Teachers As Mediators in the Foreign Language Classroom

Language teachers are key figures in preparing young people for participation in an increasingly multilingual and culturally diverse world, yet little is known about how they go about this in practice. This book uses examples of classroom interaction to reveal how teachers of languages act as intercultural mediators and the implications of this for practice. To date, there has been little exploration of how teachers mediate language and culture learning from an intercultural perspective, and what underlies their mediation practices in terms of their conceptions of intercultural language teaching and learning. This book offers an account of what teachers are thinking, feeling and doing as they enact an intercultural perspective on language teaching and learning.

Michelle Kohler is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Research Centre for Languages and Cultures at the University of South Australia, and Lecturer in Languages Education and Indonesian language at Flinders University. Her research interests are mediation, particularly in relation to intercultural language teaching and learning, languages pedagogy, curriculum and assessment, and Indonesian language education.