Putting the culture into intercultural communication: intercultural awareness

The increasing diversity of English language use on a global scale particularly in lingua franca settings has raised interesting issues regarding the relationship between languages and cultures. In such contexts the connections between languages and cultures are likely to be complex, dynamic and emergent, rather than a simplistic culture-language-nationality correlation. To investigate this research was carried out concerning second language learning and intercultural communication in an expanding circle ELF (English lingua franca) context. Data was collected from seven undergraduate English learners at a Thai university engaged in intercultural communication. The examples of intercultural communication revealed many participants making use of cultural frames of reference in a hybrid, mixed and ‘liminal’ manner; drawing on and moving between global, national, local, and individual orientations. It is therefore suggested that for successful intercultural communication language learners and users need to be equipped with ‘intercultural awareness’. This involves an understanding of the role of culture in their own communicative behaviour and those of others, and crucially the ability to mediate and adapt to the fluid cultures of ELF communication. A model is presented below that represents the key elements of intercultural awareness, and illustrates the relationships between these different components