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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Romanian Folk Literature in Our Classes: A Proposal for the Development of Intercultural Competence

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Abstract The present research highlights the ways in which folk literature, this valuable tool that contributes to students’ formation from both a human and literary perspective, can promote intercultural competence in class and foster a better integration within the community, while consolidating favorable attitudes towards interculturality. We share Rodriguez Almodovar's view (2009), according to which the folk story makes the geographic space expand; it channels affectivity, while guiding the learning process towards the acceptance of social values that are representative for each culture. The objectives of our study are focused, on the one hand, on improving intercultural competence among students, through a detailed analysis of the typical motifs in Romanian folk literature. What the analysis aims to prove is their similarity to those pertaining to other literatures. On the other hand, this endeavor is meant to promote the intracultural and intercultural values of the Romanian student body that is being formally educated in our classes, by allowing them to get to know their own culture, as well as the culture of the new space they inhabit (destination culture). The present paper proposes as a conclusion the idea that if we took a closer look at the motifs contained in any country's folk literature, we would be able to link them together, by means of similarity, which would greatly facilitate coexistence during classes.