Bleichenbacher, Lukas

This contribution discusses two case studies that illustrate the experiences of mobility students who were studying abroad during the first outbreak of COVID - 19. The case studies have emerged from a larger longitudinal, mixed - method study, which included a n interview study with six international students planned for spring 2020. Due to the COVID - 19 pandemic, all participants had to terminate their stay early. Hence, the original interview study was adapted to focus on the impact of COVID - 19 on students' soc ial contacts, linguistic practices , and emotional well - being in these exceptional circumstances. In the present contribution, we understand study abroad as a rite of passage, an important time in the life of young adults, and we draw on insights from previ ous research on educational travels with transformative potential to make sense of the students' differing reactions to their early return

To engage with subject content, learners need meta-cultural competences, i.e. competences in identifying, analysing and comparing cultural phenomena. It can be considered the responsibility of teachers to promote these competences through their teaching. To do so, however, it is critical that teachers themselves continually develop their awareness of these competences. In this scenario, teachers are asked to collaboratively analyse, compare, and reflect on cultural phenomena in their own language as well as in languages they are not familiar with. More specifically, teachers are invited to reflect on the meanings, functions and uses of idiomatic expressions, and are guided to become more aware of the impact that using words and expressions with specific cultural meanings can have on their learners. At the end of the scenario, teachers are invited to reflect on their experience and on the transferability of the tasks they themselves have performed to their own teaching practice. This concluding task aims at stimulating reflection as to how teachers can help learners build informed knowledge and representations of linguistic and cultural diversity and thus develop meta-cultural competences. This scenario is intended for teachers of all subjects since meta-cultural competences are transversal to all disciplinary fields. To stimulate discussion across subject boundaries, the scenario includes an activity where the teachers reflect on what is typically idiomatic about the registers used in different subjects.

One of the aims of teacher education is to contribute to continuity in plurilingual, intercultural, and language-sensitive education, across subjects and educational levels. In this paper, we present selected results of two European projects that support this aim. The article outlines the background and potential of a taxonomy of teacher competences that exemplifies dimensions of language-related teacher competence shared by teachers of languages and other subjects. The dimensions include descriptors for teaching competences proper, for collaboration with other teachers and stakeholders, and for teacher development. Furthermore, a dimension containing competences related to the analysis of languages, discourse and cultures reframes aspects of language teachers’ content knowledge as a competence domain that is relevant, albeit to varying degrees, for all teachers. Two transversal dimensions, which contain teachers’ language and digital competences, an overview of teachers’ values and principles, and an account of professional learning opportunities complete the taxonomy.