Working on the Intercultural Language Teacher

This talk will bring to the front different trends that are converging in contemporary applied linguistics and language teaching research with the aim of drawing implications for the training of future language teachers. The questioning of native speaker authority in applied linguistics, together with the formulation of intercultural communicative competence as the natural aim of first and second language learners have appeared in an increasingly globalized context in which the former notions of national language, monolingual speaker and native speaker are called into question at the same time as the uses of languages for international communication are ever more frequent.

In the area of second language teaching, the teacher has ceased to be the central figure in the language classroom, as the focus in language pedagogy has shifted towards learner-centred approaches. However, the teacher still remains a fundamental element in language teaching, and the training of language teachers poses a challenge to training programmes and institutions, since the successful outcome of language education efforts still greatly rely on the skills of the language teacher.

The fundamental purpose of this talk is to discuss the results of empirical research dealing with the characteristics of the intercultural language teacher and present ideas for the training of such a teacher, emphasizing the need for a de-nativized de-centred and de-standardised perspective on language and language teaching, while making a strong case for the qualities of non-native high-awareness multicompetent intercultural teachers.