3:30-5:00PM on Thursday, April 4

Speaker: Kaishan Kong (KONGK@uwec.edu)

Title: Bridging cultures through languages: Integrating Intercultural Communicative Competence in world language education

Abstract

While many teachers are interested in teaching culture in language classes, culture can often sound abstract and overwhelming. Language instructors often wonder: Which part of culture shall I teach? How do I know if my students understand the culture? What does intercultural communicative competence look like in a world language classroom? If I am not from that target culture, am I qualified to teach it? This presentation will use three popular topics (Food, Family, Festivals) as examples to discuss how culture can be integrated into language classes in a natural and profound way to enhance students’ Intercultural Communicative Competence. The presenter will share sample lesson plans from various languages, model activities, suggest assessment ideas, and engage the participants to adapt meaningful activities for their teaching contexts.

Bio

Kaishan Kong (孔凯珊), Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Chinese and TEFL advisor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Her research interests include second language acquisition, mediated learning in study abroad, intercultural communication, virtual exchange, and teacher training. In addition to teaching courses related to Chinese language and culture, Kaishan is also a teacher educator. She has taught the STARTALK Program and the CARLA (Center for Advanced Research in Language Acquisition) Summer Institute program for almost 15 years. Her publications appear in various peer-reviewed journals, and she recently co-edited a book titled “Intercultural Citizenship in language education: Teaching and learning through social action” published through Multilingual Matters, U.K. She received numerous awards for her teaching and research in language and culture, such as the Fulbright Scholar award (2020) and the Wisconsin Teaching Fellow award (2015).