Over the past years, there has been a growing interest in intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in English language education. However, not all English language educators in the Vietnamese context and other similar contexts are well aware of intercultural language teaching since there lacks instructional design models to integrate intercultural content into English language classes. This project, therefore, aims to test the effectiveness of a developed intercultural communicative language teaching (ICLT) model. It involved forty-seven EFL learners learning General English at a foreign language center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Three research instruments, namely language test, intercultural competence test and semi-structured group interview were employed to garner data. The findings revealed that after a thirteen week training course, EFL learners' language competence and intercultural competence had similar patterns of improvement. This project, thus, implies that the ICLT model is effective in facilitating EFL learners' ICC development, and it can be applied in other similar EFL contexts.

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It is considered that learner autonomy places a great emphasis on learners" role as independent learners who are able to take control over their learning. That is not to say, teachers become redundant in a classroom. In contrast, the key role of the teacher is to create and maintain learning community. Accordingly, this study attempted to investigate EFL teachers" perceptions of the promotion of learner autonomy and their teaching practices in a Thai context. It was quantitative-focused research, so data were obtained via a closed-ended questionnaire. The participants consisted of thirty EFL teachers who were teaching English at a Thai university. For data analysis, descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon signed ranks test were employed. The results showed that the participants could perceive the concept of learner autonomy and roles of teachers in autonomous language learning, yet most of them found it difficult to apply their knowledge about learner autonomy in this context. It is hoped that these preliminary findings partly contribute to literature regarding the promotion of learner autonomy in an EFL context.

Learner autonomy is believed to play a leading role in life-long learning; as a result, a myriad of studies have been conducted to discover tools to promote learner autonomy (e.g., blogs, Facebook, web 2.0, learning contracts, etc.). Nevertheless, the effects of a portfolio on promoting learner autonomy have not been explored much. This paper endeavored to investigate whether or not learner autonomy was developed with the implementation of the portfolio-based learner autonomy development (PLAD) model in an EFL writing course. Regarding research methodology, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from a questionnaire with closed-ended and open-ended items and reflection logs kept in portfolios. For data analysis, the quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, whereas qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis. The findings showed the development of learner autonomy after the course in which a portfolio was employed as a learning tool. In particular, the participants were aware of learner autonomy and felt positive about autonomous learning tasks, especially writing reflection. Self-assessment, however, was the most challenging task which they encountered because of lack of confidence and experience. In addition, it was evident that the participants could choose learning materials when they were offered freedom and rights to do this task.

ASEAN countries are about join in a single market and production base known as ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015, which will enhance freer flows of goods, services, investment, capital, and people. This will enable the process of regional integration in which people from diverse cultures will live, meet, and work together. Accordingly, culture clash and shock and communication breakdown would seem to be unavoidable if people in ASEAN community are not well prepared in terms of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in order to effectively and appropriately function in multicultural situations. Therefore, this paper discusses the reasons why ICC is a must-to-have in AEC, and gives some implications to promote ICC among people in terms of English language education. Keywords: English language (EL), ASEAN Economic Community (ACE), Intercultural communicative competence (ICC).