NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Back to results
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
ERIC Number: EJ846102
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Sep
Pages: 9
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0005-3503
EISSN: N/A
Teachers Professional Learning--In the Context of Intercultural Language Learning
McLaughlin, Megan; Liddicoat, Anthony J.
Babel, v40 n1 p4-11, 38 Sep 2005
Intercultural language learning is developing as a key direction in languages education both in Australia and elsewhere. The teaching of culture in language classes is, however, not new to language teaching, and rationales for language teaching have regularly included issues related to cultural understanding (Liddicoat, 2004). However, culture has often been thought of as an additional component for languages and in many cases has not been well integrated with the language component itself (Kramsch, 1993). Moreover, much culture learning has been devoted to the acquisition of facts about the "other," rather than to investigation of the self as a cultural being and cultural interactions between the self and the other. One of the key goals of an intercultural stance is to move beyond culture learning as factual knowledge about culture to a critical engagement with diversity through language. The ongoing development of this approach means that language teachers are increasingly facing a need to develop their own understanding and practice. While much work has been done on the theoretical underpinnings of this approach, teacher professional development has received less attention. However, this too has begun to change, most notably with the implementation of the Asian Languages Professional Learning Project in 2004. This project has as its central focus a program of professional learning in the area of intercultural language teaching and learning. In this paper, the authors examine three case studies drawn from this project to examine the ways in which teachers have engaged with intercultural language learning in their classroom practice. (Contains 3 figures.)
Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations. Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Tel: +61-29351-2022; e-mail: president@afmlta.asn.au; e-mail: editor@afmlta.asn.au; Web site: http://www.afmlta.asn.au
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A