The foreign language teacher – a key factor in intercultural mediation

Abstract

The article presents the role of the foreign language teacher in linguistic mediation and intercultural mediation. In the globalized society of the 21st century, the native speaker of a foreign language can no longer constitute a standard in foreign language teaching. In a context where both the teachers and the students use a language that is not their mother tongue, the foreign language teacher ensures linguistic mediation by adapting the language to the mother tongue which is common in the teaching-learning evaluation process. The article presents the strategies that can be used to put this desire into practice. As far as intercultural mediation is concerned, the foreign language teacher has the role of presenting the culture specific to the foreign language he teaches, of facilitating its understanding by the students, but also of creating bridges between the two cultures by highlighting the common points. In this process, it is important not to cancel out the inherent differences between the two worlds, but to understand and capitalize on them.