The Challenge of Intercultural Communicative Competence for Polish Learners

Intercultural Communicative Competence is a well established field of study with a well documented and constructed theoretical model which also provides clear skills and goals attainable for ICC learners. The skills, goals and attitudes can be evaluated by the use of Self-Awareness Inventories with an ICC training programme utilising SAI data. The question is what are the challenges of developing an intercultural ability which faced by largely homogeneous cultural societies, such as Poland. Much of current Polish research into ICC is limited and focused on investigating Polish intercultural business experiences or examining Hofstede‘s dimensions in relation to specific cultural groups and regions. Little work has been undertaken on the issues that Polish people face in developing ICC. This paper will present findings of research conducted regarding challenges that Polish learners of ICC face in the developing the necessary skills and goals. The paper is based on an SAI which was developed by the author specifically to evaluate socio-cultural background factors and their relationship to the development of ICC skills. The results of the survey provide indicators to certain areas which may hamper or effect intercultural communicative competence