The effectiveness of the intercultural language communicative teaching model for EFL learners

Abstract

Over the past years, there has been a growing interest in intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in English language education. However, not all English language educators in the Vietnamese context and other similar contexts are well aware of intercultural language teaching since there lacks instructional design models to integrate intercultural content into English language classes. This project, therefore, aims to test the effectiveness of a developed intercultural communicative language teaching (ICLT) model. It involved forty-seven EFL learners learning General English at a foreign language center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Three research instruments, namely language test, intercultural competence test and semi-structured group interview were employed to garner data. The findings revealed that after a thirteen week training course, EFL learners’ language competence and intercultural competence had similar patterns of improvement. This project, thus, implies that the ICLT model is effective in facilitating EFL learners’ ICC development, and it can be applied in other similar EFL contexts.