Teaching/learning Innovations and Research Presentation by Universidad Nebrija

Developing Intercultural Awareness through Erasmus+: Primary Students’ Perceptions
by Beatriz López Medina (blopezm@nebrija.es)

I International Conference for Professionals in Bilingual Education

The main goal of this conference is to enhance the communication between bilingual education professionals working at different educational stages. Educators, headmasters, managers and public administration will meet to discuss the challenges and the opportunities of the bilingual system from kindergarten to college education.

This exchange of opinions and good practices will take place through workshops and conferences given by national and international experts in bilingual education.

ABSTRACT:

In recent years, the role of intercultural competence has increased in European curricula, not just within the foreign language teaching, but as a cross-curricular topic in different areas (Byram, 2014). Projects such as Erasmus+ have contributed significantly to develop this competence (Çelik, Kazazoğlu, & Karaca, 2013), since the appropriateness to different contexts plays a key role in the process of development (Liddicoat et al, 2013). In this talk, we will analyse how primary students from four different countries (Spain, Italy, UK and Latvia) perceive their European counterparts in their first mobility within the Erasmus+ Project 2016‐1‐ES01‐KA201‐025491. Through the analysis of the compositions, written at the beginning and at the end of their first one-week visit, early findings show how cultural awareness starts to develop within the context of Erasmus+. Further research is in process to determine to what extent the students’ cultural awareness evolves and develops throughout the project. 

Works cited:

Byram, M. (2014). Twenty-five   years    on –from cultural studies to intercultural citizenship, Language, Culture and Curriculum, 27(3), 209-225.

Çelik, S., Kazazoğlu, S. & Karaca, B. (2013) Intercultural experiences of foreign students: Erasmus students’ perspectives on their development of cross-cultural awareness. Sustainable Multilingualism, 2, 126-136.

Liddicoat, A. J., Papademetre, M., Scarino, A., & Kohler, M. (2003). Report on Intercultural Language Learning. Canberra: Department of Education Science and Training. Australian Government.

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