The Impact of Intercultural Communicative Competence on Enhancing EFL Students’ Proficiency and Achievement. The Case of First Year Students of English at Belhadj Bouchaib University Centre of Ain Temouchent

Abstract

The expeditious development of communication and transportation technologies has gradually transformed human society into a global community in the 21st century, in which intercultural communication competence becomes a necessary ability for citizens to interact appropriately and effectively in order, to develop a harmonious and productive life and further build a multicultural civil society across nations and regions. Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) needs to be incorporated in the EFL curriculum if educators hope to help students develop an appreciation for the language and culture, build an awareness of their own culture, and develop skills that will allow them to be competent, communicators. The present research work aims at investigating the Importance of Intercultural communicative competency in enhancing students’ proficiency level and achievement. To carry out this research, a case study has been conducted in the department of letters and English language in the university center of Belhadj Bouchaib of AinTemouchent, where first year students and teachers have been selected as a sample. A questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were designed respectively to the students and the teachers, and a classroom observation was conducted to collect the needed data. The data collected were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The main results obtained from the data collected showed that, some significant number of EFL teachers often neglect the intercultural communicative competence in their teaching, the thing which slows down the process of EFL learning and thus, their students’ proficiency level. The data also showed that, intercultural communicative competence approach proves to be very effective in enhancing EFL students’ proficiency level and achievement. Finally this study aims at suggesting and recommending some strategies, techniques, methods and procedures that may contribute in the incorporation of ICC in EFL classrooms, and therefore, in enhancing learners’ proficiency and achievement.