Introduction. The paper analyes authentic intercultural cases used in teaching intercultural communication skills in vocational education. The relevance of the topic is determined by the growing popularity of the case method in the implementation of higher education programmes, as well as the need to develop appropriate approaches and materials for its application within specific academic disciplines. 

Aim. The paper attempts to identify the key differences between intercultural cases and other types of educational cases, to clarify their didactic potential in teaching a foreign language at the stage of vocational education, and also, based on the analysis of authentic intercultural cases, to demonstrate how their structure and problem field have changed in the period from the late 1980s up to the present. 

Methods. The study used such research methods as the analysis of scientific and methodological literature, periodisation, and comparison. 

Results. On  analysing more than 300 authentic intercultural cases, the authors conclude that structurally, intercultural cases have become more complex and nowadays integrate various pedagogical tools (role play, presentation, written assignment, etc.). The expansion of the problem field of intercultural cases prove their immersion into socio-historical context: intercultural cases reflect those aspects of intercultural interaction that the authors consider to be the most typical and most acute for the current historical moment. 

Scientific novelty. The discursive characteristics of intercultural cases have been clarified. The evolution of their structural and content-specific features has been analysed. 

Practical significance. Provided conclusions and recommendations may be relevant for teaching all university disciplines, whose field of interest includes issues of intercultural communication.