The role of intercultural competence in teaching literary texts : teachers' and students' perspectives

Abstract EN

Developing the teaching of literature through intercultural competency could be a powerful tool for achieving a well intercultural understanding, appreciation, and awareness.

It could help people to develop the competency that they need for participating in meaningful intercultural communication.

This study intends to argue that teaching literature through intercultural communication competence provides an excellent opportunity to foster the skills that Algerian students will need to comprehend and analyse literary texts.

The findings were collected through two questionnaires administrated to a sample of EFL students and teachers from various universities in Algeria.

The main conclusion we reached is that, intercultural competence has a pivotal contribution in teaching literature; teachers of literature should give the crucial role of culture in their teaching practices so that EFL students raise their intercultural competence in the EFL classroom as well as maintain positive attitudes to successfully interact with people from other cultures.