1. The intercultural challenge for languages in higher education
Michael Kelly
University of Southampton
Director, Routes into Languages
Manchester Metropolitan University
12 June 2014

2. Summary
Language learning opens up new worlds of knowledge of other cultures.
Language learning does not automatically deliver an understanding of how languages and cultures relate to each other.
Five important areas in which intercultural understanding can be applied
Issues in established approaches to language learning.
The intercultural challenge to develop new pedagogical approaches.

3. Language learning and knowledge of other cultures
Different systems of meaning
Different culture or group of cultures
Everyday life (lifestyle, values)
Contemporary culture and society
History

4. The learner of a second or foreign language and culture does not cease to be competent in his or her mother tongue and the associated culture. Nor is the new competence kept entirely separate from the old. The learner does not simply acquire two distinct, unrelated ways of acting and communicating. The language learner becomes plurilingual and develops interculturality. The linguistic and cultural competences inrespect of each language are modified by knowledge of the other and contribute to intercultural awareness, skills and know-how. They enable the individual to develop an enriched, more complex personality and an enhanced capacity for further language learning and greater openness to new cultural experiences. Learners are also enabled to mediate, through interpretation and translation, between speakers of the two languages concerned who cannot communicate directly.
Common European Framework of Reference, C.U.P., 2001, p.43

5. Intercultural awareness, understanding and competence
4.4 A key form of knowledge and understanding developed among students of languages is the ability to compare the view of the world from their own languages and cultures with the view of the world from the languages and cultures they have studied. The analytical skills they have developed can be used equally well in the study of their own culture and, in particular, in comparing, contrasting and mediating between the two (or more) societies with which they are familiar.
Languages and related studies benchmark statement, QAA, 2007

6. Understanding how languages and cultures relate to each other
Target language, target culture
Systematic learning of language differences
Incidental learning of cultural differences
Relation with own culture
Relation with other cultures

7. Applications of intercultural understanding
Economic
Context: globalisation, trade relations, customers, markets
Career opportunities: businesses, mobile workers, recruitment agencies, travel agencies, events management
Professional pathways: cultural briefing, mobility training, liaison and representation, translation, interpreting

8. Applications of intercultural understanding
Political
Context: international relations, diplomatic relations, war and peace
Career opportunities: government (esp. diplomacy, trade relations), European and international institutions, non-governmental organisations
Professional pathways: civil service (research, training and support), training agencies, conflict management services, negotiation, translation and interpreting

9. Applications of intercultural understanding
Social
Context: migration, border control, social inclusion
Career opportunities: border agencies, development agencies, legal, social and health services, education, voluntary bodies
Professional pathways: cultural briefing, training, liaison and representation, mediation, public service translation and interpreting

10. Applications of intercultural understanding
Context: cultural transfer, exchanges
Career opportunities: leisure industries, heritage, tourism, sport, major events, publishing, media
Professional pathways: translation, interpreting, cultural mediation and facilitation

11. Applications of intercultural understanding
Education and research
Context: transnational education, international research collaboration
Career opportunities: secondary, further and higher education (recruitment, international partnerships), national and international agencies in education and research, educational exchanges
Professional pathways: teaching and research in languages and intercultural communication, professional development and training

12. Issues in established approaches to learning languages and cultures
Native speaker model
Target language teaching
Metropolitan culture focus

13. The intercultural challenge to develop new pedagogical approaches
Intercultural approach to language learning
Compare and contrast languages and cultures
Relations between own and target language/culture
Explore interconnections between languages/cutlures
Relativist perspective (even if binary)
Cohabitation of languages/cultures
Valorize diversity of identities (learners and teachers)