Exploring Intercultural Competence Among Students in Malaysian Campuses

Abstract

Much has been written about intercultural competence in the academic literature, yet our present knowledge of the subject matter was vastly drawn from the most prominent views of the Western scholars. Accordingly, many calls have been made to reconsider the predominantly defined concept in different cultural contexts, particularly in the Southeast Asia region such as Malaysia. Therefore, this study aims to explore how the local undergraduate students of various ethnicities reflect on their everyday experience within the context of Malaysian campuses. In this study, the pyramid model of intercultural competence developed by Deardorff in 2006 is used to examine the students' experiences with their foreign friends and their sensemaking of intercultural competence. Data were collected from in-depth interviews with selected undergraduate students from three universities in the Northern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The research identified two important themes: establishing connection and developing communicative skills. The findings contribute into reconsideration of Deardorff's model. While the model emphasizes more on psychological factors, the findings indicate that language proficiency is viewed as an important factor in the process of interaction between local students and their foreign counterparts. The implication of this study highlights the idea that students' ability to develop language and communication skills will allow them to be more intercultural competent. This study adds Malaysian perspective to the current understanding of intercultural competence.

Exploring Issues Of Student Intercultural Competence: The Case Of Rakan Cas

“…Language proficiency deals with one's ability to use language to achieve communicative purpose that entails having a good command of the language, expressing clear ideas and interacting with others comfortably (Renandya et al, 2018). This finding supports previous research within Malaysian context that indicates language proficiency as an important element of intercultural competence (Dalib et al, 2017;Dalib et al, 2018Dalib et al, , 2019aDalib et al, , 2019b. Interestingly, this study indicates informant's concern on the speaking skills of the RAKAN CAS.…”

Developing Intercultural Competence Awareness in Language Classroom: A View from FL Teachers

“…Cultural knowledge cannot be taught or learned in a classroom setting. In fact, cultural differences may often go unnoticed by learners until they become a source of contention (Dalib et al, 2019;de Hei et al, 2020;Peng et al, 2020). Learners need to be assisted in recognizing when their culture differs from others' for them to realize this before it leads to problems.…”

Exploring an Integrated Conceptual Framework as an Interpretive Framework for Intercultural Communication Research

“…(2017) propose a relational framework in conceptualising intercultural competence in an Asian context. Studying local and international students qualitatively in Malaysian universities, Dalib, et. al.…”