Intercultural Competence Development at Universities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.1Sup1/279Keywords:
Intercultural competence, foreign language, cultural background, student, universityAbstract
The aim of the paper is to identify and describe some specifics of intercultural competence development at the tertiary level in the framework of language and culture. Different views on intercultural competence development in higher education are presented as well as intercultural competence development in different countries and many scholars’ points of views. The results show certain specifics of intercultural competence development including linguistic competence, linguistic and cultural competence, as well as the components of intercultural competence development: the knowledge of foreign languages, cultural background knowledge, and basic soft skills. It is stated that knowing foreign languages, understanding the national culture of the target language, and having universal soft skills are necessary for successful intercultural competence development. Some soft skills are developed too, such as: tolerance, a sense of responsibility for one’s actions, the ability to empathy, understanding and acceptance of a foreign culture, the ability and desire to understand the difference and unity of one’s culture and the country culture of a target language, a sense of adequate and friendly perception of a foreign language and its realities. It is concluded that it is important to know a theory and have a practice for intercultural competence development and intercultural communication, since a foreign language, culture can only be acquired through activities. As for the specifics of intercultural competence development at the tertiary level in national universities, an indirect character of its development and patterning during intercultural communication are characterized.
References
Aleksandrova, N. (2016). Cross-cultural Competence of Specialists Engaged in International Business, Economic Relationships and Management: Content and Structure (with a view to business challenges). Future Human Image, 3(6), 9–23. Available online: http://www.fhijournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/3-6-2016-FH.pdf
Bhawuk, D.P.S. (2017). Intercultural Competence Development. In Intercultural Communication Training. Theories, Issues, and Concepts. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118783665.ieicc0184
Buttjes, D. (1990). Teaching Foreign Language and Culture: Social Impact and Political Significance. Language Learning Journal, 2, 53–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/09571739085200471
Buttjes, D., Byram, M. (1991). Mediating Languages and Cultures. Towards an International Theory of Foreign Language Education. Clevedon: Avon, UK.
Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence. Multilingual Matters: Clevedon, UK.
Byram, M., Gribkova, B., Starkey, H. (2002). Developing the Intercultural Dimension in Language Teaching. A Practical Introduction for Teachers. Council of Europe: Strasbourg, Germany. Available online: https://rm.coe.int/16802fc1c3
Chiper, S. (2013). Teaching Intercultural Communication: ICT Resources and Best Practices. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 93, 1641–1645. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.094
Ciolăneanu, R. (2007). Teaching Intercultural Communicative Competence in Business Classes. Synergy, 3(1), 22–28. Available online: http://www.synergy.ase.ro/issues/2007-vol3-no1/06-teaching-intercultural-communicative-competence-in-business-classes.pdf
Clouet, R. (2006). Between One’s Own Culture and the Target Culture: the Language Teacher as Intercultural Mediator. Porta Linguarum, 5, 53–62. Available online: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=1709316
Deardorff, D. K. (2006). The Identification and Assessment of Intercultural Competence as a Student Outcome of Internationalization at Institutions of Higher Education in the United States. Journal of Studies in International Education, 10, 241–266.
Dimitrov, N., Dawson, D.L., Olsen, K.C., Meadows, K.N. (2014). Developing the Intercultural Competence of Graduate Students. Canadian Journal of Higher Education. Revue canadienne d’enseignement supérieur, 44(3), 86–103. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1049386.pdf
Figueredo-Canosa, V., Ortiz Jiménez, L., Sánchez Romero, C., López Berlanga, M.C. (2020). Teacher Training in Intercultural Education: Teacher Perceptions. Education Sciences, 10, 81. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10030081
García-Pérez, G.M., Rojas-Primus C. (2017). Promoting Intercultural Communication Competencies in Higher Education. IGI Global: Pennsylvania, USA. Available online: https://tru.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/tru%3A1516/datastream/PDF/view
Gregersen-Hermans, J. (2017). Intercultural Competence Development in Higher Education. In Deardorff, D.K. Arasaratnam-Smith, L.A., (Eds), Intercultural Competence in Higher Education: International Approaches, Assessment and Application (1st ed.). (pp.6–16). Routledge: London, UK, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315529257.
Griffith, R.L., Wolfeld, L., Armon, B.K., Rios, J., Liu O.L. (2016). Assessing Intercultural Competence in Higher Education: Existing Research and Future Directions. In ETS Research Report Series (pp. 1–44). https://doi.org/10.1002/ets2.12112
Gudykunst, W. (2003). Cross-cultural and Intercultural Communication. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA, USA.
Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations across Countries. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA, USA. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(02)00184-5
Holubnycha, L., Kostikova, I., Leiba, O., Lobzova, S., Chornovol-Tkachenko, R. (2019). Developing Students’ Intercultural Competence at the Tertiary Level. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 11(3), 246–262. http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/rrem/149
Hoskins, B., Sallah, M. (2011). Developing intercultural competence in Europe: the challenges. Language and Intercultural Communication, 11(2), 113–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2011.556739
Huber, J. (2012). Intercultural Competence for all Preparation for Living in a Heterogeneous World. Council of Europe Publishing: Strasbourg, France. Available online: https://rm.coe.int/intercultural-competence-for-all/16808ce20c
Ilie, O.-A. (2019). The Intercultural Competence. Developing Effective Intercultural Communication Skills. In International conference Knowledge-based organization, Sibiu, Romania, June 2019, 25(2). (pp. 264-268). “Nicolae Balcescu” Land Forces Academy: Sibiu, Romania. https://doi.org/10.2478/kbo-2019-0092
Keshabyan-Ivanova, I. (2016). Intercultural Competence in Teaching Business English. In Conference Paper: 13th ESSE (European Society for the Study of English). Available online: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308093741_Intercultural_Competence_in_Teaching_Business_English
Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.
Leiba-O’Sullivan, S. (1999). The Distinction between Stable and Dynamic Cross-Cultural Competences: Implications for Expatriate Trainability. Journal of International Business Studies, 30(4), 709–725. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490835
Luka, I. (2007). Development of Students’ Intercultural Competence at the Tertiary Level. Polish Journal of Applied Psychology, 5, 97–111. Available online: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228862068_Development_of_Students'_Intercultural_Competence_at_the_Tertiary_Level
Malazonia, D., Maglakelidze, S., Chiabrishvili, N., Gakheladze, G., Tarman, B. (2017). Factors of Students’ Intercultural Competence Development in the Context of Georgia. Cogent Education, 4(1), 1302867. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2017.1302867
McKinnon, S. (n. d.). What is intercultural competence? Global Perspectives Project. GCU LEAD. Available online: https://www.gcu.ac.uk/media/gcalwebv2/theuniversity/centresprojects/globalperspectives/Definition_of_Intercultural_competence.pdf
Pinto, S. (2018). Intercultural competence in higher education: academics’ perspectives. On the Horizon, 26(2), 137–147. https://doi.org/10.1108/OTH-02-2018-0011
Sain, Z. F., Kužnin, M., Roje, R. Ch. (2017). Teaching Intercultural Competence in Undergraduate Business and Management Studies – a Case Study. Croatian Journal of Education, 19, 55–71. Available online: http://cje2.ufzg.hr/ojs/index.php/CJOE/article/view/2431
Shirley, J. (2016). Intercultural Issues in Foreign Language Learning and Ethnographic Approaches to Study Abroad. The LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies. Available online: https://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/100
Sobkowiak, P. (2015). Developing Students’ Intercultural Competence in Foreign Language Textbooks. US-China Education Review, 5(12), 794–805. http://doi.org/10.17265/2161-6248/2015.12.003
Warschauer, M. (1996). Computer Assisted Language Learning: an Introduction. Multimedia language teaching, 19, 3–20. Available online: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/warschauer.htm
Zou, P., Shek-Noble, L. (2014). Developing Students’ Intercultural Competence. In Wang J., Ding Z., Zou L., Zuo J. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 17th International Symposium on Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate (pp. 1047–1056). Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35548-6_107
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 The Authors & LUMEN Publishing House

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant this journal right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work, with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as an earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Postmodern Openings Journal has an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND