Intercultural Competence Online Resources

Global Voices is an international community of writers, bloggers, and digital activists that aim to translate and report on what is being said in citizen media worldwide. This website provides students opportunities to get in touch with the 'current' authentic material. For example, in my Mandarin class, because China has its own version of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media websites, it is difficult (both linguistically and culturally) for my students to check Chinese websites and actually know what is happening in China. Global Voices, on the other hand, provides the students with an opportunity to follow the current event and to see how people living in different countries react to the situation. 

This book provides an excellent overview of issues related to multicultural education. The authors offer important background information regarding characteristics and goals of multicultural education and a cultural context to explain the growth of this academic field. This book is divided into five parts: issues and concepts; social class and religion; gender; race, ethnicity, and language; exceptionality; and school reform. This book provides educators with an important resource to enhance their skills in teaching diverse student populations. Not only do the authors address the different aspects of diversity, but they address the concept of culture and its impact on the schooling process as well as institutional reform movements.

GLN is a DC-based NPO organization whose mission is to use language as a tool to help fix our world. GLN offers affordable language classes in more than 60 languages. The organization celebrates all languages and cultures by promoting an environment where individuals from various cultural backgrounds communicate, interact, and learn from one another. GLN opens doors and builds bridges between people who share fruitful cross-cultural experiences. GLN is a great resource for both teachers and students to have an opportunity to get in touch with different cultures as well as learning a new language. 

In this book, by using and discussing the real-life experience of traveling with students and teachers to seven different continents, the author of this book --- Cusher, increases the potential to turn traveling experience and international experiences into meaningful interpersonal encounters that form the basis for intercultural learning. This book also introduces essential concepts and strategies related to intercultural communication that teachers could employ to enhance intercultural learning.