Praxeological aspect of literature in intercultural education – the case of selected French language textbooks

In contemporary times, intercultural education is becoming increasingly important because of the economic, social and ideological challenges facing the Member States of the European Union. Mutual understanding and agreement is achieved, among other things, at the institutional level of the school, by learning the language of another nation, and through this – ways of understanding the surrounding reality. The selection of appropriate means that can contribute to the realisation of these assumptions also concerns literary content, which serves as an example of culture-creating human activity, but also as an expression of concrete experiences of people living in a given community, speaking a different language and capable of different religious or ideological perspectives. According to the CECR guidelines, language and cultural education must take into account the preparation of the student to contribute actively to the environment around him / her. The aim of the article is to analyse, using quantitative and qualitative methods, the importance of literature in intercultural education, on the example of French language textbooks and the fragments of literary texts they contain. From the perspective of social challenges, the teaching of literature acquires a praxeological dimension as one of the conditions for effective educational interventions. The literary material submitted for extraction is only a representation of a vast field of literature, nevertheless its selection from the perspective of FLE contributes to the realization of the tasks of intercultural education, the aim of which is to know and establish relations between native and foreign culture.