Sensitizing Foreign Language Learners to Cultural Diversity Through Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence

Abstract

Language and culture are intricately interwoven thus teaching and learning a language inevitabely involves teaching and learning culture of its users. However, this always raises a question about which culture is involved, how the concept is understood and what it means for foreign language learners as well as for native speakers of the language involved. Culture is not monolithic, it comprises a variety of cultural practices that people engage in across a range of social configurations they participate in. The present chapter addresses current concepts of culture in the context of foreign/second language learning, discusses how they relate to foreign language teaching practices (as illustrated by modern coursebooks) and suggests how teaching received culture can be enriched by referring to individual cultures in the learners’ heads. This is an inspiring topic since foreign language learners come to the language classroom with the experience of their own culture(s) and, through the exposure to a foreign language and its culture(s), hopefully they develop a new kind of sensitivity to linguistic and cultural activities that people perform.