Blending Spaces: Mediating and Assessing Intercultural Competence in the L2 Classroom

Abstract

With the vast amount of second language learners across the world in various contexts and the ever-­‐present force of globalization, it becomes essential to acknowledge the interaction of differing sociocultural and linguistic practices at play in second language (L2) learning. In doing so, a learner of a new linguistic code can gradually come to use both their first and second languages appropriately through the medium of a third space between each system. Witte discusses the unique situation of L2 learners when faced with a new, possibly competing linguistic system and culture, in such a way that would benefit both educators and researchers alike. He explains the challenges that a foreign language learner faces in having two competing rhetorical traditions, and he explains the interactions of these languages in a third space where reconciliation takes place in new and interesting forms. This book meticulously and gradually builds on both first and second language development in order to construct the understanding of what intercultural competence could mean.