The role of language awareness in promoting intercultural coexistence

Abstract

In the reality of the current socio-political agenda of the European Union, pleas for ‘More Languages for Europe’ and reminders of the urgent need to ‘Practise Interculturality’ have become frequent. The plea for increased provision of dedicated language education has so far failed as a generally convincing argument to pursue it further than the acquisition of the basic skills required for everyday communication. On the other hand, intercultural practice involving study of a language dimension, the knowledge of which would be expected to serve as a stimulus to establish contacts in coexistence in a multicultural society, has attracted the attention of most advocates of multiple allegiances, particularly European citizenship, with several books on the subject available from Multilingual Matters Ltd.