Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Competence in Foreign Language Education - Einzelansicht

This seminar explores ways of dealing with cultural diversity in the German education system in general and in the foreign language classroom in particular. It will bring together students of Teaching English as a Foreign Language and participants of the Refugee Teachers Program at the University of Potsdam. Future teachers in Germany’s diverse classrooms need to develop the necessary skills to deal not only with some of the challenges that cultural diversity brings but, more importantly, help learners and the whole school community experience cultural diversity as enrichment.

We will start by reflecting about cultural identities and how we and our thinking is influenced by the culture(s) we belong to, before taking a look at relevant concepts of learning about culture and developing intercultural competence in educational research as well as social and cultural studies. A special focus will be the connection between language and culture (Claire Kramsch), Michael Byram’s concept of intercultural communicative competence as well as cultural conditioning and critical thinking skills. Participants of the seminar will explore the needs of school staff, teachers and learners when dealing with cultural diversity in their schools and develop ideas and materials (lesson plans, project ideas, E learning tools and materials) to be put into practice. Students will also get the chance to observe classroom situations and discuss the chances and challenges of cultural diversity with teachers.

Seminar sessions will take place on:

21.4.    10-12

5.5.      10-16

12.5.    10-16

19.5.    10-14

2.6.      10-14

9.6.      10-16

Credit requirements: 2LP: active participation, working in a project group, one obligatory visit at a school, and a presentation of the project group results. 3LP: the above; students are also responsible for publishing their group results on a website for multicultural educators which will be prepared together with the seminar.