Intercultural competence through text in the EFL classroom

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to gather the pupils experience with intercultural competence. As part of LK20 it is specifically mentioned that working with texts should help develop the students ability to reflect on and assess other cultures. This should help them gain insight into other cultures and develop their intercultural competence. In this sense intercultural competence is not just knowledge about other cultures, but an ability to relate and understand someone from another culture than your own. This thesis consists of theory related to LK20, intercultural competence and culture learning with a basis in Michael Byram’s theories of intercultural competence. For this thesis there were conducted a questionnaire on 45 vg1 vocational studies pupils and four separate interviews on vg3 pupils who had English 1 or 2 as an elective class. The data from these studies is presented below, analysed and discussed using thematic analysis.