Exploring Music to Learn Languages from an Intercultural Perspective

Abstract

The interconnected and changing social, political and economic reality of the postmodern era pushes for a perspective of language teaching that addresses the intercultural dimension of communication in the EFL classroom. This need added to the persistence of ethnocentrism, hate discourses, and discrimination demand an active role of teachers and students as intercultural mediators. This goal can be achieved with the integration of the intercultural dimension in language teaching. Therefore, this study aimed to integrate the intercultural approach of language teaching through the exploration of the cultural meanings in Rhythm and Blues (r&b) music. In this way, data collection included a survey, focus group sessions, students’ artifacts and observations. Data were analyzed through thematic analysis and some themes explored were the cultural dimension of R&B, the affordances of music to discover other cultures, the students’ conception of culture, and the relevance of culture in EFL. Finally, findings showed that the students identified some cultural manifestations in r&b music and its potential to examine other cultures. Similarly, the participants discovered the importance of culture in language learning and its role to enhance their pedagogic experiences.