Does Erasmus+ Programme Improve the Participants’ Intercultural Communicative Competence?

Abstract

The significance of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) in foreign language teaching has been recognized with the globalization and the role of English language as a Lingua Franca (ELF) has been well-established over the last decades. Therefore, the integration of culture into the process of foreign/second language teaching is gaining more and more importance. Several studies that investigate the importance of ICC have been conducted; however, it is a matter of fact that the actual integration of ICC into language classes is quite limited. This study aims to find out the differences between two English Language Teaching student groups; namely, the ones who have participated in Erasmus+ Programme during their undergraduate education and the ones who have not, in terms of their intercultural attitude, knowledge, skill and action. The questionnaire from Ergün (2016) has been utilised to assess the participants’ attitudes towards ICC. The data has been analysed through SPSS version 22 and t-test has been used to analyse the means of the two groups separately. The results of the study have revealed that there exists a statistically significant difference between the two groups of participants. The findings indicate that the group of Erasmus Students showed more positive attitudes towards ICC than the non-Erasmus Students group.