ON INTERCULTURAL ASPECTS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN SRI LANKA

Drawing on interactional data from the adult English as a Second Language classroom, it is argued that constructing an answer to a critical question appears to be a highly collaborative affair that requires intercultural awareness. The teaching skills suggests that responding to culture questions is a collective cognitive function, then it is argued in this paper that in attempting to construct evaluative answers language learners are involved not only in a learning, but also in a complex social task in which intercultural perspectives need to be negotiated, stances taken and identities navigated. It is suggested that language cannot be separated from the social and cultural knowledge through which it is brought into being. It is argued that any implementation of teaching methodology in an English language teaching context ought to consider interpersonal and social aspects, particularly intercultural settings