Until relatively recently, intercultural communication in a school context was largely theorised as a bilingual project, an attempt to compare the communicative behaviours and cultural beliefs and mores of the learners' first language (L1) with those of the classroom target language (TL). Although this approach is still integral to much contemporary intercultural theorising, it is now widely perceived as insufficient (e.g. Pennycook, 2012). It is based on the outdated assumption that learners can use a shared L1 such as English as a basis for reflecting on language and culture of self and other; yet, in Australia, for example, around 30% of students have an L1 other than English. As Scarino and Liddicoat (2009: 5) note, 'In developing a contemporary stance, language teachers must consider and respond to notions of complexity and change'. Moreover, in today's culturally and linguistically hybrid nations, the bilingual approach increasingly contains at least the seeds of stereotypical 'us and them' thinking (Kramsch & Whiteside, 2008). This is particularly true when most students have very limited exposure to additional language learning, as is the case in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA. They therefore have little time to explore the nuanced diversity of socio-cultural groupings within countries which officially use a specific language. This lack of time on task can also have implications for learner engagement in terms of their perception of actual language outcomes and of the purpose of language study. A further impediment to engagement in language learning can be the classroom pedagogy itself, so often out of step with adolescent learners and their times.

A contemporary intercultural approach therefore needs to focus on three interwoven outcomes: intercultural understandings beyond the English/TL nexus, specific TL knowledge and skills in use and, crucially, the engagement of students in language learning through meaningful content and stimulating 21st-century orientated pedagogy. Without this engagement, the other two projects are largely doomed.