Videocast as Mean of Intercultural Approach to English Language Teaching

As the world changes, educational policies have to respond to global processes by rethinking curricula and standards. Chapter 1 states that for this it is necessary to shift the focus from simply ‘linguistic’ competence as the aim of language teaching to an intercultural competence. The purpose of this chapter is to investigate fundamental principles that guide the teaching and learning of languages: culture, language and second language acquisition. We develop the view of language as a complex contextualized phenomenon that cannot be understood in terms of linguistic code alone, but which includes understanding language as a form of the meaning making. We also look at conceptual frameworks and models for intercultural communicative competence to explore the ideas for implementing intercultural approach into the classroom. Chapter 2 deals more specifically with aspects of practice. We introduce methods and techniques to illustrate the ways teachers can construct intercultural learning experience. The findings show the steps needed to be taken further on the way to integrate intercultural competence education into educational practice using designed materials. The application includes pedagogical materials created for planning lessons aimed to develop the intercultural communicative competence.