INTRODUCTION TOO MANY WALLS AND NOT ENOUGH BRIDGES: THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION STUDIES Tatiana Larina1 and Olga Leontovich2 1Department of Foreign Languages Faculty of Philology Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia Mikhlukho-Maklaya str., 6, Moscow, Russia, 117198 2Department of Intercultural Communication and Translation Volgograd State Socio-Pedagogical University Lenin Prospect, 27, Volgograd, Russia, 400066 Alongside with globalization tendencies, the world still displays a lot of cultural differences, which separate people and create communication problems. <...> Over the last 30 years intercultural communication has attracted a lot of attention and has become an important object of interdisciplinary study, teaching, training, and practical activities. <...> Continuing worldwide travel, migration, business, education, sports, etc. result in increasing intercultural encounters. <...> New technologies have made them accessible in daily practices. <...> Therefore, it is critically important to grasp the implications of the existing intercultural communication theories and possible ways of applying them to real life. <...> The aims of the present issue are manifold: to reflect the scope of theoretical inquiry in the field of intercultural communication in Russia and abroad; to acquaint the Russian reader with Western approaches; to search for ways of teaching the subject to second language learners, as well as to specialists engaged in international relations; and to stimulate new ideas and possible cooperation between Russian and foreign scholars. <...> To understand ‘what is meant by what is said,’ we 9 Russian Journal of Linguistics, Vestnik RUDN, 2015, N. 4 need to know the context, as it helps to assign the meaning to words. <...> Scholars distinguish between different types of context: actual situational context and prior context. <...> As Kecskes notes, “prior context is based on our prior experience, so it develops through the regularity of recurrent and similar situations, which we tend to identify with given contexts” (Kecskes, 2014: 215). <...> He points out that through the interplay of prior context and actual situational context, individual and social factors of communication are intertwined [ibid.:133]. <...> Communication is embedded in culture, which serves as its context and is based on the prior experience of a community. <...> In intercultural relations culture is the most important <...>