Multicultural literature : a strategy to enhance some 21st century skills through a communicative approach.

Abstract

One of the key issues that Colombian schools face is that learners do not interact actively using the foreign language for social and multicultural purposes. This is based on the lack of a multicultural view of the language as a tool to improve learners’ communicative abilities in the use of a foreign language. Thus, there is a key value in including multicultural literature in education to foster learners’ some 21st century skills (Social Skills, Communicative Abilities and Critical Thinking) in the foreign language through a communicative approach. Therefore, the concept of multicultural literature is perceived as pieces of work that integrate cultural features using the language to maintain and express them. So, using a communicative approach is suitable for using the language in cultural and social contexts to understand its richness in learning. As a result, there could be a significant improvement in students’ some 21st century skills by applying multicultural short stories through a communicative approach.