Integrating intercultural literary competence: An intervention study in foreign language education

Abstract

Confronted with a reading decline among teenagers, literary education is having a hard time at secondary schools. As a Spanish teacher at the Spinoza Lyceum in Amsterdam, however, Esther Schat noticed that students can be motivated to read books in a foreign language through an intercultural approach. According to the author of this dissertation, more emphasis is needed on the integration of language and culture in current foreign language education. This research shows how intercultural literature education offers opportunities to create a curriculum with greater depth of content, in which the subject matter of the languages is paramount and skills have an essential supporting function. With a doctoral grant for teachers from Dudoc Alfa, the author investigated how a dialogic approach to literature education can contribute to the intercultural competences of students. For two years she followed a group of three hundred students and, in consultation with teachers, she designed a theoretical model, a pedagogy and three series of lessons on the theme of migration. The research was characterized by a typical three-phase educational design research approach: analysis and exploration; design and construction; and evaluation and reflection. In the first phase of the research, she explored teacher beliefs and practices through a survey. What do teachers want and what do teachers already do with intercultural competence and literature? Based on these insights, the theoretical model for Intercultural Literary Competence and accompanying learning objectives were developed (Chapter 2 and 3). In the second phase, various teacher materials were developed (Chapter 4 and 5) such as an evaluation instrument and several workbooks for Spanish literary texts on the theme of migration. Added to that, these chapters provide hands-on principles for text selection and task design as pedagogical principles for an Integrated Intercultural Literary Pedagogy were formulated and validated. In the final phase, the effects of the pedagogy were investigated (Chapter 6,7 and 8). We found that students not only became more proficient in the foreign language by means of dialogical speaking and writing tasks about books with controversial themes, but also acquired competences to discuss and appreciate differences in moral views in dialogue with fellow students. The lesson series were conducted in fourteen classes at seven schools in the upper forms of pre-university education. Aiming to develop a more substantive curriculum in which the subject-content of language education is paramount and language skills have an essential supporting function, this dissertation provides reliable models for teachers and examples for upcoming curricular innovations.