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SUMMARY:‘Intercultural citizenship’ – a purpose for foreign language
  education? - Professor Mike Byram\, University of Durham 
DTSTART:20131125T170000Z
DTEND:20131125T183000Z
UID:TALK45412@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lucian Stephenson
DESCRIPTION:The obvious purpose of foreign language learning is ‘communi
 cation’ and this gives language teaching face validity in the eyes of le
 arners\, policy makers and the public. The shift from purposes of introduc
 ing learners to the ‘high’ culture of literature and philosophy in the
  target language\, if not complete\, threatens to reduce the educational v
 alue of language learning – except among those who specialise in languag
 es. Perhaps we need to reintroduce an educational value. This is one start
 ing point.\nA second starting point lies in the concept of ‘internationa
 lism’ and the role of language teaching in counter-acting the nationalis
 t tendencies of education systems – especially at pre-university level 
 – to create citizens who identify (only) with their (nation-)state. Fore
 ign language teaching can also be part of this tendency but has the potent
 ial to create citizens who identify not only with the state but also with 
 trans-national/supra-national groups.\nI will attempt to argue this positi
 on in theory but also show examples from practice\, from a small scale net
 work of teachers at schools and universities. They are trying to operation
 alise the concept of ‘intercultural citizenship’ and encourage their l
 earners to identify with other learners working on shared values and behav
 iours in other countries.\n\n*Michael Byram* is Professor Emeritus in the 
 School of Education at Durham University and Professeur invité at the Uni
 versity of Luxembourg. \nHe read French\, German and Danish at King’s Co
 llege Cambridge\, and wrote a PhD on Danish literature. He then taught Fre
 nch and German in secondary and in adult education in an English comprehen
 sive community school. Since being appointed to a post in teacher educatio
 n at Durham in 1980\, he has carried out research into the education of li
 nguistic minorities\, foreign language education and student residence abr
 oad.\nHis books include Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative
  Competence\; Language Teachers\, Politics and Cultures (with Karen Risage
 r)\; His latest monograph is From Foreign Language Education to Education 
 for Intercultural Citizenship. He is the joint editor with Adelheid Hu of 
 the Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning\, and was unt
 il recently a Special Adviser to the Language Policy Division of the Counc
 il of Europe.\n
LOCATION: Faculty of Education\, 184 Hills Road\, Cambridge\, CB2 8PQ\, Ro
 om GS5
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