Cultivating Chinese high school students’ intercultural communicative competence in EFL teaching

Abstract

Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is essential for high school students to navigate diverse cultural contexts and communicate effectively in today’s globalized economy. However, traditional English teaching in China focuses too much on language knowledge while neglecting cultural awareness, which often leaves students unprepared for intercultural communication. This paper explores the meaning of ICC and its influencing factors through a literature review. It also examines the challenges of developing ICC in Chinese high school English teaching, including students’ limited cultural awareness, the absence of authentic contexts, and teachers’ own limited ICC. Also, it proposes strategies such as integrating cultural elements into language teaching using task-based and cooperative learning methods, creating authentic cultural contexts with various practical activities, improving assessment systems to focus on students’ ICC development, and enhancing teachers’ ICC through training. The aim is to offer practical approaches for educators to help students improve their ICC and enable them to communicate confidently and appropriately in multicultural settings in the future.