Language awareness and (critical) cultural awareness – relationships, comparisons and contrasts

The vexed question of the relationship between ‘language’ and ‘culture’ will be the
starting point. I do not propose to ‘resolve’ the question but to consider some ways
in which relationships between cultural awareness and language awareness might be
conceptualised and then have some impact on language education. By ‘language education’
I refer to the teaching and learning of all languages in a curriculum, whether
this be the synchronic experienced curriculum of a learner at a given point in time or
the diachronic curriculum of their lifelong learning. I will draw on the Council of Europe’s
concept and platform for ‘Languages in Education, Languages of Education’ and
plurilingual and intercultural education to provide an overview of the issues involved.
Finally, I will consider the impact on teaching and learning in practice by suggesting
that, in the best cases, language and culture teaching produces, through the development
of linguistic and intercultural competence, alternative conceptualisations of the world
and contributes to the education/Bildung of the individual in society.