The Importance of Boosting Students’ Intercultural Competence in Moroccan EFL Classes

Enaim Rachid

doi:10.7176/jep/12-22-02

Abstract

Because intercultural communicative competence has a tremendous influence on the cultural component of language teaching/ learning, this article is a concise literature review of intercultural competence. In fact, curricula designers have put a strong emphasis on the definitions and implementations of intercultural communication to provide tasks that enhance learners’ cross-cultural competences. It is worth mentioning that intercultural competence is not a new concept in the field of language teaching and learning, but it is renewed by certain studies and surveys. People nowadays must be interculturally competent to able to deal with the 21 st -century challenges that lead to a lot of cultural misunderstandings. However, one may suggest that learners can interact communicatively despite the language skills they may lack. As such, this article is seeking to answer questions such as how can Moroccan EFL classes boost learners’ intercultural competences? Keywords : Intercultural Communication, Intercultural Competence, Intercultural Communicative Competence DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-22-02 Publication date: August 31 st 2021

Highlights

Intercultural communication is inescapable, for it takes place on a daily basis
When two people who belong to different cultures interact, a third culture pops up because people move across cultural boundaries
This is a traditional view of the issue, as modern analyses and studies of intercultural competence “emphasize the importance of analysing your self and your consciousness and to know yourself first, in order that you would know what is valuable to other cultures”( Patel et al, 2011, p. 26)

Summary

Introduction

Intercultural communication is inescapable, for it takes place on a daily basis. People are in a constant state of interactions among each other. Being able to interact successfully in cross-cultural contexts calls for acquiring and learning the intercultural competences needed. Language teaching and learning can be highly effective when teachers and curricula designers link language skills with cross-cultural communicative competence so that learners become able to operate globally (Moeller &Nugent, 2014).

Results

Conclusion