Intercultural Teaching in the Polish Context

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to justify the idea that in order to develop learners’ capacity to use a foreign language (FL) efficiently in the global world, the long established goals of FL teaching must be reconsidered and a more open-ended intercultural (IC), process-oriented approach adopted. Thus, language training, apart from the traditional work on teaching the four skills, should focus on developing learners’ IC competence and raising their awareness of difference and diversity among representatives of various cultures. Equally important is engaging learners in the process of decentering, acquiring desirable attitudes to otherness, fostering empathy, developing their ability to mediate and promoting tolerance. In the empirical part of the paper, the results of a quantitative study aimed at creating a profile of a high school FL learner in Poland and assessing whether and to what extent FL classroom in Poland is conducive to developing learners’ IC competence is reported. The results demonstrate that IC teaching plays a marginal role in the Polish FL classroom.