Developing Critical Cultural Awareness in Modern Languages

A comparative study conducted at UK and US universities, this text explores the relationship between language and culture whilst considering its implications for the teaching of Modern Foreign Languages in higher education. Parks provides a discussion for scholars interested in Intercultural Communication and Language Education.

Elinor Parks completed her PhD at the University of Hull. She is currently Tutor of German at the University of York and the University of Manchester. Her research explores the complexity behind the separation between language and content in modern language degrees both in the UK and in the US. In particular, the research examines implications of the divide for students' development of criticality and intercultural competence.

Introduction; 1. Problematising the separation between language and content in UK and US Modern Language degrees; 2. Language graduates with 'deep translingual and transcultural competence'; 3. Fostering Criticality and Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) in Higher Education; 4. Exploring faculty and students' views on the ML curriculum and students' development of critical cultural awareness and criticality; 5. Observed differences and similarities between British and American universities; 6. Fostering criticality development; 7. The development of intercultural competence and critical cultural awareness; 8. Defining and contextualising two emerging new competencies: communicative criticality and savoir se reconnaître; 9. Towards a new understanding of language degrees and critical cultural awareness: Implications for theory, research and practice