This research seeks to highlight the perceptions of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in Algeria regarding the assessment of learners’ ICC. In the classroom. Additionally, this research ...proposes some suggestions on how to teach and assess middle school learners to be interculturally competent. To achieve this objective, a qualitative research design is employed to gain data. The data source of this study was eleven English middle school teachers from different middle schools in Algeria. The study applied an interview utilizing open-ended questions to see their responses about their perceptions and attitudes toward the assessment of their learners. The data collected was thematically analyzed to identify recurring patterns, challenges, and emerging themes related to the assessment of ICC in the EFL classroom. The results show teachers need training on developing communicative tasks for teaching culture that can help them assess their students’ intercultural communicative competence. So, the lack of continuing professional development in pre-service and in-service makes them wander when teaching their learners about the target language and its culture. In addition to this, data show that teachers assess their learners in terms of grammar, pronunciation, general knowledge about the target culture, and vocabulary, but they do not assess their ICC. The implications of this study extended to both pedagogical practices and educational policy in Algeria. By understanding teachers’ perceptions, this research contributes valuable information to the ongoing discourse on fostering intercultural competence in language education. The findings may guide curriculum development, teacher training programs, and assessment practices, ultimately enhancing the effectiveness of EFL instruction in Algeria.
Intercultural communication competence is now required in such higher education institutions. The issue can be seen by having misconceptions, misunderstandings, and a need for knowledge to understand ...other cultural exchanges like English and Indonesia. It happened in IAIN Manado, where the researcher takes place as the case of the study and as the research location. Respondents in this study were 28 students of the Manado IAIN English Education Study Program. The data collection technique used in this study was purposive sampling and analyzed through descriptive qualitative analysis. It is analyzed by reducing data, selecting relevant data, organizing data into regular patterns, and drawing conclusions. The study results show that learning English that integrates intercultural communicative competence positively benefits students, with an average percentage of 73.95. An effective strategy for combining intercultural communication competencies is openness to experience and knowledge of other cultures. However, in combining intercultural communication competencies, students also face challenges. These challenges include adapting to foreign cultural communication styles, expressing opinions in the context of intercultural communication in English, understanding conversational etiquette in foreign cultures, and socializing with new cultural environments while learning English. Then, with the right approach and sufficient hands-on experience, students can overcome these challenges and develop solid intercultural communication skills.
The aim of this research was set to test a model of willingness to communicate (WTC) based on ideal L2 self, foreign language enjoyment (FLE), and intercultural communicative competence (ICC) among ...English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. To this end, 601 intermediate EFL learners volunteered to take part in an online survey by completing the scales of the four latent constructs. A two-stage structural equation modelling was used to analyze the collected data. Results of the data analysis indicated that ideal L2 self, ICC, and FLE directly predicted L2 WTC. Additionally, ICC and FLE mediated the relationships between ideal L2 self and L2 WTC. Also, FLE had a direct influence on ICC. These findings may provide important implications for EFL teachers.
This study reported the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) development of twenty-one Taiwanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) college students who participated in a five-week ...Taiwan-New Zealand telecollaboration program, Kindling, in a multimodal online environment. To this end we investigated 1) the association between their oral translanguaging practices and development of ICC, and 2) aspects of intercultural learning that impacted their translanguaging experience. Data included recordings of group-based online communication and reflection notes on their online Quality Talk (QT) discussions, to which we applied content analysis based on ICC framework. The findings indicated that oral translanguaging facilitated students' development of positive attitudes toward intercultural awareness and learning. Analysis of the cultural comparisons and perspective shifts recorded in their QT reflection notes revealed ways in which students experienced dynamic aspects of intercultural learning through oral translanguaging. These results encourage researchers and practitioners to provide opportunities for language learners’ ICC development and intercultural learning through oral translanguaging opportunities in digitally mediated socialization through telecollaboration.
As an academic endeavor in an EFL setting especially in the field of reading comprehension, this study intended to examine intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and the effects of cultural ...familiarity on reading comprehension based on two specific ethnicities (Turk and Fars). To this end, participants, 130 EFL students majoring in English, were chosen from three universities in Iran. The effects of cultural familiarity on students' reading comprehension were examined by utilizing two types of processes, providing relevant background knowledge and text nativization. These two processes were used as two separate treatments for the members of the experimental groups. Members of both control and experimental groups subsequently received reading comprehension tests. Then, to elicit ICC levels, the participants were asked to complete ICC Questionnaire. The statistical analysis of the data revealed the significantly positive effect of cultural familiarity on the reading comprehension performance of both Turk and Fars experimental groups and no significant difference was observed between the reading comprehension performance and ICC level of the ethnic groups of Fars and Turks. The present study emphasizes the facilitating and positive effect of cultural familiarity on the reading comprehension of specific ethnic groups and suggests that cultural familiarity can be a valuable tool for enhancing reading comprehension and promoting language performance and cultural competence of Iranian EFL learners. Therefore, due to the importance of teaching culture in the field of English language teaching, there should be much more attention to cultural and intercultural matters when designing a language curriculum.
As migrant students cope with relocation challenges, communication with left-behind family and friends can enhance their well-being, while interactions with co-national and local students can ...facilitate their acculturation to the host country. This article studies Indonesian and Vietnamese university students in Singapore to understand the role that technologically mediated communication plays in facilitating migrant students’ adaptation and acculturation. Through a media deprivation exercise, it finds that communication with left-behind family and friends offers support but can monopolise the students’ free time and impede their interaction with locals. Social media communication also exacerbates the development of cultural silos that comprise only co-nationals. On the positive side, migrant students used the online realm as an acculturative space to better understand the host country’s attitudes towards foreigners, thereby better equipping them for interactions with locals. Migrant students must strike a balance between exploiting mediated communication links to their home identities and exploring host cultures.
The lack of intercultural communication skills will likely cause disharmony, misunderstanding, and even conflict in communication. To be successful in communication with native speakers depends on ...language skills, customs, and cultural knowledge. In the age of global communication, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching goals should be reoriented to cultivate intercultural communication competence (ICC). EFL learners should have this intercultural competence and be sensitive in order to avoid disharmony, misunderstandings, and even conflicts in communication. The main objective of this preliminary study is to reveal the levels of intercultural communicative competence among EFL students at a state university in Indonesia. A survey questionnaire was performed employing a quantitative analysis in this study. Eighty-nine students filled out the ICC questionnaire, which consisted of 20 questions. Findings indicated that most of the students had a low ICC level because they are lack of experience and knowledge in interacting and socializing with people from various cultural backgrounds. In terms of gender differences, the results showed that male students had higher levels of ICC than that female students. This research implied that intercultural topics should be included in the university’s curriculum.
Pinpointing the role of language, emotion, and culture in intercultural interactions as the three basic needs of intercultural interactions is one of the most important problems in the intercultural ...field. Therefore, this paper probed the role of language, emotion, and culture simultaneously in intercultural communication in Iran. By using convenience sampling, one hundred Iranian language teachers were chosen and their language proficiency and ICC levels were specified by using Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and intercultural communicative competence (ICC) questionnaire. Then, the researchers used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to classify ICC questions under language, emotion, and culture categories. After classifying the questions, the researchers used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), standard solution coefficient, standard path coefficient, T value, and Sobel formula to analyze the collected data from the ICC questionnaire based on participants' answers. The results revealed that language, culture, and emotion were the main macro-elements of intercultural communication. Also, it was shown that language was the most important need and macro-element in intercultural communication and then the second and third place went to culture and emotion respectively. It was found that emotion acted as a mediator variable between language and culture and there was a relationship among language, culture, and emotion, too. This study was of high importance for language teachers, curriculum designers, textbook writers, intercultural experts, and cultural psychologists
This study explores the intercultural activities in teaching Mandarin to international students in China. A sample of five Mandarin teachers with rich experience in teaching international students ...within Chinese universities. Data were collected through classroom observation, teachers’ interviews and reflective journals and analyzed through thematic analysis using the framework of Byram’s notion of intercultural competence in language teaching and learning. The results show that intercultural activities can effectively promote Mandarin teaching for international students. The findings also suggest Mandarin teachers can provide more opportunities for international students to share their values and opinions and adopt more activities to teach cultural knowledge. Accordingly, recommendations on preparing intercultural competence are concluded and put forward, which might support future teaching.
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