tailieunhanh - An investigation into the teaching of intercultural competence in classes of american culture at Hue university of foreign languages: efl students’ perceptions

This paper presents an analysis of the data collected in an investigation into students‟ perception and opinions on teaching intercultural competence to EFL students in classes of American culture at Hue University of Foreign Languages. | Tạp chí Khoa học Ngôn ngữ và Văn hóa Tập 1, Số 1, 2017 AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE TEACHING OF INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE IN CLASSES OF AMERICAN CULTURE AT HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES: EFL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS Cao Le Thanh Hai* Hue University of Foreign Languages Ngày nhận bài: 12/12/2016; ngày hoàn thiện: 11/1/2017; ngày duyệt đăng: 15/3/2017 Abstract Intercultural competence is an essential component that language learners need to acquire in order to communicate well. This paper presents an analysis of the data collected in an investigation into students‟ perception and opinions on teaching intercultural competence to EFL students in classes of American culture at Hue University of Foreign Languages. Data were collected from 120 EFL students by means of a questionnaire over the course of two months in 2016. The findings have revealed that the students were aware of the important role of culture in enhancing their intercultural competence regardless of their incomprehensive perception of the correlation between language and culture. Furthermore, despite limited number of techniques, a combination of multicultural and intercultural approaches was deployed by teachers in the classes. Key words: teaching culture, American culture, intercultural competence, language and cultural acquisition 1. Introduction Over the last few decades, one of the most fundamental changes in language learning and teaching has been the recognition of the cultural dimension as a vital component. This change has largely transformed the nature of teaching and learning languages. In other words, the aim of language learning and teaching is no longer defined in terms of the acquisition and the transmission of communicative competence in a foreign language, which refers to a person‟s ability to act in a foreign language in linguistically, sociolinguistically and pragmatically appropriate ways (Council of Europe, 2001). Rather, it is defined in terms of the intercultural competence, .