Intercultural Communication Competence in EFL classrooms

Abstract

Within the context of teaching a foreign language, the link between language and culture has been the source of interest among many scholars and educators especially those who belong to applied linguistics. Foreign language teaching aimed to develop the students’ communicative competence, since language does not only represent the set of symbols; it also carries the cultural aspects of the people who use it. Language and culture are intertwined and closely related; language is the most visible aspect of culture. Recently, globalization and technology changed the living world, and more importantly changed the way we teach, and we learn. As a result EFL teachers consider the importance of integrating culture in their language classes in order to develop students’ intercultural communicative competence. Indeed teaching a foreign language does not require only providing the students with grammar rules and lexis; the cultural inclusion is vital for successful communication. In addition, EFL learners emphasized their need to learn the target culture since the linguistic competence is not enough to fully understand foreign language texts (written/spoken), and to engage in real life communication. Intercultural competence is the ability to use linguistically correct language in its appropriate context; it is also used to describe a form of communication between people across different cultures and social groups. According to Chen and Starsota (1999) intercultural communication competence is “the ability to effectively and appropriately execute communication behaviors that negotiate each other’s cultural identity or identities in a culturally diverse environment” (p.28). It allows us overcoming stereotype, discrimination and misunderstandings among people of different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, the real question addressed in this paper aims to show the importance of teaching culture for an overall development of students’ intercultural communication competence in EFL classes