Intercultural Competence and Pragmatics

Gila A. Schauer
Intercultural Competence and Pragmatics
Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2023
print: ISBN 978-3-031-44471-5 // e-book: 978-3-031-44472-2 (open access)
154 pages
32,09€ (hardcover)

This book examines the link between intercultural competence (IC) and pragmatics by asking frontline modern foreign language teachers in higher education teaching a variety of languages how they conceptualise intercultural competence and which skills, competences and knowledge they consider important in their teaching contexts.

While international organizations such as the UNESCO or the Council of Europe agree that intercultural competence should play an important role in education, it is not always clear what IC may encompass in specific teaching contexts and subject areas. Examining how modern foreign language teachers in higher education conceptualise intercultural competence and the value they attach as well as the attention they give to various areas of pragmatics in their teaching is highly important, since those language professionals may be the final teachers learners encounter during their formal foreign language education. They are therefore in a unique position to shape modern foreign language learners’ intercultural and pragmatic awareness, competence and skills.