Exploring the intercultural potential of picturebooks in early secondary EFL classrooms in Austria
The case of perspective-taking
Intercultural education has constituted an interdisciplinary teaching principle in Austrian upper and lower
secondary curricula since 1992 and was reinforced by a decree in 2017. Literary texts have been identified as promising resources
and valuable tools for initiating intercultural learning through their frequently inherent multi-perspectivity encouraging
students to empathize with characters, consider different perspectives, contrast viewpoints, relate stories to personal
experiences, and reflect on diverse ideas. However, research on the implementation of intercultural teaching and learning using
literature in foreign language classrooms has so far mostly focused on upper secondary education and has frequently related to
using postcolonial fiction writings. To counter the knowledge gap on the implementation of intercultural learning in lower
educational levels, this study adopts a literary science approach to explore the potential of picturebooks in early secondary EFL
classrooms. Using
The Little Green Jacket (
Dee, 2020), it specifically
examines perspective-taking as a key dimension of intercultural learning. Through written learner reflections, the research study
assesses whether students in two Austrian EFL classrooms (
n = 35) can adopt a different viewpoint. The findings
show that most students are successful, or at least partly successful, in perspective-taking and mostly describe emotions of
sadness but also hopefulness in their reflective writings. Thus, the study suggests that picturebooks have the potential to
facilitate perspective-taking as an essential dimension of intercultural education among young EFL learners with low language
proficiency, highlighting their largely untapped potential in early language education.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Exploring intercultural learning
- 2.1The role of literature in intercultural learning
- 2.2The potential of picturebooks as literary media
- 3.Introducing The Little Green Jacket by Jodi Dee
- 4.Methodology
- 4.1Research questions
- 4.2Context and participants
- 4.3Data collection
- 4.4Data analysis
- 5.Findings
- 5.1Perspective-taking in the two classrooms
- 5.2Themes in the learners’ texts
- 5.3Emotions in the learners’ texts
- 6.Discussion
- 7.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References