The Heart of World Language Teaching: Supporting Personal Communication and Intercultural Connections in the World Language Classroom

English             I love you

Afrikaans         Ek het jou lief

Bulgarian         Obicham te

Cheyenne        Ne mohotatse

Czech              Miluji te

Dutch               Ik hou van jou

Farsi                 Doset daram

Hmong            Kuv hlub koj

Polish               Kocham Ciebie

Tagalog           Mahal kita 

Tasks that promote intercultural competence build student ability to communicate appropriately in a variety of situations. The following sample was presented by Dr. Ali Moeller and Dr. Kristen Nugent in “Building Intercultural Competence in the Language Classroom”.

  1. Brainstorm of known and unknown: Activate prior knowledge by brainstorming words and ideas in relation to the topic. Use this as ongoing reference point.
  2. Provide relevant data to the topic. Students should create their own comments and questions.
  3. Review prior knowledge document. Discuss comments, questions. Create a list of discoveries and discuss.

More examples can be found at:

Moeller, Aleidine Kramer and Nugent, Kristen, “Building intercultural competence in the language classroom” (2014). Faculty Publications: Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education. 161. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/teachlearnfacpub/161 or Deardorff, D.K., & Deardorff, D.L. (2000). Diversity awareness and training: Tools for cultural awareness. Presentation made at North Carolina State University, Raleigh.