First International Conference on the theme 'The Art(s) of/in Foreign Language Teaching'

Abstract

In times when foreign language education is increasingly becoming susceptible to the dictates of neoliberal consumerism, prevalent metaphors in the field of education such as 'student as customer', 'teacher as service provider' or 'language as product' distract from the beauty of the process of learning itself. Unfortunately, these metaphors are seldom subjected to critical reflection and therefore continue to subtly shape institutional frameworks in which foreign language education takes place, in turn affecting the curriculum and foreign language educational policies. The first foreign language conference organized by the Global Languages Centre aimed to critically reflect upon the role of the foreign language teacher today and the inspiration that foreign language education can receive from various art forms. The conference explored the idea that foreign language teaching can be an art. This encompassed both considering the possibilities that artistic processes offer to foreign language learners as well as the meaning of artistry in foreign language teaching. There were four one-hour plenary sessions. Each threw light on the main conference theme from a different angle. In his keynote speech, Prof. Peter Lutzker (Freie Hochschule Stuttgart, Visiting Professor at National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan) addressed the need to develop the faculties of inspiration, ...