This past October, I presented about intercultural competence to two completely different audiences. At Ohio TESOL, I talked to mostly American ESL teachers of K-12 schools about best practices in intercultural communication (IC). At MEXTESOL, I talked to mostly Mexican EFL teachers about a class activity and project that would help students develop their intercultural competence. While the talks were different, they had one similarity: no one in either audience was familiar with Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (1984) or Deardorff’s Process Model of Intercultural Competence (2006), both of which are foundational pieces of research in the field of IC.

It’s sobering to realize that although these pivotal theories have been widely referenced for quite some time, they are still widely unknown even by TESOL professionals, whose main goals include preparing students for intercultural communication. On the other hand, perhaps it’s not surprising that these theories haven’t gotten more coverage in TESOL. After all, TESOL is an interdisciplinary field, drawing the most applicable research from the fields of linguistics, communication, education, psychology, educational technology, and on and on. In the landscape of TESOL, intercultural communication is still looking for a visible location where passers-by can stumble upon us more easily and find out what we’re offering.

One way that ICIS hopes to make our location in TESOL more visible is to advocate for the inclusion of IC coursework in TESOL programs. If we want our students to be effective intercultural communicators, teachers should be aware of best practices in IC. By the same token, if we want our students to understand that learning a second language doesn’t guarantee intercultural competence, we need to raise their awareness of the factors that can make a difference.

One of those factors that makes a difference is the focus of this edition’s first article: critical self-reflection. Willem de Goei invites us into his critical self-reflection on his complex experiences using English as a lingua franca (ELF), noting situations when he experienced privilege for his linguistic competence as well as moments when he was denied the same status as native speakers of English.

In our second featured article, Olga Muranova shares her findings from her linguistic analysis into the question of how the use of suggestions differs between native and non-native speakers of English in the university writing center setting. She draws attention to some factors that may influence speech acts and makes recommendations for tutor training.

Finally, let’s take advantage of TESOL 2019 and elevate the visibility of our interest section amidst thousands of passers-by. We will be publishing another edition of InterCom in January 2019 as a pre-convention issue in which we will call attention to special sessions related to intercultural communication that you won’t want to miss. Spread the word and help us shine at TESOL 2019!