Teaching Culture through Reading Literature in English Language Teaching

Abstract

English as a lingua franca (ELF) has become a standardized mode of communication between diverse sociocultural groups. Besides linguistic competence, English language learners should possess adequate intercultural competence to establish successful social relations worldwide. Therefore, one of the main objectives of English language teaching (ELT) has become the development of intercultural speakers (Byram 1997; Kramsch 1998). One way of achieving this is by using literature in the classroom because learners interpret literary texts from their personal experience and are thus engaged both at a cognitive and an emotional level. Their individual interpretations can nevertheless also lead to generalizations and enforcement of stereotypes about foreign cultures. Hanauer (2001) has developed a method called focus-on-cultural understanding to expose learners to different interpretations. The study explores whether his method can be successfully applied in the context of Croatian university education. The method has proven to be effective for raising learners’ cultural awareness, which could lead to further development of their intercultural competence.

Storytime in English Language Teaching – Teachers’ Practices, Attitudes, and Challenges

“…Using authentic stories in ELT enables cross-curricular learning, develops students' awareness of multiculturalism and tolerance, promotes empathy, kindles imagination and creativity. What is more, literary texts also require interpretation skills and develop learners' cultural awareness (Lovrović and Kolega 2021).…”