Heimatobjekte: A Pedagogy Based on Material Culture to Promote Intercultural Competence

Abstract

The World-Readiness Standards (The National Standards Collaborative Board, 2015) and the Can-Do Statements (ACTFL, 2017) promote intercultural competence and understanding through relating cultural products to perspectives and practices. In response, numerous world languages curriculum proposals have convincingly demonstrated these entanglements. The primary investigative focus, however, often rests on perspectives and practices while casting products into a mostly supportive role. Yet products are ubiquitous, tenaciously situated at the nexus of language and cultural activities. Drawing on interdisciplinary, material-culture-based perspectives, the curriculum intervention described in this article outlines an instructional module for an intermediate German course that promotes intercultural competence by guiding learners in object inquiry to decode, relate, and transform the untranslatable concept of Heimat.