Globalization has had an impact on many different aspects of higher education in Japan. In particular it has led to an increase in the number of universities that are choosing to promote an international experience as a way of fostering intercultural awareness. This has created issues for many English language programs as research has suggested that the dominant skills-based, communicative approach to teaching English may not be effective for developing the kinds of literacies that allow students to succeed while studying overseas (Kramsch, 2006; 2014). In this paper, we focus on one unit of a course. This unit is built around the use of narrative texts and demonstrates how a program can meaningfully connect reading and writing to help students both understand academically challenging cultural content and to promote textual and linguistic awareness. We argue that this ‘linking of literacies’ (Hirvela, 2004) is necessary if we want students to develop the kinds of reflexive disposition towards language and discourse that will enable them to actively participate in different cultural contexts.