This paper is aimed at reexamining intercultural communication from an identity social constructionist perspective and offering a linguistically-based research framework. The social constructionist approach holds that knowledge and reality are constructed through discourse, interactions and/or social interchange. | RESEARCH INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE FROM AN IDENTITY CONSTRUCTIONIST PERSPECTIVE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION Nguyen Hoa* VNU University of Languages and International Studies, Pham Van Dong, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam Received 24 November 2018 Revised 25 January 2019; Accepted 29 January 2019 Abstract: This paper is aimed at reexamining intercultural communication from an identity social constructionist perspective and offering a linguistically-based research framework. The social constructionist approach holds that knowledge and reality are constructed through discourse, interactions and/or social interchange. This study maintains that language in action as communication in general serves dual purposes. It does not only build the social world, but also constructs identity - a critical issue in our global community recognized by many scholars (as most recently as Jandt, 2016; Fukuyama, 2018). Identity, though, is not just a social construct, but can operate as part of the purpose of communication as well. Recognizing that it is difficult to find clearly-defined methodologies in interdisciplinary areas such as intercultural communication (IC), this study proposes a research framework, grounded in pragmatic theory, and taking speech acts as the basic unit of analysis. The paper also offers implications for foreign language education (FLE) as the nature of FLE is the development of intercultural communication competence (ICC). Keywords: identity, self-image, intercultural communication, social constructionist, speech acts 1. Introduction 1 In 2016, Jandt published “An introduction to intercultural communication: identities in a global community ”. Previously, many other works deal with the issue of identity, but this one highlights the relationships between intercultural communication and identity in a big way – in the title. Communication is not limited to informing about the world, but it puts the issue of identity in play. In .
