The language classroom, particularly at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is a meeting place for a diverse student population. While university lecture halls do not always create opportunity for personal contact, in language classes inter-personal communication is not only present – it is the primary purpose and principal activity. The following points of departure guide our team of teachers in designing the Language Center course curriculum and methodology:

Where is the language spoken? Learners are exposed to the target language with a broad geographic and cultural perspective in mind. Each of the languages taught is the language of very many speakers across continents, involving vast cultural and linguistic variation. These complex realities are fully integrated into the course from the start. The tensions that may ensue are addressed and discussed, in keeping with our approach whereby simplified language does not entail simplistic content.

Diversity – it is a common misconception that university classrooms comprised of primarily local students are culturally homogeneous. In Jerusalem, typically students come from very different backgrounds – many the children or grandchildren of immigrants; many Arabic speakers integrating into the Israeli higher education system; and recently, a growing number of incoming visiting international students.

Meaningful exchange – Students are encouraged to engage in cultural exchange and exercise their social agency, making use of the target language. Yet this does not limit exchange to the target language/culture(s). Meaning, in German class, for instance, students engage in discussing German masterpieces yet in the same course they will also be encouraged to introduce one another to masterpieces of the culture(s) of their ancestors, using German as a vehicle for authentic and meaningful  intercultural exchange.

Equal opportunity – acquiring the target language through exclusive use of the language itself is highly beneficial to the learning process. It also offers equal opportunity to all learners: A Chinese speaker is most welcome in a beginner Arabic class, and vice versa, and neither class depends on proficiency in Hebrew, nor in English for that matter.

Plurilingualism – "The CEFR distinguishes between multilingualism (the coexistence of different languages at the social or individual level) and plurilingualism (the dynamic and developing linguistic repertoire of an individual user/learner)" (Companion Volume, 2020). Rather than treating each language as its own "mental bin," learners are encouraged to acquire and further develop their overall communicative skill-set and to dynamically apply the means necessary to navigate and negotiate any given situation.  In keeping with the CEFR "can do" descriptors, learners are encouraged to construct a portfolio of capabilities and to develop cognitive flexibility that allows them to rely on knowledge and tools gained in a given language to comprehend and use other languages as well.