The Impact of Street Interviews on Chinese EFL Undergraduates’Intercultural Communicative Competence

The study adopts Byram’s Intercultural Communicative Competence(ICC)model as the theoretical framework,and structured interviews were conducted to explore the impact of street interviews on the participants’ICC.Analysis results revealed street interviews help students acquire knowledge in intercultural attitudes,intercultural knowledge,skills of discovery and interaction,and critical cultural awareness,aligning with the four components of Byram’s ICC model.Meanwhile,they have positive perceptions of street interviews.Therefore,street interviews have a positive effect on the development of participants’ICC.

Specialised Language Content and Professional Communicative Competence in the Teaching of DaF

The teaching of German as a Foreign Language(DaF)aims to prepare students who study German and take the DaF exam for their professional studies in German universities.Therefore,it is important to integrate the elements of specialised language knowledge and develop the students’professional communicative competence in the Test DaF curriculum.This paper identifies the specialized language knowledge and professional communicative competence that should be incorporated in German language teaching,based on the objectives of the DaF examination.

On the Cultivation of Chinese Middle School Students’English Communicative Competence

In order to cultivate middle school students’English communicative competence,CLT has become an influential ap⁃proach.Some ways need to be adopted such as reform of teaching materials,transformation of English teachers’role and change of students’role and testing system.

Integration of Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence

The launch of the Belt and Road Initiative in China calls for a paradigm shift in theory and practice of foreign language(FL)teaching from a communicative language teaching approach(CLT)to intercultural language teaching(ICLT),which treats intercultural communicative competence(ICC)as the core of FL education.Unfortunately,the College English Curriculum Requirements of China(CECR)does not specify the aspects for cultural teaching or assessment;nor does it provide any theoretical or practical guidance for teachers on how to teach or assess ICC.This leads to teachers’confusion about what should be taught and assessed and how,hence to a deficiency in real actions.In this paper,we first outline the learning outcomes of ICLT-oriented courses,the ICC components which respectively fall into the categories of intercultural attitude,knowledge and skills.By presenting the pedagogical practice of a cultural literacy course,we also demonstrate how FL teachers can help learners achieve these learning outcomes through a fivestage instruction process.Finally,we discuss how these learning outcomes can be assessed using formative and summative assessment tools,especially how ICC components can be incorporated into a comprehensive test of FL.

From communicative competence to communicative language teaching

This paper tried to demonstrate the developmental history of the concept ＂communicative competence＂ from three representative models, i.e. Hymes, Canale and Swain, and Bachman in order to find out the interrelationship between communicative competence and actual communication. This discussion highlights three components---organizational competence, pragmatic competence and strategic competence in Bachman＇s. Only when we have knowledge of language and the capacity to execute the competence, could we apply the communicative pedagogical applications properly into the Communicate Language Teaching （CLT） to achieve these competences.

Building-up of students＇ communicative competence in spoken English teaching

In the activity of English teaching, how to improve students＇ communicative competence is always deemed as an important factor on which English teaching hinges. This paper starts from the idea of communicative competence proposed by linguist Dwell Hymes and then goes deep to find out 4 ways to apply the ideas to spoken English teaching, namely： strengthening students＇ linguistic input through comprehensible listening; getting a feel of how English is spoken idiomatically; administering the teaching materials according to students＇ current linguistic capacity and finally exposing students massively to the target culture. Since this paper is about teaching, the discussion of teacher＇s role will be dealt with at the last part.

Autonomous Learning and Improving Communicative Competence

Nowadays, English as a world language becomes more and more important. Consequently, English learning becomes more and more popular. As we know, an important object for English learners is to improve their communicative competence. So autonomous learning is a good way to improve communicative competence. In this paper, two terms, autonomous learning and communicative competence, and their relationship will be introduced from the perspective of English learning. Autonomous learning is self-managed learning, which is contrary to passive learning and mechanical learning, according to intrinsic property of language learning. Communicative competence is a concept introduced by Dell Hymes and is discussed and refined by many other linguists. According to Hymes, communicative competence is the ability not only to apply the grammatical rules of language in order to form grammatically correct sentences but also to know when and where to use these sentences and to whom. Communicative competence includes 4 aspects: Possibility, feasibility, appropriateness and performance. Improving communicative competence is the result of autonomous learning, autonomous learning is the motivation of improving communicative competence. English, of course, is a bridge connecting China to the world, and fostering students'communicative competence through autonomous learning is the vital element of improving English learning in China.

Four Principles to Achieve Communicative Competence in Language Teaching

The paper aims to discuss the theory of communicative competence(CC for short) and its implications for language teaching.

Developing Students’ Intercultural Communicative Competence Through Threads of Personal Experiences: A Reflective Approach

With the development of world globalization, English works as a lingua franca for intercultural communication among different cultures in the world. This shift implies that introducing solely English native speaking cultures to students is not sufficient for their needs. This paper depicts the reflective teaching process of my ten years of experience of teaching intercultural communication.The paper describes how the teacher systematically reflects on the practice of teaching,continuously revises the curriculum, and finally formulates an efficient model of integrating students’ personal experiences into developing students’ intercultural communicative competence and awareness. This reflective study attempts to provide some pedagogical implications for intercultural communication education.

Cross-cultural Communicative Competence Training in Maritime Spoken English Teaching

As a means of communication,English has been internationalized.Communication in English always happens among the seafarers from different cultures.If crews couldn’t deal with the cultural differences well,successful communication and shipboard safety,which are just what STCW (Standards on Training,Certificate and Watch -keeping) calls upon,are difficult to be arrived at. Therefore cross -cultural communicative competence training,or how to teach maritime spoken English is the problem or the challenge that we,English teachers,are facing.To show how the teaching can be made more efficient and practical so as to narrow the gap between the training of the seaman in China and the requirements of STCW,through the teaching process,including the syllabus design and the materials selecting,we must consider the notion of language function as the key point.

Reviewing the Model of Communicative Competence in English Teaching

English communicative competence is growingly important,however,many college graduates can't communicate smoothly in English.Therefore,the English teacher is supposed to know clearly what abilities English communicative competence should contain,namely:what ability a person needs to be able to use English to communicate effectively.To that end,a large number of relevant literatures is carefully read;the evolution of English communicative competence model is reviewed;and then an English communicative competence model,inclusive,open-ended and dynamic,is put forward to guide English teaching and learning.

Communicative Competence & Communicative Language Teaching

Traditionally, English teaching in China is dominated by a teacher-centered, book-centered, grammar-translation method, audio-lingual method and an emphasis on rote learning, resulting in limited vocabulary and poor communicative competence. However, the communicative approach has provided the expected results since it was introduced into China in the 1990s, improving their linguistic competence as well as their communicative competence.

On the Ecological Evaluation of Iranian Secondary Schools English Language Course Books in Light Intercultural Communicative Competence： Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude

With the spread of English language around the world and its status as an international language, the need for more communication is felt. One pivoting aspect of this communication is the role of culture which can contribute to the success of communication at the global level and the co-construction of identities as individuals from different parts of the world get into interactions. Thus, the role of materials developed for learning English, especially the local ones, in the improvement of individuals＇ intercultural competence is significant. New course books for learning English at Iranian secondary schools entitled Prospect series have been developed recently. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the first and the second books of this series in light of Byram＇s model of Intercultural Communicative Competence （1CC）. Based on this model, ICC consists of three dimensions of attitude, knowledge, skills, and five saviors of knowledge, attitude, discovery, interaction, and critical thinking. To do the evaluation of the course books, the checklist developed based on these five saviors was used to evaluate the tasks for each unit of the books. The evaluation was done separately by each of the researchers in the study and inter-rater reliability showed a high level of Cronbach alpha. The findings indicated that about 90 percent of the activities of Prospect 1 and Prospect 2 lack the skills required for improving English language learners＇ ICC. They mostly focus on Iranian culture which might have been improved via learners＇ first language as well. This might imply the need for the adaptation of Prospect series activities in light of ICC so that Iranian English language learners can take advantage of their communication with the rest of the world.

College Students＇ English Communicative Competence and Communicative Strategic Development

Many university students in China remain less competent in addressing all kinds of communication breakdowns. And the classical teaching approach has long been put in question in the contemporary literature. Communicative strategies have an intimate relationship with communicative competence. Learners＇ effective and efficient employment of communicative strategies are the revelation of their strategic competence as well as communicative competence. This paper aims to reinforce learners＇ communicative competence by improving their communicative strategies and consequently improve their language proficiency, and helps to provide Chinese teachers with approaches to the development of students＇ communication strategies in classroom teaching. Therefore, in contrast with the old classroom teaching ＂TTT＂, a new teaching model ＂LLL＂ is proposed in this paper.

Case study on the communicative competence of Chinese students

This study investigates the communicative competence of Chinese students in a British university, and the main purposes of the study are to find out more about Chinese students＇ difficulties in communication and to explore learning strategies of developing communicative competence. The research results show that Chinese students had both linguistic and socio-cultural problems in communication. Two case studies are presented of good and less good communicators to show up different patterns of communicative performance and learning strategies. In conclusion, a range of findings support the statement that attitudes, motivation and immersion were important in the development of communicative competence.

On improving students＇ communicative competence by group interaction

In foreign language teaching, the communicative approach has been a dominant method for decades. However, some misconceptions of the communicative approach affect the results of group interaction teaching. This article tries to explore some existing problems as well as some relevant solution in the application of group activities in colleges with the aid of observation, questionnaire and interview.

Fostering Intercultural Communicative Competence in Writing:A Preliminary Study

The deepening of internationalization has promoted intercultural communication.Countries around the world have established education policies on intercultural communication,highlighting the importance of intercultural communicative competence.The paper offers a preliminary study of how to foster learners’intercultural communicative competence in writing.It first elaborates intercultural communicative competence and the factors that cause intercultural communication failures,and then proposes a variety of writing strategies to develop learners’intercultural communicative competence.Suggestions on how to improve English teachers’intercultural communicative competence are also provided.

Strategies to Promote Intercultural Communicative Competence in EFL Teaching

With the acceleration of globalization and internationalization, the demand for multilingual speakers is urgent, which promotes the development of foreign language teaching and learning especially English. Consequently, the English as a Foreign Language （EFL） teaching is paid great attention to in China. Many previous studies show the connection of EFL teaching and teachers＇ intercultural communicative competence （ICC）. Although it is presumed that teachers＇ ICC at this stage is a prerequisite to raise students＇ ICC, the specific strategies to promote teachers＇ intercultural skills in EFL teaching have not yet been empirically demonstrated. The goal of the present study is to put forward some specific strategies to promote teachers＇ ICC in EFL teaching. Two cases including interview and teaching plans, were administered in high school teachers. Sample analysis demonstrated teachers＇ current problems in ICC and in Chinese EFL teaching as well as the necessity for teachers to acquire the specific teaching strategies. These findings seem to suggest that specific strategies are indeed essential to promote teachers＇ ICC in EFL teaching.

Assessment of Intercultural Communicative Competence

The present paper concems itself with the overview of the assessment of intercultural communicative competence in the field of language testing worldwide, hoping to emphasize the importance of culture testing in language projects, provide some insightful information for test item constructors, educators, authorities as well.

Striking A Balance in the Process of Developing EFL Learners' Communicative Competence

Communicative language teaching has been popular for more than 3 decades but there is still no shortage of argument in cases of how to develop communicative competence as a whole. Strategic competence,one of the four components of communicative competence,has been given much priority. The paper reexamines the four components of communicative competence and points out that we need to strike a balance in the process of developing learner's communicative competencein foreign language teaching.