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through English. This has resulted in a call for ELT which reflects the reality ofglobal Englishes and lingua franca communication and moves away from nativeEnglish speaker model domination (Baker, 2009a; 2011; Jenkins, 2007; Seidlhofer,2004). The appropriateness of focusing on a single variety of English with aspecified grammar, vocabulary and phonology in the face of the plurality ofEnglishes is becoming hard to sustain. Instead there is a need to negotiate thediversity of Englishes through developing the skills and knowledge associated withmultilingual, intercultural communication such as accommodation, code-switching,negotiation and mediation. Intercultural awareness (ICA) (Baker, 2009a; 2011) is anattempt to specify what some of these skills and knowledge might be.ICA builds on the earlier approaches to intercultural communicative competence(for example Byram, 1997) in viewing successful intercultural communication asa process which goes beyond vocabulary, grammar and phonology. However,whereas cultural awareness has tended to deal in cultures as definable entities, ICArecognises the intercultural nature of the socio-cultural context of lingua francacommunication through English. This involves an understanding of cultures as fluid,hybrid and emergent in intercultural communication, and the relationship betweena language and its cultural context and references as being created in eachinstance of communication, based both on pre-existing resources and those thatemerge in situ. ICA is defined as follows:[Intercultural awareness] is a conscious understanding of the role culturallybased forms, practices and frames of reference can have in interculturalcommunication, and an ability to put these conceptions into practice in a flexibleand context specific manner in real time communication. (Baker, 2011)The types of skills, knowledge and attitudes 1 ICA entails move from basicawareness of the role of cultural contexts in communication and meaning-makingin particular reference to one’s own culture, to the ability to compare one’sown and other cultures, to an understanding of the complexity of cultures andfinally an awareness of the fluidity of cultural frames of reference in which theline between ‘own’ and ‘other’ cultures is broken down. This involves an abilityto negotiate between different frames of reference and to move quickly beyondcultural generalisations to manage the emergent and dynamic cultural contexts ofintercultural communication. How ICA is developed is still a matter of investigationbut we may expect learners of English to have developed different degrees of ICAdepending on their proficiency as intercultural communicators.The relevance of ICA to classroom practice has been discussed with a number ofsuggestions made such as:■ ■ exploring the complexity of local cultures which should lead to an awareness ofthe multi-voiced nature of cultural characterisations■■critically exploring images and cultural representations in language learningmaterials■■ exploring the traditional media and arts through English to critically evaluatethe images of local and other culturesIntercultural Awareness Thailand | 273