FOSTERING INTERCULTURAL AWARENESS IN ONLINE EAP CLASSROOMS USING THE REALIST SOAP OPERA GENRE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46827/ejoe.v8i1.4640Keywords:
intercultural awareness, ethnographic skills, EFL, soap operasAbstract
This qualitative work attempts to investigate the viability of using the British realist soap genre as an authentic cultural resource for raising the intercultural awareness of Greek EFL university students about social issues relevant to their age. Five students participated in this study. Participants watched thirteen online episodes of the British realist soap EastEnders for one academic semester within their EAP courses and completed weekly reflective tasks based on the storylines of each episode. Data were gathered from semi-structured interviews. The findings garnered suggest that British realist soap operas could be exploited in order to foster intercultural awareness processes of Greek EFL university students. This small-scale study highlights the need for further research in the field of intercultural awareness within the EAP context. Additionally, it is proposed that EFL teachers in Greece and elsewhere invest more in intercultural training and use authentic materials more often in the EAP classroom.
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