The vexed question of the relationship between 'language' and 'culture' will be the starting point. I do not propose to 'resolve' the question but to consider some ways in which relationships between ...cultural awareness and language awareness might be conceptualised and then have some impact on language education. By 'language education' I refer to the teaching and learning of all languages in a curriculum, whether this be the synchronic experienced curriculum of a learner at a given point in time or the diachronic curriculum of their lifelong learning. I will draw on the Council of Europe's concept and platform for 'Languages in Education, Languages of Education' and plurilingual and intercultural education to provide an overview of the issues involved. Finally, I will consider the impact on teaching and learning in practice by suggesting that, in the best cases, language and culture teaching produces, through the development of linguistic and intercultural competence, alternative conceptualisations of the world and contributes to the education/Bildung of the individual in society.
This revised edition of Michael Byram's classic 1997 book updates the text in light of both recent research and critiques and commentaries on the 1st edition. Beginning from the premise that foreign ...and second language teaching should prepare learners to use a language with fluency and accuracy, and also to speak with people who have different cultural identities, social values and behaviours, the book is an invaluable guide for teachers and curriculum developers, taking them from a definition of Intercultural Communicative Competence through planning for teaching to assessment. This edition refines the definitions of the five 'savoirs' of intercultural competence, and includes new sections on issues such as moral relativism and human rights, mediation, intercultural citizenship and teachers' ethical responsibilities.
The purpose of this special issue is to bring the theory of intercultural citizenship education to readers’ attention and to offer teachers and researchers working with this or similar concepts the ...opportunity to make their work known in a context of a coherent presentation of theory and practice. In this introduction, we will explain the rationale and the concepts involved in intercultural citizenship education and present the articles in this special issue which arose from our call for papers.
A comparative study of the impact of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages produced by the Council of Europe in 2001, this book asks writers in European countries and countries in ...the Americas and Asia to explain the influence of the CEFR. For each country there is a policy-maker and an academic perspective.
Education for intercultural citizenship Geof Alred, Michael Byram, Mike Fleming / Geof Alred, Michael Byram, Mike Fleming
2006, 2006-10-12, Volume:
13
eBook, Book
This book presents a vision of education for citizenship, which takes as its starting point an account of what it means to be intercultural. Theory and concepts of interculturality are applied to ...citizenship education in order to extend its meaning and significance within and beyond the nation state. The book advances a concept of intercultural citizenship which is sensitive to complexities of identity and diversity and, through international case studies, analyses the degree to which intercultural citizenship is present or emergent in contemporary education systems It provides a statement of 'axioms and characteristics' of education for intercultural citizenship to act both as a framework for planning education for intercultural citizenship and as criteria for evaluating the degree of intercultural citizenship education already present in existing education systems. The book will be of interest to those currently working in intercultural education as well as those who work in education for citizenship.
This volume examines how foreign language learners and teachers think about citizenship and interculturality. It presents a new theory of intercultural citizenship and demonstrates how it can be ...fostered in practice. It describes how teachers in schools and universities can work together across continents to develop new curricula and pedagogy.
Language teaching has long been associated with teaching in a country or countries where a target language is spoken, but this approach is inadequate. In the contemporary world, language teaching has ...a responsibility to prepare learners for interaction with people of other cultural backgrounds, teaching them skills and attitudes as well as knowledge. This article presents the main concepts involved in this view of language teaching: the notion of culture, the language‐culture nexus, and intercultural competence. It also explains the implications of the approach in terms of the skills, attitudes, and knowledge that should be taught. The article goes further: It argues that language teaching needs to be linked to other disciplines in order to develop an approach that integrates insights from citizenship education. All of this has implications for teachers’ professional identity and for cooperation across the curriculum.
The Challenge
Linguistic competence needs to be enriched with deep intercultural competence. How can world language educators help language learners to develop increasingly sophisticated linguistic and intercultural knowledge and skills and apply them in other courses and experiences so as to enact their intercultural citizenship in the here and now?
Video & Discussion
Our purpose is to trace and explain theoretical and practical developments in foreign/world language teaching over the last decade or more. Language teaching in its modern form, from the Reform ...Movement of the late 19th century, has focused upon the need for learners to learn or acquire a foreign language in order to use it for communication. Other purposes involve language learning as an intellectual exercise, the development of a language faculty, and opening (young) people’s eyes to new worlds by introducing them to other countries. Here, we argue that these purposes are reasonable and enriching, but only if they are combined. We suggest that, by taking a humanistic perspective, language teaching can go beyond communication as a dominant purpose. This humanistic perspective is realised through two complementary developments. One is to emphasise that learners are members of various communities, including their local community, their national community, and a world community. The second is to pay attention to the fact that learners bring to the classroom their concerns and fears, especially in times of crisis. Language teachers, who are not only instructors in skills but educators of the whole person, should respond to their learners’ needs both as denizens of their society and as unique individuals. We first explain the theoretical framework and how it has evolved and then describe two experimental projects, one which focuses on the societal needs and one which adds to this a response to the affective needs of learners. We finally discuss how a recent controversy might be addressed in the language teaching class.
Focusing on the teaching and learning of intercultural communicative competence in foreign language classrooms in the USA, this ground-breaking book is the first to describe in detail how teachers, ...supported by university educators and education advisers, might plan and implement innovative ideas based on sound theoretical foundations.
At the editor's invitation this article was written as an analysis of the development of the intercultural dimension of foreign language teaching over the last 25 years. It is in part a personal ...reflection based on an article written for this journal 25 years ago, but it also draws on comments and insights from a network of researchers with whom the author has worked over much of the period in question.
Four areas are selected for comment: 'the value of cultural studies', 'pedagogy and didactics', 'methodology' and 'assessment and evaluation'. It is argued that in the intervening period, the value of a cultural or intercultural dimension in language teaching has been widely recognised in policy documents and approaches to pedagogy developed. The picture with respect to methods of teaching for intercultural competence is mixed and the question of assessment remains insufficiently developed. Looking forward, the conclusion is that the most important area for development is in teacher education. There is still a lack of understanding among teachers with respect to the significance of intercultural competence and its relationship to linguistic competence.
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