Abstrakt
Successful academic careers include the aspect of internationalism. Not only are foreign language skills required in academia, but also intercultural sensitivity and competence provide an efficient tool for effective communication in the globalized sphere of education.
Moreover, culturally determined aspects of life have become more salient due to the increasing diversity in Europe. Consequently, there has recently been a focus on raising cultural awareness and developing intercultural competence in university students.
For instance, exchange students are usually provided introductory lectures on cultural aspects of the host country. The Language Centre of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University introduced a course specialised in intercultural competence as part of English learning in 2015.
The CLIL method is deployed in the lessons. Three completed courses of Intercultural Competence will serve as a case study.
This contribution focuses mainly on the process of acquiring intercultural competence from the perspective of students enrolled in the semestral course. It examines their reflections of ten individual learning units.
The objective is to identify the students' understanding of selected topics of intercultural education and their relation to them. Also, the investigation aims at identifying possible changes in perception and attitudes of students.
Content analysis of students' written notes, reviews and evaluations, which account for approximately 40 items, will be conducted. First, the theoretical approach to teaching intercultural competence will be introduced.
Second, methodological choices of the teacher will be described and selected resources presented. Finally, the results of content analysis will be summarized.