Sino-US English Teaching, September 2017, Vol. 14, No. 9, 549-558 doi:10.17265/1539-8072/2017.09.003 Cross-Cultural Awareness and Teaching English as a Second Language in the Context of Globalization Natia Davitishvili Gori State Teaching University, Gori, Georgia The paper focuses on the inseparability of language and culture, highlighting the significant role of cross-cultural awareness and communicative competence in teaching English as a second language (TESL) in the context of increasingly internationalized global world. Cross-cultural awareness has always been important in modern language studies, as preparing students for effective and competent intercultural communication requires not only mere teaching of linguistic skills like phonology, morphology, lexicology, and syntax, but also the vital component of cultural knowledge and awareness. Communication that lacks appropriate cultural content often results in an odd or humorous situation leading to misunderstanding and miscommunication. Therefore, the present paper claims that in TESL it is necessary to incorporate and develop aspects of cross-cultural awareness as a part of the course curriculum to immerse students in effective intercultural communicative competence. It is strongly believed that developing cross-cultural awareness through learning and practicing the patterns of the current lifestyle in the target culture will help the learners overcome both cultural shock and intercultural communicative barriers easier, compare the target culture with their own, and find the similarities and differences between them, thus coping with cross-cultural communication problems successfully. There are many challenges related to teaching English as a lingua franka in a cross-cultural context of globalization—English, not being the native language of the learners, triggers a great number of problems connected with teaching and developing cross-cultural awareness. This paper offers some strategies for coping with them. Keywords: cross-cultural awareness, cultural values, cultivate intercultural communicative competence, target culture, overcome intercultural communicative barriers Introduction The problem of cross-cultural awareness in communication emerges as a result of economic globalization and mass migration of people, as well as a backlash to the crisis of multiculturalism. Cultural critic Edward Hall (1959) termed intercultural communication as a new discipline in human sciences which became a part of the Communication Studies in the mid-70s. People need to interact and communicate with the people of different cultures across the borders. In so doing, successful communication largely depends on the cross-cultural awareness and competence. Intercultural Communicative Competence “involves the knowledge, motivation and skills to interact effectively and appropriately with members of different cultures” (Barnett & Lee 2002, p. 208). Natia Davitishvili, Ph.D., associate professor of English Studies at Gori State Teaching University, Georgia. DAVID PUBLISHING D