In the early 1980’s the field of foreign language teaching experienced a pedagogical paradigm shift, which redefined good language teaching practice and set the development of communicative and intercultural competence as its goal. Modern curricula and guidelines for teachers such as the Common European Framework of Reference or the Kerncurriculum recognize these changes. The documentation recommends that foreign language teaching happen in environments that foster creative, meaningful and situation appropriate interaction, which allows learners to express their intentions, and recognize those of others. Modern language classrooms also need to come to terms with individual learning styles, and provide learners with opportunities to discover knowledge on their own terms.

Additionally, modern curricula recognize the fact that communicative and intercultural competences are multidimensional. This implies that learners are not only expected to develop linguistic competences but also to know how to use them appropriately in various types of intercultural communication. As learning is viewed as a life-long process, learners moreover need to be taught how to steer their own learning progress autonomously.

The aim of the seminar is to explore strategies, methods and tools to realize these curricular goals in the classroom.

Upon the completion of the course students should be able to:

• Outline and discuss key principles of communicative language teaching (CLT)
• Outline and discuss the theoretical background of the CLT approach
• Analyze the purpose of and various approaches to teaching grammar
• Analyze the purpose of and various approaches to teaching pragmatics
• Explain and discuss various approaches to fostering intercultural skills
• Discuss the need to react to individual learner differences and examine various ways to foster strategic learning
• Examine and discuss the task-based approach and its practical applications at various levels
• Examine and discuss the CLIL approach and its practical applications at various levels