B/D: Intercultural Competence for University Lecturers (Online)

IN THIS COURSE, YOU WILL

• discuss how to provide sensitive feedback and how to help internationals to acclimatise,
• raise your awareness of difficulties experienced by international students,
• practise the skill of reading between the lines,
• learn about cultural communication styles and practise moving between them,
• consider how varying work cultures can impact on international teams and
• troubleshoot how to respond to tricky situations with international audiences.

This webinar sensitises lecturers to the issues involved when teaching international students and working with internationals in the context of German higher education. In doing so, it will consider cultural and communication challenges both from the perspective of German lecturers as well as through the lens of internationals themselves. This will give participants the opportunity to troubleshoot for their own context and consider how they can make relations run more smoothly in general as well as how to level the playing field for international students in their classrooms.  

Participants will equally consider what ‘types’ of culture can affect values and behaviour as well as how a student’s educational background can affect how much of an educational culture shock they experience in Germany. In addition, they will be offered practice in adapting their communication style from low to high context in order to give feedback and commands in English without causing offence or embarrassment. In connection to this, participants will also practise ‘reading between lines’, a skill necessary when interacting with nationals of cultures (such as Britain, China, and Japan) where negative messages are typically sent implicitly rather than explicitly (the opposite to the case in Germany, the US and Scandinavia).

By the end of the webinar, lecturers will have an action plan for their courses, greater intercultural competence in general and more tools to handle Germany’s increasingly international higher education landscape.

Prerequisites: Participants must have a minimum of B2 level English.

Course instructor: Dr Darren Paul Foster

IMPLEMENTATION

Dates:

• Thursday, 2 May 2024, from 9 am to 2 pm
• Friday, 3 May 2024, from 9 am to 2 pm

Format:

• Online (Zoom)

ORGANISATIONAL DETAILS

• Participation fee:
  • free of cost for lecturers at JMU
  • 50 € for participants from partner universities (ProfiLehrePlus)
• Work units (Arbeitseinheiten): 8 AE in area B and 4 AE in area D
• Availability: All seminar places are taken. You can register for a place on the waiting list.
• This way to the registration form. Here you can also enter other courses for which you would like to register.