Models of Intercultural Competences in Practice

Abstract

Research in the area of intercultural competences has become increasingly popular. Scholars have been developing theoretical models for acquiring and evaluating intercultural competences, looking for connections between interdisciplinary subjects, and researching developments of intercultural competences in foreign relations, immigration, politics, education, commerce and health care. When new models are developed, they must be tested in diverse contexts in order to validate them and determine their intercultural relevance. This paper not only introduces several models of intercultural communication but also presents an overview of the studies performed on them, analyses their strengths and weaknesses and makes suggestions for further research. King and Magolda's (2005) Developmental Model of Intercultural Maturity, Bennett's (1993) Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, Gullahorn and Gullahorn's (1963) W Model of Acculturation and Re-acculturation and Lysgaard's (1955) U Curve Hypothesis " are addressed and results testing the models are presented here.