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Psychological perspectives 63

forts of sojourners; and that most intercultural interactions have mainly inter-
personal salience. In brief, that there is no reason why communication should
not proceed smoothly if people are mindful and communicate skilfully. The ICC
tradition does not try to explain contexts in which miscommunication between
two cultural groups may be inevitable despite the best intentions of well-trained
communicators. The intergroup approach we describe below is aimed to explain
and predict when intercultural communication is likely to fail.

3. Intercultural interactions as intergroup encounters

The second main socio-psychological approach to intercultural communication
comes mainly from scholars in language and social psychology (LASP). These
researchers have been especially interested in contexts where two or more
cultures co-exist, often in a state of social or power inequality, for many years
(or permanently). These include diglossic and other bilingual communities,
long-term immigrants, and intercultural contexts where interactants come from
different groups but use a common language (e.g. the countries of the UK). Be-
cause of this, whereas the goal of ICC theories is communication competence,
for this approach it is to understand prejudice, discrimination, conflict between
cultures, and how rivalry and antagonism can be reduced.

3.1. Second-language acquisition and use
One of the earliest models in this tradition comes from Gardner and his col-
leagues (see Gardner 1985), and explores the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations
for learning a second language. Extrinsically motivated learners attempt to learn
a second language for instrumental reasons (e.g. economic advantage, job pros-
pects), while those with intrinsic motivation have a genuine desire to learn about
and if possible become part of the new linguistic community. A key assumption
of this model is that the quality of interactions and the motivation for language
learning are based primarily on intergroup history, and driven as much by moti-
vation as by communication skill. In most contexts, one or more communicative
communities are advantaged and dominant, with prejudice marked by negative,
hostile or patronizing communication. The assumption is that this is the norm in
most intergroup encounters, so that less account is taken of interpersonal re-
lations between participants.
Clément and Gardner (2001) characterize second-language acquisition as
making the second language part of the individual’s very being (i.e. they posit
intrinsic motivation as essential to effective L2 learning). This process involves
at least some degree of identification with the other language community.
Gardner and Clément (1990) distinguish three individual-difference variables