How to implement a picturebook in EFL Primary classrooms to develop children’s intercultural competence

Abstract

The aim of this article is to meet the increasing need to develop the intercultural dimension of communicative competence through an authentic resource, in this case, picturebooks. An innovative pedagogical initiative was carried out with two primary-level classes (5^th and 6^th) in a bilingual school in central Madrid (Spain). The selected resource was the picturebook entitled Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story, about a present-day Native American family preparing a traditional post-colonial recipe. The resource was introduced through reading aloud as part of a project in which 44 students were asked to write a recipe in English for a dish that is special to them or their families, accompanying the text with an illustration. The contributions of students, which were compiled in a recipe book composed of 44 main courses and desserts, were analysed in accordance with the main topics of focus in the intervention, identifying who was the recipe-keeper in each family. It was determined that the most popular topic was family time, followed by tradition. In most cases, the mothers were the keepers of the recipes, and the illustrations reflected a highly collaborative family effort to prepare the dishes. To conclude, the recipes were analysed from the perspective of Byram’s (1997) Intercultural Communicative Competence model, revealing that the dimension of knowledge of self and other and discovery and interaction were the most prevalent in the recipe book. This suggests awareness-raising among children of the differences between countries and a willingness to familiarise themselves with other cultures.