The language-learning curriculum for the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), the curriculum for the final two years of secondary schooling in Victoria, seeks to foster language learning for interpersonal communication in an assessment model that is grounded in an outcomes- and competency-based framework, thus bringing together the ambiguity inherent in intercultural communication and the clarity demanded by a curriculum that focuses on behavioural outcomes. In this research project the role of intercultural knowledge in communication was investigated and a way for this knowledge to be incorporated into the curriculum framework for the Indonesian language was proposed. A topic was chosen from the curriculum as the basis for collecting authentic data in Indonesian settings. The topic was 'finding accommodation' and data collection focused on finding accommodation in a kos, a type of room rental common for single people in Indonesia. Data were collected from research sites in two Indonesian towns. Four methods of data collection were used: ethnographic interviews, participant observation, comment banks and role-plays. Cultural themes in the data were identified through domain analysis and noticing and one source of data, the kos interview role-plays, was analysed using discourse analysis to help patterns emerge and thus develop a model for a generic text-type for teaching. This research project found that cultural knowledge and values are expressed in the course of communication in a kos interview that are different to what the learner might expect if approaching this text-type from a position grounded in Australian culture and that these differences can be incorporated into a learning model that is appropriate to the VCE curriculum. This model serves as a starting point for further research into the intercultural dimensions of Indonesian interaction in different settings with the aim of enhancing the resources available to teachers of Indonesian in Australia.