ABSTRACT
Introduction Cultural enrichment has long been seen as a key benefit of language learning and 'intercultural understanding' has now been listed as a key objective in the Key Stage 2 Framework for primary modern languages:
In this chapter we look at how 'culture' can be defined in the primary MFL classroom and how we can systematically integrate elements of intercultural learning as we develop pupils' language competence. We emphasise the importance of examining cultural differences through looking at the lives of children of the same age living in different countries and the habits, symbols, rituals and artefacts that constitute their cultural life. We also believe it is essential that our pupils examine their own environment and recognise their own cultural experience. Accepting difference has never been more important given our task of preparing children for a fast-changing world of cultural mixing and global communication where the need to adapt to changing circumstances and different social contexts is essential. In many schools, especially in urban areas, children live with cultural difference all around them and this experience is to be celebrated, indeed MFL builds on this diversity and embraces difference. In other schools, where the ethnic and cultural make-up of a school population seems fairly homogeneous, intercultural awareness is all the more important as it opens the door on the differences 'out there' which pupils will one day confront.
