Literatura en lengua extranjera y competencias: la experiencia de un club virtual de lectura

Abstract

In recent years, research in education has repeatedly questioned the objectives and methods of literary teaching, with particular attention to the opportunity of adopting an action-oriented perspective, as recommended by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL), even though this approach might appear contradictory with traditional humanistic education. We claim that these two perspectives are actually not opposed but share many aspects; literary reading may play an important role in people development, provided it is shaped so as to foster not only the acquisition of content knowledge but also the development of transversal skills, in line with CEFRL recommendations. Digital technologies provide a powerful support to create effective contexts where students can carry out real tasks. This paper concerns two experiences of teaching literary reading in a course of contemporary French literature offered by an Italian university, carried out in an online learning environment integrating usual discussion tools with a reading circle and a reader’s diary. Analysing the outcomes of these experiences and highlighting what skills can be developed by this activity will lead us to formulate an innovative proposal to teaching literary reading at university level.