Policies, Principles, Practices: New Directions in Foreign Language Education in the Era of Educational Globalization (Hardback) | Released: 01 Aug 2011

This book addresses the various challenges facing university foreign language teaching in non-anglophone countries in the era of educational globalization. Growing student mobility, net-based cross-border university education, and universities opening subsidiaries in other countries force university teachers to offer their teaching in English rather than in their mother tongue, and universities to equip their staff members with the necessary foreign language competencies. As a reflection of societal and institutional globalization processes, dedicated language teachers strive to adjust teaching methods to new student identities, the availability of advanced learning technologies, and social media enabling multiple forms of cross-border contact. Thus, understanding the situation of contemporary university language teaching requires a consideration of macro-level social changes, institutional policies, as well as developments in classroom practice. The point of departure is the case of Denmark. The problems addressed and the remedies offered, however, apply to all non-anglophone universities with the ambition to stay competitive in the global market of university education. The book includes contributions from foreign and second language teaching specialists representing a broad spectrum of Danish universities and years of sustained scholarly effort to improve the standard of university language teaching and the political recognition of the importance of advanced foreign language skills.
About the Author: Rita Cancino, PhD, is Deputy Head of the Department of Culture and Global Studies, and Associate Professor in Spanish at Aalborg University, Denmark. She is the leader of the research group Communication and Culture in Professional Settings. Her current research interests include language policy at Danish universities and in Latin America; Language for Specific Purposes; and translation and legal language. Lotte Dam holds an MA in Spanish Business Communication and a PhD in Spanish Language. She is Associate Professor in Spanish Language at Aalborg University, Denmark, where she primarily teaches Spanish grammar. Her main research fields are Spanish language and linguistics with a focus on semantics. Her second research field is culture and identity. Kirsten JAeger, PhD, is Associate Professor of Intercultural Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark. In the area of education, she focuses on the teaching of cultural knowledge; this interest is reflected in her articles and book contributions on the challenges of addressing cultural complexity in various educational settings. Furthermore, she has published work on student-centered learning methods such as Problem-Based Learning and portfolios.