The Conference in Berlin Spandau was the third British Council Germany English language Teaching conference. It was an opportunity to meet people coming not only from Germany but also from fifteen other European countries, from Poland, Bulgaria to Latvia and UK to Hungary.

As a forum for intercultural learning it offered lectures, panel discussions and workshops on such concepts as global intercultural competence, third places, intercultural communicative competence, ethnography and inter- and intra-cultural awareness.

 

In the opening panel discussion its participants, Alan Pulverness, Simon Grenall, Nick Wadham-Smith, Anke Fedrowitz and Małgorzata Zdybiewska tried to define intercultural learning, comment on the connection between intercultural learning and language learning and explored the issues connected with assessment of intercultural competence in the classroom.

 

The key issues that arose during the conference concerned both theoretical and practical aspects. For example, Simon Greenall, a well-known textbook writer, in his presentation addressed the concerns of teachers who think that intercultural training adds further demands on an already overcrowded syllabus. He proposed some practical techniques for designing classroom materials and activities such as integrating an intercultural aspects into an existing language course, including different types of culture which can contribute to an intercultural training programme: macro and microculture, surface and deep culture, sample and target culture and to consider the relationship between language, culture and communication in the classroom.

 

Many conference presenters reported on their projects that connect teachers and students across different countries. Among them John Corbett, the author of An Intercultural Approach to English Language Teaching (Multilingual Matters 2003), reported on his work using an open-source Virtual Learning called ‘Moodle’ (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment). His project brings together teachers and students coming from Argentina, Brazil, Scotland and Taiwan. Its aim is to develop an online dialogue on aspects of everyday language and culture. The project participants practise ‘virtual ethnography’ through reflection on such issues as globalisation of English, cultural tourism and critical pedagogy. In his session John Corbett not only talked about the principles and motivations involved in setting the project  but also presented samples of the participants’ work.

 

Similarly, Dennis Newson reported on an going ELTeCS-funded project – Critical Viewing of British films in a variety of cultural contexts. Dennis Newson (based in Germany) together with other members of the project: Simon Gill (Czech Republic), Amol Padwad (India) and Radislav Millwood (Russia) created a cross-cultural students’ audience and encouraged it to discuss British films containing some cultural clashes issues. The presentation of ‘this debating society online’ included the history of the project and its participants’ comments.

 

British films were also discussed by Alan Pulverness in his lecture “Deprived of history: films and novels in third palces’.  Starting with  Claire Kramsch’s metaphor for immigration as the journey into a foreign language, with learners occupying ‘third places’, Alan Pulverness  presented numerous British films and novels reflecting immigrant and second-generation experience and explored ways in which such intra-cultural texts can be used in the language class to promote inter-cultural awareness.

 

Furthermore, many workshops dealt with practical issues demonstrating how intercultural ideas can be integrated into the classroom. Many conference participants referred to their experience and research connected with intercultural studies on various educational levels like Anke Fedorowitz (Germany) who tried to answer the burning question: Is cultural learning merely a   school subject or is it of vital relevance in and outside the classroom? Also Anna Gonerko-Frej (Poland) talked about her experience of introducing intercultural elements into a junior secondary school and the importance of ‘culturally-loaded’ teaching.

Małgorzata Zdybiewska (Poland) presented the British Council Poland ‘Culture in ELT’ project showing the web pages materials and explored the ways how web materials can be used to develop cultural awareness in Teacher Training Colleges and secondary schools.

 

Finally in the closing panel discussion Dave Allan, Maria del Carmen Mendez Garcia, Chris Rose and Bernard Voss examined the recurrent issue of assessment of intercultural competence in the classroom and tried to answer questions about the future developments in intercultural learning.

 

To sum it up, the conference in Berlin Spandau was an excellent opportunity not only to exchange views on intercultural learning but also to meet and to talk to many teachers and researchers involved in this field of study. It was also a very enjoyable and excellently organized event.