2013 – 20th Annual Conference, Sofia

The 20th ICC-Annual Conference 2013 “Language, Culture and Identity in Language Education” was held from 8th-10th March in Sofia, Bulgaria and was organised in cooperation with prestigious Sofia University, “Kliment Ohridski”, and together with ECET, the Bulgarian ICC member, at the Sofia University. 

In addition to the eminent keynote speakers, Professor Michael Byram, Jean-Claude Lasnier and Josef Huber, the ICC had the honour of hosting a number of other prominent and distinguished speakers who are specialists in the field of intercultural matters in language education like Ildikó Lázár, University Budapest, Hungary and Prof. Debra Ali-Lawson, Bern University of Applied Sciences.

The objective of this language conference was to discuss the roles that intercultural competence should play in a world where we are all encouraged to become multilingual and where communicating with friends, family and acquaintances in far flung corners of the earth is now commonplace. Speakers and delegates addressed the question of what impact the phenomenon of learning a range of languages and experiencing various communities have on our sense of identity, and how language education professionals can respond to this challenge.

The presentations by keynote speakers Professor Michael Byram, Jean-Claude Lasnier and Josef Huber are available below:

• Acquiring and developing plurilingual and intercultural management skills for vocational purposes: insights into an awareness-raising process Jean-Claude Lasnier, Former Director of AGERCEL (Association de Gestion du Réseau des Centres d’Etudes des Langues) of the French Chambers of Commerce and Industry

• Questions, questions … about culture and aims in language teaching Professor Michael Byram, Emeritus Professor in the School of Education, Durham University

• Intercultural learning within the Pestalozzi Programme of the Council of Europe Keynote Speech by Josef Huber, Head of the Pestalozzi Programme of the Council of Europe