Life in the contemporary world brings almost everybody into contact with people of other languages and cultures. Foreign and second language teaching has evolved to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century by putting a new emphasis on learning for communication， or communicative competence. This book argues that a further evolution is required， to take account of the affective and cognitive effects of engaging with otherness， of encountering people of different cultural identities and social values and behaviours. In other words， language learners need to acquire intercultural competence too. Linguistic competence and intercultural competence are two dimen-sions of intercultural communicative competence.

The main purpose of the book is to define in precise detail what intercultural competence involves. what new role foreign and second language teaching has in learners acquisition of that competence. and how their proficiency can be assessed. It suggests a detailed approach to the development of syllabuses and curricula. It defines appro-priate modes of assessment of intercultural competence， whether acquired inside orbeyond the language classroom. Life in the contemporary world brings almost everybody into contact with people of other languages and cultures. Foreign and second language teaching has evolved to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century by putting a new emphasis on learning for communication， or communicative competence. This book argues that a further evolution is required， to take account of the affective and cognitive effects of engaging with otherness， of encountering people of different cultural identities and social values and behaviours. In other words， language learners need to acquire intercultural competence too. Linguistic competence and intercultural competence are two dimen-sions of intercultural communicative competence.

The main purpose of the book is to define in precise detail what intercultural competence involves. what new role foreign and second language teaching has in learners acquisition of that competence. and how their proficiency can be assessed. It suggests a detailed approach to the development of syllabuses and curricula. It defines appro-priate modes of assessment of intercultural competence， whether acquired inside orbeyond the language classroom.

The book carries forward earlier work on the aims and methods of cultural studies in foreign and second language education. It is written for teachers and those involved in curriculum development and assessment. It discusses issues which are relevant for language teachers in whatever context they work and provides a framework for development for specific contexts and contents of language classrooms of many kinds.