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Description

  • Institute Type: 1-week in-person
  • Location: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Campus
  • Target Audience: All language educators interested in prompting the development of intercultural competence in their classroom. Both pre- and in-service professionals are invited to attend.

To build Intercultural, Pragmatic, and Interactional Competence (IPIC), learners must understand and navigate the contextualized nature of communication and communication norms. This ability empowers learners to participate meaningfully in the language communities of their choice and in the world more broadly.

Building a lexicon in the target language is an insufficient vehicle for navigating communication norms. Through its focus on pragmatics, an area of linguistics that examines how meaning is made in a given context, this hands-on institute will support participants in gaining understanding of the infinite ways in which individuals from different backgrounds may communicate. Specifically, participants will explore four key pragmatic concepts that influence communication choices across languages (power, politeness, imposition, and social distance) and discover how the differences in these choices operationalize across individuals, language varieties, and languages. They will use this understanding to articulate and iterate instructional and assessment materials that can be applied to their own contexts.

Julie Sykes and Stephanie Knight Julie Sykes & Stephanie KnightInstructors

Julie M. Sykes is the Director of the Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS) at the University of Oregon and the Chief Innovation Officer at LingroLearning. Her research focuses on applied linguistics and second language acquisition with an emphasis on technological and pedagogical innovation for interlanguage pragmatic development and intercultural competence.

Stephanie W.P. Knight is the Associate Director of CASLS. Her research and development of pedagogical interventions focuses on constructivist approaches to language acquisition and the intentional incorporation of digital and mixed-reality tools in learning experiences to expand learning outcomes.

See the full course description here.
Return to the CARLA website.

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Enroll Now - Select a section to enroll in
Section Title
Building Blocks for Intercultural, Pragmatic, and Interactional Competence
Type
Workshop
Days
M, T, W, Th, F
Time
9:00AM to 4:00PM
Dates
Jul 21, 2025 to Jul 25, 2025
Campus
Twin Cities (US Central Time)
Building
University International Center
Schedule and Location
Contact Hours
30.0
Delivery Options
Workshop  
Course Fee(s)
Section Details

July 21–25, 2025 (9 a.m.–4 p.m.)
1-week in-person summer institute
Location: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Campus

Refund Policy:

  • Written cancellation requests received on or before the Monday four weeks prior to the institute start date are eligible for a refund minus $50 processing fee per participant for each canceled institute. Please send cancellation/refund request to carla@umn.edu.
  • Cancellations received on or before the Monday two weeks prior to the institute start date will be charged $100.
  • No refunds will be granted after the Monday two weeks prior to the institute start date. See exact refund dates on the refund information page.

Contact Information:
For questions regarding course registration, materials, and content, please email carla@umn.edu.
For questions regarding system access, log-in, username, or password, please email help@umn.edu or call 612-301-4357.

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