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Teaching the pragmatics of English for intercultural communication
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McConachy, Troy (2015) Teaching the pragmatics of English for intercultural communication. Asian EFL Journal, 82 . pp. 17-29. ISSN 1738-1460.
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Official URL: http://asian-efl-journal.com/8708/teaching-article...
Abstract
The development of communication technologies and the globalization of business have transformed the world into one in which intercultural communication is a salient feature. Individuals are engaging in communication with those from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, both in one’s native language/s and through later acquired languages. Whilst intercultural communication takes place in many of the world’s languages, it is difficult to ignore the rapid spread of English internationally and the fact that more and more interactions are taking place in contexts where it functions as a lingua franca. In such contexts, English is frequently used as a tool for conducting business or research rather than as a language for personal identification. Although the increasing use of English as a lingua franca has led some to conclude that the linguistic and interactional norms of native speakers (understood as those who have acquired a particular variety of English as a first language) have become irrelevant to English language education in general, this is a somewhat extreme position. Even in the current age, the high incidence of immigration to western countries, as well as the popularity of many forms of western culture, among other factors, means that there are many learners of English who see it as an entry point for long or short-term participation in western society or consumption of western cultural products (Mackenzie 2014). The pragmatic norms of western societies are thus still relevant for a great many learners of English around the world, as are the pragmatic norms of Kachru’s (1985) outer circle nations. The teaching of English now and into the future needs to be flexible enough to respond to a learner population with diverse needs. This paper focuses on the teaching of the pragmatics of English for intercultural communication, discussing how the relationship between pragmatics and culture could be conceptualized and a number of pedagogical applications which stem from this conceptualization.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for Applied Linguistics | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Asian EFL Journal | ||||||
Publisher: | English Language Education Publishing | ||||||
ISSN: | 1738-1460 | ||||||
Official Date: | February 2015 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 82 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 17-29 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) |
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