This paper aims to discuss how teachers can promote intercultural understanding in the ESL/EFL classroom by teaching two multicultural novels, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. I argue that teaching multicultural literature in English classes can promote intercultural understanding by creating what language pedagogy theorist Ulrika Tornberg calls a “space-in- between” for students, regardless of whether they have multicultural backgrounds or not. All students benefit from the kinds of literary experience that such novels can offer by creating tolerance. They can also help all students, regardless of their cultural backgrounds, become what educational philosopher Martha Nussbaum refers to as “world citizens” as opposed to “narrow citizens” (85). I provide a lesson plan based on text-based reading strategies that could help students identify literary themes presented in The Thing Around Your Neck and Persepolis, because it will help students relate to the circumstances of the characters and create a deeper understanding of the implied meaning behind the stories.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:oru-65491 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Zakaria, Safa |
| Publisher | Örebro universitet, Institutionen för humaniora, utbildnings- och samhällsvetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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