This seminar will approach the field of pragmatics in intercultural contexts and give insights into the intersection of pragmatics and sociolinguistics, where language is seen as the performance of some kind of action and linguistic choices are investigated in relation to their socio-cultural context. We will discuss the most important theories, methodologies and concepts (Speech Act Theory, Politeness, Communities of Practice etc.), followed by an overview of influential empirical studies in socio-pragmatics research, e.g. in the fields of cross-cultural and interlanguage pragmatics and computer-mediated communication.