The Evolving Intercultural Identities of EFL Learners : A Narrative Analysis

Abstract

In English language teaching, literature is the most popular media to teach culture. One of the most cited reasons for using literature is because it provides examples of 'language-in-use' and depicts real-life experience of its users. In the past, English-as-a-native-language (ENL) literature has been promoted in English classrooms as the "best" media to teach culture. As English is now the global language, the use of ENL literature is widely challenged. For that reason, this article aims to promote the use of selected multilingual literature, that is, personal narratives written by multilingual English users (MEUs), to teach culture. In particular, the study explores the contribution of multilingual literature to the students' perceived understanding of their culture(s) and identities. The data were drawn from students' weekly journals in responding to selected multilingual literatures and questionnaires. The paper will end with some teaching implications for developing students' evolving identities as MEUs by using multilingual literature