Intercultural Language Learning is an emerging pedagogy that has strong connections to inquiry thinking, requiring learners to adopt an inquiring state of mind, to notice and question assumptions and to reorient themselves in relation to others. A critical dimension of understanding language in use, is that language cannot be separated from its social and cultural contexts.
To become an effective learner in this context, students must develop a variety of learning strategies from reflective observation to active experimentation.
Common features of intercultural language teaching are:
- exploration by the learners of the target language and culture and of their own language and culture
- discovery of the relationship between language and culture
- developing conceptual and analytic tools for comparing and understanding cultures
- developing a reflective capacity to deal with cultural difference and to modify behaviour where needed.
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