A Qualitative Investigation on the Role of Social Media in Intercultural Communication Competence: The Moroccan Diaspora in Canada as a Case-Study

Fatima Zahraa Boutabssil

doi:10.32996/ijllt.2021.4.7.4

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate how Moroccan migrants established in Canada utilize social media to improve their intercultural communication competence. It employs the exploratory sequential design based on the use of semi-structured interviews followed by a questionnaire. The results show that before migration, social media played an important role in providing the migrants with preliminary knowledge about the host culture via YouTube. Social media also facilitated communication with Canadians via Facebook. After migration, social and direct interaction was proven to be more effective in developing the participants’ ICC. As such, social media only played an informative role, whereas much of the participants’ intercultural knowledge, skills, attitudes, and awareness were developed from face-to-face communication. The study concludes that no matter how important social media can become, improving intercultural communication competencies cannot take place independently from face-to-face interaction.

Highlights

1 Intercultural communication can be seen as the process of interaction between individuals with different cultural backgrounds
As no previous studies in the field of social media and intercultural communication competence focused on how Moroccan migrants use social media to improve their ICC, this paper constitutes a foretaste in this area
It focused on exploring the extent to which social media helped the Moroccan migrants established in Canada develop intercultural knowledge, attitudes, skills, and awareness of the host country through different social media tools

Summary

Introduction

1 Intercultural communication can be seen as the process of interaction between individuals with different cultural backgrounds. Stockinger (2010) looks at it as the direct or mediated interaction between people belonging to different cultures, possessing different references, beliefs, values, traditions, histories, and languages. This means that intercultural communication involves the exchange of information that is loaded with socially and culturally constructed messages. In the process of interaction, misunderstandings can take place, especially if the communicators are not acquainted with one another’s language, traditions, values, and principles. As body language constitutes another form of interaction, misunderstandings can occur at the level of the non-verbal messages, too. Developing the appropriate knowledge, competence, awareness, and skills is very important for communicators to interact effectively

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