Teaching literature and language using a multiliteracies framework: exploring intercultural skills with Cervantes’s La española inglesa

There is concern that reading literary classics is becoming harder, especially for young people. For some years, literature has been excluded from the study of the foreign language and has lost ground in university studies. However, studies in pedagogical theory show the benefits of a multiliteracies approach, which combines different channels of communication and multimodal forms of linguistic expression. When used creatively, this approach can be applied to the study of literary texts to foster traditional reading skills. This chapter looks specifically at La española inglesa, one of Cervantes’s Novelas ejemplares, and presents examples showing how language and cultural context can be studied successfully through this short story by using a multiliteracies framework. In particular, the text can be harnessed to highlight intercultural elements relevant to present-day discussions