Steering towards the Savvy: Students’ Interpretations of Intercultural Competence and their Intercultural Learning in EFL Classrooms

In the twenty-first century, the teaching and learning of foreign languages (FL) has shifted towards providing English as a foreign language (EFL) learner with the necessary skills in a cross-cultural encounter widely known as intercultural competence. Based on the notion that one's intercultural savvy depends on having a clear conception of what intercultural competence involves, the study aimed to explore Thai students’ interpretations of intercultural competence (IC). The study was carried out through interviews with 20 Thai undergraduate students from two Thai universities in Bangkok. All participants took part in both one-on-one and group interviews. The study used Byram’s (1997) model of intercultural communicative competence (ICC). The findings show that the participants had little understanding of the concepts underlying IC, and how students perceived IC was essentially influenced by their intercultural learning experiences in their classrooms. Overall, the findings of this study offered a wide range of recommendations, specifically regarding classroom practices for intercultural learning.