Dear Lamis Ismail Omar

A questionnaire is a good option in this case. Learners learning a foreign language are most likely to acquire a “cultural competence“ along with the linguistic one. And it may prove worthwhile trying to measure it. Best Wishes

Asking students to do reflective thinking after exposing them to materials(written, audiovisual, etc.) that provide critical incidents, anecoteds, etc. is an effective way of testing the students' level of cross-cultural awareness.

I think you should design questionnaire that addresses your request for measuring such skill.

Thank you so much for the valuable answers

I think A questionnaire is a good option in this case.

Thank you, dear Montasra, for the feedback.

Interesting question, which raises couple of other questions.

1. What do we mean by intercultural competence?

If we were going to use a questionnaire to measure it, would we all agree about

• what we need to measure?
• whether all components of intercultural competence can be 'objectively' measured?

2. Assuming we can define what intercultural competence is and can find a way of measuring it- why do we want to measure it?

• What information will it provide, for whom?
• how will teachers and learners benefit from such measurement?

Thank you very much indeed for the eye-opening observations, dear Martin Wedell. All are valid remarks. In the context of ESL, IC is meant to boost the corss-cultural awareness of both parties of the educational process, learners and teachers alike, in a way langauge learning becomes a fruitful bidirectional process that prepares learners to use English effectively and communicatively in their future endevaours and makes instructors cognizants of the needs of their students. I believe testing the reflective thinking of students by exposing them to examples from reallife situations they face on campus or during their interaction with their international members of staff and asking them to note down their impressions can involve them in an actual understanding of the significance of IC.

Please check this out researchgate.net/publication/334605629_How_to_Assess_the_Intercultural_Competence_of_Students

Thank you so much, Dr Luqman. This is a very good piece of work. Using questionnaires is a good tool for assessing the intercultural competence of students but it is not adequate unless accompanied with other tools such as written summative assessments and teacher's diaries.

You are welcome Dr Lamis Ismail Omar . You might utilize interviews as well. be safe

There is no obvious way to assess Intercultural competence, and educators should be aware of the following challenges: teachers often rely on their own experiences to make judgments related to culture; there is a positivistic tradition in testing which does not agree with the nature of the competence; there is little interdisciplinary research and collaboration; and the evaluator needs to be flexible in accepting students’ own interpretations, which, at the same time, would go against the concept of objective, reliable testing (Paige et al., 1999). Consequently, I believe students need to be involved in the assessment, through self-evaluation, because they have the right to express their voices and to take responsibility for their learning; after all, it's their understanding of a very subjective concept that will be assessed. Additionally, this is a sociocultural competence and both groups need to interact and collaborate to build bridges and mutual understanding, while developing intercultural competence. My suggestions for ways to assess intercultural competence, in addition to interviews as suggested by Luqman M Rababah , and self-evaluation are teacher observation and observation by others (perhaps peers or members of the target culture). Thank you for this question. This two page paper shares some thoughts about assessing intercultural competence https://www.learningoutcomesassessment.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Viewpoint-Deardorff.pdf

Dear Taciana,

Thank you very much indeed for the invaluable answer. Your provide rich feedback with a gestalt approach to the topic. The proposed methods and references, especially the one by Deardorff, are pertinent and functional for a deep understanding of the assessment of IC within the framework of internationalization. There are more interesting articles by the same by Deardorff:

Article The Identification and Assessment of Intercultural Competenc...

Thank you Dr. Lamis Ismail Omar I will read the article you suggested. Intercultural competence is an interesting topic.

Given the importance of the topic itself, one can say, a key step in assessing the intercultural competence of ESL learners is to examine the level of the learners' awareness of the cross-cultural existence and realities as realized in the curriculum. In addition, learners' awareness of own cultural aspects need to be taken into consideration.

Dear Dr Abdelrahman,

Thank you very much indeed for your valuable answer. One interesting way to test the learners' awareness of their own cultural aspects and the cultural aspects of other cultures is to examine their diaries. Please read:

Bodis, Agnes (2020). Integrating intercultural competence in course curricula in a tailored way. English Australia Journal, 36(1), 26-38.

Do you think students' diaries provide an objectively valid tool to detect the level/progress achieved in assessing their intercultural competence?