Discourse Issues in Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Educating the Community

Abstract

In the past 20 years, new issues have emerged in the field of educational linguistics owing directly to loosening of borders and acceptance of “marginality” across societal boundaries (cf. Rampton 1997). With this new fluidity come new challenges, not the least of which is educating the public about how to avoid cross-cultural misfires when multiple norms of interaction come into contact. From the perspective of cross-cultural discourse and pragmatics, it is no longer appropriate nor is it practical to view the acquisition of communicative competence as a process of learning the norms of a second language. To take this sort of ethnolinguistic/ethnocentric view can be more than dangerous—it can be a matter of life and death. I illustrate this pressing need with one recent example of a second language discourse misfire that resulted in a national health issue and ultimately the death of a child.