Walking through the intercultural field : an ethnographic study on intercultural language learning as a spatial-embodied practice
Within concepts on intercultural language learning it is generally acknowledged that the âcontextâ of the individual learning experience plays an important role for the acquisition of a foreign language and intercultural learning processes. A detailed understanding of what it is we call âcontextâ is still missing â as are studies that focus particularly on the language learning environment outside the classroom and the role of everyday space and place for intercultural encounter. This thesis draws largely on spatial theory in addressing space and place as a site of geo-political and social-cultural change, and as a crucial element of intercultural language learning processes. Narratives, de Certeau (1984: 116) says, are âwritten by footsteps.â The methodological orientation of this thesis follows both the narratives and footsteps of language learners, and as such is anchored in and around the element of movement. In creating a spatial âmethod assemblageâ (Law 2004) that engages both mobile and visual elements, I am arguing for a methodological change in perspective while giving credit to the perspective of language learners and their everyday routes and learning environments. This argument
Woitsch, Ulrike
L Education (General)
Walking through the intercultural field : an ethnographic study on intercultural language learning as a spatial-embodied practice. Within concepts on intercultural language learning it is generally acknowledged that the âcontextâ of the individual learning experience plays an important role for the acquisition of a foreign language and intercultural learning processes. A detailed understanding of what it is we call âcontextâ is still missing â as are studies that focus particularly on the language learning environment outside the classroom and the role of everyday space and place for intercultural encounter. This thesis draws largely on spatial theory in addressing space and place as a site of geo-political and social-cultural change, and as a crucial element of intercultural language learning processes. Narratives, de Certeau (1984: 116) says, are âwritten by footsteps.â The methodological orientation of this thesis follows both the narratives and footsteps of language learners, and as such is anchored in and around the element of movement. In creating a spatial âmethod assemblageâ (Law 2004) that engages both mobile and visual elements, I am arguing for a methodological change in perspective while giving credit to the perspective of language learners and their everyday routes and learning environments. This argument
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