XYHX1001 Multilingual Communication in Multicultural Teams (2–3 op)

Course description

Working in many languages and multilingual contexts is part of contemporary work life and multicultural teams and organizations have become ideal when seeking innovations and creativity. During this course, phenomena such as language, identity, multilingualism, and interculturality are addressed within the contexts of teams and diverse groups.

Main contents

• Multilingual and intercultural communication within teams and groups
• Complexity of the interplay of communication, languages and cultures
• Multicultural and multilingual teams in modern work life
• Multilingual and intercultural communication competence

• understand different perspectives on language, identity, multilingualism and interculturality
• understand and recognize emotional reactions such as uncertainty, anxiety, and other phenomena related with intercultural and multilingual encounters
• be aware of the multilingual and intercultural communication competence needed in multilingual teams and groups
• participate and engage within multicultural teams

The pedagogical foundation relies heavily on experiential learning (e.g. Kolb) and active learning (e.g. Bonwell & Eison; Revans). Learning methods include lectures, readings (to be specified later) discussions and exercises during the classes. Further, field visits, individual / group assignments are to be completed during the course, partly outside the lecture hours. Students are encouraged to contribute to the lectures actively through discussions.