An Integrated Approach to Language, Literature, and Intercultural Competence in English as a Foreign Language: The Transfer of LitLab from Dutch to English Literature

Abstract

Within EFL, there is a lack of material that integrates language, literature, and interculturality. As a step towards filling that gap, ten reading clubs were designed for the upper years of pre-university education in the Netherlands. The reading clubs, inspired by LitLab, were originally created for Dutch-language literature. This study has shown that they can also be used in an EFL-context for English-language novels. Moreover, the results from the questionnaires among (trainee) teachers and students found that there was a moderate to high level of support for implementing the reading clubs. In addition, a top 3 of teacher needs for successful implementation emerged. It consisted of changing the curriculum, concrete lesson plans, and expansion of the book collection at school. These needs should be taken seriously, as teachers ultimately decide if and how they use the innovation in their classroom. Furthermore, teachers indicated that they would expect the reading clubs to have a positive effect on students’ intercultural communicative competence as well as their reading motivation. Students were less certain about this. Unfortunately, neither group could be proven right or wrong, since the reading clubs were not tested out in practice. This is the most obvious and significant limitation of the study but also provides the most valuable line of future research.