STRATEGIES OF RAISING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE IN EFL CLASSROOMS (On a sample from a Greek classroom setting)

Abstract

Intercultural communication competence (ICC) has been increasingly popular in English language teaching in recent years. However, since there are no instructional design frameworks to integrate intercultural content into EFL teaching, not all English language educators are familiar with the strategies of raising ICC in their classrooms. Therefore, the main goal of this study is to come up with strategies for promoting intercultural communication competence in EFL classrooms. The following study provides some theoretical background of ICC and describes current models for dealing with intercultural communicative competence.

Qualitative descriptive research was employed using a survey method. The survey was carried out among students at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Eurasia International University to be notified about their knowledge, attitudes, and work in intercultural settings. Participants were 52 students from 16 countries. The evidence showed that the students had a high awareness of ICC and were able to suggest strategies dealing with different linguistic and communicative challenges.