EXPLORING PERCEPTIONS OF INTERCULTURAL CITIZENSHIP AMONG KAZAKHSTANI UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

"In recent years, the concept of intercultural citizenship in language education has been recognized worldwide. The goal is to prepare students for effective interaction in intercultural settings across diverse communities. Despite many reviews in the literature that address the importance of incorporating intercultural citizenship into language education, very few studies have discussed it from student perspectives. This study aims at exploring perceptions of intercultural citizenship held by university students. Employing a questionnaire, quantitative data were collected from 407 students of both English and non-English majors. The aim of the questionnaire survey was to identify whether the participants are familiar with the concept of intercultural citizenship and what core qualities, responsibilities, and skills they think an intercultural citizen should have. The findings revealed that students’ attitudes to the idea of intercultural citizenship are generally favorable, the participants give prominence to such components as knowledge of languages, cultural awareness, acceptance of diversity, tolerance, respect for other cultures, patriotism. At the same time, the results indicate that students have developed superficial understandings of the concept, since the responses were limited to just some core components of intercultural citizenship. "