CROSS-CULTURAL TOPICS IN THE BUSINESS ENGLISH CLASS

It has long been argued that intercultural communication is essentially different from general communication, i.e. it requires techniques meant to enable speakers with different cultural backgrounds to exchange messages in general and in a business context, in particular. In order to do so, students must acquire the ability to cross the linguistic and cultural border. Therefore, in this case, the EFL teacher's role is to facilitate his students' adjustment of attitudes towards other cultures by creating the appropriate ground to discover, compare and interpret other cultures. The aim of this paper is to explore a number of cross-cultural topics able to provide students with the necessary skills to communicate in English in today's intercultural business environment