LFU:online

-Learn how to implement an intercultural approach in your English class

-Become familiar with a variety of tools and methods to facilitate intercultural learning

-Improve your own intercultural competence:

*know about your own cultural frame of reference and how this frame of reference affects your thinking and behaviour

*increase awareness about cultural differences to be encountered and your reaction to them

Intercultural competence has been incorporated as a “Bildungs- und Lehraufgabe” in the Austrian curricula for foreign languages. Similarly the CEFR sees learning a language as a stimulus for promoting intercultural competence.

Event though both the CEFR and the curricula for foreign languages refer to interculturality and take intercultural competence into account, its promotion often depends on the commitment and interest of individual teachers.

This course aims to give you an overview of current research perspectives on intercultural learning in the language classroom  and teaching culture in language. It will also provide you with a variety of hands-on methods and tools to facilitate intercultural competence in your English classes in the future.

Experiential and cognitive activities to foster intercultural learning (e.g. simulations, critical incidents, communication style inventories, games, cultural orientation style profiles)

Videos to illustrate concepts

Short lectures and discussions

Paired sharing, group and small group activities

Active participation in class discussions / activities

Reading and other homework assignments

Planning, execution and reflection of a teaching activity / class

Reflective paper or letter

Key articles by Milton Bennett, Claire Kramsch, Michael Byram and others to be announced in class.

Initial Module at IMoF (Innsbrucker Modell der Fremdsprachendidaktik)

This course is part of IMoF's Middle Module (Mittelmodul). Admission to the course according to IMoF’s admission guidelines (for information please consult the IMoF website: http://www.uibk.ac.at/imof/lehre.html).