Introducing Intercultural Learning in a New Nordic Master’s Program

Abstract

This article presents the rationale behind a 10 ECTS course in “Intercultural learning” which is an integral part of a new master’s program for teachers of English and German at Østfold University College: “Fremmedspråk i skolen”. We present the content and organization of the course. Furthermore, we reflect on the students’ own intercultural learning by analyzing two types of data: the students’ comments on the course blog and their final reflection notes. Finally, we discuss the students’ learning in the light of their ability to relate to various concepts of culture. The theoretical discussion of the concepts of culture is based on literature on two different approaches to culture, namely more simplistic and essentialist ideas of nationality and ethnicity on the one hand and more theoretically founded ideas of cultural complexity on the other. We found many good reasons for choosing an eclectic approach to language didactics which combines old and new approaches to the concept of culture. With regard to the students’ own intercultural learning, it is difficult to find an unequivocal answer to the question of how much they learned. What we can say is that the students show many signs of improved intercultural competence. Moreover, almost all the teachers among these students claim that they make use of their intercultural knowledge in the classroom by combining their language teaching with more intercultural learning than before.