A case study on the development of Intercultural Communicative Competence in a Finance Administration and International Business Program

This project studied the promotion of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) in a Finance and Administration Business course which was taking its seventh English level course. It was carried out using a qualitative case study research design, including a group of students and a teacher at a university in the Caribbean coast of Colombia. The data collection instruments used for this study included observations, interviews, written assignments and an analysis of the textbook that was used to teach the lessons in the course. The analysis of the interviews showed the limited knowledge the teacher had about ICC and his limitations to promote it effectively. The analysis of the textbook revealed that it did not provide learners with opportunities to promote effective ICC; on the contrary, it facilitated the traditional perspective of culture and grammar rules. However, the written assignment demonstrated that somehow students exhibited some positive indicators of ICC based on the way they developed some ideas within some situations they were asked about