Abilities and Cultural Understanding through Literature in the EFL Classroom : - A Literature Review

The English language can be seen as a lingua franca of contemporary times. Its spread and use in the globalized world has affected most levels of society and it can be argued that, in current times, English is synonymous with communication. This need for communication has shaped the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) syllabus, which is evident in the Swedish national steering documents for the educational system. For the upper secondary school these documents show an emphasis on communication, on cultural understanding, and also on the use of literature within the EFL classroom. The need to possess communicative abilities and cultural understanding, in connection with the use of literature, has sparked an interest to investigate if and how literature itself can be used as a tool to develop and improve EFL students’ communicative skills and cultural understanding. This literature review thesis analyzes five international research articles from different geographical parts of the Globe. The findings are categorized, compared, synthesized, and finally discussed in order to answer the research questions asked, and also compared with the English subject syllabus for the Swedish upper secondary school. The findings indicate that the analyzed articles share a consensus, to a varied degree, regarding the positive aspects of literature use in the EFL setting. The arguments are that communicative skills and cultural understanding are intertwined - enabling each other to exist, develop, and improve. One cannot exist fully without the other, and literature is a good tool to use to develop and improve these abilities. Literature can help develop all skills needed to acquire and produce both written and spoken English, and it also enables cultural understanding and a broadening of the mind. Where the articles differ somewhat is in the ideas of why literature is a good tool, how to implement literature in the classrooms, and what some of the negative aspects might be. The thesis also brings the lack of Swedish studies within EFL to the readers’ attention, as well as the need to do more research focusing on the students’ perspectives towards literature use in the EFL setting.

Exploring the influence of context in a community-based facilitation intervention focusing on neonatal health and survival in Vietnam : a qualitative study

Background In the Neonatal health – Knowledge into Practice (NeoKIP) trial in Vietnam, local stakeholder groups, supported by trained laywomen acting as facilitators, promoted knowledge translation (KT) resulting in decreased neonatal mortality. In general, as well as in the community-based NeoKIP trial, there is a need to further understand how context influences KT interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Thus, the objective of this study was to explore the influence of context on the facilitation process in the NeoKIP intervention. Methods A secondary content analysis was performed on 16 Focus Group Discussions with facilitators and participants of the stakeholder groups, applying an inductive approach to the content on context through naïve understanding and structured analysis. Results The three main-categories of context found to influence the facilitation process in the NeoKIP intervention were: (1) Support and collaboration of local authorities and other communal stakeholders; (2) Incentives to, and motivation of, participants; and (3) Low health care coverage and utilization. In particular, the role of local authorities in a KT intervention was recognized as important. Also, while project participants expected financial incentives, non-financial benefits such as individual learning were considered to balance the lack of reimbursement in the NeoKIP intervention. Further, project participants recognized the need to acknowledge the needs of disadvantaged groups. Conclusions This study provides insight for further understanding of the influence of contextual aspects to improve effects of a KT intervention in Vietnam. We suggest that future KT interventions should apply strategies to improve local authorities’ engagement, to identify and communicate non-financial incentives, and to make disadvantaged groups a priority. Further studies to evaluate the contextual aspects in KT interventions in LMICs are also needed.