Innovation in Language Learning

Intercultural (IC) education has been defined by reputed scholars and there seems to be agreement under what we mean by this term. One of its first appearances can be found as soon as 1947, written by Lexter Dix (Consultant on Professional Education, Bureau for Intercultural education) who declared: “During the summer just past, the first southern workshop of university status in intercultural education was held at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill … This was an important pioneering venture, for it was organized in the face of an assumption, prevalent in many quarters, that any efforts to eradicate group conflict in the South are foredoomed to failure because of the prevailing regional attitudes toward race difference and the less rigid but still important religious prejudices. Among other important results, however, this workshop revealed that the study of intercultural education by workers in schools and communities is just as appropriate, timely and acceptable in the South today as in any other section of the country”. His statement seems completely up-to-date for 21^st century society, where institutions, politicians and educational agents all agree on the importance of IC education for the peaceful living together of future generations, and how the language teacher is one of the most important pieces of this picture.

Schools and language teachers are the first in the chain (and sometimes the last in the importance attached by politicians and investment) to implement IC education practices, methodology, evaluation of results and improvement. Little attention has been paid from most governments to inform (and advise) them on how new arrivals from immigrant children (regarding, among others, the language barrier, diversity of religions, variety of food) must be interculturally managed. In a nutshell, train language teachers to teach 21^st century citizens with cultural intelligence.

Our paper will compare how language teachers at different schools from two countries (the United Kingdom and Spain) cope with IC education. Our analysis will be based on direct observation from researchers, and on objective data collected from school authorities and official reports.

Our results will lead us to conclude that IC education and language teachers have still a long way ahead. Fruitful cooperation among countries and institutions is needed for citizens’ education. Good IC practices must be exchanged among schools and practitioners.