Intercultural communicative competence from the angle of PFL students and its influence on the teaching methodology and design of didactic materials

Abstract

This study originates from the ubiquitous nature of globalization, which brings individuals from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds closer together across various sectors of society, such as in academic, professional, and personal life. Particularly in the teaching of Portuguese as a foreign language (PFL), this implies articulating language and culture and taking into consideration the global status of the Portuguese language. PFL classes should promote a holistic teaching practice, utilize teaching materials that facilitate knowledge acquisition and encourage critical thinking about the language and its culture(s), and encourage students to play an active role in their learning. Therefore, this research aims to analyze how students' attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs regarding intercultural communicative competence can influence the teacher's teaching methodology and the development of teaching materials to promote this competence. Data collection was conducted through an online questionnaire completed by PFL students at two Turkish universities, and the results were statistically analyzed using suitable software. The results regarding the participants' attitudes in this study suggest an interest in the language and its culture(s), a preference for authentic materials and activities developed by the teacher, and an inclination for cultural themes of both objective and subjective nature. Regarding the students’ perceptions, data indicate that learning cultural aspects of various Lusophone countries represents a better way to understand the target cultures and their own. Finally, the results concerning the students' beliefs determine that the most pleasant and conducive resources for establishing links between the Portuguese language and its culture(s) are the experiences, perspectives, and class annotations of their classmates. On the whole, this study concludes that the teaching of PFL and the design of teaching materials should consider the promotion of Intercultural communicative competence (ICC), based on the attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs of the participants, as well as the correlation between the teaching methodology/teaching materials, the learners’ educational context, and their receptiveness to this competence.