engleski

Intercultural communication in the English language classroom: Global needs vs. local realities

English has become an international language (EIL) primarily used by non-native English speakers for communication in multicultural societies. Departing from the position that English language education should follow suit and make a contribution in the development of intercultural skills, in this paper, we examine the perceptions of 193 secondary school students on their intercultural communicative competence (ICC), and the role of culture and intercultural communication (IC) in the EFL classroom. Findings in this study show that although students feel competent in all four dimensions of ICC, i.e. knowledge, skills, attitude and awareness, they primarily conceptualise IC as knowledge about culture and language of Anglophone countries. Overall, students maintain that English improves and fosters intercultural communication in Europe, but are unaware of the broader implications of EIL. It will be argued that IC should be better integrated in the EFL curriculum, as knowledge about language (and culture) alone does not ensure ICC.

culture ; intercultural communication ; intercultural communicative competence ; English as a foreign language ; English as an international language ; four dimensions of intercultural competence

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