Full name: Hồ Gia Khánh

Student code: B2014041

Class: Writing C1.2 - 05

Reaseach topic: The effects of intercultural communication on EFL

students’ language acquisition.

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A. ANNOTATION

1. Article 1:

Vu, N. T., & Dinh, H. (2022). College-level students’ development of intercultural

communicative competence: a quantitative study in Vietnam. Journal of
Intercultural Communication Research, 51(2), 208-
227. DOI:10.1080/17475759.2021.1893207

Ngoc Tung Vu & Hanh Dinh investigate the perceptions of intercultural

communicative competence among Vietnamese EFL college-students about
intercultural components in EFL curriculum such as knowledge, attitude, skill sets,
and awareness. They discuss the important role of English as well as intercultural
communicative competence, and they also analyze the reasons why it is essential to
apply intercultural communication in Vietnamese context. Quantitative method is used
to generalize the variance and relationship to lessen bias and subjective opinions and
also to measure the degrees of savoirs level development among Vietnamese learners.
Bisides, they use ns to examine 310 EFL students about their perceptions of their
savoirs as well as how those constructors influence one another. Plus, they continue
measuring the items mapping variables by using a 5-point Likert-type which is highly
recommended in education research. Additionally, before finishing the questionnaires,
they design a smaller study in order to increase the research quality. They invite 30
participants to complete a paper-based questionnaire to help review how well items
were written and translated into Vietnamese. Then, they demonstrate how a particular
savoir, critical cultural awareness, was impacted by the other savoirs as well as how
Intercultural communicative competence conceptualization can be interpreted
distinctively.

2. Article 2:

Sevimel-Sahin, A. (2020). A survey on the intercultural communicative competence

of ELT undergraduate students. Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 6(2), 141-
153. DOI:10.32601/ejal.775793
The author, Aylin Sevimel-Sahin, decides to undertake a survey on the intercultural
communicative competence (ICC) of EFT undergraduate students in Turkey. She aims
to determine the levels of ICC between undergraduate freshman and senior and
whether there is a significant difference between these groups of students. A
quantitative method is used to collect data involving 238 undergraduate students,
whose age ranging from 17 to 30, participating in on a voluntary basis. They are 116
first-year and 122 fourth-year students including 162 female students and 76 male
ones. She uses the Intercultural Communicative Competence Questionnaire (ICCQ)
with 22 items including knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and based on a 5-point Likert
scale. In which, “skills” and “attitudes” both have 5 items in the questionnaire, and the
remain belongs to “knowledge”, which includes 12 items. By analyzing data, she is
able to draw to some conclusions in her study. First, the result reveals that regardless
of the study year of the student, the level of ICC is high in terms of overall mean
score. Next, with a comparison to two groups, it enables her to recognize a fact that
the ICC level of the senior is a bit higher than the freshman level regarding to
knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Additionally, through a t-test to examine the
difference between the ICC’s level of these groups, she concludes that although there
is not a significant difference in terms of ICC attitudes and knowledge, there is a
notable difference related to skills.

3. Article 3:

Allo, M. D. G. (2018). Intercultural communication in EFL classrooms. Ethical

Lingua: Journal of Language Teaching and Literature, 5(2), 159-
170. https://doi.org/10.30605/ethicallingua.v5i2.1036

Markus Deli Girik Allo aims to explore the role of culture and intercultural
communication in Torajan EFL classrooms, and to examine students' attitudes
towards studying intercultural communication. He uses a quantitative method with a
survey design, which involved inviting 207 students from even semesters of the
academic year 2017/2018 to participate voluntarily and provide data on the place of
culture and intercultural communication in Torajan EFL learners, as well as their
perceptions on the importance of studying intercultural communication. To gather
the data, the survey utilized the five-point Likert scale, which allowed students to
express their level of agreement with the given statements. Through the survey
results, the study identified the need for EFL students to have intercultural
knowledge and their expectations of the curriculum and EFL lectures in providing
an intercultural environment that promotes effective intercultural conversation
within classrooms. The research highlights the significance of intercultural
communication in EFL classrooms as it provides a conducive environment for
students to not only develop their language skills but also gain cultural
understanding. The study emphasizes that EFL lectures must include intercultural
knowledge into their teaching practices to meet the needs and expectations of their
students. This way, students can obtain a well-rounded education that is essential
for their academic and personal growth. Ultimately, Markus Deli Girik Allo's study
emphasizes the importance of understanding the role of culture and intercultural
communication in EFL classrooms and how it can positively impact the overall
learning experience for students.

B. CONCLUSION 

All three different authors give different viewpoints on the topic of effects of
intercultural communication. There are similarities as well as differences between
their studies. 

In terms of similarity, all authors use quantitative methods in order to examine

perceptions and effects of Intercultural Communication (IC). They all agree that in the
new society, universities are trying to create as much as possible an Intercultural
Communication environment to help students develop their competence. Besides, in
order to collect data, they all use questionnaires to ask a certain number of students
based on  5-Point Likert scale to evaluate their findings. Vu, Dinh and Allo state that
teachers should pay more attention to how their students acquire ICC and materials
they use in teaching. They also agree that knowledge about culture includes language,
cuisine, arts, holidays, music, etc. Otherwise, Vu, Dinh and Sevimel-Sahin agree that
ICC plays an important role in English acquisition.

However, each author, to an extent, gives specific and different perspective on each
aspect of IC:

For the study of Ngoc Tung Vu and Hanh Dinh, this research has a clear background
information and foundation about why they need to conduct a study in Vietnamese
context. They figure out the limitation in applying Intercultural Communication
Competence (ICC) in teaching context in Vietnam as well as EFL Vietnamese
students’ intercultural communication acquisition related to attitudes, knowledge,
skills set, and awareness. By conducting this research, they are able to point out: by
various kinds of genders, ages, and English proficiency level, the concepts of ICC are
interconnected and diversely perceived, and suggest for future study analyzing the
effects of ICC concepts to many other aspects. Besides what the research brings, it
also includes some limitations. The authors want to have a wider range of students’
backgrounds, learning purposes, and after-graduation goals in order to make the
findings more persuasive and convincing. They are also limited in including
qualitative data because it can help ICC become more efficient. Finally, the authors
expect to widen the research scope to other regions in Vietnam or other countries in
order to increase the quality of English language education teaching.

For the research of Aylin Sevimel-Sahin, it is possible to figure out that the author has
structured the article with a clear background information. She starts by discussing the
significant role of English and culture and emphasizes that English and culture are
inseparable, which means there is a close relationship between them. She indicates
that it is essential to develop ICC by enhancing the cultural knowledge, attitudes, and
skills. By having enough participants, she is able to give valid results.
Notwithstanding the strength of the article, it also includes some limitations. First, due
to the fact that the author solely uses one language, it is suggested that, in the future,
another sample learning more than one foreign language or bilinguals can be used to
examine students’ ICC. Moreover, she also suggests that other effects apart from the
program effect, proficiency, gender, etc. should be investigated in order to determine
whether they are efficient in an attempt to improve the cultural elements of
communicative competence.

Otherwise, through the study conducted by Markus Deli Girik Allo, he points out a
very close relationship between culture and language. Culture affects language, and
language is learned from generation to generation. He also proves that acquiring IC is
as important as acquiring English, through ICC, we can communicate with others in
any circumstances and contexts. In his findings, by collecting and analyzing dates, he
states that it is important to give prominence to intercultural knowledge and encourage
effective dialogue in order to help EFL students and classrooms achieve specific
qualities. However, he does not include any limitations of his study as well as
suggestions for further study, so it is inconvenient for other researchers in the future to
approach new studies.

Regardless of the limitations of each study, it is undeniable that their contributions in

helping to widen and deepen the understanding about Intercultural Communication
acquisition are valuable and valid. These studies would be relevant and useful for
future studies related to this field.

References:

1. Allo, M. D. G. (2018). Intercultural communication in EFL classrooms. Ethical

Lingua: Journal of Language Teaching and Literature, 5(2), 159-170. 
2. Sevimel-Sahin, A. (2020). A survey on the intercultural communicative
competence of ELT undergraduate students. Eurasian Journal of Applied
Linguistics, 6(2), 141-153. Doi: 10.32601/ejal.775793.
3. Vu, N. T., & Dinh, H. (2022). College-level students’ development of
intercultural communicative competence: a quantitative study in Vietnam.
Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 51(2), 208-227.