Student performance of intercultural language learning

While languages education is being impacted by intercultural language learning theory, the question remains how students achieve intercultural learning. This paper reports on a study of secondary school language students in Sydney, Australia. The study took a descriptive interpretive approach to examining evidence of students' intercultural language learning. This evidence appears in a series of vignettes of classroom teacher-student interactions. The analysis of the data shows evidence of students in the process of "becoming intercultural, as a new kind of student learning is taking place in language classrooms. This study demonstrates that visible intercultural language learning involves students in problem-solving, actively engaging their prior knowledge, analysing how language works, and developing awareness of their own identity as intercultural communicators. It is suggested that the data collection methodology employed by the researchers may model an approach which can also be used in teacher pedagogy to collect evidence of intercultural language learning in classrooms.