The issue of representation has polarised public discourse and in recent years the decolonisation of research methodologies has entered the field of interculturality. However, universalistic discourses of dialogue and tolerance can be harnessed to silence certain voices by construing them as 'other'. With this paper I confront this conceptual knot…

Much of the work in intercultural communication studies in the past decade, especially in the field of applied linguistics, has been devoted to "disinventing" the notion of culture. The problem with the word "culture" as it has been used in anthropology, sociology, and in everyday life, it has been pointed out, is that it is…

The assumption that each culture has its own distinctive identity has been generally accepted in the discussion of cultural identities. Quite often identity formation is not perceived as a dynamic and interactive ongoing process that engages other cultures and involves change in its responses to different challenges at different times. I will…

Interculturality may be something normal which everyone possesses to a degree. However, dominant neo-essentialist theories of culture give the impression that we are too different to easily cross-cultural boundaries. These theories support the development of academic disciplines and the need for professional certainty in intercultural training.…

English language education is in the process of change regarding teacher identity and the ownership of English. Cultural issues are implicated in this change. Critical cosmopolitan approaches in the social sciences are critiquing the primacy of national cultures which they consider a Western imposition on the emergent identities of the Periphery.…

Learning new languages potentially gives people vital skills to build more successful relationships, and understanding the social influences at work today may help us to know which type of language education is most beneficial. This article explores three social influences--globalisation, localisation and glocalisation--from the perspective of…

The conjunction of literature and intercultural competence has been suggested by authors who give the utmost importance to the role of literature in education. The challenge rests on how literature may help the reader reconstruct perceptions of the world by raising awareness of cultural difference and of the inseparability of language-and-culture.…

This paper is a report of a research project on critical multiliteracies and multimodality in Brazilian education. In the context of a growing concern for the construction of images in contemporary society, the paper discusses the interrelations between image, language and interpretation. The specific object of the investigation described below is…

The incorporation of "creole" vernacular languages into texts written in "standard" languages is an especially fraught crossroads of intercultural communication. This article considers the difference between a kind of literary tourism in which non-Caribbean readers "taste" the flavour of creole language within…

This paper analyses how cultural understanding of the target culture can be addressed at beginners' level. To do this, I will discuss how some theoretical and pedagogical principles from Intercultural Learning, Cultural Studies and Second Language Acquisition throw light on the teaching of culture at the outset of foreign language learning. While…

English has become the "lingua franca" of international business and management and is the preferred means of communication in intercultural and international encounters. In this paper it is shown that both the spread of the English language and the increasing dominance of a management discourse are based on a series of tacit assumptions and…

This paper explores the interplay between Western conceptions of education and students from other educational traditions, most specifically Japan, through the lens of the author's practice in international education. He examines models of the private and public spheres and public discourse advanced by Hannah Arendt and Jurgen Habermas in relation…