# data[].attributes.body
In one word: ‘internationalism’! Nationalism has been the cause of much evil in the 20th century especially, and it is beginning to have the same effects again. Internationalism as a mode of thinking and living is an antidote to the ills of nationalism. [I do not mean ‘internationalisation’ by the way i.e. the current fashion in universities – that is a related but different matter]

Education into an internationalist way of seeing the world – and not least Europe – is what I hope to achieve through language teaching (complemented of course by the teaching of history and other disciplines).

# data[].attributes.body
Yes and for business purposes I particular intercultural competence is especially important as a teaching objective for language teachers – otherwise no business will be done successfully.

# data[].attributes.body
I agree that terminology is important and that is why we invented ‘intercultural speaker’ as I explained. I don’t think projects should always be as controversial as the Malvinas topic but citizenship is always a matter of improving society / or community and so the issues will always be ‘controversial’ even a topic such as improving the environment – the focus of another chapter in the book – when one might expect everyone to agree.

# data[].attributes.body
I hope I answered this in the session. For the individual teacher it is a matter of working together with others, of taking part in small projects, of trying to make all teaching intercultural by ensuring that one has no just language competences as desired outcomes but also intercultural competences or objectives – ‘by the end of this lesson learners will know how to [intercultural skill e.g. comparing…]

# data[].attributes.body
I think they have to – and usually do – trust us when we do something different. But we have to be transparent about the assessment because that is crucial for learners (and rightly so). Then they will trust us and then – as you said during our conversation – they find this kind of teaching motivating, more so than language which motivates only those students who are ‘like us’ i.e. ‘language people’.

# data[].attributes.body
Agreed.

# data[].attributes.body
This is the work more of the teacher of the language of schooling (e.g. Hungarian in Hungary) and ideally there should be a coordination of language curricula and intercultural curricula – see Council of Europe project www.coe.int/lang-platform

# data[].attributes.body
We are trained as language teachers and ‘automatically’ use theory of language acquisition and language pedagogy in planning our teaching – and do so with professional intuition and unconscious theories. We are not trained as teachers of IC and so need to be more explicit about our objectives and theory (until perhaps that too becomes ‘second-nature’). That is why I think theory is important.

# data[].attributes.body
Project work is perhaps the best way - not that it takes up all the teaching time but only some of it – and that is holistic and takes over some of the principles of CLIL

# data[].attributes.body
I suggest the work of Manfred Schewe (University of Cork, Ireland) and the book Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective (ethnography and drama) edited by Mike Fleming and myself for Cambridge UP (early 1990s)

# data[].attributes.body
I was in a meeting about this last week. The descriptors have been further refined and the meeting was to get more comment. I suspect – my personal view – that yet more work needs to be done . Everyone is struggling with this question, including people working on a similar project in the USA.

# data[].attributes.headline
Teaching foreign languages and intercultural communication?

# data[].attributes.subject
Teaching foreign languages and intercultural communication?

# data[].attributes.body
Teaching intercultural competence in the framework of language teaching and language teacher training is often marginal and falls victim of language exam driven curricula and/or programme designers and education policies with little interest in or respect for diversity. Another hindrance is that language teachers are often daunted by the requirement of teaching dozens of prescribed elements/components of intercultural competence (depending on the different models) and feel that  no matter how much they try they could never be successful. How could these issues be addressed?

# data[].attributes.body
Do you think it is important to underpin all the practical issues with the theory of the cultural dimensions?

# data[].attributes.body
How do we make the students realize the significance of intercultural communicative competence and the training for intercultural citizenship?

We, teachers see it clearly but students often think it is just extra work load and we are just making their life more difficult.

# data[].attributes.body
Do you think that theatre in education (TIE) can take part of the methods of ICC? Or it can be applied with more efficacy in developing citizenship and critical skills?

# data[].attributes.body
"Intercultural" is quite a fashionable keyword, often used for international experiences. The text says is is important, but not enough if the members of an international group get to know each other in an international project, and learn something from each other. Do you think that international projects should focus on controversial issues, in which different points of view will have to be contrasted, in order to get participants out of their comfort zone?

# data[].attributes.headline
Principles for teaching interculturality 

# data[].attributes.subject
Principles for teaching interculturality 

# data[].attributes.body
You have been very clear that students must understand themselves and their own culture to be able to constructively contrast (other) cultures and adapt strategies for successful interaction. Do you have a guiding philosophy to share with us?

# data[].attributes.body
You note the need for sensitivity among people with "the same" languages and different discourses. We all will probably agree that miscommunication comes in many packages. Would you like to expand on the development of this sensitivity in the classroom

# data[].attributes.body
In what ways do you expect to see teaching approaches develop from this focus on developing citizenship? More holistic teaching?

# data[].attributes.body
We participated in the 3 phases of Brian North's project in the Language Policy Unit for refining CEFR descriptors for "mediation" as a CEFR competence along with reception, interaction and production. Can you shed some light on the results of that study or perhaps what you hope can come of it?

# data[].attributes.body
Although nomenclature is often dismissed, I welcome the "intercultural citizen" since the term "intercultural speaker" required repeatedly reinforcing the relevance of the OTHER language competences so that language users are reminded to be intercultural writers, listeners, readers, AND speakers...

With the dire need for improved EAP style writing for scientific publication and for business purposes, both from an employability perspective, this more inclusive vision of the person as a whole, beyond his/her language competences should make a difference.