As Agar (1994) intimated more than 20 years ago, we would be well advised to recognize the complex ways in which culture is embedded in the fabric of our communication and the implications that this has for interaction with others in the current world. In recent years the popularization of tools for online communication, the global spread of business activities and the surge in interactions among people from around the world have spurred interest in both academic and non-academic circles as to the nature of intercultural communication and the consequences it has for our lives. Intercultural communication these days is an extremely vibrant and complex phenomenon. Speakers from a wide variety of linguistic and cultural backgrounds use foreign languages to negotiate meanings and interpersonal relationships with others, drawing on cultural assumptions and world knowledge sourced from diverse contexts in the process. This means that the ways in which speakers use language for communicative purposes are also diverse, contextually contingent and subject to change over time. For some, such a picture of intercultural communication conjures up images of insurmountable differences and inevitable conflict. For others, it presents the possibility for individuals to draw on their common humanity and goodwill to promote cooperative dialogue and deepen intercultural understanding.

As one field which is particularly invested in (and responsible for) the promotion of felicitous intercultural communication, foreign language teaching is faced with the question of how classroom learning experiences can be designed to prepare learners for interacting with individuals from a wide range of cultural backgrounds, including but not limited to native speakers of the language. This book takes the position that developing the ability to successfully manage interactions and relationships through the medium of a foreign language goes far beyond the acquisition of linguistic skills.