Foreign Language Learning as Intercultural Experience

Learning a foreign language in its cultural context has a significant effect on the subjective mind, ranging from the unsettling to the inspirational. The complex interplay between native and foreign languages, their cultural conceptualisations and discourses and the mind and body of the learner results in the subjective construction of individual positionings located «in between» the languages and cultures involved. These processes are not restricted to the cognitive level of learning but also involve deep-seated habits, values and beliefs. These habits, values and beliefs are to a certain extent the result of subjective experiences and feelings; however, they are also embedded in a socio-cultural network of concepts, norms, traditions and life-worlds, so that they are characterised both by the learner’s subjectivity and by the sociality and (inter-)culturality of their environment.
The essays in this volume explore the subjective dimension of intercultural language learning, ranging from theoretical considerations to empirical studies and providing stimulating insights into this important area of study.

Arnd Witte is Senior Lecturer in German at the National University of Ireland in Maynooth. He has published widely in the field of foreign language learning and intercultural communication, with a particular emphasis on intercultural competence.
Theo Harden is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Second Language Studies at University College Dublin and Professor Adjunto at the University of Brasilia. He has published widely in the area of second language acquisition, particularly German as a second language.