This study develops and validates an English communicative competence model for Korean high school students, in response to the need to redefine the relevant concepts and components of competence that are demanded by the rapidly evolving future society. Drawing on Celce-Murcia’s (2008) theoretical model on communicative competence, this research conceptualized a model that could assess high school students’ English communicative competence by examining relevant domestic and international studies as well as theoretical reflections. Expert opinions from a two-stage Delphi survey were compiled and incorporated to revise, supplement, and validate the English communicative competence among high school students reflecting Korea’s English education environment. Following this process, the conceptual model for English communicative competence was reorganized into five sub-competences (sociolinguistic, discourse, linguistic, interactional, and strategic competence) and 15 corresponding subfactors. The content validity ratio values for the conceptual definition and factor structure of this model were all above 0.64, thus affirming the validity of the conceptual definition and factor structure.
The goal of the present study is to examine EFL English teachers' intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and its relation to their English language proficiency (LP). Data was collected from 81 in-service and pre-service Korean English teachers (N=81) who participated in an one-month overseas training program in the U.S.A. The participants were asked to diagnose their own levels of ICC and LP through the questionnaires whose reliability and validity were confirmed by the factor analysis. The major findings from analyses were as follows: 1) in general, participants appeared to consider themselves possessing a high level of ICC, showing an average score of 3.99 out of 5.0 on the ICC questions, 2) participants' willingness and readiness to engage in different cultures/speakers were found to be in a higher level than the other four factors of ICC, such as an ability to interact in intercultural situations, an ability to identify an importance of ICC, a degree of acceptance by other cultures/speakers, and a degree of contribution to mediating intercultural situations, and 3) chi-square, correlational, and regression analyses showed significant associations between ICC and LP of the participants. Pedagogical implications and suggestions are discussed.
The purpose of this paper is to value the intercultural communicative competence model in English language assessment. As for intercultural communication, it becomes of utmost importance that (1) the inappropriateness of the conventional communicative competence models be demonstrated, and (2) altemative models from interculturally communicative needs be proposed and their use defended. Qualitative methodolgy and narrative inquiry are needed to make the assessment of intercultural communicative competence press forward in Korea.
This paper aims to make some suggestions for the direction and objectives of teaching English as a global language (EGL). To this end, the examination reveals that the number of people who use English as a second or foreign language is much more than that of people who use English as the primary language. Moreover, in many parts of the world the status of English is shifting, being used within the country as well as for international communication. Thus, it will be more likely for the learners to communicate in English with other people than English natives. Communication across cultures demands mutual intelligibility and speaker’s identities. The objective of EGL is to provide intercultural learners with intercultural communicative competence, which is a knowledge of one or more cultures and social identities, and which is also a capacity to discover and relate to new people from other contexts for which they have not been prepared directly. Teaching English as a global language will be effective and prosperous under due consideration of local situations around learners. Several ideas are suggested for the new direction for EGL education.
The quasi-experimental study was designed to compare effects of two telecollaborative learning models, asynchronous (ATL) and synchronous telecollaboration learning (STL), on Korean elementary school students’ motivation, anxiety, and intercultural communicative competence (ICC). To evaluate the 27 participants’ motivation and anxiety level, a pre-test and a post-test were administered and the motivation level and the anxiety level were compared between the ATL and the STL group. On the completion of the project, to examine their ICC development, the participants were interviewed by the researcher with questions constructed based on five objectives of Byram’s intercultural competence. The results are as follows: (1) The two groups did not show any significant differences in increase their motivation level. However, when examining in more detail, the participants in ATL increased their instrumental motivation while those in STL increased their integrative motivation. (2) There was no significant difference in anxiety level between the two groups. At last, (3) regarding ICC development, the participants both in the ATL and in the STL greatly improved their knowledge, attitude, and skills, but ATL participants, compared to STL participants, demonstrated relatively limited changes in their critical cultural awareness. Implications to enhance elementary school students’ motivation and ICC by telecollaboration are suggested.