Developing a critical perspective in intercultural language teaching and learning: by Tony Liddicoat

Talk by Tony Liddicoat (University of Warwick) for the Center of Languages and Cultures at the University of Southern California

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Learning and using an additional language is fundamentally an engagement in linguistic and cultural diversity and so language learners need to develop the ability to participate in this diversity. Such learning requires an intercultural perspective in language teaching and learning that supports the development of multilingual and intercultural capabilities. An intercultural perspective thus entails a critical and reflective focus in the process of language learning that supports learners in coming to understand themselves as participants in diversity and develops their agency as language users. This presentation will focus on the nature of criticality in the intercultural language teaching and learning and consider how such learning can be supported by teachers.
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Tony Liddicoat is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Centre for Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick and Adjunct Professor in the School of Communication, International Studies and Languages at the University of South Australia. He is currently co-convenor of the AILA Research Network Intercultural mediation in language and culture teaching and learning/La médiation interculturelle en didactique des langues et des cultures, and Executive Editor of the journal Current Issues in Language Planning.