Interculturalism in teaching French as a foreign language in Czech schools

Due to globalization new politico-economic relations between countries and their citizens have been developing. Interactions between nations and cultures has been intensified with the advent of multinational corporations, the opening of borders and the increase of student and workforce mobility. The above-mentioned phenomena create a new social climate which is reflected in the educational policies and in curricula. This paper looks into the intercultural education in teaching French as a foreign language at Czech schools. The theoretical part is grounded in the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). This document written by the Council of Europe introduces the new concept of language teaching in European countries. It deals with questions such as how to learn languages, how to teach them and how to evaluate the process of teaching and learning. The overall objective of the CEFR is to train European citizens to operate in today's multicultural world. The CEFR enables the creation of common curricula and common methods of evaluation. For this purpose the CEFR introduces the so called 'level descriptions'. Individual levels are described through competences. Competences comprise knowledge, abilities, and individual's characteristics that enables the person to perform certain acts. Intercultural..