Teachers are often in the forefront of today’s cross-cultural contact, whether in the language classroom or in the K–12 or university/college classroom, but they are not always prepared to handle the various issues that can arise in terms of cross-cultural communication. The intent of this book is to make education in cross-cultural awareness accessible to a broad range of teachers working in a variety of educational settings.

Crossing Cultures in the Language Classroom attempts to balance theory and practice for pre-service and in-service teachers in general education programs or in ESL/EFL, bilingual, and foreign language teacher training programs, as well as cross-cultural awareness workshops. This book is unique in that it combines theory with a wide range of experiential activities and projects designed to actively engage users in the process of understanding different aspects of cross-cultural awareness. The goals of the book are to:

expand cultural awareness of one’s own culture and that of others
achieve a deeper understanding of what culture is and the relationship between culture and language
acquire the ability to observe behaviors in order to draw conclusions based on observation rather than preconceptions
understand and implement observations of cultural similarities and difference
develop an attitude of tolerance toward cultural differences and move away from the “single story.”


The new edition has been thoroughly updated and includes a Suggested Projects section in each chapter. This section provides opportunities for users of the text to explore in greater depth an area and topic of interest. It also includes even more Critical Incidents-- brief descriptions of events that depict some element or elements of cultural differences, miscommunication, or culture clash. Critical Incidents develop users’ ability to analyze and understand how multiple perspectives of the same situation are rooted in differing culturally influenced beliefs, behaviors, norms of interaction, and worldviews.