Abstract:

Today, the student of a second language, English in this case, at Higher Education has greatly changed, when compared to the type of alumni we had fifteen years ago. Indeed, nowadays, the need to be proficient in the English language and communicate effectively has become just a mere constituent part of the teaching/learning process. The new globalized world and international setting in which we are immersed has lead the academic situation for the future professionals to demand a fundamental role of the intercultural communication competences, skills and abilities of the supranational context in which he or she is going to develop his/her professional working life. The clear Professional Purpose approach of second language teaching, or the English for Specific Purpose widely developed in the last decades of the 20th century, has given rise to a new component in the second language class: the intercultural communication competence. In this way, the student is approached as an intercultural subject, who keeps relationships with people from other cultures communicating in a second language. The cultural component in the teaching/learning process reinforces the perception we teachers have, which should not only improve the communicative resources but also allows to overcome obstacles in the development of intercultural relationships that might appear (e.g. ethnocentrism, prejudices, anxiety). Issues, such as solving problems, decision-making, negotiating, group management, among others, have to be taken into consideration in an international context. Intercultural communicative competence aims at achieving a positive attitude towards the cultural phenomenon and the use of the theoretical knowledge in the professional culture, leading to a better understanding, and more effective professional relation with “the other”.
In this paper, drawing on concepts from disciplines --such as discourse analysis, contrastive rhetoric, or intercultural communication-- several examples, developed in the class of English for Professional Communication at Polytechnic University of Madrid are shown here. In all the experiences presented, the intercultural component is explored and analyzed as a fundamental element in the teaching/learning of a second language.

Keywords:

Intercultural competences, secong language teaching, English for Professional Communication.