Rezension: THEO HARDEN & ARND WITTE (Ed.) (2000), The Notion of Intercultural Understanding in the Context of German as a Foreign Language

This volume provides a forum for heterogeneous and at times controversial discussions relating to the notion of intercultural understanding. The collection of articles provides a fine balance between theoretical discussion as well as a range of culture-specific examples from England, Saudi Arabia, Belgrade, India and Mexico. The volume is prefaced by an excellent introduction which connects theory to the practice of teaching German as a Foreign Language. A discussion regarding the relationship between language and culture, including a presentation of differing notions of culture, leads to a presentation of the changing role of culture throughout the history of language teaching methodologies, bringing the reader up to the point of departure for an intercultural approach to language teaching. Cultural understanding is explored using three paradigms for understanding, universal, relativistic and individualistic including the application of these to foreign language teaching and learning. The open-ended question ‘Is the foreign language classroom the place to set the process of language-reliant cultural understanding in motion?’, sets the scene for three complementary sections reflecting the scope of research into intercultural understanding.