Cultura, culturas e ensino de línguas estrangeiras

An historical examination of the notion of culture in foreign language teaching in America and Europe against the background of the development of the concept in the social sciences and in the area of“cultural studies” in particular. This critical appraisal of the complex and still active history of the word “culture” may prove to be relevant for language education professionals, in Brazil and elsewhere,particularly at a time when the intended celebration of “otherness”in the language classroom seems to be hindered by the emergence of a homogenizing “global culture” as well as by an ever-increasing process of exclusion of so-called cultural minorities