Intercultural Competence Past, Present and Future (eBook)

This book explores the benefits of teaching reflection upon one's own culture to develop intercultural competence and looks into the relationship between the proficiency level of the second language and the target culture. It introduces new debates on the concept of 'critical cultural awareness' in intercultural learning and teaching, for example the indiscriminate use of terminologies related to the idea of 'intercultural encounters'. Also, it provides insight into the relationship between language and culture using a new tool such as the Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters through Visual Media. The presentation of different approaches, tools, barriers, educational and cultural realities, online intercultural exchange projects and concepts such as motivation, attitudes, stereotyping, otherization, and critical cultural awareness makes this book an excellent instrument not only for teachers but also for researchers, policy-makers and private and public institutions that want to explore culture and interculturality and to promote an intercultural competence and global citizenship among its learners / users / clients and / or an interculturally-oriented language education.  

María Dolores López-Jiménez holds a BA in English Philology (1995) from the University of Seville, Seville, Spain, an MA in Spanish Applied Linguistics (2000) and an MA in English Applied Linguistics (2001) from Indiana University, Indiana, USA and a PhD (2009) in Second Language Teaching and Acquisition from the University of Seville, Seville, Spain. She is a member of the University of Seville Research Group La lengua inglesa en el ámbito universitario (PAI: HUM 397). She worked as a Teaching Assistant at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University from 1998-2001. She is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Philology and Translation at Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain. She has been teaching courses on sociocultural aspects of the English world for more than ten years. Her main areas of research include second language teaching and learning, (inter)cultural aspects and English as a foreign language and Spanish as a second language materials evaluation.

Jorge Sánchez Torres holds a degree in English Philology as a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Applied Linguistics, and a PhD on Second Language Acquisition (2014) from University of Seville. He is a member of the University of Seville research group La Lengua Inglesa en el Ámbito Universitario (PAI: HUM397). He is teaching Professional Teaching Development, Second Language Teaching / Learning Methodology and Pedagogy, English courses and Spanish for specific purposes in various institutions such as Centro Internacional de Estudios Culturales (CINECU)and The Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, Seville, Spain. He is an Adjunt Lecturer for University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University at CINECU, Seville, Spain. He has worked as a Professor at the University of North Carolina (Romance Languages Department), the University of Seville (Department of English Philology, English Language) and in different institutions, in Seville, as a bilingual teacher with children aged between 2 and 14 years of age. His current research interests include second language teaching / learning methodology and pedagogy, bilingualism, bilingual families and bilingual education, family language policy, instructional technologies, team-teaching, interculturality and intercultural communicative competence.

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This book explores the benefits of teaching reflection upon one's own culture to develop intercultural competence and looks into the relationship between the proficiency level of the second language and the target culture. It introduces new debates on the concept of 'critical cultural awareness' in intercultural learning and teaching, for example the indiscriminate use of terminologies related to the idea of 'intercultural encounters'. Also, it provides insight into the relationship between language and culture using a new tool such as the Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters through Visual Media. The presentation of different approaches, tools, barriers, educational and cultural realities, online intercultural exchange projects and concepts such as motivation, attitudes, stereotyping, otherization, and critical cultural awareness makes this book an excellent instrument not only for teachers but also for researchers, policy-makers and private and public institutions that want to explore culture and interculturality and to promote an intercultural competence and global citizenship among its learners / users / clients and / or an interculturally-oriented language education.