EXPLORING THE INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE INTERGRATION IN FOREIGN TEACHING AND LEARNING

Abstract

For more than 30 years, English has played a significant role in various Vietnamese contexts as a mode of international communication. At present, English is officially taught to Vietnamese learners from grade three onwards. Previously, English language teaching and learning had long focused on putting in great efforts to develop the functions and uses of English. The fact is that despite being proficient in English, most Vietnamese students who graduate from a university are unable to communicate effectively in English with co-workers from different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, the object of the current research is to analyze the viewpoints of the second and third year English major students about intercultural competence development in foreign language teaching and learning classroom at School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University. The research findings show that learners do not get sufficient cultural information and seldom or never take part in disscussions about values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviour of people living in other cultures. Obviously, the possibilities of developing intercultural competence are not yet fully exploited in foreign language teaching and learning classroom. Therefore, a considerably stronger focus on the English language teaching and learning process should be given to the increase of learners’ intercultural competence in accordance with the present day requirements and goals of education.