INTERCULTURAL TRAINING AND EFL STUDENTS’ INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN A HIGHER EDUCATION CONTEXT OF VIETNAM

Abstract

This paper discusses the effects of an intercultural communication course on the development of students’ intercultural communicative competence, a crucial competence for language learners in the globalised world. Using a mixed method approach that combines survey reports with students’ interviews, the study explored whether there were any changes in students’ intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes before and after the course and to what extent the course contributed to the development. A total of 122 English-majored students took part in an online survey and 10 of them voluntarily entered into semi-structured interviews. An adopted questionnaire from Huang (2021) was used as the primary data collection instrument. The findings indicated that while the course helped to improve all components of intercultural communicative competence, it supported more strongly the development of knowledge rather than the other aspects, especially the skills component. Several suggestions were given for the revision of course content and curriculum design.