Intercultural language teaching and learning in digital era

The contemporary communication allows language learners to have immediate access to other languages and cultures. In such communication, models of intercultural interaction assuming language learners use their languages to communicate with native speakers are being challenged and languages are being used as lingua franca. This means that communication ability with linguistically and culturally different others has become a key need for contemporary communication. Therefore, we need to reconsider what interculturally capable means and what abilities learners need to develop. The nature of intercultural communication today shows that developing intercultural capabilities needs to be different from learning about another culture. This article argues that learners need to be aware of both languages and cultures as meaning resources and that intercultural capabilities involve understanding of self and other as meaning makers and interpreters. It also explores some of the consequences of such a view for developing contemporary language teaching and learning.