A Linguistic and A Cultural Competence: Can They Live Happily Together?

This article describes a process by which authentic documents may be integrated into first‐ and second‐year college and high‐school classes to form a cultural component in the earliest stages of foreign language study. It discusses how linguistic and cultural information may be extracted from these documents in the form of “actes de parole” to conform to the grammatical level of the students, and outlines ways by which cultural and linguistic information so taught may be tested.