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Partly due to the European Union’s insistent and successful policies on pluriculturalism and plurilinguism, there have recently been voices challenging the prevalent and practical consensus in East Asian educational policies that saw English as the only tool for international communication. Their argument emphasizes that when dealing with countries that are sellers of goods and services, knowledge of the languages and cultures of prospective customers is essential. They also acknowledge the strong correlation between economic and political power and the extensive study of foreign languages. This book takes a stand on important aspects of this multifaceted argument. The first part addresses...
Within the scope of today’s globalisation, linguistic diversity is a given fact of the world we live in. In several educational contexts in Europe, language awareness (LA) activities have been introduced with the objective to prepare pupils cognitively, socially and/or critically for life as multilingual, open minded and/or empowered citizens in a diverse world. Despite previous research in various contexts, the concept of LA remains problematic: a generally accepted, evidence-based conceptualisation is missing. This confronts both research and education with a challenge: in order to develop LA activities, implement them successfully in educational contexts and achieve the expected outcome...
Built around the concept of linguistic and cultural plurality, this book defines language as an instrument of action and symbolic power. Plurality is conceived here as : a complex array of voices, perspectives and approaches that seeks to preserve the complexity of the multilingual and multicultural enterprise, including language learning and teaching ; a coherent system of relationships among various languages, research traditions and research sites that informs qualitative methods of inquiry into multilingualism and its uses in everyday life ; a view of language as structured sociohistorical object, observable from several simultaneous spatiotemporal standpoints, such as that of daily interactions or that which sustains the symbolic power of institutions. This book is addressed to teacher trainers, young researchers, decision makers, teachers concerned with the role of languages in the evolution of societies and educational systems. It aims to elicit discussion by articulating practices, field observations and analyses based on a multidisciplinary conceptual framework.
Foreign Language Teachers and Intercultural Communication: An International Investigation reports on a study that focused on teachers' beliefs regarding intercultural competence teaching in foreign language education. Its conclusions are based on data collected in a quantitative comparative study that comprises questionnaire answers received from teachers in seven countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Poland, Mexico, Greece, Spain and Sweden. It not only creates new knowledge on the variability, and relative consistency, of today's foreign language teachers' views regarding intercultural competence teaching in a number of countries, but also gives us a picture that is both more concrete and more comprehensive than previously known.
This book provides a detailed overview of current or recent research exploring a wide range of ideas, theories, and practices around written text production. European researchers from a broad range of disciplines brought together under the European Research Network on Learning to Write Effectively were instructed to contribute short papers summarising their current activity. The papers are grouped around the four main themes. The first deals with issues around the development of basic ("low-level") writing skills, mainly in the early years of education. The second section focuses directly on issues around the teaching and learning of writing. This is divided into five parts that describe: evaluations of different forms of writing instruction, research exploring the processes by which writers learn, methods of text assessment in educational contexts, research exploring the effects of various learner and teacher variables on the development of writing skill, and conceptions of and variation in educational text genres. The third section reports research exploring effective document design. The final section has a main focus on tools for exploring the writing process.
Globalization is on everyone's tongue, and the discussion is not only limited to economic exchange, but expands to the intermingling of cultural values. To be truly successful in the international arena, whether as an immigrant, student, businessperson, or tourist, openness toward other cultures is vital and the most obvious door to those cultures is through language. Learning a second language is no longer an option for many, it is both a survival tool and an opportunity. This book is an aid to parents, educators, researchers, and individuals who want facts about foreign language learning in order to apply concrete tools to maximize their potential in this area, independent of their age. Th...
The testing and assessment of language competence continues to be a much debated issue in foreign language teaching and research. This book is the first one to address the testing of four important dimensions of foreign language education which have been left largely unconsidered: learner autonomy, intercultural competence, literature and literary competence, and the integration of content and language learning. Each area is considered through a theoretical framework, followed by two empirical studies, raising questions of importance to all language teachers: How can one test literary competence? Can intercultural competence be measured? What about the integrated assessment of content-and-la...
Examining citizenship education from the perspective of interculturality in order to extend its meaning and significance within and beyond the nation state, and in education in the nation state, this book deals with theory and concepts. Case studies are provided throughout.
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