This Teaching Innovation Group stems from the multicultural diversity in the language department of Escola Universitària Mediterrani (EUM), part of the Universitat de Girona, where Chinese, English, French, German, Italian and Russian are taught.
The common framework of reference for languages, as well as the Council of Europe, establish plurilingual and multicultural competences in language classrooms as basic ones, following Michael Byram’s model in this regard. Reflecting the importance given to intercultural competence, at EUM students of all degrees must study at least two languages and, therefore, emphasizing interculturality in language classrooms becomes even more important.
In addition to the basic skills in language learning, intercultural competence provides added value both in terms of students’ motivation to learn the language, as well as in their future professional careers, enabling them to recognize cultural differences (ethnicity, gender, nationality, etc.) by developing their intercultural sensitivity through the four skills of language learning.
The main objective of our teaching innovation group is to improve the intercultural competence of language learners from Escola Universitària Mediterrani (EUM). In order to carry this out, we propose to follow the tasks specified below.
Make a diagnosis of the current training given to students related to intercultural competences in the language classrooms at Escola Universitària Mediterrani (EUM), review the methodologies used by group members in the classroom to promote intercultural competence, and detect current training needs
Prepare a bibliography of relevant publications on intercultural competence
Design a training process in intercultural competences for EUM language classrooms, generating the necessary teaching resources to promote them taking into account the four basic competences of language learning (listening, reading, writing and speaking)
Implement the designed actions in the classroom and evaluate the teaching results of the interventions
Disseminate the results of the actions taken in the classrooms in scientific journals and conferences
Member of the Teaching Innovation Group Multicultural and Plurilingual Competence
