The Development of Intercultural Mediation Skills in English Language Teaching
The Development of Intercultural Mediation Skills in English Language Teaching

Summary/Abstract: This article focuses on the rise of English as an international language and explores its function as a global lingua franca used for enabling communication among speakers of different linguistic and cultural origins. It discusses research concerned with investigating the pedagogical implications of the use of English as a lingua franca and presents calls on the part of scholars for encouraging students to become intercultural mediators and acquire pragmatic competence for negotiating differences in language use/sociocultural standpoint and achieving intelligibility in intercultural communication. It also reviews research engaged in offering practical advice on devising pedagogical activities for developing intercultural mediation skills necessary for functioning well in lingua franca interactions. Drawing upon this body of literature, the present study argues for the need to incorporate the teaching of intercultural mediation skills into traditional English pedagogy. It proposes two categories of pedagogical activities, awareness-raising and analytic, which can make space for the development of intercultural mediation competence in the English language classroom. The current study also gives an example of how these activities can be incorporated into tertiary education English classes by presenting pedagogical tasks from a course offered in the Department of English and American Studies at Sofia University.

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