An intercultural approach to foreign language teaching文档.pdf

Subnetwork G: Day 4 Monday 31 May Parallel Session 4.1: 09.00-10.30 Room 5 Session G4: Mother Tongue Ulla Lundgren School of Education and Communication, Jönköping University, Sweden An intercultural approach to foreign language teaching Abstract This paper focuses on an intercultural approach to the teaching of English as a foreign language (TEFL) in Swedish schools and its consequences for teacher education. The approach is described in the context of international and national policy documents and introduced in an age of internationalisation and growing local responsibility for curriculum development. I relate the approach to two theoretical concepts: intercultural communicative competence (Byram) and the intercultural speaker (Kramsch). My ongoing research aims to understanding the possibilities and problems for the above approach based on studies of relevant documents and interviews with teachers and teacher educators. The forthcoming findings may be used to interpret teaching/learning processes in teacher education and in curriculum and teacher development aimed at intercultural understanding. Background English as a foreign language in Swedish schools. English is a compulsory subject for all young Swedes from year 4 to year 12, in fact many children start earlier. Apart from a heavy educational impact the English language has a dominating position through an Americanized or internationalised commercial youth culture, undubbed films, television, popular culture, a wide range of imported goods, advertising, etc. Without exaggerating, English has the position next to a second language to a great part of Swedish society. In school the language has a high prestige among students and teachers and is considered as vital and unquestioned knowledge. The first language (L1) is generally not looked upon as threatened by English as a foreign language (EFL). The issue of li