Foreword/ Preface

1. Teaching foreign languages in an intercultural world Lies Sercu

2. Objectives of foreign language education and culture teaching time Paloma Castro and Lies Sercu

3. Familiarity and contacts with foreign cultures Phyllis Ryan and Lies Sercu

4. Pupils' culture-and-language learning profile María del Carmen Méndez García and Lies Sercu

5. Culture teaching practices Ewa Bandura and Lies Sercu

6. Culture in foreign language teaching materials Leah Davcheva and Lies Sercu

7. Experiential culture learning activities: school trips and exchange projects Chryssa Laskaridou and Lies Sercu

8. Opinions regarding different facets of intercultural competence teaching Lies Sercu

9. The foreign language and intercultural competence teacher Lies Sercu

10. The future of intercultural competence in foreign language education. Recommendations for professional development, educational policy and research Lies Sercu

Appendix 1: Questionnaire/ Appendix 2: Bonferroni multiple comparison test results

Foreign Language Teachers and Intercultural Communication: An International Investigation reports on a study that focused on teachers' beliefs regarding intercultural competence teaching in foreign language education. Its conclusions are based on data collected in a quantitative comparative study that comprises questionnaire answers received from teachers in seven countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Poland, Mexico, Greece, Spain and Sweden. It not only creates new knowledge on the variability, and relative consistency, of today's foreign language teachers' views regarding intercultural competence teaching in a number of countries, but also gives us a picture that is both more concrete and more comprehensive than previously known.

The authors of the book are all members of CULTNET, a network of researchers of interculture in foreign language education (http://millennium.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/cultnet). Lies Sercu (K.U.Leuven, Belgium) initiated and coordinated the project on which the book is based. The other project partners were Ewa Bandura (Jagiellonian University, Poland), Paloma Castro (University of Valladolid, Spain), Leah Davcheva (British Council, Bulgaria), Chryssa Laskaridou (Directorate for primary education on Western Thessaloniki, Greece), Ulla Lundgren (Jönköping University, Sweden), María del Carmen Méndez García (University of Jaén, Spain) and Phyllis Ryan (UNAM: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México).