Despite the advances made by research in the spheres of the intercultural and the multicultural, language teaching is still operating on a relatively narrow conception of both language and culture. Language continues to be taught as a fixed system of formal structures and universal speech functions, a neutral conduit for the transmission of cultural knowledge. Culture is incorporated only to the extent that it reinforces and enriches, not that it puts in question, traditional boundaries of self and other. In practice, teachers teach language and culture, or culture in language, but not language as culture. The theoretical framework I propose here for teaching culture through language suspends the traditional dichotomy between the universal and the particular in language teaching. It embraces the particular, not to be consumed by it, but as a platform for dialogue and as a common struggle to realign differences. 

Rüdiger Riechert: Angst und Motivation bei Lehrerfortbildungen: Interkulturell-didaktische Vorschläge zu ihrem Abbau

In diesem Beitrag geht es um einen Unterrichtsentwurf, wie man die Einstiegsphase einer Lehrerfortbildung mit einer rein nationalen Gruppe im Zielsprachenland gestalten kann. Riechert liefert einen Erfahrungsbericht einer Fortbildung mit englischen LehrerInnen, die - teilweise äußeren Zwängen folgend - aufgrund der veränderten Lage in Großbritannien umgeschult wurden, um fortan Deutsch zu unterrichten. Dabei betont er besonders die heterogene sprachliche Ausgangslage. 

Renate A. Schulz and Birgit M. Haerle: Beer, Fast Cars, and ...: Stereotypes Held by U.S. College-Level Students of German

 Foreign language educators face the difficult task of exposing their students to the target culture without promoting the stereotypes associated with this culture. Stereotypes, however, are part of the human information processing system, and thus are difficult to avoid. This article reports the results of a study investigating stereotypes held by U.S. students vis-à-vis Germany and Germans. It also reviews the concept of stereotypes and addresses recent trends in research. A discussion of the pedagogical implications derived from research studies in social psychology concludes the paper.