Critical Intercultural Learning through Topics of Deep Culture in an EFL Classroom

Abstract

This article reports a qualitative research study in an advanced EFL (English as a Foreign Language) class of the language program at a public University in Bogotá, Colombia in 2013. Through a critical multiculturalism approach to education, the study explores how EFL pre-service teachers addressed complicated topics of deep culture rather than studying usual congratulatory topics of surface culture. Deep/complex elements of the target culture, the United States, and EFL preservice teachers' own culture, Colombia, were discussed through the reading of authentic literary short stories of the U.S. in order to build pre-service teachers' critical intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Findings show that participants built critical thinking and intercultural awareness when they read and talked about controversial topics present in the short stories, and related them to their own culture and life experiences. Among others, they discussed issues dealing with the loss of cultural identity, the difference between cultural assimilation and acculturation, social injustice, prejudice, and social class struggles. The study indicates that deep culture should be a relevant teaching content in the professional preparation of EFL pre-service teachers.

Keywords

• African descent
• social mobility
• social representations
• Tuluá