ELT,A CATALYST FOR RECONCILIATION: A REVIEW OF LITERATURE ON INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN TERTIARY EDUCATION IN SRI LANKA

Ethnolinguistic diversity in Sri Lankan society resembles its multicultural aspect in which the implicit need of ?link? among different social groups is emphasized. Any culture intrinsically inherits its language aspect since culture and language are inexorably intertwined concepts. Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) has become one of the top focuses today in education for identified, distinctive and pre-eminent reasons. ICC for professionals is quintessential key competency since their awareness of intercultural differences and features are crucial in any multicultural professional community. In that scenario, cumulative competencies in language teaching and intercultural understanding reconcile the ultimate purpose of the particular career objectives. Having identified the ultimate socio-economic and cultural destinations in any profession, the need to inculcate ICC to every professional would be an effective beginning. Along with the best understanding of ICC, some of the countries have already expanded its ICC education through Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) practices in schools, tertiary education and vocational institutes - simply with the invaluable purpose of ensuring the competence of future professionals? intercultural understanding and respect to other cultures and their peaceful interaction with any person in any context. A few studies have been conducted based on Sri Lanka, yet it has been successful in other multiethnic communities. This literary review shows ELT can be a support to produce ICC through the use of CLIL practices in ELT.