Navigating intercultural language teaching in New Zealand classrooms. Issue 5 (3rd September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Biebricher, Christine; East, Martin; Howard, Jocelyn; Tolosa, Constanza
• Is Part Of: Cambridge journal of education. Volume 49:Issue 5(2019)
• Page Start: 605
• Page End: 621
• Publication Date: 2019-09-03
• Subjects: Intercultural -- language teaching -- culture -- Mandarin -- teacher inquiry; Teachers -- Training of -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; 370.5
• DOI: 10.1080/0305764X.2019.1581137
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0305-764X

Abstract

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.