Beyond Intercultural Awareness in ELT

Abstract

This chapter describes a cross-curricular project undertaken in Argentina with twenty-six primary and secondary school students aged 11-13 that combined learning in two school subjects, English and Physical Education (PE), around the theme “sports”. Supported by a philosophy of education centred on understanding, the teachers designed a project in which students of different ages and backgrounds got together outside the classroom and the school, in the school’s country club, to work on the collaborative task of imagining, creating and performing novel sports using English to do so. In so doing, they put the English they knew in use, learned the language in a variety of ways, addressed significant content for PE and mobilized their intercultural skills. The integration of language and content was motivating and encouraged the re-signification of school learning as authentic in terms of learners? backgrounds and diverse experiences. The chapter addresses some implications concerning the difficulties and challenges involved in the intercultural dimension of language learning for classroom practice and teacher education.