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Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-ltr-10.1177_13621688231156391 for Implementation of an integrated intercultural literary pedagogy intervention in Spanish-as-a-foreign-language classrooms in the Netherlands: An effect study at the secondary level by Esther Schat, Ewout van der Knaap and Rick de Graaff in Language Teaching Research

Supplemental material, sj-docx-2-ltr-10.1177_13621688231156391 for Implementation of an integrated intercultural literary pedagogy intervention in Spanish-as-a-foreign-language classrooms in the Netherlands: An effect study at the secondary level by Esther Schat, Ewout van der Knaap and Rick de Graaff in Language Teaching Research

The construct of critical cultural awareness (CCA) is often regarded as an element pertaining to intercultural communicative competence (Byram, 1997, 2021). In this model, CCA is defined as the ability to “evaluate, critically, and on the basis of a systematic process of reasoning, values in one’s own culture and other cultures” (Byram, 2021, p. 90). Although the potential of literature to develop learners’ CCA is widely accepted by intercultural education scholars, Byram’s definition has some limitations as a theoretical basis for teaching students how to “evaluate and reason critically” about literary texts, as it does not take into account certain aspects of literary reading and critical interculturality that are essential in contemporary foreign language (FL) teaching and learning. This study aims to redefine CCA for the specific context of secondary literature education in a bottom-up manner, based on an analysis of student texts about migratory literature. To this end, 97 students learning Spanish as a FL in the upper forms of pre-university education (aged 15–19) at four schools in the Netherlands were asked to write an evaluation of two literary texts they read in class. Via qualitative analysis of these texts with Atlas.ti, three content categories – social justice, emotions and conflict – and two evaluative categories ­– cultural representation and transformation – were identified for CCA. The findings of this study have implications for other FL literature teaching settings, as a generic rubric for assessment of student texts was developed based on the criteria that emerged from the data.

The construct of critical cultural awareness (CCA) is often regarded as an element pertaining to intercultural communicative competence (Byram, 1997, 2021). In this model, CCA is defined as the ability to “evaluate, critically, and on the basis of a systematic process of reasoning, values in one’s own culture and other cultures” (Byram, 2021, p. 90). Although the potential of literature to develop learners’ CCA is widely accepted by intercultural education scholars, Byram’s definition has some limitations as a theoretical basis for teaching students how to “evaluate and reason critically” about literary texts, as it does not take into account certain aspects of literary reading and critical interculturality that are essential in contemporary foreign language (FL) teaching and learning. This study aims to redefine CCA for the specific context of secondary literature education in a bottom-up manner, based on an analysis of student texts about migratory literature. To this end, 97 students learning Spanish as a FL in the upper forms of pre-university education (aged 15–19) at four schools in the Netherlands were asked to write an evaluation of two literary texts they read in class. Via qualitative analysis of these texts with Atlas.ti, three content categories – social justice, emotions and conflict – and two evaluative categories ­– cultural representation and transformation – were identified for CCA. The findings of this study have implications for other FL literature teaching settings, as a generic rubric for assessment of student texts was developed based on the criteria that emerged from the data.

Intercultural competence is a crucial element of foreign language education. It is argued that the multi-faceted nature of intercultural competence implies that assessment of its construct is a complex process; as a consequence, its progress is difficult to measure. Although several tools for evaluating intercultural competence currently exist, research on their use in secondary school settings is scarce. This study reports on the development and validation of an instrument intended specifically for use in foreign language literature education. To this end, tangible learning objectives for intercultural literary competence were developed based on five dimensions of intercultural communicative competence (Byram, 1997) and six categories of literary competence (Witte, 2008). These objectives were re-formulated for implementation in a student questionnaire. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the construct validity of the instrument was investigated among a sample of 164 secondary school students in the upper forms of pre-university education in the Netherlands. Although the results supported the hypothesized wo second-order factor structure, the model fit indices were less favourable compared to the fit indices of an alternative five first-order factor model. Subsequently, correlation and summability analyses were performed to test the reliability of the instrument. Future research and implications are discussed.