Improving the Intercultural Communicative Competence of English Language Students

Abstract

Nowadays intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is an important tool in foreign language teaching and learning. The main goal of this article is to propose some tasks to improve the intercultural communicative competence in the English Language Course at Universidad Central “Marta Abreu” de Las Villas, Santa Clara, Villa Clara, Cuba. In so doing, the article provides some theoretical foundations of concepts related to culture, communicative competence, intercultural communication and intercultural communicative competence. The tasks proposed can be adapted to different contexts, taking into account learners’ needs and interests. They apply the four language skills at the same time, combining communicative competence and intercultural communicative competence, the two aspects that make a learner a perfect mediator within the teaching and learning process of a foreign language.