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Die enge Verbindung zwischen Sprache und Kultur ist eine Grundidee der kulturwissenschaftlich-interkulturellen Linguistik sowie der Fremdsprachendidaktik. Ausgehend von kommunikationstheoretischen Ansätzen untersucht die Autorin, wie genau sich die Brennpunkte dieser Verflechtung ausgestalten. Darauf basierend erfasst sie systematisch die Voraussetzungen für erfolgreiche, sozial erfolgreiche und selbstbestimmte Kommunikation – auch unter Bedingungen der Fremd- und Mehrsprachigkeit. Die entwickelte interkulturell orientierte Theorie der Kommunikation bildet schließlich die Grundlage für den anwendungsbezogenen Teil der Studie. Dieser zeigt klare Perspektiven für die Sprach- und Kulturvermittlung auf.

This monograph aims to stimulate thinking and increase consciousness about the cultural dimension of foreign language teaching.　The author draws from the theoretical framework of Schmidt's «ABCs of Cultural Understanding and Communication» (Schmidt, 1998; Schmidt & Finkbeiner, 2006) to support and advocate for expanding awareness in relation to the influence of culture on the perception of self and other. She interrogates how language learners acquire interpretative skills to gain a deeper reflexive understanding of different cultures and how electronic communication can be effectively utilised in teaching for intercultural learning. Learning how to interrogate diverse cultural practices using multiple cultural frameworks has been shown to facilitate authentic engagement with the complexities of diverse pluralistic societies. This qualitative research study explores how culture can be taught in the foreign language classroom and school setting.

The contributions in this volume shed light on lived multilingualism around the globe. A small, but still representative selection of the multitude of migrant experiences, all studies share the intertwining of geographical mobility and non-mainstream linguistic practices which serves as a resource of agency and promotes alternative multiple identities of the immigrant speakers. This volume is based on the two core tenets of sociolinguistic identity research. First, it accepts the idea that identities or sub-identities are in a sense pre-given and can be formulated through membership categories. Second, identities are viewed as being enacted and performed, thus constituting social realities. In the social construction of identity, national and linguistic boundaries dissolve. The originating countries of the participants (and/or their ancestors) in the studies of this volume include Argentina, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, Russia, Morocco, the Phillipines, Korea, Kazakhstan, Suriname and India. The countries of immigration include Germany, the USA, Israel, France and the Netherlands.

Teaching language and teaching with languages is what is called for in contemporary classrooms, be they language classrooms or otherwise. When the learners'plurilingualism and societies'multilingualism have social, cultural or political implications, becoming aware of language matters is a necessity both for non-specialist teachers and language teachers alike. This book thus presents a variety of research-based perspectives on the cultural-political and social-educational domains of language awareness. Context, both historical, socio-economic, political and cultural has an undeniable impact on language attitudes and awareness, and the variety of different contexts contained in this volume – the Basque County, Catalonia (Spain), England (UK), Finland, Germany, Hong Kong (China), Japan, Portugal, Scotland (UK), and Turkey – testifies to this. As each chapter outlines the specificities and the impact of context upon language policies, attitudes and beliefs, the authors in this book focus on language awareness as a multi-faceted concept fit to play a major role in the reform processes of teacher education in the 21st century.