Journeys Towards Intercultural Capability in Language Classrooms: Voices from Students, Teachers and Researchers(Intercultural Communication and Language Education)

This open access book presents an account of five teacher educators who, over a two-year period, undertook a research project with five teachers of languages other than English in pre-secondary schools in New Zealand.  Their collaborative aim was to develop students’ intercultural capability in the context of learning a new language. The school participants were typical of many in New Zealand’s pre-secondary sector; the teachers had limited language-teaching experience and limited prior knowledge of how to develop the intercultural dimension in their language classrooms, and the students were largely at the beginning stages of learning a new language. The book discusses the findings obtained using a range of data collection methods, including classroom observations, reflective interviews with teachers, and focus groups with students. It documents instances of breakthrough and growth for teachers and students and reveals the problems and tensions. Lastly, it reflects on thelessons learned in the course of this project and speculates on the roles that teacher education needs to play if the goal of intercultural capability is to be better achieved in language classrooms, both in New Zealand and internationally. Of interest to a wide range of stakeholders in the area of education, the book allows readers to gain an understanding of the opportunities of working with teachers through an action–research model, alongside the challenges that this brings and ways in which intercultural capability may be strengthened.

Table of Contents:
Beginning the journeys towards intercultural capability.- Studies on the intercultural dimension across the globe.- The intercultural dimension in the New Zealand language teaching context.- Introducing the two-year study.- Journeys towards intercultural capability: The students’ voices.- Journeys towards intercultural capability: The teachers’ voices.- Journeys towards intercultural capability: The researchers’ voices.- Journeys towards intercultural capability: Retrospective reflections.

About the Author :
Martin East is Professor of Language Education in the School of Cultures, Languages and Linguistics, the University of Auckland, New Zealand.  Prior to this, he was a language teacher educator in the University’s Faculty of Education and Social Work, where he worked primarily with those who would go on to become teachers of additional languages in the secondary school sector. He publishes widely in the fields of language pedagogy and language assessment, and his work has appeared in journals such as Language Teaching, The Language Learning Journal, Language and Intercultural Communication, and the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. Constanza Tolosa is a senior lecturer in Languages Education in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. Her research and teaching expertise is the learning and teaching of languages. Her current areas of research include the development of intercultural competencies through language education, pedagogical applications of digital technologies, and the use of communicative tasks in foreign language classrooms. An experienced language teacher and language teacher educator, she teaches in different programmes ranging from pre-service language teacher education to postgraduate courses on contemporary pedagogies. Jocelyn Howard is a senior lecturer in the School of Teacher Education at the University of Canterbury, where she works with pre- and in-service teachers, and international teachers of additional languages. She has conducted guest lectures and professional development programmes in China and Korea, working alongside language educators to implement mandated language curriculum initiatives. She researches issues in languages education and language teacher education, covering English as an additional language as well as languages other than English. She is currently focusing on the efficacy of digitally mediated tools for languages education and the development of young learners’ intercultural awareness within the context of beginner language programmes. Christine Biebricher is a teacher educator and works as a senior lecturer in the School of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. She is a trained secondary school teacher and has worked in pre- and in-service language teacher education in Germany, Spain and New Zealand. Her academic work draws on her background in language didactics and applied linguistics and on her experience and expertise in languages, literacies and teaching English as a second language.  Her research interests focus on teacher education and teacher professional development in languages and literacies. Adèle Scott is an Advisory Officer in the policy team of New Zealand's Post-Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) where she works on curriculum development and assessment matters.  Previously, she has been a cross-curricular pedagogical leader at New Zealand’s largest school and online education provider and worked for 19 years as a senior lecturer in the secondary initial teacher education programme at Massey University, New Zealand. Her doctoral thesis examined the roles, experiences, place, and identity of teachers of additional languages in New Zealand schools. She has also been a designer of national curriculum documents and assessment tools; a classroom teacher of Japanese and French; and a regular visitor to Japan to give guest lectures and support professional development opportunities for teachers.