Includes bibliographical references (p. [268]-289) and index.

Preface

Introduction -- Dubious dichotomies and deceptive symmetries -- The importance of context in language education -- A discourse perspective -- Notes

1. Educational challenges of challenges and conditions --Challenge as action -- Challenge as paradox -- Challenge as dialogue -- Double-voiced discourse -- Dialogic breakthrough -- Notes

2. Contexts of speech and social interaction --What's in a context? -- Discourse and culture -- Contextual shaping -- Conclusion -- Notes

3. Teaching the spoken language -- Five case studies -- Problems and paradoxes -- Teaching language as (con)text -- Notes

4. Stories and discourses -- Dimensions of particularity -- Understanding of particularity -- Conclusion -- Notes

5. Teaching the literary text -- Current practices -- Defining the reader -- Teaching the narrative -- Teaching poetry -- Post-teaching activities -- Conclusion -- Notes

6. Authentic texts and contexts -- What is cultural authenticity? -- The communicative proficiency approach -- The discourse analysis approach -- The challenge of multimedia -- Notes

7. Teaching language across the cultural faultline -- Cultural reality and cultural imagination -- C2, C2': reconstructing the C2 context of production and reception -- C1, C1': constructing a context of reception in the learner's native culture -- C1", C2": in the eyes of others -- Of bridges and boundaries -- Notes

8. Looking for third places -- A popular culture -- A critical culture -- An ecological culture -- Conclusion -- Notes

Appendices

"This book takes cultural knowledge in language learning not only as a necessary aspect of communicative competence, but as an educational objective in its own right. If the aim of foreign language education is to foster cross-cultural awareness and self-realization, language pedagogy needs to come to critical grips with a range of fundamental issues: what do we mean by cultural context? Can discourse practices be taught like rules of grammar? What role does literature play in the development of second language literacy? How can learners acquire both an insider's and an outsider's understanding of the foreign language as expressed through its language? By exploring these and other issues, the book can help language teachers reflect on their profession and place it within its larger societal and educational context. In turn, they can help learners become no only skillful users of the language, but also active architects of a new cross-cultural world order." (Book Cover)