Discovering English(es): The Experience of Otherness through Literature.

Abstract

At its very beginning, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages [CEFRL] (2001) states that foreign language teaching should help develop the learner’s sense of identity through the experience of otherness (p. 1). In this respect, students of English as a foreign language seem to associate that experience with learning a restrictive language carrying essentially either British or American values. However, they fail to realise that learning English goes beyond this. English conveys the patchwork reality of emigration, interculturality, and hybridity. As an English teacher in an Escuela Oficial de Idiomas, it is my responsibility to teach the language from this broadminded perspective. Consequently, I would like to share how my B2 level students were encouraged to rethink their concept of English by reading two stories of The Thing around your Neck1 by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian writer telling about immigrants in the United States.