Winner of the 2015-16 Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize awarded by the Modern Language Association

Many educators aim to engage students in deeply meaningful learning in the language classroom, often facing challenges to connect the students with the culture of the language they are learning. This book aims to demonstrate that substantial intercultural learning can and does occur in the modern language classroom, and explores the features of the classroom that support meaningful culture-in-language-learning. The author argues that transformative modern language education is intimately tied to a view of language learning as an engagement in meaning-making activity, or semiotic practice. The empirical evidence presented is analyzed and then linked to both the theorizing of culture-in-language-teaching and to practical concerns of teaching.

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This book raises some very important questions concerning the objectives of ML education in the United States and offers different avenues of exploring the related issues. Kearney convincingly argues the benefits and relevance of a semiotic approach to intercultural learning in ML education via a textually rich classroom and clearly outlines the role of meaning-making potentials.