Intercultural Communication and Language Pedagogy: From Theory To Practice

Description

Learning a new language offers a unique opportunity to discover other cultures as well as one's own. This discovery process is essential for developing 21st-century intercultural communication skills. To help prepare language teachers for their role as guides during this process, this book uses interdisciplinary research from social sciences and applied linguistics on intercultural communication for designing teaching activities that are readily implemented in the language classroom. Diverse language examples are used throughout the book to illustrate theoretical concepts, making them accessible to language teachers at all skill levels. The chapters introduce various perspectives on culture, intercultural communicative competence, analyzing authentic language data, teaching foreign/second languages with an intercultural communication orientation, the intercultural journey, the language-culture-identity connection, as well as resolving miscommunication and cultural conflict. While the immediate audience of this book is language teachers, the ultimate beneficiaries are language learners interested in undertaking the intercultural journey.

Zsuzsanna Ittzes Abrams is Professor of Linguistics at the University of California. Originally from Hungary, she has been fascinated by intercultural existence since age 10, when her family spent eighteen months in Libya. She has contributed to a range of edited volumes, most recently Understanding Attitude in Intercultural Virtual Communication (eds. A. Oskoz & M. Vinagre) and has published articles in a range of journals, including Die Unterrichtspraxis, L2 Journal, The Re-CALL Journal and The CALICO Journal.

'This is a focused and valuable text. The dimensions covered make this a superb volume to use in undergraduate and graduate level courses on language, identity, and culture.' Kimberley Brown, Professor of Applied Linguistics and International/Global Studies, Portland State University 'This is an excellent and comprehensive read on the topic of intercultural communication, with very useful teaching materials attached to each chapter. The book is every (academic) language teacher's dream come true!' Anna Turula, Head of TELE Department, Pedagogical University, Krakow 'It offers clear theoretical expositions and copious teaching resources, and will be of great interest to language teachers and language teacher trainers. Its well-written, fully documented, and accessible style makes it suitable for courses in language pedagogy at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.' Laura M. Callahan, LINGUIST List