“After twenty-five years teaching cross-cultural communication using a reading packet I put together myself, at last here is a Reader that I feel I can use. Kiesling and Paulston have assembled a rich collection of essays spanning a broad range of cultural contexts representing an anthropological/sociolinguistic approach to intercultural discourse.” Deborah Tannen, GeorgetownUniversity

“The subtitle The Essential Readings aptly describes this collection. It provides a convenient source of classic primary texts for graduate courses in cross-cultural communication, as well as for personal professional libraries. The organization of articles as foundational/ theoretical works, case studies, cultural content and identity pieces, and applications to ‘real-world’ problems makes this Reader highly adaptable for diverse foci of interest within interactional sociolinguistics.” Muriel Saville-Troike, University of Arizona

“A significant resource for both undergraduate and graduate students studying sociolinguistics, communication, social anthropology, and social psychology.” Journal of Sociolinguistics

“As a collection, this volume will definitely be of interest to researchers, instructors, and students of intercultural communication…Kiesling and Paulston have successfully met the challenge of deciding what to include. The selection and especially the sequencing of the work is well motivated…Care has been taken to include essays that concentrate on presenting issues from the perspective of speakers from a less dominant group.” The Linguist List

“This book offers foundational and new theoretical readings, as well as case studies of cultural and sub-cultural contact and conflicts in the ‘real world’.” Pragmatics