The Intercultural Speaker: transforming the language learning experience

Resumo

There is an urgent need for transformational instruction to equip future graduates and future citizens with practical skills and competencies that help them cope with the present and future demands of these constantly changing and challenging times. Universities are called upon not only to train a workforce of professionals but also to educate active, mindful citizens aware of the world they live in, able to respond to local and global problems successfully. As inhabitants of a shared planet, this approach needs much more attention to foster these ways of thinking and competences, especially in the context of daily and constant intercultural encounters. Enhancing in students an intercultural outlook allows significant opportunities for building a better world, one framed in mutual understanding, empathy, and appreciation. This theoretical reflection (essay)intends to introduce the discussion on the need to promote the global linguistic objective of promoting language learners in the process of becoming intercultural speakers. In the specific context of language teaching, such goals can be promoted while working on crucial learning notions to empower students ́ acquisition of foreign language knowledge, skills, attitudes, and awareness to interrelate in today‘s multicultural, interconnected world aiming at transforming learners in intercultural speakers.