This book discusses the importance of sensitivity to cultural differences for language learners.

The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Language Teaching: metodologías, contextos y recursos para la enseñanza del español L2, provides a comprehensive, state-of-the-art account of the main methodologies, contexts and resources in Spanish Language Teaching (SLT), a field that has experienced significant growth world-wide in recent decades and has consolidated as an autonomous discipline within Applied Linguistics. Written entirely in Spanish, the volume is the first handbook on Spanish Language Teaching to connect theories on language teaching with methodological and practical aspects from an international perspective. It brings together the most recent research and offers a broad, multifaceted view of the discipline. Features include: Forty-four chapters offering an interdisciplinary overview of SLT written by over sixty renowned experts from around the world; Five broad sections that combine theoretical and practical components: Methodology; Language Skills; Formal and Grammatical Aspects; Sociocultural Aspects; and Tools and Resources; In-depth reflections on the practical aspects of Hispanic Linguistics and Spanish Language Teaching to further engage with new theoretical ideas and to understand how to tackle classroom-related matters; A consistent inner structure for each chapter with theoretical aspects, methodological guidelines, practical considerations, and valuable references for further reading; An array of teaching techniques, reflection questions, language samples, design of activities, and methodological guidelines throughout the volume. The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Language Teaching contributes to enriching the field by being an essential reference work and study material for specialists, researchers, language practitioners, and current and future educators. The book will be equally useful for people interested in curriculum design and graduate students willing to acquire a complete and up-to-date view of the field with immediate applicability to the teaching of the language.

Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective addresses the ways in which language learning is related to learning about other cultures and to acquiring an ability to communicate across cultural frontiers. It argues that language learners need to develop sensitivity to cultural difference and its impact on communication, and to acquire the skills of discovering and interpreting other cultures, other values, beliefs and behaviours which lie beneath the surface of cross-cultural communication. Contributors show how drama can be used to develop cultural awareness and how learners can acquire ethnographic skills to help them investigate and understand socio-cultural aspects of language which play an important role in second language acquisition. The contributors are all respected educationalists from a range of countries and different cultural contexts.

Los discursos educativos en Colombia encuentran hoy un gran desafío frente a un escenario de posconflicto y la propuesta multidisciplinar de un país en reconstrucción de sus valores que quiere construir una paz duradera. En este contexto, las pedagogías críticas que fomentan una educación para el desarrollo de una ciudadanía global y responsable pueden considerarse una necesidad primordial en la agenda educativa nacional para el fortalecimiento del mutuo entendimiento, la construcción de una tolerancia constructiva y el diálogo intercultural mediante la construcción de terceros espacios para la negociación, la paz y la armonía (Holmes, 2014; Kramsch, 2011; Porto y Byram, 2015; Risager, 2007). En este sentido, la enseñanza-aprendizaje de lenguas —que es un pilar importante en la educación pública y privada del país— puede contribuir a esta transformación educativa si se mira desde el desarrollo de la conciencia intercultural como un paso adelante para la construcción de competencias interculturales que fomenten relaciones horizontales, recíprocas, autocríticas, ecuánimes y respetuosas. En efecto, las pedagogías interculturales contemplan la conciencia crítica de que las culturas —inclusive la propia— son relativas, cambiantes y dinámicas, y que no existe una forma adecuada, correcta o establecida de hacer las cosas, sino que todas las conductas son culturalmente maleables y variables (Bennet y Bennet, 2004; Liddicoat y Scarino, 2013). Las visiones educativas con base en una conciencia crítica intercultural empoderan a los profesores de lengua con herramientas reflexivas y analíticas que permiten construir realidades emergentes dispuestas al diálogo y a la (re)conciliación (Porto y Byram, 2015). Además, la enseñanza de un código inmerso en otro sistema de valores y cosmovisión ayuda a edificar vínculos con la diversidad, generando nuevas miradas a las realidades cotidianas y nuevos significados compartidos entre los individuos.

This edited book presents a critical vision of language and education policies and practices in Colombia, examining neoliberal perspectives which influence the promotion of English at all levels in the Colombian educational system. Some of the chapters emphasize questions of language teacher recognition and empowerment, while others focus on both teachers and students’ visions of national policies, particularly with regard to colonial and Eurocentric discourses and subsequent discriminatory practices. The volume throws light on recent language and education policies and practices in a South American country where much current research in this area is published in Spanish but not in English, and it gives visibility to voices that are often missing from the global conversation around English language teaching (ELT). Making these voices heard is part of a decolonial project that gives legitimacy to "unauthorized outlooks", embodies knowledge, and focuses on presenting alternatives to second language teaching-learning and research practices from the Global North ontoepistemology. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of ELT, Language Policies and Planning, Applied Linguistics, and Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies. It also has international appeal, as its localized gaze can bring about important considerations regarding other local knowledges.

Recoge un estudio lingüístico sobre el choque entre hablantes de diferentes culturas y los malentendidos que pueden llegar a producirse. Este libro aporta una reflexión sobre la necesidad de un replanteamiento metodológico de la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera que integre desde el inicio elementos que permitan ir adquiriendo una competencia intercultural y así intentar paliar los problemas de comunicación que con frecuencia se observan entre personas de diferentes culturas. Para ello, se propone el análisis de malentendidos como una actividad a tener en cuenta en la formación intercultural.