Foreign Language Learning as Intercultural Experience

Learning a foreign language in its cultural context has an effect on the subjective mind, ranging from the unsettling to the inspirational. This volume explores the subjective dimension of intercultural language learning, including both theoretical considerations and empirical studies and providing stimulating insights into this important topic.

Learning a foreign language in its cultural context has a significant effect on the subjective mind, ranging from the unsettling to the inspirational. The complex interplay between native and foreign languages, their cultural conceptualisations and discourses and the mind and body of the learner results in the subjective construction of individual positionings located «in between» the languages and cultures involved. These processes are not restricted to the cognitive level of learning but also involve deep-seated habits, values and beliefs. These habits, values and beliefs are to a certain extent the result of subjective experiences and feelings; however, they are also embedded in a socio-cultural network of concepts, norms, traditions and life-worlds, so that they are characterised both by the learner's subjectivity and by the sociality and (inter-)culturality of their environment. The essays in this volume explore the subjective dimension of intercultural language learning, ranging from theoretical considerations to empirical studies and providing stimulating insights into this important area of study.

Autorentext

Arnd Witte is Senior Lecturer in German at the National University of Ireland in Maynooth. He has published widely in the field of foreign language learning and intercultural communication, with a particular emphasis on intercultural competence. Theo Harden is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Second Language Studies at University College Dublin and Professor Adjunto at the University of Brasilia. He has published widely in the area of second language acquisition, particularly German as a second language.

Zusammenfassung
« [T]he volume [...] is a worthwhile read and welcome addition to our body of knowledge on foreign language learning and intercultural competence.»
(Tünde Bajzát, Linguist List 2015)

Inhalt

Contents: Arnd Witte: The Subjective Blending of Spaces in Intercultural Foreign Language Learning: Theoretical Considerations and Issues of Assessment - Virgílio Pereira de Almeida: Communicative Competence for a Sitcom Audience - Werner Müller-Pelzer: The Role of Corporeal Communication in Foreign Language Learning as Intercultural Experience - Theo Harden: The Most Frustrating Experience in Foreign Language Learning: Listening Intently and Still Not Understanding - Elke Hentschel: Social Identity and Language Acquisition: A Case Study - Claus Gnutzmann/Jenny Jakisch/Frank Rabe: Writing Academic English across the Disciplines: Intercultural Experiences of Different Kinds - Kristin Brogan/Helen Kelly/Muiris Ó Laoire: Foreign Language Learning as Intercultural Experience: The Subjective Dimension - Jennifer Bruen: Cognitive Dissonance and the Subjective Mind in Foreign Language Learning: The Use of Structured Academic Controversy in the German Language Classroom - Rachel Lindner: English Learner - English Speaker - Intercultural Speaker - Digital Native: Student Construction of Communicative Competence Gained through Reflection on Computer- Mediated Exchange - Undine S. Weber: Can Studying a Foreign Language Build or Improve (Inter-)Cultural Competence? A Preliminary Case Study of Students' Subjective Impressions - Rebecca S. C. Domingo: Measuring the Unmeasurable: On the Objective Assessment of Subjective Learning - Edna Gisela Pizarro/Juan Pedro Rojas: Developing Self-Learning and Intercultural Skills in a Spanish Course for Volunteers in the World Cup Brazil 2014.