cultural awareness can be achieved through a careful selection of literary texts. In this respect, the selected short stories are typically
The pedagogical reasons for choosing the given short stories are conditioned by the fact that by means of multicultural literature learners can identify, draw parallels and oppose the diversities and similarities between their home culture and those of others. Therefore, students can decrease discriminatory attitudes and stereotypes. Whereby, multicultural literature contributes to students’ awareness to develop intercultural communicative competence.
In this connection, three short stories by American authors “Cat in the Rain” by
Since the research project proposes the enhancement of ICC through American multicultural literature three pedagogical approaches based on the constructivist model, Inquiry-based approach, Transactional approach and Content-based approach were incorporated for the analysis of literature in the EFL classroom. Clarification and application of the aforementioned approaches will be revealed further in the article.
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 (
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 (
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
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 (
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 (
This research is carried out in an intermediate English class at the department of Theory and Translation at YSU in 2019. The faculty aims at preparing EFL learners who will eventually work as qualified English translators in diverse institutions in Armenia. The academic strengths and the pedagogical backgrounds to do such a job are highly required for the employment. Therefore, learners’ focus of study is the language in all its diverse manifestations, embracing the native language, foreign languages, literature, translation theories and those other alternatives applied for the point of communication and cognitive construction. This focus implies that students have to be prepared not only to learn English as a foreign language, but to be supplied with the pedagogical approaches to teach it. Consequently, during this research, learners were expected to become informed of the teaching tools utilized for the reading of literary texts, so as to enable them to use the aforementioned approaches in their future teaching careers.
The present case study was designed for and carried out in two groups of 20
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
In the next pedagogical procedure, the
Analysis was carried out through the
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.
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
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.
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:
To my greatest disappointment I found out that women in the American society were repressed in their marriage in the late 19th century. (Ann, from interview, November 4, 2019) Surprisingly enough I found out that women who worked during the period of the 19th 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.
To wrap things up, it should be noted that the present qualitative research was conducted to explore the efficient mechanisms promoting ICC through multicultural literature in Armenian EFL setting. According to the collected results (questionnaire/field notes and students’ interview recordings), it is detectable that albeit the students belong to the similar cultural and religious backgrounds, they possessed contrasting attitudes and viewpoints towards the same literary pieces.
In this case study three constructivist approaches have been in the limelight which were greatly acclaimed by the targeted participants. However, the students expressed especially tremendous interest towards
Therefore, teaching literature especially multicultural literature should be a more constant practice in EFL context, adopting eclectic and solid pedagogical approaches such as those implemented in the article rather than attempting to study those literary pieces in isolation without assuming consistent pedagogical perspectives. Additionally, these productive mechanisms provoke students’ creative thinking and provide a platform for the teachers to adopt and adapt a myriad of means for developing intercultural communicative skills through multicultural literature, which provides vicarious experiences from cultures other than their own; and these practices enable them to perceive diverse backgrounds, thereby impacting on their decisions about how they will live in this culturally pluralistic world.
Whereby, EFL classroom can be a quite suitable place in which both teachers and learners can boost critical ICC, set up social awareness and promote resistant multiculturalism.
Therefore, in an attempt to acquire more in-depth results in promoting intercultural communicative competence, particularly through short stories, the following suggestions can be brought up:
facilitate teachers to select multicultural literature according to some criteria (authentic characters, details, theme, style and etc.) foster teachers to incorporate multicultural literature in the curriculum introduce EFL students to the diversity that surrounds them stimulate students to be proactive in accepting and respecting otherness incorporate interactive strategies to increase engaging atmosphere develop students critical thinking through multicultural literature integrate facilitate students vicariously to get aware of multicultural literature motivate students to contrast their own culture with that of other
The short story is known for its lack of values, and a somewhat nihilistic sense of despair. This story illustrates the futile search for truth in a world governed by chance and it is packed with symbolism.
Explore the short story and respond the subsequent questions. Support your answer basing on key words and events.
The short story is the female search for identity and oppressive nature of marriage. The story strongly indicates that women have more social awareness and less social living space.
After reading the short story the students were assigned to carry out a research study on the concept of feminism in general and in America in particular comparing and contrasting it with the Armenian culture. After conducting their individual research, students had a discussion basing it on the
Four students were leading the discussion on Kate Chopin’s story “The Story of an Hour”. During the first stage they presented some autobiographical data of the author relating it to the plot of the short story. The participants also discussed the sensitive and graceful depictions of the women’s lives through feminist criticism evolving in America in the late 19th century. They commented on women’s restricted rights in regard with education and labor, social norms that limited women’s autonomy, one of the most crucial issues of the period reflected in the story. All the collected data and information were new for the students. They reflected on the plight of the main character of the selected story Louise Mallard associating it with the current women’s role in the American society.
Participants were competent to speak in English about feminism of the 19th century and related the events of the short story to the public views shaping the image of women in the 20th century.
Some of the participants spoke about American cultural elements referring to traditional marriage presented in the story. They compared and contrasted single and independent woman with the married ones. For example, students said that one of the important cultural values of the American society in the 19th century was that women were inferior to their husbands and that they were expected to lead their lives the way their husbands wished. Also the women had little or no financial or other independence as it was with the main character of the selected story Louise Mallard, who needed freedom so much that found happiness in loss and death of her husband. More particularly, through the sudden death of her husband, the woman is on the cusp of experiencing true independence in the only way available to women at that period of time. Other students expressed the view that Louise Mallard, a woman who searched selfhood and identity, was the victim of the established cultural norms of the period.
This exchange of the ideas was very effective as it gave rise to emotional discussions and the participants were very critical and analytical in terms of revealing crucial cultural values and elements different and similar to Armenian ones. Therefore, the process of the activities showed that students became more interculturally aware of certain cultural aspects and background that the story provided.
One of the participants emphasized that the story showed how important freedom was to a woman. When comparing the source culture to her own culture, she said the relationship between husband and wife portrayed in the story was somehow different from the spouses’ relationship in Armenia. This fact was conditioned by the period of time the story was written. Some other students contradicted the aforementioned point saying that the relationship between husband and wife were depicted traditionally and it reflected the reality of male-female relations in the Armenian society. They said that the Armenian husbands used to forbid their wives to do what they wanted, restricted their right to work and participate in social life.
The effectiveness of the implementation of this case study lies in the fact that students were able to focus and talk about issues related to traditional, non-traditional marriages, values and independence.
Knarik:
Celine:
Margaret:
Rubina:
Diana: