Investigating EFL Moroccan University Students’ Level of Intercultural Communication Competence: School of Arts and Humanities Meknes, Morocco.

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate EFL Moroccan university students’ level of intercultural communication competence (ICC), which is the ability to communicate effectively across cultural interactions, given its importance in the English language teaching (ELT) field especially for graduates. In order to do so, a multi-sectioned questionnaire based on the three-level ICC model proposed by Byram (1997) was administered to a total of 30 conveniently selected EFL Moroccan university students, belonging to the sixth semester of the English major, in Moulay Smail University of Arts and Human Sciences. The questionnaire was designed to tackle students’ ICC knowledge, attitudes, and skills regarding their culture as well as other cultures all in hopes to discover their level of ICC and their readiness to utilize it successfully after graduation. The results revealed that the students possess enough knowledge of their culture as well as the surface-level and deep-level elements of other cultures. Moreover, the respondents displayed positive attitudes of acceptance, openness, appreciation, and respect showing no sign of ethnocentrism or negativity. The students also proved to be skillful when it comes to carrying out intercultural interactions with people from other cultures successfully.