Language learning in intercultural perspective : approaches through drama and ethnography

Included Index.

pt. 1. Approaches through ethnography: learner perspectives: The privilege of the intercultural speaker / Claire Kramsch. Civilisation/cultural studies: an experiment in French and English schools / Michael Byram, Albane Cain. Evolving intercultural perceptions among university language learners in Europe / James A. Coleman. Cultural practice in everyday life: the language learner as ethnographer / Ana Barro, Shirley Jordan, and Celia Roberts. The culture the learner brings: a bridge or a barrier? / Lixian Jin, Martin Cortazzi. Mind the gap: an ethnographic approach to cross-cultural workplace communication research / Antonia Cooper -- pt. 2. Approaches through drama: Cultural awareness and dramatic art forms / Michael Fleming. Teaching culture through drama / Dorothy Heathcote, Gavin Bolton. Learning by playing: learning foreign languages through the senses / Marianne Jensen and Arno Hermer. Intercultural theatre through a foreign language / Prisca Schmidt. Culture through literature through drama / Manfred Schewe -- pt. 3. Approaches through ethnography: teacher and researcher perspectives: Cross-cultural encounters / Carol Morgan. Language teaching and the process of European integration / Karen Risager. In-service teacher training and the acquisition of intercultural competence / Lies Sercu.

Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective addresses the ways in which language learning is related to learning about other cultures and to acquiring an ability to communicate across cultural frontiers. It argues that language learners need to develop sensitivity to cultural difference and its impact on communication, and to acquire the skills of discovering and interpreting other cultures, other values, beliefs and behaviours which lie beneath the surface of cross-cultural communication. Contributors show how drama can be used to develop cultural awareness and how learners can acquire ethnographic skills to help them investigate and understand socio-cultural aspects of language which play an important role in second language acquisition. The contributors are all respected educationalists from a range of countries and different cultural contexts.