Culture in Language Learning - Softcover

Classical and modern foreign language studies no longer have a well-defined subject area, and language and culture can no longer be defined according to nations and national identities. New approaches are being developed with theoretical and methodological points of departure in new areas of research: for example, culture studies, anthropology, sociology, pragmatics and conversation analyses. The aim of modern language studies must therefore be redefined, and be more open for variation and diversity, both in culture and communication. The book discusses the relation between language and culture and is a direct result of the conference Culture in Language Learning, organised under the auspices of the Danish Language and Culture Network, which assembles researchers from language disciplines in Denmark. The aim is to examine how culture comes into the actual language code; into the use of language; and not least, into the learning and teaching of language. One of the book's main problematic areas thus concerns the learning and teaching of foreign and second languages in a globalised world where languages play a new role, both for the individual person, by virtue of internationalisation of education and work-life, and for cooperation across national borders. The articles elucidate these problematic points in relation to the historic development of foreign language disciplines, the meeting of language and culture, teaching traditions and language appropriation theories.

Hanne Leth Andersen est maitre de conference de linguistique française a l'Universite d'Arhus. Ses recherches portent notamment sur le français parle et sur la didactique des langues.

Karen Risager is Dr.Phil. and Professor in Cultural Encounters at the Department of Culture and Identity, Roskilde University, Denmark. She has conducted interdisciplinary research for thirty years within the fields of language and culture teaching, cultural studies and sociolinguistics, internationalisation and intercultural competence, and the language and cultural learning of adult migrants. She is one of the initiators of an interdisciplinary Master? s programme in Cultural Encounters, focusing on culture, language, identity and power in a global perspective. Selected publications: Language Teachers, Politics and Cultures (Multilingual Matters 1999, with Michael Byram) and Language and Culture: Global Flows and Local Complexity (Multilingual Matters 2006).