Facilitating English L2 learners’ intercultural competence and learning of English in a Taiwanese university

Abstract

This article reports on a practitioner research study that adopted the intercultural approach to integrating Vietnamese and Indonesian cultural issues into Taiwanese university classes for English as a foreign language (EFL). A content-based course design was developed to infuse cultural topics including food culture, lifestyle and interpersonal interaction into an 18-week English curriculum with a dual focus on facilitating students’ intercultural competence and learning of English. This study recounts the teacher researcher’s process of developing and implementing this course; it also evaluates the effects of the course by analysing students’ perceptions based on data collected from an intercultural competence scale, a course evaluation survey and a semi-structured interview in two consecutive semesters. Based on the results, the students showed obvious growth in their intercultural competence; many of them also perceived that the course facilitated their learning of English. Overall, this study offers English language teachers novel insights with regard to developing and administering an EFL course featuring the teaching and learning of intercultural issues.