The term, open architecture, originates in the information technology world, where open architecture is designed to make adding, upgrading and swapping components easy. Open Architecture Curricular Design (OACD) in language learning promotes continual change of activities and tasks according to learner needs, specifically their styles, strategies, level of fossilization, interests, and zone of proximal development. At early levels, a textbook is frequently (though not always) used to ensure all learners are exposed to the same content corpus, with focus on structure and lexicon. The OACD teacher creates flexible lesson plans according to a thematically-based syllabus based on authentic materials. The teacher, who takes on the role of advisor, mentor, and partner, negotiates aspects of the syllabus and lesson plans with the learners, using formative, educative assessments to achieve the ultimate goal-to transform learners into bicultural people.

In order to become more effective communicators, we need to understand how participants, their cultural and intercultural selves, values, motivations, language knowledge, and language use, among other factors, shape interactions. We can improve our understanding by analyzing interactions both in the L1 and L2. Systematic data analysis reveals how different layers of culture – the supranational, national, regional, cultural group-based, local, and individual factors – contribute to the interaction (Bonvillain, 2020; Oetzel, 2009; Saville-Troike, 2003). It also allows us to see which aspects of culture are most salient – relevant and impactful – in a particular situation. To help readers – and their learners – develop the necessary skills, this chapter presents three models for analyzing communication as a culturally situated process: the ethnography of communication, interactional sociolinguistics, and multimodal analysis. Instructors can implement these analytic approaches in the classroom, using various sources of authentic data, to help students learn to understand communication in culturally and situationally appropriate ways.