Implementation of the Intercultural Language Education in the Classroom
Susanna Asatryan, Brusov State University (Armenia)
Abstract
Current paper touches upon the problem of intercultural language education in the classroom. Culture is a complex system of concepts, attitudes, values, beliefs, conventions, behaviours, practices, rituals and lifestyle of people who make up a cultural group, as well as the artifacts they produce and the institutions they create. Intercultural education is an effective form of education that integrates the values and viewpoints of all students in a class. Within the scope of this article we tried to accentuate the key element in the intercultural process, which is a real communication and an intercultural dialogue in the classroom rather than any kind of artificial language tasks. First and foremost, we consider that being intercultural means understanding another world. So this process can only take place from a position where students challenge their world and let it be enriched by others. Actually the teacher must be interculturally competent. He/she must understand cultural backgrounds of all students, their real-life experiences. The teacher must recognize learners’ beliefs, preferences, hobbies or other identities for implementing interculturalism in class.