BYRAMS EXTRACTS The status of English as a lingua franca has brought about new conceptions on the relationship between

n language and culture and the ways in which cultural content is presented in the class. As Byram(1998: 7) points out, an appropriate framework for language learning and teaching today needs to focus on three distinct aspects: an integration of linguistic and cultural learning to facilitate communication and interaction; a comparison of others and self to stimulate reflection on and (critical) questioning of the mainstream culture into which learners are socialized. The potential of language teaching to prepare learners to meet and communicate in other cultures and societies than the specific one usually associated with the language they are learning.

When referring to intercultural communication Byram (Ibid: 7) says: The starting point for this is again linked to the notions of identity and interaction. Whenever we are engaged in interaction with others, we perceive and are perceived ourselves in terms of our social identities, one of which is our ethnic identity (Tajfel 1981). In British society and those similar to it, for example in Western Europe, the ethnic identity of the dominant majority coincides with their national identity. This in turn sometimes coincides with state citizenship, although the second coincidence is less frequent.

Each person has a number of social identities, social groups to which they belong, and cultures, cultural practices, beliefs and values to which they subscribe. Which identity is dominant in a given interaction depends on a number of factors in the situation: the language in use, the relationships with the other, how the participants identify each other. When the other with whom we are interacting is from a different state with a different national identity, symbolized in a different language, it is our national identity which comes to the fore, at least in the initial stages. It is therefore important to understand the national group and culture to which that person belongs. Any international interaction will refer to national identities and cultures which are therefore embodied in the mutual perceptions of the actors involved. It is for this reason that language teaching puts an emphasis on national cultures and the mutual perceptions of national groups, attempting to ensure a proper analysis of national stereotypes. When an interaction takes the people involved beyond this stage and into relationships where other social identities -for example, gender, social class, age group - become significant, then it is necessary for the participants to know, or be able to find out, about the other social groups to which their partner in the interaction belongs. Language teaching thus also needs to anticipate what learners need to know or what skills they need to acquire in order to discover other identities and groups - and their cultures - for themselves. In the first instance, however, learners usually perceive others and are themselves perceived by others as belonging to a national group and culture. 1

It is not possible, nor desirable, for learners to identify with the other nor to deny their own identity and culture. Yet in terms of linguistic learning this has been the implicit aim for many years. We have judged the best language learner to be the one who comes nearest to a native speaker mastery of the grammar and vocabulary of the language, and who can therefore 'pass for', or be identified as, a native, communicating on an equal footing with natives. When considerations of social identity are introduced into the debate a different kind of judgment of the good learner is implied. It is the learner who is aware of their own identities and cultures, and of how they are perceived by others, and who also has an understanding of the identities and cultures of those with whom they are interacting. This 'intercultural speaker' (Byram and Zarate 1994) is able to establish a relationship between their own and the other cultures, to mediate and explain difference and ultimately to accept that difference and see the common humanity beneath it.

From this perspective, the cultural dimension has become an intercultural dimension when teaching English. Our role as educators is:

To facilitate learnersinteraction with some small part of another society and its cultures, with the purpose of relativising learnersunderstanding of their own cultural values, beliefs and behaviours, and encouraging them to investigate for themselves the otherness around them, either in their immediate physical environment or in their engagement with otherness which internationalization and globalization have brought into their world. (Byram, 2001: 3)

We have therefore introduced the concept of the 'intercultural speaker', someone who has an ability to interact with 'others', to accept other perspectives and perceptions of the world, to mediate between different perspectives, to be conscious of their evaluations of difference (Byram & Zarate, 1997; see also Karmic, 1998). Where the otherness which learners meet is that of a society with a different language, they clearly need both linguistic competence and intercultural competence. Here we focus on intercultural competence which is necessary whether a different language is present or not.

Byram (2001) explains that: The components of intercultural competence are knowledge, skills and attitudes, complemented by the values one holds because of one's belonging to a number of social groups, values which are part of one's belonging to a given society.

Attitudes The foundation of intercultural competence is in the attitudes of the intercultural speaker and mediator:

Intercultural altitudes (savoir etr): curiosity and openness, readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and belief about one's own. This means a willingness to relativise one's own values, beliefs and behaviours, not to assume that they are the only possible and naturally correct ones, and to be able to see how they might look from the perspective of an outsider who has a different set of values, beliefs and behaviours. This can be called the ability to 'decentre'.

Knowledge Another crucial factor is knowledge, not primarily knowledge about a specific culture, but rather knowledge of how social groups and social identities function, both one's own and others. If it can be anticipated with whom one will interact, then knowledge of that person's world is useful. If it cannot, then it is useful to imagine an interlocutor in order to have an example of what it means to know something about other people with other multiple identities:

Knowledge (savoirs): of social groups and their products and practices in one's own and in one's interlocutor country, and of the general processes of societal and individual interaction. So knowledge can be defined as having two major components: knowledge of social processes, and knowledge of illustrations of those processes and products; the latter includes knowledge about how other people see oneself as well as some knowledge about other people. No teacher can have or anticipate all the knowledge which learners might at some point need. Indeed many teachers have not had the opportunity themselves to experience all or any of the cultures which their learners might encounter. There are however skills which are just as important as attitudes and knowledge, and teachers can concentrate as much on skills as upon knowledge. Skills Because intercultural speakers/mediators need to be able to see how misunderstandings can arise, and how they might be able to resolve them, they need the altitudes of decentring but also the skills of comparing. By putting ideas, events, documents side by side and seeing how each might look from the other perspective, intercultural speakers/ mediators can see how people might misunderstand what is said or written or done by someone with a different social identity. The skills of comparison, of interpreting and relating, are therefore crucial:

Skills of interpreting and relating (savoir comprendre): ability to interpret a document or event from another culture, to explain it and relate it to documents or events from one's own. Secondly, because neither intercultural speakers/mediators nor their teachers can anticipate all their knowledge needs, it is equally important to acquire the skills of finding out new knowledge and integrating it with what they already have. They need especially to know how to ask people from other cultures about their beliefs, values and behaviours; these can be difficult to explain because they are often unconscious. So intercultural speakers/mediators need skills of discovery and interaction: Skills of discovery and interaction (savoir apprendre/faire): ability to acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural practices and the ability to operate knowledge, attitudes and skills under the constraints of real-time communication and interaction.

Ones own values and beliefs Finally, however open towards, curious about and tolerant of other people's beliefs, values and behaviours one is, one's own beliefs, values and behaviours are deeply embedded and can create reaction and rejection. Because of this unavoidable response, intercultural speakers/ mediators need to become aware of their own values and how these influence their views of other people's values. Intercultural speakers/ mediators need a critical awareness of themselves and their values, as well as those of other people: Critical cultural awareness (savoir s'engager): an ability to evaluate, critically and on the basis of explicit criteria, perspectives, practices and products in one's own and other cultures and countries. It is not the purpose of teaching to try to change learners' values, but to make them explicit and conscious in any evaluative response to others. There is nonetheless a fundamental values position which all language teaching should promote: a position which acknowledges respect for human dignity and equality of human rights as the democratic basis for social interaction. The role of the teacher is therefore to develop skills, attitudes and awareness of values just as much as to develop a knowledge of a particular culture or country, or of different cultures within one's own country.