An Exploration of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) among Thai Internship Students for Intercultural Communication Course Design
Keywords:
intercultural communication (IC), internship students, intercultural communicative competence (ICC), IC course designAbstract
This study explored the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) of Business English internship students at a university in Roi Et Province, Thailand. ICC is crucial for working in hospitality settings, especially when interacting with international guests. A questionnaire was designed to measure ICC in four dimensions: attitudes, knowledge, skills, and critical cultural awareness. The questionnaire was administered online through Google Forms to 31 purposively selected undergraduate internship students who had direct interaction with foreign guests during their internships in hospitality enterprises. The results revealed that the internship students in the study have a low level of ICC, particularly in the attitudinal dimension. They were also found to have limited knowledge regarding processes of social interaction at both individual and societal levels. However, the results showed that the students demonstrate a high level of adaptability skills and critical cultural awareness. The findings are valuable for designing courses aimed at enhancing students’ ICC, enabling them to gain greater benefits from their internships and better preparing them to work effectively with people from diverse cultural backgrounds after graduation.
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