ENHANCING UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ LEVEL OF ACADEMIC READINESS THROUGH TEACHING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to explore whether the integration of an intercultural communication (ICC) component into an undergraduate English course in Kuwait could better prepare students for their future studies and jobs through refining their intercultural communications skills and knowledge. The problem that was explored was the lack of acceptance of cultural diversity and its influence on university students. There were four research questions that guided this study: (1) How did the level of intercultural communication knowledge, skills, and values of the participants improve from the pre-interviews until the post-interviews?; (2) How did the participants perceive the concept of integrating the intercultural communication component into their English course?; (3) How can the intervention techniques used in the intervention be improved to ensure results?; and (4) What impact, if any, did participants perceive the intercultural communication component as having on their attitudes and behaviours toward other ethnic groups? Deardorff’s (2011) model of intercultural competence provided the theoretical lens for this research and allowed the researcher to better understand the intercultural competence, critical-thinking skills, and attitudes of the participants, as well as their ability to see from others’ perspectives. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and extensive field notes. The data were subjected to content analysis using NVivo 10 software and thematic analysis. The findings revealed four themes. The first theme was culture and ICC as interpersonal conflict without holistic contextualization pre-intervention. The second theme was improved perspective-taking and attitude post-intervention. The third theme was increased engagement with cultural out-groups’ post-intervention. The fourth theme was increased curiosity about other cultures. The researcher concluded that participants perceived the term intercultural communication as an interesting and useful tool. Similar courses can be implemented in other schools and colleges to better ICC in general. Recommendations were made for future studies including focusing a similar research study on students of another culture or students with different levels of experience with other cultures.