Investigating Intercultural Communicative Competence among Students

The present study is an attempt to investigate university students’ intercultural communicative competence with special reference to Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University English Department students. The Objectives of this study are as follows: first to assess and discover whether the Moroccan EFL university students do possess the necessary intercultural communicative competence that enables them to act effectively and appropriately while interacting in cross-cultural communication encounters. Second to describe the obstacles that arise from cultural differences in intercultural interactions. Third to examine the reasons behind Moroccan students’ failure in intercultural communication and learn how to overcome them. Fourth to explore what intercultural knowledge should be taught in class. Fifth to provide recommendations to the Moroccan EFL teachers about the most likely effective teaching practices and approaches that can help foster and develop their students’ ICC. The findings of this research indicate that the majority of Moroccan university students do have rich intercultural knowledge and their intercultural communicative competence is quite acceptable.