Developing Intercultural Perspectives on Language Use

Exploring Pragmatics and Culture in Foreign Language Learning

By (author) Troy McConachy

Publication date:

20 November 2017

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781783099320

Many language teachers recognise the importance of integrating intercultural learning into language learning, but how this can be best achieved is not always apparent. This is particularly the case in foreign language learning contexts where teachers are working with a prescribed textbook and opportunities to use the language outside the classroom are limited. This book argues that teachers can work creatively with conventional resources and utilise classroom experiences in order to help learners interpret aspects of communication in insightful ways and develop awareness of the influence of cultural assumptions and values on language use. The book provides extensive analysis of a range of classroom interactions to demonstrate how teachers and learners can work together to construct opportunities for intercultural learning through reflection on pragmatics.

Figures and Tables

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: Pragmatics and Culture in Communicative Language Teaching

Chapter 2: Linking Pragmatics and Intercultural Language Learning

Chapter 3: Developing a View of Language Use as Social Action

Chapter 4: Reflection on Experience as Resource for Intercultural Learning

Chapter 5: Combining Performance and Reflection for Learning

Chapter 6: Developing Intercultural Perspectives on Language Use

Conclusion

List of References

Subject Index

In this timely book Troy McConachy offers a theoretically engaging and deeply insightful argument for developing in learners an ‘intercultural perspective on language use’. It highlights, through rich exemplification, the way in which even the most ordinary discussions in the foreign language learning classroom become an opportunity to explore, in reflective and analytic ways, the intricacies entailed in exchanging meanings in interaction across languages and cultures.