Abstract:

The paper focuses on the significance of the inseparability of language and culture, underlining the need to prepare students for effective intercultural communication in order to succeed in a global work environment. In the context of the globalization of the world economy and the popularization of international exchange, it is a new challenge for English language teachers to help students build solid foundation for language proficiencies and cross-cultural communicative competence. This leads to changes in the goals, objectives, methods and strategies of foreign language teaching accordingly. Therefore, the purpose of the present work is to overview critically the research related to the teaching of culture that describes effective pedagogical practices and can be integrated into the second language curriculum in ways that engage learners actively in the acquisition of both – language and culture. The paper attempts to interrelate theory and practice by promoting teaching culture and language through the theoretical construct of the 3Ps (Products, Practices, Perspectives), combined with an inquiry teaching approach utilizing digital media and provide guidelines for successful classroom application. This learner-centered approach facilitates to create a rich and meaningful environment in which students interact with authentic data and build their own understanding of a foreign culture's products, practices and perspectives, improving thus their own cross-cultural communicative competence.

Keywords:

Globalization, cross-cultural communicative competence, integration of theory and practice, learner-centered approach, teaching guidelines.