Interculturalism in Croatian Language Classroom

Interculturalism in Croatian Language Classroom

Cvikic, Lidija

Important goals of a modern language classroom are development of intercultural competence and sensitivity to other cultures (CEF 2001). The majority of research about multiculturalism/intercultural competence in language teaching and learning has been undertaken in a foreign language classroom (e.g. Goebbel, Helmke 2011, Byram & Feng 2006), since that is the place where the "other " culture is most often encountered. Therefore today intercultural education is an integral part of programs for educating foreign language teachers. However, the question is whether interculturalism is/ should be a part of a mother language classroom and what are mother language teachers' experiences with interculturalism and intercultural pedagogy. This paper deals with attitudes and believes that mother language teachers in Croatia have about interculturalism. Even though Croatia is perceived as a culturally and linguistically homogenous country with 96% of its population speaking Croatian as a L1 (www.dzs.hr), the reality is very different. Some regions and communities in Croatia are ethnically and linguistically more diverse than the others. Also, there is a growing number of immigrants, i.e. foreigners in Croatian big cities. This results with the fact that Croatian classrooms are not any more monocultural and monolingual (Jealska & Cvikic 2009, Kuvac & Cvikic 2004), and interculturalism is recognized and emphasized as a special value in Croatian National Curriculum as well. On the bases on research conducted among teachers in Croatian primary schools and student teachers, this paper will answer following questions: How well are Croatian teachers prepared to work in multicultural settings? What are teachers' believes and attitudes toward interculturalism? Do they integrate intercultural content in their teaching and how?

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2012-05

894