The limits of my language mean the limits of my world. (Ludwig Wittgenstein) The final decades of the 20th and the first decade of the 21st century has seen the emergence of the revolutionary developments and the effects of globalization. With these, the co-operation and communication across cultures has become an integral part of our everyday life, both public and private. We are constantly immersed in multicultural environments, e.g. the multicultural classroom / seminar room, an international company, and the border free digital world (myspace, facebook, youtube, etc.). The interaction of people from different cultural backgrounds brings along the demand for what is called Intercultural Communicative Competence. Although intercultural discourse is most often performed without problems, it still seems only logical that there is an increased risk of miscommunication, misunderstandings, misperceptions and misinterpretations involved. In order to develop an understanding of Intercultural Communication and outline the scope of Intercultural Communicative Competence, the field of Applied Linguistics can make key contributions. Discourse analysis, anthropological linguistics and sociolinguistics are just three areas of linguistics that can deliver valuable answers. |
