Pour une légitimation méthodologique de la compétence culturelle et interculturelle dans l'enseignement/apprentissage des langues

The communicative approach and its basic idea, «communicative competence», introduced by D. Hymes, has caused a shift of perspective in the teaching of foreign languages. Now considered as a social practice, a foreign language gives learners the ability to adapt their speaking to the different contexts in which it takes place. This change in methodology has brought a new awareness of innovative social-linguistic and social-cultural dimensions. It has opened up a new cultural dimension in teaching and has inevitably raised the issue of how far the communicative and cultural aims and contents can complement each other methodologically. Nevertheless, it appears that neither research in Linguistics nor the "guidelines" of the CEFRL have achieved a change in methodology which would put both the foreign language and the foreign culture on an equal footing. This observation suggests the fallowing questions : why are the cultural objectives, considered as having priority in the teaching of Languages and Cultures, subordinated to communication objectives in the methods of teaching foreign languages ? What is the basis of the aporetic relationship between the language and the culture from the point of view of teaching and methodology ? How can we compensate for the current shortcomings in methodology ?How far can non-linguistic academic disciplines play a key role in cultural and intercultural aspects of learning ? These are the questions which this article will attempt to answer.