International travel is a rapidly growing activity entailing cross-cultural communication between hosts and guests from different linguistic backgrounds. There is therefore a growing worldwide need for front-line staff (as hosts) in the hospitality industry who are able to communicate effectively with guests. This paper argues that particular patterns of language are associated with host-guest interaction. This language, corresponding to the different stages of the arrival-departure hospitality cycle, may be termed 'hospitality language'. The first two parts of the paper investigate hospitality practices and define the notion of hospitality language, outlining its evolution in the context of the United Kingdom. This is followed by an illustration of its use in a case study of four hotels in Southampton. The fourth part discusses some pedagogical implications, with an emphasis on the need to expose learners to actual hotel reception practices. Interviews with hotel staff reveal that some hospitality skills could be developed through in-service training. It is argued that such training could be viewed as an ESP/ EOP requirement of the hospitality profession. The concluding section recommends that communication skills be given more serious attention by human resources managers, researchers and educators in the field of hospitality management.

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This paper investigates the notion of intercultural competence from the perspective of students in a Malaysian university. Indepth interviews involving fifteen culturally diverse students were conducted. Students reflected their lived experiences with cultural others and shared their perceptions of competent communication. Using phenomenological analysis of the interview data, two core themes that encompass intercultural competence emerged: acquiring cultural understanding and respecting cultural differences. These core themes indicate that intercultural competence is viewed as a relational process that must include both communication partners to mutually achieve appropriate and effective behaviors. The findings contribute into rethinking the Western perspective by bringing forth a relational perspective into the corpus of intercultural competence.

Much has been written about intercultural competence in the academic literature, yet our present knowledge of the subject matter was vastly drawn from the most prominent views of the Western scholars. Accordingly, many calls have been made to reconsider the predominantly defined concept in different cultural contexts, particularly in the Southeast Asia region such as Malaysia. Therefore, this study aims to explore how the local undergraduate students of various ethnicities reflect on their everyday experience within the context of Malaysian campuses. In this study, the pyramid model of intercultural competence developed by Deardorff in 2006 is used to examine the students' experiences with their foreign friends and their sensemaking of intercultural competence. Data were collected from in-depth interviews with selected undergraduate students from three universities in the Northern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The research identified two important themes: establishing connection and developing communicative skills. The findings contribute into reconsideration of Deardorff's model. While the model emphasizes more on psychological factors, the findings indicate that language proficiency is viewed as an important factor in the process of interaction between local students and their foreign counterparts. The implication of this study highlights the idea that students' ability to develop language and communication skills will allow them to be more intercultural competent. This study adds Malaysian perspective to the current understanding of intercultural competence.

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