Centering Communication in ICC
Paula Garrett-Rucks · 2025
In a national study among U.S. post-secondary students, the ability to participate in multilingual communities at home and around the world was found to be the primary reason for language study. Accordingly, the author guides readers in this chapter to conceptualize the type of instruction needed to prepare learners for successful interactions within and across cultures and to design meaningful cultural activities with target language (TL) use, starting at beginning levels of world language instruction. Taking a critical approach to cultural inquiry is argued to be relevant to today’s learners and an effective approach to foster learners’ intercultural communicative competence. This chapter first centers the role of language in meaningful cultural instruction. Next, a systematic critical approach to cultural inquiry using the Historically Responsive Literacy Framework is provided. Examples of activities for thematic units commonly found in beginning language courses then guide readers to apply a critical cultural inquiry approach to expand communicative activities in their own instruction.