A University Course of Intercultural Communication: Fostering Students' Skills and Competence

Intercultural communication has become an important interdisciplinary field of study of late against the backdrop of internationalisation in all spheres of life in modern society. It is defined as interpersonal communication in intercultural settings and measured by intercultural communication competence (ICC) level. The latter has come to the fore in many professions actualized in international environments. ICC is a complex of multiple components covering personal attributes and skills. Experiences in intercultural communication, acquired knowledge and expertise lead to higher ICC levels. To establish algorithms of enhancing ICC in university courses of intercultural competence, the research aims to determine potential changes in students' perceptions, attitudes and behaviours in intercultural communication settings via studies and simulated communicative landscape. The research design includes two tools: (1) a questionnaire with a view of finding out students' perceptions relating to intercultural communication and its phenomena, and (2) an ICC level assessment technology, measuring ICC before and after taking such a course. Based on the above methodology, the authors found out the students' perceptions of intercultural communication, most popular features of an efficient intercultural communicator (communicative, tolerant, friendly, talkative, agreeable, sociable, positive, flexible, easygoing, sensitive), professions deeply rooted in intercultural communication (psychologists, social workers, and others). The assessment carried out to diagnose the ICC levels before and after a university course of intercultural communication proved that the course takers excelled at some of the components (especially at intercultural behavioural skills, cultural knowledge, and cultural sensibility) singled out within the assessment methodology. The assessments highlighted the positive effects of a university course of intercultural communication on fostering ICC. The research implies that its findings may be generalised and applied in any similar university course to efficiently foster students' ICC.