This book was born of a desire to articulate the perceived gap between theory and practice in language and culture pedagogy. This gap， which seems unbridgeable at times， surely needs to be narrowed if we are effectively to address what is widely acknowledged to be one of the key competences for the 21st century： the development of intercultural competence. This has been the subject of countless scholarly publications， from monographs to journal articles， textbooks and conference proceedings. Many of these have become seminal works that serve as the foundations for this book. And yet，this subject continues to mystify theorists (i.e. linguists and applied linguists) and practitioners (i.e. teachers， teacher trainers and curriculum designers) alike. The volume of work available is all but testament to this.
　　In my own case， this gap continues to manifest itself as a chasm in personal and professional interactions. Earlier it was through my experiences as a learner of the English language in Argentina and subsequently， for over a decade now， as a foreign language teacher living in Australia. At the core of my concerns and frustrations has always been a fascination with language and culture， how they co-relate and how this relationship manifests in interaction.
　　This book has been， therefore， a way for me to pursue my own quest to help bridge the theory/practice gap in language and culture pedagogy. In so doing， I seek to help other language teachers and curriculum developers， like myself， to rethink their language and culture teaching practices and develop ways to articulate these into prinaples that may be adapted to the diverse and imperfect nature of the everyday language classroom. Principles that may also be relevant beyond the classroom， to best serve us in the increasingly globalised world in which we live. Indeed， because of the global shift in higher education and the consequences of this for pedagogy， these principles also need to be embedded in the international context that is currently shaping the higher education policy agenda， and， in turn， ineluctably shaping our practices.
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