Title: Japanese University EFL Learners’ Needs for Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC): A Cross-National Comparison
Pages: 66-89
Author(s): Watanabe, Masahito
This article is open access and licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
Abstract:
This study examined Japanese university participants’ achievement of Byram (2021)’s intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in comparison to English learners from other countries. This study conducted quantitative and qualitative analyses of data from a 12-week virtual exchange project in which 334 English learners from six countries (Brazil, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, Ukraine, and Japan) shared 5,558 messages on diverse topics. From the results, the following key areas emerged: Japanese students displayed a weaker attitude toward intercultural communication, partly due to their lower fluency. While they seemed to acquire some knowledge of the process of interaction, specifically the formation of stereotypes and prejudices, their grasp of other cultures remained insufficient. ICC skills, the skills of interpreting and relating, and the skills of discovery and interaction, were also attested. It has become clear that ICC should be integrated into the curriculum, taking into account the characteristics of Japanese learners.
本研究では、日本人大学生英語学習者によるByram（2021）の相互文化的コミュニケーション能力（ICC）の達成度を、他国の英語学習者との比較から明らかにした。研究では、6カ国（ブラジル、インドネシア、韓国、台湾、ウクライナ、日本）の334名の英語学習者が参加した12週間の仮想交流プロジェクトに投稿された総数5,558のメッセージを量的・質的に分析した。その結果、以下のことが明らかになった。流暢さの低さも一因として、日本人大学生は相互文化的コミュニケーションへの好奇心や関心が比較的低かった。ステレオタイプや偏見の形成に関する対話プロセスの知識はある程度習得していたが、他者の文化についての理解は十分ではなかった。また、解釈・関連づけのスキルや、発見・対話のスキルも確認された。これらの結果から、日本人学習者の特性に配慮しつつ、ICCをカリキュラム内に体系的に取り入れる必要性が明らかになった。
Please cite this article as follows:
Watanabe, M. (2025). Japanese University EFL Learners’ Needs for Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC): A Cross-National Comparison. In: J. Salazar, G. Benthien & E. A. Marzin (Eds.), Intercultural Communication & Global Issues in Language Education 2024 Conference Peer-Reviewed Proceedings. Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT). pp. 66-89. Retrieved from: https://icle.jalt.org/mod/page/view.php?id=179