Search results for "Foreign language"

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

2011

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 illustr…

Dealing with Intercultural Communicative Competence in the Foreign Language Classroom

2007

Intercultural communicative competence in the context of the European higher education area

2009

Abstract In this paper, we analyse the close relationship between the European higher education area (EHEA), the common European framework of reference for languages and intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and show how the implementation of ICC in foreign language teaching can become an essential tool to acquire the full achievement of the EHEA. En este articulo analizamos la estrecha relacion entre el Espacio Europeo de Educacion Superior, el Marco Europeo de las Lenguas y la competencia comunicativa intercultural y mostrar como la implementacion de la CCI en la ensenanza de una lengua extranjera puede convertirse en una herramienta esencial para conseguir los objetivos del EEES.

Why we need TI-Oriented Language Learning and Teaching

2021

The teaching of foreign languages to students in Translation and Interpreting (TI) programmes should be framed within the field of Language for Specific Purposes (LSP). This would make it possible to pinpoint specific curricular content and methodological traits that contribute to the enhancement of the communicative competence and initial development of TI competences. This paper analyses the students’ perspectives on L2 teaching in a TI programme and how it should be undertaken to best comply with the linguistic demands imposed by translation and interpreting. A thematic analysis of 117 open questionnaires returned by students from Austria, Slovenia and Spain identified five areas to whic…

Translation in foreign language teaching: A case study from a functional perspective

2014

Abstract There is little research available on using translation as a tool to develop students’ translation and communicative competence in foreign language programmes. This paper aims to fill this gap by reporting the results of a localized empirical study, using a functionalist theoretical framework. After a pre-translation source text analysis of three texts with EU topics, data were collected by two methods: a linguistic analysis of the student translations of these texts to identify and analyze the most common translation problems, and semi-structured interviews to explore their individual difficulties. The results show that a functional approach can sensitize students to the relations…

“Too much grammar will kill you!” Teaching Spanish as a foreign language in Norway: What teachers say about grammar teaching

2019

Exam results show that many Norwegian students lack communicative competence in their second foreign language. This study investigates Spanish language instruction in Norway, in particular Spanish teachers’ opinions about grammar teaching, and why and how grammar is taught in lower and upper secondary school. Furthermore, the study explores whether common grammar teaching approaches are primarily explicit (rules provided) or implicit (rules not provided), inductive (language first) or deductive (rules first), and whether the language of instruction is primarily Norwegian or Spanish. The data comprise interviews with teachers and classroom observations, as well as teaching plans and other ma…

CLIL and Literary Education: Teaching Foreign Languages and Literature from an Intercultural Perspective—The Results of a Case Study

2020

This article intends to explore the relationship between CLIL and literary education by considering the results of a case study involving the teaching of foreign literatures from an intercultural perspective in Italian secondary schools. In the first part we introduce a model of literary and intercultural communicative competence and in the second part we present a case study implemented in three secondary schools in Northern Italy. A qualitative research design was implemented and data were collected through interviews with teachers and questionnaires answered by students. The results revealed that while teachers focus on the intercultural dimension of literature only in terms of the expan…

What Does it Feel Like to Use English? Empirical Evidence from EFL Students

2013

Recent studies concerning foreign language learning and teaching do not focus exclusively on the cognitive processes of the parties involved, but also on their emotional states, which are intricately interwoven with language learning and use. To date, many researchers have focused on the effects of language anxiety on the learners’ development of communicative competence. However, apart from anxiety, humans experience a wide range of other emotions that foreign/second language use evokes across many learning and communicative contexts. Research on affect in foreign language learning has been growing steadily and has been concerned not only with foreign language anxiety, but also with positi…

Correspondences and Contrasts in Foreign Language Pedagogy and Translation Studies

2013

Correspondences and contrasts in foreign language pedagogy.- Correspondences and contrasts in translation studies.

MultiROMs and Online Applications Used for Teaching Phonetics in a Secondary School: A Critical Review

2012

The aim of the article is to evaluate the quality of the materials used to teach pronunciation in a Polish secondary school. Although the analysis covers all kinds of aids available for teachers, including a coursebook accompanied by a CD, the authors focus mainly on MultiROMs and online resources connected with a given book. The findings allow the authors to conclude which coursebook sets seem to be most effective in shaping students’ pronunciation and which exercises are most helpful, taking into consideration the level of students’ English. Additionally, the authors’ idea was to check whether these books take into consideration the aspects of pronunciation which prove to be especially di…