An Empirical Study on College English Curriculum Assessment and Cultivation of Intercultural Communication Competence

Abstract

Developing intercultural competence has been increasingly vital in the current college English curriculum reform. Based on data collected in curriculum assessment of English courses for non-language majors together with surveys and interviews, this study, explored critical factors in English curriculum that influence students' intercultural competence with the purpose of promoting effective teaching of intercultural competence and providing empirical evidence for the college English curriculum reform. Results suggested that class engagement, autonomous learning, and teaching methods had significant impacts on the overall level of intercultural competence and its specific dimensions, while the impacts of English language skills and satisfaction rate on intercultural competence were not statistically significant. Besides, students with different backgrounds and campus environments were significantly different in intercultural competence. The findings of this study on the relationships between curriculum factors and intercultural competence shed light on systematic development of intercultural competence in foreign language teaching and improvement of intercultural teaching.