On June 8, 2016, the 20th Kassel English Colloquium (KEC) entitled "Teaching Language as Culture" took place in the Gießhaus at the University of Kassel. It was a great honor and pleasure to welcome the internationally renowned scholar Prof. Dr. Claire Kramsch from the University of California Berkeley (USA) as a guest speaker. She inspired around 70 participants with a lively lecture on the role of culture in the age of globalization and in language learning. The host, Prof. Dr. Claudia Finkbeiner, has maintained active academic contact with Prof. Dr. Claire Kramsch and the University of California Berkeley, USA, since the mid-1990s. As a visiting professor at UC Berkeley, she gained valuable academic experience on several occasions and again in February/March 2016. In return for Prof. Finkbeiner's lecture on migration and language at UC Berkeley this year, Prof. Dr. Claire Kramsch also visited Kassel University as part of her Harald Weinrich Visiting Professorship at Bielefeld University. Students and academics from the University of Kassel - in particular a pleasingly high number of participants from the Canadian Summer School in Germany  (CSSG) - as well as trainee teachers and teachers from the surrounding area were among the wide-ranging, highly interested audience at the event. They all enjoyed a passionate plea for the essential role of culture in foreign language teaching. Increasing globalization requires new approaches to the teaching of cultural skills. Three striking examples of intercultural encounters were used to sensitize the audience to the topic. Prof. Dr. Claire Kramsch has a special gift for engaging her audience and inspiring them with her research interests. As an experienced and eloquent speaker, she used personal anecdotes and current research activities to illustrate the many ways in which we are confronted with cultural conflicts, stereotypes and prejudices on a daily basis. Finally, the participants had the opportunity to ask their personal questions in a multilingual discussion round. Prof. Dr. Kramsch answered these questions in German, English and French, demonstrating that her speech on multilingualism is also lived by herself. We would like to thank Prof. Dr. Claire Kramsch for her captivating lecture and look forward to seeing her again soon at the 13th International Conference of the Association for Language Awareness (ALA) in July 2016 at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.
Text: Markus Pusch & Prof. Dr. Claudia Finkbeiner