Theorizations of intercultural communication

Abstract

Within the fields of applied linguistics and modern language education, intercultural communication has experienced two significant developmental turns. The first I call the traditional view of intercultural communication, which refers to the ability of language learners to confront the cultural practices of the Other with flexibility and tolerance. The second I term the critical view of intercultural communication, which encourages language learners to actively demonstrate their concerns by means of reasoned debate and reflective thinking when entering the intercultural arena. While recent years have seen a shift of focus toward the critical view without, however, dismissing flexible attitudes toward otherness, some language instructors exclusively favor the first view to the detriment of the second. In a time of large-scale migrations mobilized by the recent financial crisis and terrorist threats stimulated by the absence of dialogue between the East and the West, I suggest that we closely focus on the critical view of intercultural communication. Drawing on the works of major intercultural theorists, I discuss how intercultural communication has been brought to a position of refinement while additionally introducing the theory of communicative action (Habermas, 1984, 1989) as a means of elaborating the critical view of intercultural communication.