1st Edition

A Critical Auto/Ethnography of Learning Spanish Intercultural competence on the gringo trail?

By Phiona Stanley Copyright 2017
182 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

192 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

192 Pages 10 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

The premise that intercultural contact produces intercultural competence underpins much rationalization of backpacker tourism and in-country language education. However, if insufficiently problematized, pre-existing constructions of cultural 'otherness' may hinder intercultural competence development. This is nowhere truer than in contexts in which wide disparities of power, wealth, and privilege... Read more

1. Becoming Interculturally Competent in ‘Spanishtown’?

2. Theorizing Intercultural Competence

3. Research Processes and Intrigues

4. Learning Spanish in Latin America

5. Discourses of Others: Talking about ‘Them’ and ‘Us’

6. Learning From and Negotiating with Cultural ‘Others’

7. Voluntourism: Practicing on the Community?

8. Findings: Doing and Developing Intercultural Competence

9. Revisiting Methodology

10. Suggestions and Teaching Activities

Biography

Phiona Stanley is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Her research is primarily about intercultural identity constructions in international education. She has written about Western teachers in China, English language schools in Australia, qualitative research methods, and the lived experience of doing a PhD. She is now researching ‘language grading’, in which native English speakers attempt to make their own English more internationally intelligible. Dr Stanley's professional background is in English language education and she has worked in Peru, Poland, the UK, China, Australia, and Qatar.

"A must have resource for anyone contemplating an edutourism experience with Spanish" - Barbara J. Merino, Professor, University of California, Davis

"This book brings fresh insights to our understanding of intercultural competence as a key aspect of language learning in a globalised world. Inspired by Stanley’s own experience as a backpacker learning Spanish in Latin America, and drawing on contemporary narratives of everyday people involved in language learning and teaching, it illuminates the field through a unique combination of critical ethnography and autoethnography. Stanley’s sharp eye for detail, and her rich theoretical analysis, make this volume a must for any language studies scholar interested in new ways of approaching intercultural connection and competence." - Roslyn Appleby, Senior Lecturer, University of Technology, Sydney