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University of Leeds

Introduction to Intercultural Studies: Language and Culture

University of Leeds via FutureLearn

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Overview

Examine the relationship between language, nationality and cultural identity

On this course you will analyse why language is a social construction and examine how it relates to cultural identity.

You will start by exploring what language is, how it relates to the way we think and how it is shaped by the culture it originates from. You’ll learn how language is used and explore cases of intercultural communication. You will examine the difficulties of translation and how politeness is expressed across cultures. Finally, you’ll learn about the controversial issue of language loss and examine the reasons that cause it and its implications for cultural identity.

The course is for anyone with an interest in the relationship between language and culture, you don’t need any previous experience.

This course is also ideal if you are working with languages, you are preparing to move to a different country for work or study or you work with groups of people from different cultures to yours. By completing all aspects of the course you will have achieved 14 hours of CPD time.

Syllabus

  • What is language?
    • Welcome
    • Language, nation, and cultural identity
    • Language and thought
    • Do languages affect the way you think?
    • Summary
  • The relationship between language and culture
    • About Week 2
    • Language and translation
    • Language and politeness
    • Language and identity
    • Summary

Taught by

Bethan Davies

Tags

Reviews

4.6 rating, based on 48 Class Central reviews

Start your review of Introduction to Intercultural Studies: Language and Culture

  • Anonymous
    Excellent introduction to the subject. Nice balance of videos and articles, with links to extra material from third parties. Clearly presented and easy to follow. I found it interesting, illuminating and inspiring.
  • Anonymous
    I found the two week course, Introduction to Intercultural Studies: Language and Culture, so engaging, so enlightening, so thought-provoking, that I had to take it twice. I wanted to delve deeper into the concepts presented and was fortunate that…
  • Anonymous
    It was a great privilege to be part of this rich course. I enjoyed every bit of it due to how educative and stimulating the course was package and delivered by experts who kept me on the edge to the very end of it.
  • Anonymous
    I enjoy studying this course, and rank it as the top three on my lists. It consists of the main parts of Intercultural Studies: Language and Culture, and expands my views, even it has only two-weeks course, but my results are unexpected. The professor is amazing, she utterly explain all concepts as easy as you could comprehend, and give feedback to you on her great experience. Anyway, I'd recommend you using a mind-mapping for free by any sources during your time here, it'd help you see a clear picture and deeply understand the entire courses with a productive strategy.
  • Anonymous
    Thanks very much for this course. It was very interesting, specially the interaction with some of the participants. But the amount of time that it takes to follow is miscalculated. It actually took much more time of studying than expected. Besides, I would have enjoyed some input from the leader. The organizers should let students know if the leader/s will be "on call" or not. This changes completely the dynamics of the course.
  • Anonymous
    I did my MA thesis on cross-cultural differences though my major was teaching English. This course was a great opportunity to update, refresh and add to my knowledge. I found the articles and the activities easy enough to follow. The presentation were excellent and informative. However, I would suggest that mentors be present to contribute to the discussion of the participants. I took another course with future course. Mentors were very active. This course may follow suit.
  • Anonymous
    I have always been interested in language acquisition. I am bi-lingual, and have learnt three other languages . I have tutored at English and Welsh adult classes.
    What I have found refreshing in this course is its focus on the theories on language acquisition and the influence of culture. The format is stimulating and engaging . The leadership has been direct and helpful. To be thoroughly recommended!
  • Anonymous
    A wonderful carefully designed course with thought-provoking tasks that deepens your knowledge of the correlation between language and culture and provides an eye-opening experience for the things that we use in our daily life
  • Sophia Misiewicz
    This was an extremely interesting course that helped me with my teaching of English Language A Level. The course was easy to follow and the pdfs provided really added to it and helped give good grounding. The discussions were also very interesting and showed engagement from all participants. Thank you, Bethan, for all the work you put into this. Much appreciated.
  • Anonymous
    I found the two week course, Introduction to Intercultural Studies: Language and Culture, so engaging, so enlightening, so thought-provoking, that I had to take it twice. I wanted to delve deeper into the concepts presented and was fortunate that…
  • Anonymous
    Excellent course overall. My only complaint is that it was too short ! A couple of weeks' worth material could easily have been added to make it a 4-week course. The videos are just the right length, the invited guests were excellent, and there were sufficient links made to theoretical aspects to differentiate it from a pop-science Youtube video.
  • Anonymous
    Very well-structured course. Good input from other learners. Interesting to get views from all around the world, this made for some very revealing insights into words and languages. Would have liked some live input from the tutor as what was there was from March and wasn't related to the current cohort.
  • Anonymous
    very interesting course full of new information. I really appreciate the amount of activities involved in the course. Questions summarizing the areas studied are also very good idea.
  • Anonymous
    I dropped the course before finishing week 2 because it was not what I had expected. I thought that there would be more emphasis on the cultural aspect of language, and I also expected to receive more information; the end of the course involved too much research on my part, and not enough input from the course itself.
  • Anonymous
    The course provides the essential knowledge related to the relationship of culture and language in understandable but still reasonbly challenging way, which is highly motivating. It is clearly structured and all concepts dealt with are clearly explained. Thank you for the course very much!
  • Anonymous
    The opportunity to interact with students from around the world was fascinating. The instructor did a nice job introducing different concepts.
  • Anonymous
    I am strongly recommend to everyone to study with this platform, because it is useful and a lot interesting information and materials.
  • Anonymous
    I really loved the topics we had to discuss, as for example the relation between language and culture, and translation as a cultural activity. It is not something we stop to reflect very often and it give us a new perception of what language is and the impact it has on us.
  • Anonymous
    Interesting and thought-provoking course. A nice balance between video presentations and reading with good links for further reading.
  • Anonymous
    Compared to other courses I've taken with Future Learn, it didn't provide as much factual information and it was, therefore, difficult to participate fully. I did learn some things but much of it was relatively basic, although I appreciate some others may find the content of more value. I didn't feel able to comment much as it seemed too vague and the questions could be interpreted in too broad a way. As there were very few comments from others too, it was difficult to assess how others were able to interact with it. Its a very interesting subject but, sadly, this course didn't seem to be in enough depth. Although its more of a subjective area, more facts are needed to provide a fuller understanding.
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