On Tuesday 21 January 2020, Kobe University's Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence organised a lecture for high school teachers entitled "Promotion of intercultural understanding in foreign language education in Europe and creation of global citizenship: educational policy made by the EU and the Council of Europe".
　Associate Professor Tsutomu Hashida (Center for International Education, Kobe University) firstly explained that the foreign language education in Europe was an integral part of educational policy aiming at the creation of global citizenship based on intercultural competence. The lecturer also mentioned that the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) was originally designed to facilitate cross-border mobility of European citizens and was not intended to provide a useful measure for various commercial tests of foreign languages.
　Prof. Hashida secondly gave an overview on public policy for plurilingual learners in multilingual circumstances in Europe and referred to key policy in the EU and the Council of Europe: the requirement to acquire two official languages in the former and the development to define intercultural competence based on the CEFR. He invited the teachers to participate in an exercise to write some parts of the "Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters" made by the Council of Europe's experts, and facilitated them to discuss globalization and diversity (plurilingual and pluricultural), purpose of foreign language (particularly English) education, intercultural competence and foreign language skill, and so on. It was an excellent opportunity for them to understand that European citizens were in the process of acquiring intercultural competence to retain diversity in democratic society ― beyond learning only English as a communication tool ― in daily life in various languages.
　There were 12 teachers in the lecture, which took place as part of the Annual Meeting for English Subcommittee, Educational Research Group of Senior High Schools in Hyogo Prefecture.
　Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of Kobe University will continue to organise lectures for high school teachers who will educate their students with the updated knowledge of the EU.