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The initial response to COVID-19 exposed widespread racism and Sinophobia across the world, which contributed to a rethinking of equality and diversity in Higher Education (HE) and beyond. Within Modern Languages, much attention has been placed on decolonising the curriculum. The death of George Floyd in 2020 further contributed to an increased awareness of the need to rethink racism and challenge current practice within the curriculum. This paper re-examines the findings of a doctoral study exploring students' development of Intercultural Competence (IC) and criticality in Modern Languages with the aim of revisiting ways in which students' intercultural development can be defined and fostered in Higher Education.

This paper reports on crossing borders virtually via an e-Tandem scheme and presents the findings of a study, in which students of English from an Austrian university were paired with students of German from the UK and the USA. Drawing on data from 19 in-depth interviews, the study aims to identify links between e-Tandem language learning and foreign language enjoyment (FLE) (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014, 2016). A category-based qualitative text analysis (Kuckartz, 2014) revealed that a majority of the interviewees felt e-Tandem language learning contributed to their FLE. Furthermore, a range of reasons underlying students' perceived enjoyment of learning a language in Tandem emerged: having authentic conversations in the target language with L1 (first language) users (Dewaele, 2018), perceiving each other as cultural mediators and a difference from language classroom contexts on the level of power relations, which made students feel more at ease. Helping each other, receiving one-on-one feedback and perceiving improvement in their linguistic mastery were furthermore mentioned as factors they felt boosted their enjoyment and so was developing friendships with L1 users. According to the interviewees, these aspects specifically increased their interest and enjoyment in using and learning the language and their eudaimonic happiness. The findings demonstrate that e-Tandem language learning can be a resource to enhance perceived enjoyment in foreign language learners at tertiary level and they illustrate that social and private components of FLE seem to be interlinked.

Multilingual pedagogies draw on learners' prior language knowledge and can offer considerable advantages in learning the target language. Yet language instruction, particularly in foreign language learning contexts, does not often capitalise on the multilingual assets of learners. The goal of this study is to understand what determines the implementation of multilingual pedagogies in two institutes of German as Foreign Language, one in the US and one in India. In this comparative case study, ecological perspectives are adopted to examine what factors impede or foster the use of multilingual pedagogies in adult foreign language instruction in both schools. Data collection methods involved open-ended questionnaires, semi-structured interviews with teachers and an analysis of context-specific documents. Findings revealed that there were encouraging, constraining and contingent factors across both schools. While some factors were common to both schools, and there were other context-specific factors that determined the adoption of multilingual teaching. The results of the study also reflect larger issues such as a gap between theory and practice and a lack of teacher collaboration. The paper concludes with some suggestions on how such issues might be addressed.

The paper reports on the findings of a PhD study exploring the implications of the separation between language and content in Modern Languages for students' development of intercultural competence and criticality across four universities -- two in the US and two in the UK. In particular, it exposes the diverse views students developed on the relationship between language and culture and the invaluable role of content courses in fostering students' development of critical cultural awareness and criticality. While there was evidence to suggest that all three strands of the curriculum (language, content and the year abroad) contributed to students' development of intercultural competence and criticality, content modules emerged as a key setting to foster critical discussions on interculturality.

The focus of the present paper is on the relationship between national identities and foreign-language education policies and practices. The paper examines this relationship through a juxtaposition of three sociohistoric contexts in which sociopolitical events led to major changes in foreign-language education: post-World War I United States, post-World War II Soviet Union, and post-communist Eastern Europe. On the example of these case studies, it is argued that shifts in national identity images and sociopolitical allegiances have implications for foreign-language policies and practices. It is also argued that foreign-language learners may choose to construct oppositional identities in language classrooms: some, for patriotic reasons, may reject the languages imposed on them, while others may instead reject the dominant national identity and create an alternative one through the means of a foreign language.

This paper presents the findings of a six-week telecollaborative project between sixteen American students enrolled in a second-semester German class at an American university and sixteen German students enrolled in an advanced English course at a high school in Germany. Students discussed various cultural topics with their partner in two e-mails per week. The study strove to reveal the American college students' understanding of their own and of German culture, their interest in cultural learning, and possible changes therein through telecollaboration. Moreover, the study aimed at exploring if intercultural competence can be exhibited, and thus assessed, through an e-mail exchange. For that purpose, Byram's model of intercultural competence (1997) was used for the data analysis. In addition, pre- and post-surveys were administered to help answer one of the research questions. The results of the study revealed that students' interest in cultural learning did not change significantly. Additionally, the results showed that the majority of Byram's objectives can be demonstrated in an e-mail exchange. (Contains 2 notes.)

The Transatlantic Orientation Exchange/Multiplikatorenschulung im transatlan-tischen Austausch is a collaboration between volunteers and staff in both the US and German AFS organizations. The goal of the project is to increase the level of intercultural learning of German and US secondary education exchange participants and their host families. Germany and the US are among the largest country groups in mutual exchanges within the network: every year around 450 American families host a student from Germany and around 100 German families welcome somebody from the USA. The project was conceived in part as a result of a paradigm shift within AFS in which participants and host family members are now viewed as equal partners in the intercultural learning process. The material presented in this paper was developed in a dialogue process between the work groups in both countries who met virtually and in person multiple times over the course of the project. This construct allowed for group members to engage in a parallel process of intercultural learning and discovery as they identified and applied to their own experience the concepts that would be useful to host families and participants in their respective countries. (Contains 2 figures.)

This qualitative study explores the factors that contributed to limited interactional involvement in a telecollaborative project linking two groups of participants: 12 advanced-level students of English in northeastern Germany and 9 advanced-level students of German in the southwestern United States. Drawing on data from online transcripts, interviews, and questionnaires, I examine the tensions that arise when students' attempts at communicating online result in missed opportunities for engaging with their online partners. I report on the results of a discourse analysis of the online transcripts and rely on extensive interview and survey data to examine which factors made it difficult for students to maintain sustained interpersonal involvement in the online discourse. I document three main contextual tensions that arose from the different socially and culturally situated attitudes, beliefs, and expectations that informed students' communicative choices in the online discourse. I address the pedagogical implications of each of these three tensions. The findings suggest that research needs to focus not only on how students jointly construct online discourse, but how they co-construe the context for their participation. The paper concludes by addressing the implications of these findings for future research promoting language and culture learning online. (Contains 3 tables and 9 notes.)

Describes documentation activities by the Air Documents Division, a precursor of the Defense Technical Information Center, involving captured German technical reports related to aeronautical science and technology following World War II. Document publication, acquisition, processing, dissemination, and utilization are discussed; and selection of subject headings is considered. (six references) (LRW)

Scholarly interest in toponyms and material culture has been revived over the past decades through critical analyses of symbolic meanings and politics of spatial inscription. Place names and physical objects such as public sites, monuments, and buildings provide access to intricate aspects of history, memory, and place; yet toponymic and material studies often lack coherent integration. This paper shows how a combined toponymic-material approach can provide a more comprehensive analysis of commemorative processes and heritage construction at two German-founded towns in the American Midwest: New Ulm, Minnesota, and Eudora, Kansas. Based on qualitative interviews and additional background information, I discuss how various actors foster, assert, and challenge specific narratives of history and heritage through time. Patterns of (re)designing and (re)naming local commemorative features, such as streets, parks, and monuments, overlap and reinforce each other in continuous efforts of identifying an ‘authentic’ sense of the past and place through time. This includes associated commemorative practices and performances as well as broader discourses of (inter)national history and heritage. Integrating the analysis of physical and symbolic space, the toponymic-material approach provides a valuable perspective on the past and present of place on the local level and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In U.S. public schools, the population of nonnative speakers of English who are at risk for failing language requirements is growing. This article presents multisensory structured language (MSL) teaching strategies to remediate these students' difficulties in reading, writing, and speaking English. These strategies are underscored by recent findings of cross-linguistic studies. The MSL strategies are evidence-based and can be applied to any language. They are supported by a variety of teaching resources to assist instructors in helping at-risk English language learners improve their English language skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]