Integrating intercultural communicative competence into an online EFL classroom: an empirical study of a secondary school in Thailand

Abstract

Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) has been widely acknowledged as a core element of today’s foreign language education. However, even though the importance of intercultural language teaching is commonly recognized among adult learners and at the post-secondary level, teachers of adolescent English learners often find it hard to effectively incorporate culture into English learning because of the lack of an instructional model facilitating their students’ intercultural development and English learning experiences. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether integrating intercultural learning into an online EFL curriculum can elevate teenage EFL students’ L2 motivation, intercultural communicative competence, and English proficiency. The researchers used a quasi-experimental design by randomly selecting two eighth-grade classes in a secondary school in northern Thailand, with one class designated as the experimental group (N = 31) and the other as the control group (N = 28). The effects of this teaching experiment were then examined using both quantitative and qualitative data. The findings demonstrated that the students in the experimental group showed a greater improvement compared with those of the students in the control group after an 8-week, interculturally embedded English curriculum. The results suggested that ICC is conducive to adolescent EFL students’ intercultural development as well as their English learning motivation and outcome. The applications of ICC-based EFL instruction in similar contexts are discussed.

Systematic Review of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in Language Education: A Balanced Perspective

“…This is in perfect agreement with the concepts of CLT, which prioritize the incorporation of authentic cultural contexts into language acquisition in order to improve learners' proficiency in varied communication settings. Hua's (2011) study provides evidence that being exposed to and comprehending diverse cultures not only increases students' cultural awareness but also improves their communication skills, which is an ultimate principle of CLT (Lee et al, 2023). These findings offer significant support for the incorporation of cultural components into language instruction, which is consistent with the comprehensive approach to language acquisition advocated by CLT.…”

Learning Mandarin Online: Is There A Relationship between Social Support with Expectancy and Value?

“…However, while the importance of intercultural language teaching is widely recognised at the adult learner and post-secondary levels, teachers of adolescent English learners often find it difficult to integrate culture effectively into English language learning because of a lack of teaching model that facilitate their students' intercultural development and English learning experiences. Therefore, the study by Lee et al (2023) aimed to investigate whether integrating intercultural learning into an online EFL course could improve adolescent EFL students' second language motivation, intercultural communicative competence and English language proficiency. Using a quasiexperimental design, the researchers randomly selected two Year 8 classes in a secondary school in northern Thailand, with one class designated as the experimental group (N=31) and the other class designated as the control group (N=28).…”

Proposed Framework for enhancing Intercultural Communicative Competence in Bangladeshi ELT textbooks

“…Tran and Duong (2018) proposed an Intercultural Language Teaching (ICLT) model within the Vietnamese context, focusing on knowledge, skill and attitude through input, notice, practice, and output steps. Lee et al (2023) designed an ICC course based on framework proposed by Wiggins and McTighe (2005) for Thai context which is well-suited for language teaching focused on practical application and proficiency, as it emphasizes what students can do with the language rather than just their knowledge of its rules and structures. The process consists of three main steps: defining the desired outcomes, establishing criteria for success, and designing learning activities and teaching strategies.…”

“…The text has to contain a range of actual English resources from YouTube, periodicals, and travel flyers on various and intriguing topics, like food and culture of many countries, with an emphasis on the comparisons and variances of those cultures to address awareness. The tasks should encourage students to write and discuss their opinions about the cultural subjects covered in the text using the essential terminology and sentence patterns from each lesson (Lee et al, 2023).…”