Intercultural Interpretation and Creative Critical Thinking: Enhancing Language Instruction with Literary Studies in an EMI Higher Education Context

Literature is both produced and consumed within socio-cultural contexts, and its strategic use in language instruction allows language learners to engage socio-cultural analysis crucial for deeper understanding of the second language. Moreover, when the L2 literature is studied in relation to the language learner’s first language and culture, intercultural interpretation and critical thinking can be fostered and language acquisition enhanced.

In this presentation I discuss a classroom discussion activity and a written assignment from two university-level literature modules that enhance English language acquisition in an EMI learning context at a Sino-British university in China. The classroom group discussion activity comes from an introductory literature module and asks students to use oral English to compare cultural similarities and differences as represented in two films: Hamlet and the Chinese adaptation The Banquet. The written assignment comes from a fantasy literature module and asks students to write a literary interpretation essay comparing one Chinese fantasy text and one Western fantasy text discussed in the module.

I conclude by suggesting literary instruction which emphasizes intercultural engagement, literary interpretation, creative critical thinking, and L2 language use in oral discussions and written assignments supports and enhances the learning goals of the language classroom.