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In recent years FLE researchers and instructors have become increasingly interested in devising theoretical frameworks and pedagogical materials that prepare learners for the realities of today’s globalized world. Current FLE research suggests that equipping learners with intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is the best approach to achieve this goal. As a result of this, administrators and instructors of foreign language programs are reassessing their curricula to ensure that the cultural content is effective and sufficient for enabling learners to successfully function in a culturally diverse world. This thesis aims to reassess the cultural component of the beginner Arabic curriculum at the University of Texas at Austin by serving two objectives. The first objective is to present the results of a survey that examines the impact of the cultural content in the current beginner Arabic course at the University of Texas at Austin on learners’ ICC development. The second objective is to incorporate these results in a pedagogical framework to further enhance the development of ICC in the beginner Arabic classroom setting. The results were gathered from two student surveys, conducted at the beginning and end of the academic year, and from follow-up interviews administered half way through the study’s duration. The findings indicate that the majority of Arabic learners at the beginner level are predisposed with good general knowledge and positive perceptions with regard to the Arab world, suggesting that they are primed to develop ICC before commencing their study of Arabic. In addition to this, the findings show that the current Arabic curriculum did help to further develop ICC in learners to a certain extent. However, there are some areas for improvement, mainly regarding the organization and selection of topics. These observations were taken into consideration in designing the pedagogical framework that presents learning outcomes specific to the beginner Arabic curriculum. The intention is that such a framework will align curricular goals that will in turn result in learners becoming informed global citizens of the world. / text

This Report addresses the importance of intercultural communicative competence among foreign language learners and the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) technology to achieve this goal in the classroom. CMC technology provides learners a unique opportunity to interact with students of different cultures, a situation that allows for experiential learning to occur and which has been shown to lead to gains in intercultural communicative competence. The work begins with a definition of culture and intercultural communicative competence, followed by a review of general approaches used to facilitate such competence in students, and finally a review of the literature on the positive and negative aspects of using CMC for cross-cultural learning. As the aim of this work is to offer teachers a resource and guidance for implementing intercultural exchanges via the use of CMC tools, the Report concludes with suggestions on best practices for using CMC in the foreign language classroom. / text

The increasing contact among humans across the globe has shifted cultural, political, ecological, economic, and technological realities and boundaries that shape the shrinking world of the twenty-first century (Chen & Starosta, 2008; Spitzberg & Changnon, 2009). With this increasing contact and shift, today’s world is becoming semiopragmatically and socio-semiopragmatically more heterogeneous (Zuengler & Cole, 2005). This heterogeneity creates "zones of contact" (Pratt, 1991) which engender "sites of struggle" (Norton, 2000) for people from different socio-semiotic backgrounds. In these zones and sites, people encounter affective, cognitive, and behavioral challenges when communicating social and cultural meanings through the semiotic resources available to them (Halliday, 1978; Hodge & Kress, 1988; Hymes, 1962, 1964, 1972; Kramsch & Whiteside, 2008; Waugh, 1981, 1984). The reasons for these challenges basically have their roots in the socioculturally contexted nature of those semiotic resources that have particular semiotic potentials or affordances within or across communities of practice (Gibson, 1979; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Liddicoat, 2009; van Leeuwen, 2004).Based on these underpinnings, the current study defines the concept of communication through the lens of social semiotics and ethnography of communication–the combination of which is referred to as semio-ethnography in this research. The conceptualization of communication through semio-ethnography leads to a reformulation of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) regarding the three different and yet intertwined aspects of ICC, as suggested by Chen and Starosta (1998, 2000, 2008): affective (intercultural sensitivity), cognitive (intercultural awareness), and behavioral (intercultural adroitness). With this reformulation, this study proposes an alternative framework of ICC called the "Semio-Ethnographic Model of Intercultural Communicative Competence (SEMICC)". In the light of this alternative model, this research examines the ICC of Turkish international graduate students in the United States of America through the triangulation of an intercultural sensitivity scale (ISS), an oral discourse completion test (DCT), and semi-structured interviews. With this particular aim in mind, the obtained data are both quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. The findings indicate that the semio-ethnographic approach to communication can serve effectively to understand how communication takes place on the affective, cognitive, and behavioral planes in a given socio-semiotic world. Within the realm of this approach to communication, the findings show that intercultural sensitivity constitutes an important aspect of ICC because L2 learners' active desire and motivation to understand, respect, and acknowledge diversities or differences across socio-semiotic worlds can either promote or hinder the development of their ICC. The qualitative and quantitative results reveal that intercultural awareness establishes the ground for L2 learners' awareness of their own and others' socio-semiotic worlds because they need to detect the diversities among these socio-semiotic worlds and the sources of challenges to effective and appropriate navigation in the target socio-semiotic context. The findings also show that intercultural adroitness has equal importance in the crux of ICC because L2 learners need to use the semiotic resources (e.g., language, kinesics, proxemics, chronemics, and the like) available in in the target socio-semiotic world effectively and appropriately in order to communicate social and cultural meanings. Given these findings, this dissertation aims to enrich the ICC literature by offering various theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical implications and directions for future research and applications.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Each year thousands of international students enroll in universities across the United States of America. However, we know very little about the challenges they encounter to become competent intercultural communicators in the American academic system. Therefore, the purpose of this is to use the basic components of Deardoff’s Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) model to explore the challenges international students face to acquire requisite attitudes, knowledge, and skills to achieve ICC. The study was conducted through in-depth interviews with eight foreign students who were enrolled in a large Midwestern university during the time of this study. Participants described about their experiences with the intercultural communication that took place between them and their American peers and professors. Results the thematic analysis revealed the presence of four main themes and several sub-themes.

A university is an academic place with students from a variety of cultures. Non-native English speaking (NNS) graduate students are a group representing diverse cultural backgrounds. However, these students' challenges in linguistic and socio-cultural adjustment impact their effective learning and academic success. Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) is an important ability that they need to consider. It assesses attitude, skills, knowledge, adaptability, flexibility, and communication ability with culturally different people. Researchers in Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) have suggested that instructional designers should understand diverse learners' abilities and cultural characteristics and apply them in their Instructional Design (ID) strategies. However, the existing ID models do not specifically include ICC as a consideration in the design process. Furthermore, there has been a lack of research on culturally diverse or minority students. Considering NNS graduate students' characteristics, cultural diversity, and need to develop ICC, the researcher reviewed three social theories of learning: social learning theory, sociocultural and cultural-historical activity theory, and situated learning theory. Socially engaged learning, a synthesized framework, was recommended for NNS graduate students along with effective ID strategies. This research investigated perceptions on ICC and ID strategies for socially engaged learning in a sample of 208 NNS graduate students. Quantitative methods were used to assess students' ICC level and perceptions of effective instructional strategies in four categories: (1) students' gradual engagement and active participation, (2) learning in rich cultural context, (3) self-regulation and learning ownership, and (4) integration of communication technologies. Results showed that NNS graduate students were diverse in background characteristics, academic disciplines, cultural origins, and previous experiences; they perceived a moderately high level of ICC; and they generally had positive views on ID strategies for socially engaged learning. This research can help instructional designers and instructors in higher education to better understand the needs of NNS graduate students and to prepare them to study more effectively and have more valuable intercultural experiences. / Ph. D.

In a globalized world, teaching English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) requires mastery of intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Deploying ICC has many benefits, especially with teaching and learning English, because it is a preeminent necessity for intercultural communication today. In ESL and EFL contexts at college and university levels, learners and instructors interface with other learners and instructors who have various languages and cultures, so there is a need for implementing ICC, because it encourages instructors and learners to communicate effectively with others using both their native and target languages, as well as their native and target cultures. Hence, there is a need for ICC, mediational tools, such as translanguaging pedagogy, as well as use of a peer-coaching process. Also, there is a need to evaluate ICC use through various kinds of assessment, such as self-assessment (which includes self-reflection), identity assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment. In order to find the validity of various aspects of ICC, the mediational tools, the peer-coaching process, various kinds of assessment, and self-reflection, the researcher used a mixed-method study that contained quantitative and qualitative data. The study was conducted over the summer of 2016, and the participants were graduate students in the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB). This thesis validates aspects of ICC, mediational tools, and assessments, as well as the importance of self-reflection in evaluating and improving individuals’ ICC.

In the last few decades, Internet mediated intercultural competence has received a great attention in the field of applied linguistics and foreign language (FL) education especially with the evolution of web 2.0 technologies and social networking sites that facilitate interaction and communication between different cultural communities and individuals. Research in the field of Online Intercultural Exchange (OIE) is extremely varied and researchers have focused their attention on various aspects of OIE such as promoting intercultural communicative competence (Belz, 2002; O'Dowd, 2003; Schenker, 2011; Muller Hartman, 2000), facilitating online relationship building (Ware, 2005; Thorne, 2003, Jin & Erben, 2007) and improving writing skills (Ware, 2005; O'Dowd, 2003), developing pragmatic competence (Kinginger & Belz, 2005). Despite the plethora of research in this area, gaps in the literature still exist. First, literature lacks studies on language learners of less commonly taught languages (e.g. Arabic), (Thorne, 2006) and more importantly most of the studies are based on western contexts mainly in Europe and the USA. Second, few studies have explored the potentials of social networking sites on OIE projects in promoting intercultural learning (Aoki, 2009; Jin, 2015). In an effort to fill the gaps in the research, this study links English language learners (Saudis) with Arabic language learners (Americans) to investigate to what extent OIE on Facebook between these two groups of learners contributes to their intercultural communicative competence (ICC), specifically, exploring how and what are the components of Byram's model (ICC) manifested in the OIE project. Furthermore, it examined the affordances of Facebook in the OIE project according to students' use, practice and perception. Informed by a sociocultural framework, this study took a constructivist mixed methods approach to analysis of data from learners' online discourse on Facebook, the researcher's journal and observations, pre-survey, semi-structured interviews, and a questionnaire. Data analysis and interpretation revealed that when students' participation were mutually compatible, the students were able to build meaningful relationships, used a range of various questioning techniques, and engaged in genuine dialogue, OIE has a great potential for developing students' intercultural competence, as many objectives of Byram's ICC model were manifested. Findings also revealed that the project has strengthened Saudi students' cultural identity as they found the space to present their culture and country beyond the stereotypical image that dominates the media. As with regard to Facebook affordances, findings showed that the semiotic design and various semiotic resources of Facebook (e.g. multimodal posts, sharing, notification, friending, semi-automated features, etc.) afford students' engagement in intercultural discussion, students' collaboration, and students' interpersonal relationship building. The study also identified some of Facebook's constraints that limited students' participation due to technological, cultural and social factors. In sum this study illuminates the nature of online intercultural communication between Arabic and English language learners, contributing to the scarce research on this population. It also uncovers the unique affordances as well as constraints of Facebook on an OIE project. Based on this study, several pedagogical implications and suggestions are made for future research in the field of online intercultural exchanges.

This study investigates possible contributing factors to the development of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) in undergraduate language learners. Moreover, the study tests the viability of a survey instrument which can help language programs describe the ICC of their students. ICC has been determined to be a valuable—if not central—component of the future of language teaching and learning (Aguilar, 2007) because of the focus the construct places on “appropriate and effective” interaction between the learner and interlocutors from the target culture. A total of 108 lower-division German language students were surveyed as part of this study. They represented a cross section of all lower-division German language courses offered at the University of Texas at Austin in the spring semester of 2010. The Assessment of Undergraduate Intercultural Competence was used to collect student responses. The survey, an extensive adaptation of Fantini’s Assessment of Intercultural Competence (2006) for the undergraduate language learning context, gathered demographic data, such as nationality, foreign travel experience and nature of a participant’s intercultural relationships. Students were also asked to rank the applicability to themselves of an array of personality traits. Finally, students responded to 54 questions which addressed the core domains of ICC: Knowledge, Attitude, Skills and Awareness. These items, as well as the personality traits were rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale. The data collected were analyzed by quantitative methods The findings of this analysis determined that there was no connection between students progressing through the language program and the development of ICC. Additionally, though, a number of other factors, including the presence of intercultural relationships and a student’s willingness to adjust to new ways of living, were found to contribute positively to one’s ICC. The results of the study suggest that language programs consider ways to incorporate these factors into curricula. The findings also provide benchmark data for future studies of language learner ICC in the context of the American undergraduate experience. / text

This thesis concerns the development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) through reading a work of postcolonial literature (The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera, 2005) in an English class. The theoretical part explains notions such as intercultural communicative competence and culture. It also describes the benefits of reading in ELT. The practical part presents a project consisting of altogether twelve lessons dedicated to reading The Whale Rider. The aim of the project is to support the pupils' development of ICC, make them aware of other English-speaking cultures than just the traditionally presented ones and, last but not least, to develop their language skills. The outcome of the project is, besides the expected raised level of ICC, which is, however, hard to measure, a poster about Maori culture realized by the pupils. KEY WORDS intercultural communicative competence, postcolonial literature, reading, English language teaching, The Whale Rider