Introduction. A commodious vicus of recirculation

This book wishes to demonstrate how recent theoretical descriptions can potentially guide the teaching of the English language used in academic, professional, workplace, intercultural, and digital communicative contexts by investigating the complexity of human language and taking into account elements that go beyond the bounds of verbal language. Besides verbal fluency and accuracy, in fact, learners need to acquire a knowledge of the socio-cultural conventions of the peoples and places they are likely to encounter in the global village of the third millennium and be aware of the non-verbal communicative power of elements like mimicry, gesture, body language and proxemics which can often prove to be more eloquent than words, at times even belie them. This means that it is no longer sufficient for teachers and course designers to focus on language in use alone, they also need to be aware, and make their students aware, of the reality of professional and cultural contexts and bring them into constant proactive contact with the treasure trove of information and material available on the web.