Using the example of German expressions of friendship and affection, this study investigates how the concept of intercultural competence is first captured and then mediated in the didactic processes that beginning learners of German engage in at a U.S. university. Byram’s (1997) notion of intercultural competence presupposes a measurable, definable and predictable intracultural baseline of commonly agreed-upon, cultural norms within a speech community. Hence, in order to work towards intercultural competence, FL learners would need to arrive at perceptions of L2 use that coincide with NS perceptions of these same practices. Despite the fast progression of the theory on the teaching of intercultural competence (Dervin, 2016; Fantini, 2011; Kramsch, 2010) large empirical gaps remain. There is little evidence that NSs of the FL (here, German) perceive their cultural practices, including the use of socio-culturally connoted expressions, homogenously enough to warrant their status as cultural traits.

Drawing on questionnaire and interview data, this study investigates: (1) whether German NSs (n=52) describe their perceived use of their native expressions of affection homogeneously enough to derive a respective NS baseline of ‘representable’ and ‘teachable’ norms of the use of such expressions in German; and (2) how the views of these German NSs compare with how beginning learners of German (n=154) describe how Germans express affection after explicit instruction about this topic.

Results outline challenges to the teaching of intercultural competence, including (a) a large degree of variation in the German NSs’ reported use of expressions of affection, and (b) a misalignment between German NSs’ and students’ views of German cultural practices. While the observed lack of consensus among German NSs defied the assumption of a reliable lingual-cultural norm, the students hypothesized an L2 norm that stands in stark contrast to their L1 usage conventions.