Being able to function appropriately and effectively in multicultural situations is one of the must-have skills for the 21st-century citizens. Particularly, in the ambience of the international education in which the English language is employed as a mean of instruction, students should be fluent in the English language as well as interculturally competent. This chapter presents a study exploring EFL graduate students' perceptions of intercultural language learning and their level of IC at a multicultural higher education institution in Thailand. A cohort of 91 EFL graduate students of different nationalities (Cambodia, China, Thailand, and Vietnam) participated in answering the questionnaires. The findings revealed that EFL graduate students perceived the intercultural language learning positively and had a high level of IC. Additionally, a positive correlation between participants' perceptions of intercultural language learning and their level of IC. Nevertheless, they perceived the intercultural language learning similarly and possessed a similar level of IC regardless of nationalities.
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With its hegemonic roles in the process of globalization, the English language as an international language, a lingua franca, and a world language has been exclusively used as a medium of communication in multicultural settings (Crystal, 1997, 2003; Tavakoli et al., 2012; Tran, 2015; Tran and Duong, 2015). Obviously, it has become one of the most studied languages worldwide (Kachru 1992; Kachru, Kachru, & Nelson, 2006; Kirkpatrick 2007; McKay and Bokhorst-Heng, 2008) and been adopted as one of the main instructional languages (McKay, 2002, 2003; Wilkinson, 2012). In order to fully understand
and effectively learn a foreign language, learners need to know its culture (Byram, 1997; Tran & Dang, 2014; Tran, 2015; Tran and Duong, 2015, 2018; Tran and Seepho, 2015, 2017); however, in order to function appropriately and effectively in the multicultural world, ESL/EFL learners are supposed to learn beyond the culture of the target language (i.e., the learning of culture focuses on not only its target language culture but also other cultures around the world where English is commonly used as a communication tool). Additionally, within the field of English language education, educating ESL/EFL learners to become intercultural speakers with intercultural communicative competence (ICC) who can interact with people of linguistic and cultural complexities in multicultural situations (Deardoff, 2009; Jæger, 2001; Tran and Duong, 2015).
A burgeoning interest in intercultural language teaching and learning has been witnessed in recent time (Dellit, 2005; Nguyen, 2014; Tran & Duong, 2015, 2018; Tran and Seepho, 2015, 2017). It is consented that ICC has become a pivotal role in English language education, resulting from the integration of ICC into English language education as one of the ultimate goals in educating ESL/EFL learners to become intercultural speakers rather than training them to become native-like competent (Byram, 1997; Fantini, 2000). Accordingly, the intercultural language teaching and learning aims at equipping ESL/EFL learners with the preliminary knowledge of various cultures and ability to use it in order to bridge cultural differences and achieve more harmonious, productive relations (Samovar et al., 2012). It is observed that, nevertheless, the inclusion of cultures into English language teaching and learning in different contexts is not well-paid attention to. Instead, teachers focus much on developing learners’ English language proficiency (Gonen and Saglam, 2012), resulting in learners’ insufficient awareness and understanding of ICC.