Turku UAS, a long-standing partner university of Aschaffenburg University of Applied Sciences, organized the interdisciplinary “International Language Week (ILW) including Intercultural Communication” in cooperation with the Language Centre and the Institute for Intercultural Communication from 18 to 22 November 2024.
Under the highly topical title “Bridging Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) through Multilingualism and Cultural Understanding”, the 2024 ILW offered around 70 participants from all over the world a suitable framework for expanding existing collaborations, but also for forming new intercultural and interdisciplinary partnerships.
The ILW, which was initiated by Prof. Dr. Renate Link in 2015, has so far been held at partner universities in Taipei/Taiwan, Billings/Montana (USA), Seinäjoki/Finland, Athens/Greece and Porto/Portugal in addition to Aschaffenburg UAS. Thanks to this rotation principle, the ILW network cross-fertilises each other every year and always benefits from new impulses due to the changing geographical location of the host university and its national language and culture. This was particularly true this time, as Turku (or Åbo, as the city is called in Swedish) is a bilingual city due to its history. Most of its inhabitants speak Finnish as their mother tongue and around five percent of the city's population speak Swedish.
Digital technologies can support the inclusion of different learners in various ways. Both the keynote speech by Prof. Dr. Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer from Chemnitz University of Technology on the gamification of language learning in higher education and a subsequent joint workshop with Prof. Dr. Renate Link from Aschaffenburg UAS focused on the mobile game app Bridge of Knowledge VR. As the app is free and only requires internet access, it can be played by anyone anywhere in the world and at any time. It also includes a special mode for players with a fear of heights. The results of the workshop developed live during the conference can be accessed in the Bridge of Knowledge VR app in the “Basics of DEIB” level at: https://www.bridgevr.de/.
Together with a representative of the Dutch company Intercultural Business Improvement, Professor Link, as co-organiser of the ILW in Turku, held another workshop on “Understanding students' attitudes towards diversity”.
The ILW programme included around 40 scientific lectures, innovative practical reports, interactive workshops and, once again, poster presentations in face-to-face, online and hybrid formats in a total of four conference languages: German, English, Finnish and Swedish.
As in the previous year, this language portfolio beyond English only reflected the European idea of multilingualism, which is also reflected in the Bavarian Higher Education Innovation Act (BayHIG).
Participants included both established and young academics with expertise in the importance of language and culture for an inclusive and equitable society. These range from the promotion of linguistic diversity and culturally appropriate teaching methods to the preservation of indigenous languages and the use of technology to strengthen equal opportunities and participation. As part of their research, the participants also looked closely at practical approaches to intercultural communication and the connection between language, culture and identity in order to reduce prejudice and promote diverse communities in the long term.
The ILW participants were invited to an exclusive welcome reception by Vesa Palander, Director of Business and Economic Development at Turku City Hall. The week was rounded off by a regional programme with highlights such as a visit to a Finnish sauna followed by ice-bathing in the open sea and a day cruise with Viking Lines from Turku to Mariehamn on the Åland Islands. The fourth ILW day took place in a special conference area on the ship entirely on the water, which was a very special experience for all participants.
„It was really great to take part in the International Language Week Conference in Turku! The experience was very inspiring and I gained a lot of interesting insights.“
Once again, Birgit Kraus, a cooperative doctoral student, who is doing her doctorate under Prof. Dr. Link at the Institute for Intercultural Communication at the TH Aschaffenburg and the TU Darmstadt, was also involved with her own contributions; she was supported by funds from the Hensel Foundation. Other lecturers from the TH AB were Marcel Rother, TH AB lecturer for special tasks and doctoral student at the University of Vaasa, and Myrto Pavlidis, also a lecturer for special tasks.
The fact that, in addition to Master's students and a doctoral student from the ILW network, TH-AB students also took part virtually in individual sessions of the conference as part of internationalisation@home meant that the concept of promoting young academics at the ILW could be successfully consolidated.
„I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the opportunity to present our poster at the ILW. It was truly an honour to engage in discussions with some of the distinguished speakers and attend their insightful presentations. As someone from a country of origin where a vast diversity of cultures and languages exist, I was delighted to share aspects of my country and culture with everyone, especially since many speakers were eager to learn more.“
In 2025, the ILW will return to its home in Aschaffenburg in time for its 10th anniversary; in 2026, it will be hosted by the South Korean Sungshin University in Seoul and in 2027 by the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas in Lima, Peru.
Further information about ILW in Turku can be found on the International Language Week website www.th-ab.de/ilw and at https://globalgateway.turkuamk.fi/en/ilw-2024/