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means a willingness to relativise one's own values, beliefs and behaviours,
not to assume that they are the only possible and naturally correct ones, and to

be able to see how they might look from an outsider's perspective that has a
different set of values, beliefs and behaviours. This can be called the ability to

'decentre' (Byram, 1997).

3) Skills of Interpreting and Relating
No teacher can have or anticipate all the knowledge which learners

might at some point need. Indeed many teachers have not had the opportunity
themselves to experience all or any of the cultures which their learners might

encounter, but this is not crucial. The teacher's task is to develop attitudes and
skills as much as knowledge, and teachers can acquire information about

other countries together with their learners; they do not need to be the sole or

major source of information. Skills are just as important as attitudes and
knowledge, and teachers can concentrate as much on skills as upon

knowledge.

Intercultural speakers can see how people might misunderstand what
is said or written or done by someone with a different social identity. The

skills of comparison, of interpreting and relating, are therefore crucial. Skills
of interpreting and relating mean ability to identify and explain cultural

perspective and mediate between and function in new cultural context
(Byram, 1997). Because intercultural speakers/mediators need to be able to

see how misunderstandings can arise, and how they might be able to resolve

them, they need the attitudes of decentring but also the skills of comparing.
4) Skills of Discovery & Interaction

Skills of discovery and interaction are related to the ability to acquire
new knowledge of a culture and cultural practice and the ability to operate

knowledge, attitude, and skills under the constraints of real time
communication. Cultural knowledge can be gained from reading text in

cultural texts and cultural practice can only gained in context. Building

knowledge through cultural text is discovery process and communicating in
foreign context is an interaction process. Because neither intercultural

speakers nor their teachers can anticipate all their knowledge needs, it is

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