Cultural values: the interpretation of discourse

It is sometimes suggested that the main problem in understanding discourse in a foreign language comes from not knowing enough about the cultural background in which the language is used. The solution then seems to be to teach as many facts as possible about the cultural background. It is argued here that it is more useful to teach explicit strategies for making inferences from the language used so that knowledge about the cultural background can be gradually constructed in the same way that native speakers of the language gradually construct their knowledge of their own culture.