Abstract:

Current societal trends foreshadowing Industry 4.0 will no doubt influence the world of education and language teaching. Adequate approaches to balance the changing means of communication and the world of work must be sought to meet the educational needs of students and prepare them to succeed in their jobs and lives. While language teaching methodologies and approaches develop over time, the know-how collected in nearly two centuries needs to be integrated into language teaching and learning practice to fit modern educational standards. Critical incidents, i.e., vivid life events, meet the requirements for context-integrated, student-centered, self-motivational teaching aimed at learner autonomy and life-long learning.
This article is based on a joint research conducted under an international Erasmus+ project entitled ‘Critical Incidents in Intercultural Communication and Promoting Diversity’ that runs in partnership with five higher education institutions (HEIs) from Germany, Austria, Italy, and Finland under the coordination of the SKODA AUTO University (SAU) from Czechia. Two sample CIs happening to tertiary students during their social encounters in school and internship settings were chosen to elicit a wide range of possible interpretations from 34 respondents, at least 6 from each partner research team, allowing for a profound and differentiated picture of potential socio-cultural variation of answers, including implications for pedagogy. Data collected from the interviews with 10 Czech students, five male and five female, were subjected to a more detailed scrutiny for this study, to identify country specific educational outcomes and implications for language learning.

Keywords:

Language education, teaching methodologies, 21st century skills, critical incidents, critical incident cycle.