ИСТИНА

The presentation focuses on the innovative, revolutionary features of the World Englishes Paradigm that shook the education world in the late 20th century. I speak about key concepts that are salient to the paradigm, such as pluricentricity, diversity, functionality, and equality as articulated by Kachru, inclusivity (Davies 2010), and variability, as well as the controversies emerging in and related to the education field, for example, struggle between prescriptive and descriptive approaches, norm and usage, and others. Based primarily on Expanding Circle contexts, such as China and Russia to name just a few examples of Englishes, I emphasize the cultural underpinnings that create the greatest challenge for intervarietal communicators, as measured in terms of Smith's (1982; 1992) notion of interpretability. Such challenges help explain the significant role assigned to intercultural communication studies in tertiary education curricula in these countries. Revealing cultural identity when speaking in English as a communicative mediating tool is not an easy task for individuals and requires a special training. No easier is the listening and negotiating of other culture meanings. This sets new perspectives for researchers and educators, while also encouraging cooperation between them.