Multicultural fiction for EFL teacher training: delving into The Wandering Jews

Abstract

The present paper discusses the importance of teaching culture in class nowadays and proposes a specific example of doing so by focusing on Jewish culture. The paper reviews some of the most important themes that have been included in that culture throughout its history and it shows Jewish fiction and the conflictive depiction of Jews in literature and fiction in general. Given the power of fictional resources as a useful tool, it also delves into the role of multicultural fiction in the didactics of foreign language and literature. The last part of the paper is the actual design of a didactic proposal based on Jewish fiction to work with pre-service EFL teachers in order to make a contribution to the current necessity of training teachers in intercultural aspects.