From Foreign Language Education to Education for Intercultural Citizenship

Michael Byram is Professor of Education at Durham University, England. He studied French, German and Danish at King's College Cambridge, and wrote a PhD on Danish literature. He then taught French and German at secondary school level and in adult education in an English comprehensive school. Since being appointed to a post in teacher education at Durham in 1980, he has carried out research into the education of linguistic minorities, foreign language education and student residence abroad. His books include Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence (1997) and he is the editor of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning. He is also an Adviser to the Council of Europe Language Policy Division.

This book analyses the evolution of theory of intercultural competence and its relationship to education for citizenship. It analyses the concepts of intercultural competence by discussing the ways in which language education policy develops and by comparing the theories and purposes of foreign language education and education for citizenship.

Acknowledgements IntroductionI FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATIONPurposes 1 Foreign language education in context 2 Purposes for foreign language education Possibilities 3 Is language learning possible at school? 4 The intercultural speaker - acting interculturally or being bicultural 5 Intercultural competence and foreign language learning in the primary school 6 Analysis and advocacy: researching the cultural dimensions of foreign language education Perspectives 7 Nationalism and Internationalism in Language Education 8 Language learning in Europe 9 Foreign language teaching as political action II INTERCULTURAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATIOn 10 Language Education, Political Education and Intercultural Citizenship 11 Education for Intercultural Citizenship 12 Policies for intercultural citizenship education 13 Curricula for intercultural citizenship education 14 Assessment and/or evaluation of intercultural competence and intercultural citizenshipConclusionReferencesAppendix