Investigating the Intercultural Competence Teaching via the Literary Texts to EFL Learners 4th Year Middle School Learners as a Sample.

Abstract

Along with the mastery of the grammar and vocabulary of a given language, contemporary students are also expected to acquire intercultural communicative competence (ICC). This requirement should also be reflected in EFL textbooks, which are considered to be fundamental didactic tools in FL education. With the rising interest in culture and the development of intercultural approaches in language teaching, evaluating the cultural contents in EFL textbooks is becoming a must concern. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to report the results of the investigation of intercultural component in the 4th Year Middle School textbook packages, specifically, the scrutiny of the intercultural competence teaching via the literary texts to EFL learners. The premise is that the literary texts presented in English textbooks are not sufficient for EFL learners’ intercultural competence development, in which the target culture is not well-covered in the textbook under investigation yet. To verify these hypotheses, this research work attempted to offer an analysis of the textbook cultural content. Furthermore, to ensure more accurate facts, a questionnaire was done with a 20 EFL middle school teachers. The interplay of the obtained results have not only revealed that the textbook content does not offer enough literary texts to contribute in the improvement of the EFL learner’ intercultural competence, but teachers themselves; claims that the cultural content, particularly, the cultural content proposed in the literary texts do not prepare appropriately learners for real-life intercultural communication situations. Consequently, it can be said that the Algerian course designers still give much importance to learners’ linguistic competence at the detriment of the intercultural one.