Globalization and the development of new technologies are making intercultural communication an increasingly important feature of social life. We witness a time when a great number of people cross borders, both geographical and linguistic ones; people of diverse cultural backgrounds have to share their lives in multiethnic and multicultural societies. The aim of this paper is to encourage the understanding of intercultural competence by focusing on Pragmatics. Pragmatics studies language use in the user, the intercultural aspect provides an awareness of the different and varied cultural factors that may even lead to misunderstanding. It is also known that cross-cultural communication requires cultural learning, that ways of speaking in different languages and cultures have to be described, understood and taught. The understanding of the sociocultural context is of greatest importance in second language learning, as a consequence, teachers should be aware and find the way to teach socially and culturally appropriate language for communication and to develop students´ sensitivity to the impact of culturally-based behaviour on language and communication.
