Language teaching and intercultural education: Making critical connections

This essay explores some of the areas in which language teaching and intercultural education overlap. We position language teaching as embedded within sociocultural practices and shaped by attitudes toward bilingualism and native vs. nonnative speaker status. Specifically, we question language practices that exclude or downplay the benefits of developing students' heritage languages while learning additional languages, and we offer and challenge narrow perceptions of language ownership and native speaker identity. We urge teachers of languages and culture to conceptualize their work as deeply connected to social, economic, cultural, and political activities.