By Dalat TESOL
A long-form article for graduate students in Applied Linguistics
🧭 Why Intercultural Competence Needs to Be Taught — Not Assumed
Let’s begin with a story.
Lan is an experienced English teacher in Vietnam. She has a CELTA certificate, teaches well, and genuinely cares about her students. One day, during a lesson on global issues, she notices her students falling silent. She had asked them to debate animal rights using materials from a British textbook. One student later shared, “We didn’t know if our view was wrong — we eat animals differently than in the UK.”
This moment reveals something powerful: knowing English doesn’t mean we know how to communicate across cultures. This is where intercultural competence becomes essential — not only for learners but also for teachers and curriculum designers.
🔍 What Is Intercultural Competence?
At its core, intercultural competence (ICC) refers to the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that allow people to communicate appropriately and effectively across cultural boundaries.
It’s not just about learning facts about cultures — it’s about learning to ask, reflect, suspend judgment, and understand diverse perspectives.
🧱 Byram’s (1997) Model of ICC
Michael Byram, a pioneer in language education, outlined 5 key elements of ICC:
- Attitudes: Curiosity, openness, and readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures
- Knowledge: Understanding social groups, practices, and products of one’s own and others’ cultures
- Skills of interpreting and relating: Making sense of cultural references or behavior
- Skills of discovery and interaction: Coping with new cultural situations
- Critical cultural awareness: Evaluating cultural practices critically
🗨️ Byram emphasized that ICC is not a “nice bonus” — it should be a key educational goal.
🔄 Deardorff’s Process Model (2006)
While Byram’s model was very structured, Deardorff proposed a more flexible, developmental model.
She viewed ICC as a process with:
- Attitudes (respect, openness, curiosity)
- Knowledge & skills (cultural self-awareness, sociolinguistic understanding)
- Internal outcomes (adaptability, empathy)
- External outcomes (appropriate and effective behavior in interactions)
Her model reminds us: ICC takes time, exposure, and reflection — not just a one-off lesson.
🎓 Why ICC Matters in the Language Classroom
Here’s what we know:
- Language learning is deeply tied to identity
- Textbooks often present culture as fixed or exotic, rather than dynamic
- Learners may feel confused or alienated when their views don’t “match” the target culture
- Teachers sometimes avoid discussing culture for fear of offense
But without engagement, students miss the chance to develop the flexibility and awareness needed in real-world global communication.
In EFL contexts like Vietnam, where students may never travel abroad, the classroom becomes their intercultural space.
🏫 Practical Example: Vietnamese Classroom Context
Let’s say you’re teaching a unit on politeness and email writing.
In many Vietnamese contexts, politeness is shown through indirectness, honorifics, or carefully phrased requests. In English, especially in the West, politeness may look more direct — but softened with modal verbs or “hedges.”
If we only teach Western email structures, we may confuse or even shame students who have internalized different norms.
Instead, a teacher might ask:
“How do you show respect in Vietnamese messages? How is that similar or different in English?”
This opens space for critical comparison, not cultural judgment.
✏️ Activity: Design an ICC Lesson
Scenario: You are teaching a lesson on job interviews in English.
Design a task that fosters intercultural competence.
Here’s a sample idea:
🗂️ Task: Compare interview expectations in Vietnam vs. the UK.
- Students research and present findings (e.g., formality, eye contact, small talk)
- Reflect on how a Vietnamese applicant might adapt to a UK context
- Discuss: What’s lost or gained when adjusting to another culture?
This activity builds:
- Cultural awareness
- Adaptability
- Communication strategy use
- Reflection — all central to ICC
🔄 Assessment: Can ICC Be Measured?
It’s complex — but yes, to a degree.
Options include:
- Self-assessment tools (e.g., Intercultural Development Inventory – IDI)
- Portfolios documenting experiences and reflections
- Critical incident analysis tasks
- Performance-based assessment during intercultural interaction simulations
But more importantly, we need to foster habits of reflection, not just checklists.
🧠 Teacher Reflection: Are You Interculturally Competent?
- How do you talk about “culture” in class?
- Do you ever challenge textbook representations of culture?
- Do you model openness and curiosity in your own behavior?
Teachers are models and mediators of intercultural learning.
Our own growth shapes the classroom climate.
📚 Key Readings
- Byram, M. (2020). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence: Revisited. Multilingual matters.
- Deardorff, D. K. (2006). Identification and Assessment of Intercultural Competence as a Student Outcome of Internationalization. Journal of Studies in International Education, 10(3), 241-266. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315306287002 (Original work published 2006)
- Holliday, A., Hyde, M., & Kullman, J. (2021). Intercultural Communication: An Advanced Resource Book. Routledge.
🪞 Final Thoughts
Intercultural competence isn’t a side goal — it’s the heart of meaningful language education in our global world.
It means helping students:
- Recognize their own cultural lenses
- Respect other worldviews
- Communicate beyond scripts
- Reflect critically and act responsibly
And it starts with us — the teachers — being willing to unlearn, relearn, and grow alongside our students.