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Conference Theme: Aiming for "The Third Place" Intercultural Competence through Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

Description:

Intercultural competence is [the ability] "to see relationships between different cultures - both internal and external to a society - and to mediate, that is interpret each in terms of the other, either for themselves or for other people." It also encompasses the ability to critically or analytically understand that one’s "own and other cultures’" perspective is culturally determined rather than natural.

-Michael Byram, Professor, University of Durham

Globalization, having brought individuals in contact with one another at an unprecedented scale, has also brought forth a general challenge to traditionally recognized boundaries of nation, language, race, gender, and class. The challenge moves in two directions simultaneously: on the one hand, distinctions that were unnoticeable before have been rendered visible, and in the opposite direction, similarities across traditional boundaries have been recognized. The end result in both cases is that boundaries of social practice are being re-negotiated, re-assessed, and re-considered. For those living within this rapidly changing social landscape, intercultural competence--as defined by Michael Byram above--is a necessary skill, and the cultivation of such intercultural individuals falls on the shoulders of today’s educators. They should provide students with opportunities to help them define and design for themselves their "third place" or "third culture," a sphere of interculturality that enables language students to take an insider's view as well as an outsider's view on both their first and second cultures. It is this ability to find/establish/adopt this third place that is at the very core of intercultural competence.

The conference aims to bring researchers and practitioners across languages, levels and settings to discuss and share research, theory, and best practices and foster meaningful professional dialogue on issues related to Intercultural Competence teaching and learning.

		Keynote Speaker:   Claire Kramsch, Ph.D. "The Symbolic Dimension of Intercultural Competence" Abstract Claire Kramsch is Professor of German and Foreign Language Acquisition at the University of California, Berkeley, and Founding Director of the Berkeley Language Center. Among her many publications is an edited volume, Language Acquisition and Language Socialization: Ecological Perspectives (Advances in Applied Linguistics Series, Continuum International, 2003); most recently she completed a manuscript on The Multilingual Subject. Her awards include the ACTFL Nelson Brooks Award for the teaching of culture; the MLA Kenneth Mildenberger Prize for Outstanding Research in the teaching of foreign languages and literatures; the Goethe Medal; the MLA Distinguished Service Award; and a UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award. Dr. Kramsch is past President of the American Association of Applied Linguistics, was co-editor of the journal Applied Linguistics and serves on CERCLL’s National Advisory Board.

Plenary Speakers: Three plenary sessions will feature distinguished speakers in the areas of Chinese, Latin American, and Middle Eastern language and culture:

		Vicki Galloway, Ph.D. "The World is Your Oyster: Making Live-in Metaphors" Professor of Spanish and Associate Chair for Research and Assessment in the School of Modern Languages at Georgia Institute of Technology.

		Jun Liu, Ph.D. "What is in Common: English Fever in China and Chinese Heat in America? Intercultural Communicative Incompetence" Abstract Professor and Head of the Department of English at the University of Arizona. Director of the Confucius Institute of the University of Arizona (CIUA). Past President of Teachers of English as a Second or Other Language (TESOL).

		R. S. Zaharna, Ph.D. "An Associative Perspective of Communication in the Arab World: Implications for Identity, Teaching and Public Diplomacy" Abstract Associate Professor in the School of Communication at American University.

Conference Strands:

• Intercultural Competence and Theory
  
• Intercultural Competence and Classroom Instruction
  
• Making Intercultural Competence Instruction Possible
  
• Intercultural Competence and International Education
  
• Intercultural Competence and the Global World
  
• Intercultural Competence and Media Representation
  
• Intercultural Competence and Language Practice
  
• Assessing Intercultural Competence
  
• Critical Considerations of Intercultural Competence

Schedule: For the full details on conference activities, see the Schedule page.

Location: The Hotel Arizona (Tucson, Arizona)

Credit: K-12 educators are eligible to receive 11 hours of Arizona Continuing Education for attending the conference. Pre and post conference workshops are each worth 3 hours of Arizona Continuing Education.

Registration Information

Lodging Information

Scholarships: Lodging and registration scholarships are available. Please see the Scholarship page for details.

Sponsors, Exhibitors, Advertisers: There are a variety of ways to respresent your organization at this conference.  For more information please see the Sponsorship page.

Questions: Please contact us at cercll@email.arizona.edu or (520) 626-8071.

Supported in part by a grant from the Arizona Humanities Council.

Our gratitude to our University of Arizona contributor, the College of Humanities.

Link to the 2008 Intercultural Competence Conference website.