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Navigating Intercultural Language Teaching in New Zealand Classrooms
- Source :
-
Cambridge Journal of Education . 2019 49(5):605-621. - Publication Year :
- 2019
-
Abstract
- Intercultural capability, or the ability to relate comfortably with people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, is increasingly recognised as a key twenty-first century competency. The importance of its development in the context of learning a language has long been acknowledged in the literature. However, practitioners worldwide struggle with the implementation of interculturally focused language teaching. This paper reports aspects of a study designed to support New Zealand intermediate school teachers to develop their students' intercultural capability through learning a language. The paper focuses on two teachers of Mandarin, one a non-native and the other a native speaker, working in different teaching contexts. The findings indicate that both teachers struggled with similar challenges: the fear of exposing students to stereotypes; uncertainty about target language use for intercultural topics; and finding a balance between language and culture in their language programmes. Implications for moving towards young language learners' intercultural capability are raised.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0305-764X
- Volume :
- 49
- Issue :
- 5
- Database :
- ERIC
- Journal :
- Cambridge Journal of Education
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- EJ1223601
- Document Type :
- Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2019.1581137