Teaching Language as Culture: A keynote lecture by Prof. Dr. Claire Kramsch from the University of California, Berkeley, at the 20th Kassel English Colloquium (KEC).

On June 8, 2016, the 20th Kassel English Colloquium (KEC) entitled "Teaching Language as Culture" took place in the Gießhaus of the University of Kassel. It was a great honor and pleasure to welcome the internationally renowned scholar Prof. Dr. Claire Kramsch from the University of California Berkeley (USA) as guest speaker. She inspired about 70 participants with a lively lecture on the role of culture in the age of globalization and in language learning. The host Prof. Dr. Claudia Finkbeiner has maintained active academic contact with Prof. Dr. Claire Kramsch and the University of California Berkeley, USA, since the mid-1990s. As a visiting professor at UC Berkeley she gained valuable academic experience several times and again in February/March 2016. In return for Prof. Finkbeiner's lecture on migration and language this year at UC Berkeley, Prof. Dr. Claire Kramsch now also came to visit Kassel University as part of her Harald Weinrich Visiting Professorship at Bielefeld University. Students as well as scientists of the University of Kassel - especially a gratifyingly high number of participants of the Canadian Summer School in Germany  (CSSG) - as well as trainee teachers and teachers from the surrounding area were among the wide-ranging, highly interested audience of the event. They all enjoyed a passionate plea for the essential role of culture in foreign language teaching. Increasing globalization, they said, requires new approaches to the teaching of cultural competencies. The audience was sensitized to the topic by means of three concise examples of intercultural encounters. Prof. Dr. Claire Kramsch has a special gift for engaging her audience and inspiring them with her research interests. As a routine and eloquent speaker, she used personal anecdotes and current research activities to illustrate the many levels on which we are confronted with cultural conflicts, stereotypes and prejudices on a daily basis. Finally, the participants had the opportunity to ask their personal questions in a multilingual discussion round. These were answered by Prof. Dr. Kramsch in German, English and French in a flowing exchange, thus showing that her speech about multilingualism is also lived by herself. We sincerely thank Prof. Dr. Claire Kramsch for her captivating lecture and look forward to seeing her again soon at the 13th International Conference of the Association for Language Awareness (ALA) in July 2016 at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.
Text: Markus Pusch & Prof. Dr. Claudia Finkbeiner