In this conversation, two U.S.-trained German language and culture educators discuss their approaches to intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Working in different educational settings -- in a German and Global Studies program at a public university in the U.S., and at the Institute for Intercultural Communication of a German university…

Changing public demands and decreasing enrollment numbers have challenged the traditional concept of teaching languages, cultures, and literatures in the U.S. Although nationwide enrollment numbers in German programs have been declining, "global" German Studies programs such as the ones at the University of Connecticut and the University…

The Intercultural Competency (ICC) Program is a structured program that has been developed at the University of Adelaide's English Language Centre (ELC) to create opportunities for students to connect in a global context. This stand-alone and easily transferable program aims to create meaningful opportunities for mixed-language-ability learners to…

Globalization and the digitalization of our lives have made it impossible to avoid (inter)cultural encounters. In the traditional classroom environment, students are expected to juggle a myriad of choices almost simultaneously. Factors like grammar, pronunciation, word choice, etc. are all important assessment factors to consider when looking at…

In a non-immersion, preschool world language program, what learning outcomes are reasonable to expect? Since exposure to and engagement with new languages is typically limited in these so-called "low-input" programs, we should anticipate no more than modest gains in linguistic proficiency. Rather, early childhood language programs can,…

From previous research on second language acquisition and early language learning, educators know that young children have a cognitive advantage to learning a foreign language over other age groups (e.g., Garcia-Sierra et al.; Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson; Singleton and Ryan; Werker et al.). More recently, an increase in functional benefits for…

This paper describes the need to reconceptualise teaching and learning programs for intercultural language learning. The shift is from concepts such as "content" and its "coverage" (intended to address "learner needs and interests") to developing programs focused on meaning making in interaction and on learners as…

This article reports on the results of a project which used a social network site to support students on a year abroad and foster informal learning, particularly in the area of intercultural communication. The project employed a peer-mentoring structure to solve the problem of role conflict, in which users of these sites may feel some tension as…

This article analyzes the findings of a pilot project conducted in 2008-2009 as a partnership between University Studies, Portland State University's interdisciplinary general education program, and the University's Russian Flagship Language Partner Program. The project proposes a new approach of integrating non-English speakers' language skills,…

Feedback provided by ILTLP Project team members to participants in Phase 1 is analysed to provide insights into the process of developing programs. The questions provide a starting point for considering current programming practices in developing units of work and long- term programs to support intercultural language learning.

During Phase 1 of the Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning in Practice (ILTLP) Project Nhu Trinh, a teacher of (Mandarin) Chinese, was one of a number of teachers who worked with project team members in a feedback process to develop intercultural units of work and longterm programs for their classes. The changes to Nhu's programming that…

An effective, inexpensive means of cross cultural and linguistic enrichment is available through a "Friday Lunch Program" developed by Ashland College, Ohio in October 1980. International students from the college meet in three one-hour lunches, with selected 5th and 6th grade students from local schools. The lunches are intended to…

Lessons learned in the development and implementation of an English language training (ELT) project for Indonesian Civil Service workers are discussed. The project, designed to focus on development of English communication skills, was undertaken in cooperation with the state administration agency. Issues and difficulties discussed include:…

Several sections of a regular College Writing 1 class at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania are comprised of a fairly equal number of native and nonnative speakers of English (advanced international students). This diverse writers' community engages throughout the 15-week fall semester in a workshop approach to writing development, following…

A course designed to establish interpersonal communication as the context for learning French and focusing on rhythm of communication as the course's primary objective is described. (MSE)