Integrating intercultural and communicative objectives in the foreign language class: a proposal for the integration of two models

The ‘intercultural turn’ of the 1990s brought about the introduction of the terms ‘Foreign Language Education’ and ‘Intercultural Foreign Language Education’ (IFLE) in place of ‘language teaching’. These terms broaden the aims of language education to include students' intercultural competence (IC), personal growth and intercultural critical citizenship. This educational broadening of language teaching horizons raises controversial issues, particularly concerning the relationship between intercultural and communicative objectives at both curriculum and methodology levels. This relationship, crucial since teaching a foreign language is clearly a priority for IFLE, is explored in the present article through a proposal to integrate two models: the Methodological Model of Intercultural Competence (MetMIC) and the Teaching Unit Model (TUM). These two frameworks, each within its own area of application (intercultural education in the case of MetMIC and foreign language teaching in the case of TUM) are focused on curriculum planning and offer methodological suggestions for teachers. Their integration, as suggested in this article, can be carried out on three levels: general and educational, ‘macro’ or curricular, and ‘micro’ or methodological. It allows for the coherent implementation of intercultural and communicative objectives through theoretically-informed methodological choices relating to curriculum structure and teaching methodologies.