ACHIEVING CULTURAL AWARENESS IN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL) CLASSES USING AFRICAN NOVELS.

Abstract

Literature has been used to teach the English language for a considerably long period of time. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of specifically using African literary texts to achieve cultural awareness via cross cultural reading in the field of teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The study extends to establish why African literary texts have more to offer compared to other literary texts from elsewhere in terms of the capacity to teach English as a language. The effectiveness and broad benefits of including literature for the purpose of teaching English as a Foreign Language or indeed as a Second Language is highlighted in this study. This study examined fourteen chapters of the novel Things Fall Apart to assess how culture is portrayed and how this portrayal of culture helps readers in cross-cultural reading to be more aware of the African culture including their own culture from recognizing and appreciating the differences in the elements that constitute their own cultures.