Miejsca pamięci narodowej w nauczaniu języków obcych. Cele i sposoby łączenia aktywności poznawczych uczniów z przeżyciami emocjonalnymi

It is a fact that language education ought to include the teaching of culture and developing of cultural sensitivity. Intercultural competence is in our contemporary world the expected outcome in language learning and teaching. The intercultural learning paradigm is directed toward educating learners to communicate successfully with speakers from other cultures. Learners are to learn to understand those cultures, to develop empathy for the Other, and to understand others and their point of view. Intercultural learning thus requires learners to not only acquire knowledge about everyday living in other countries but also to explore their culture. Exploring culture must involve not only what is being stored in a cultural memory system of a community. It must also involve the reflection on the reasons why people store certain items or events and the reflection on their relevance for cotemporary individuals and communities. Dealing with the cultural memory could take the places of memory (Pierre Nora) as a starting point. Unfortunately, the textbooks rarely contain any information about them. The didactisation of that content in many cases leaves much to be desired. The aim of this paper is to discuss how to involve learners personally and actively in the process of reflection on the places of memory.