Intercultural language learning gives a place to the use of both the target language and the learners' first and/or other language(s). There is a need to develop a balance, however, as each language contributes differently to learning. The purpose of thinking about language use in the classroom is to develop an informed approach to using as much…

American educators have become very concerned by mandates prescribed in the federal No Child Left Behind Act and a slew of state-level reforms such as new curriculum standards and requirements. It is difficult for them to entertain other suggestions. The concern is understandable because noncompliance leads to unbearable consequences. Failure to…

In contrast with debates over language pedagogy or aptitude, this paper examines seven societal obstacles which impact the success of classroom language learning and the development of intercultural competence in American language classrooms. These include expectations for teacher preparation, language proficiency and target language use;…

This article focuses on how to teach intercultural communicative competence to learners of English as a foreign language enrolled in a university exchange program in Europe, and help them become "intercultural speakers." The intercultural speaker can be defined as an intermediary between his or her own culture and the other's culture.…

This article describes the results of a six-month ethnographic case study of a French immigrant of Senegalese descent and how he recreates the culture of an American company's speech community. Data were collected through interviews, field notes, and shadowing the participant at his place of employment. The transcribed interviews and field notes…

This article provides a brief summary of the seven articles in this special issue through the lens of the concept of "caring reflexivity". In joining "caring" and "reflexivity", we deepen the conversation about what constitutes reflexivity, encouraging an explicit focus on the relational. Revisiting the first article,…

This paper offers advice to instructors for arranging cross-cultural communication through electronic e-mail. After acquiring user identifications, checking the reliability of the equipment, and finding an electronic penpal class, teachers should communicate their goals and requirements to each other and pair students together. Teachers can then…

Discusses the performance of automatic direct machine translation systems available through the Internet and examines semantic processing errors that result in confusion when the intended meaning of sentences is not correctly translated. Suggests the need for Web-based translation systems that have an explicit cross-linguistic representation of…

Focuses on recent research in cross-cultural pragmatics as distinct from interlanguage pragmatics. The essential difference between the two lies in the perspective from which each views cross-cultural communication. (Author/VWL)

Reviews three books on intercultural communication, including the following: "Intercultural Communication: An Introduction,""Becoming Intercultural: An Adaptive Theory of Communication and Cross-Cultural Adaptation," and "Communication and Culture: An Introduction." (Author/VWL)

In the study described in this article, fourth-grade teachers and students of different abilities and language backgrounds were interviewed before, during, and after participating in an Internet pen pal program. Results reveal that the program's authentic tasks and texts facilitated communication and enabled students to learn about a different…

Since 1960s, increasing numbers of students from traditionally underrepresented racial and ethnic groups have enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities, marking one of the most visible changes in higher education. Despite this shift in campus demographics, faculty in higher education have not yet lived in an integrated community long enough to…

The increasing importance attributed to the cultural dimension of foreign language (FL) education has entailed new demands for teachers and teacher educators. This paper explores the cultural agenda in Finnish language teacher education from a student teacher perspective. The focus is on the students' perceptions regarding how effectively cultural…

This paper offers a dialogic discussion about several issues concerning call centers, including globalizing surges, modernity tropes and educational practices. Based on a critical discourse analysis of a document offering to train west-based entrepreneurs to assume managerial positions in call centers in India, the paper explores ways in which…

The purposes of this study were to identify the essential dimensions of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and to establish a framework for assessing the ICC level of high school students that included a self-report inventory and scoring rubrics for online interaction in intercultural contexts. A total of 472 high school students from…