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This collection of essays and reflections starts from an analysis of the purposes of foreign language teaching and argues that this should include educational objectives which are ultimately similar to those of education for citizenship. It does so by a journey through reflections on what is possible and desirable in the classroom and how language teaching has a specific role in education systems which have long had, and often still have, the purpose of encouraging young people to identify with the nation-state. Foreign language education can break through this framework to introduce a critical internationalism. In a ‘globalised’ and ‘internationalised’ world, the importance of identification with people beyond the national borders is crucial. Combined with education for citizenship, foreign language education can offer an education for ‘intercultural citizenship’.
I enjoyed reading this book. It promises to be a typically clear and compelling discussion of the institutional implications for adopting an intercultural approach to language teaching in European schools. It deserves to be read and debated widely.
Michael Byram is Professor of Education at Durham University, England. He studied French, German and Danish at King’s College Cambridge, and wrote a PhD on Danish literature. He then taught French and German at secondary school level and in adult education in an English comprehensive school. Since being appointed to a post in teacher education at Durham in 1980, he has carried out research into the education of linguistic minorities, foreign language education and student residence abroad. His books include Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence (1997) and he is the editor of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning. He is also an Adviser to the Council of Europe Language Policy Division.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
I FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION
Purposes
1 Foreign Language Education in Context
2 Purposes for Foreign Language Education
Possibilities
3 Is Language Learning Possible at School?
4 The Intercultural Speaker – Acting Interculturally or Being Bicultural
5 Intercultural Competence and Foreign Language Learning in the Primary School
6 Analysis and Advocacy: Researching the Cultural Dimensions of Foreign Language Education
Perspectives
7 Nationalism and Internationalism in Language Education
8 Language Learning in Europe
9 Foreign Language Teaching as Political Action
II INTERCULTURAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION
10 Language Education, Political Education and Intercultural Citizenship
11 Education for Intercultural Citizenship
12 Policies for Intercultural Citizenship Education
13 Curricula for Intercultural Citizenship Education
14 Assessment and/or Evaluation of Intercultural Competence and Intercultural Citizenship
Conclusion
References
Appendix