Enhancing intercultural communicative competence through a CLIL and PBL hybrid approach at tertiary education: a Costa Rican approximation

UNIVERSIDAD DE SALAMANCA ESCUELA DE DOCTORA DO FACULTAD DE FILOLOGÍA DEPARTAMENTO DE FILOLOGÍA INGLESA Doctoral Disse rtatio n Enhancing intercultural communicative competence through a CLIL and PBL hybrid approach at tertiary education: A Costa Rican approximation Karol Viviana Cubero Vásquez 2022 i UNIVERSIDAD DE SALAMANCA Programa de Doctorado : Estu dios Ing leses Ava nzados: Le nguas y Culturas en Conta cto Doctoral Disse rtatio n Enhancing intercultural communicative competence through a CLIL and PBL hybrid approach at tertiary education: A Costa Rican approximation This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD in Advanced English Studies: Languages and Cultures in Contact Director: Luisa María González Rodríguez Karol Viviana Cubero Vásquez V. º Bº Facultad de Filología Departamento de Filología Inglesa Salamanca 2022 GONZALEZ RODRIGUEZ LUISA MARIA - 08105478W Firmado digitalmente por GONZALEZ RODRIGUEZ LUISA MARIA - 08105478W Fecha: 2022.05.30 18:30:08 +02'00' ii D EDICATION There is hope in constructi ng better soc ieties, t here is hope in fighting evil tendencies a nd behav iors. There is hope in inheriting fu ture gener ations a be tter, healthier and peaceful world. Let us t each about the ot her, ourselve s, and our common ground in respectful and flexible frames. Karol Cubero Vásquez To Vivianne, the lig ht of my l if e i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this thesis and with it, the completion of my doctoral studies have allowed me to grow academically and personally surrounded by valuable people who contributed to this thesis and to whom I want to thank. First and foremost, I thank God, the Almighty, who has granted me the opportunity to complete this research project. His mercy and grace have guided and strengthened me through these years. Secondly, I extend my gratitude to the National University of Costa Rica for supporting me during my doctoral studies and for promoting actions to impact the education in the country. I also express my deepest gratitude to the Professor Luisa María González Rodríguez for her patience, support, guidance, and motivation throughout the development of this thesis. Her interest and feedback to this work have been fundamental. Besides, I would like to thank the experts who validated the research instruments and to Monique Beaucham p and Sharon Mae Flory for their valuable feedback and proofreading some of the chapters in this thesis. Particularly, I extend my gratitude to all the students who participated in this study who despite the unprecedented circumstances that emerged due to the pandemic during the year 2020 showed genuine interest in contributing to this study. I would also like to thank the colleagues who contributed during the pedagogical interventions their assistance and teaching passion was pivotal to this work. Doctoral studies can be filled with great challenges and sacrifices but the words of encouragement, and the satisfaction of contributing to the scientific and teaching community outweighs the difficulties. For that reason, I express my sincere gratitude to my family, friends, and colleagues who have motivated me throughout these years. Their words of encouragement, and support meant a lot to me. I specially want to thank my mother, Flor Vásquez, for supporting me to follow my dreams, her work ethics, responsibility, and perseverance have been an example in my life. I am also grateful to my aunt Lia and my cousin Andy for their kind support along this process. My deepest appreciation to my partn er , Jairo, for his understanding, support and for giving Vivi the extra love she needed when I could not. Finally, I dedicate this work to my daughter Vivianne Juárez who has patiently waited for the completion of this project to resume our time and adventures together. Thank you Vivi for being my source of inspiration, motivation, and strength. May this achievement teach you that we can always be better than yesterday and that dreams do come true. To all of you my deepest gratitude. God will generously provide all you need. 2 Cor. 9:8 ii INDICE AGRADECIMIENTO i INDICE ii RESUMEN EN ESPAÑOL viii RESUMEN EN INGLÉS xxxv ii ÍNDICE xxx ix LISTA DE TABLAS xlv LISTA DE FIGURAS xlv iii LISTA DE ABREVIATURAS l INTRODUCCIÓN 1 PARTE 1: MARCO TEÓRICO 8 CAPÍTULO 1: TRAYECTORIA DE LA COMPETENCIA COMUNICATIVA INTERCULTURAL 9 1.1 De la competencia lingüística a la competencia comunicativa 10 1.1.1 La dimensión cultural en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras 19 1.1.2 La comunicación intercultural 26 1.1.3 La competencia comunicativa intercultural en el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras 28 1.1.4 El modelo de competencia comunicativa intercultural de Byram 35 1.2 El hablante intercultural: transformación de los roles de los interlocutores 48 1.3 De la competencia comunicativa intercultural a la ciudadanía intercultural 55 1.4 Objetivos de la competencia comuni cativa intercultural 57 1.5 Evaluación de la CCI: Un proceso formativo 62 1.6 Discusión crítica del modelo de Byram: abordando algunos inconvenientes 69 CAPÍTULO 2 : MODELOS CLIL Y PBL 71 2.1 Marco metodológico: Aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lenguas extranjeras y aprendizaje basado en proyectos 72 2.2 Aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lenguas extranjeras: generalidades 73 2.2.1 Los orígenes del AICLE 74 2.2.2 El programa de estudios AICLE 76 2.2.3 El tríptico de la lengua 79 2.2.4 AICLE en el aula de lenguas ext ranjeras 82 2.2.5 Ventajas en el uso de AICLE 84 2.2.6 El papel del profesor en contextos de AICLE 86 2.2.7 Recomendaciones para el diseño de unidades AICLE 88 2.3 Aprendizaje basado en proyectos: generalidades y orígenes 90 2.3.1 Marco teórico del ABP: antecedentes pedagógicos 93 2.3.2 Etapas en la implementación del aprendizaje basado en proyectos 98 2.3.3 Aprendizaje basado en proyectos: funciones y beneficios en el aula 99 iii CAPÍTULO 3: ENFOQUE HÍBRIDO CLIL Y PBL 106 3.1 Principios de AICLE y ABP: un enfoque híbrido para promover el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras 107 3.1.1 Aprendizaje centrado en el alumno 111 3.1.2 El lenguaje y la comunicación efectiva 113 3.1.3 Contenido 117 3.1.4 Cognición 119 3.1.5 Contexto 123 3.1.6 Cultura 127 3.1.7 Dominio afectivo 129 3.2 La CCI en el marco de AICLE-PBL 133 3.3 El aprendizaje del inglés en el contexto costarricense 145 3.3.1 La necesidad de la competencia comunicativa intercultural: el contexto costarricense 150 3.3.2 Percepciones de los estudiantes universitarios de idiomas sobre el aprendizaje intercultural 152 3.3.3 Investigaciones relacionadas a la CCI en entornos educativos 156 PARTE II: EL ESTUDIO 164 CAPÍTULO 4: METODOLOGÍA DE LA INVESTIGACIÓN 165 4.1 Fines, preguntas y objetivos de la investigac ión 166 4.1.1 Hipótesis 169 4.2 Metodología y procedimiento 169 4.3 Recopilación de datos 172 4.3.1 Contexto de la investigación y sujetos 172 4.3.2 Instrumentos y procedimientos en la recopilación de datos 175 4.3.3 Validez, credibilidad y confiabilidad 178 4.4 Análisis de datos 179 CAPÍTULO 5: INTERVENCIONES PEDAGÓGICAS: INGLÉS INTEGRADO I y II 183 5.1 Propuesta de intervención pedagógica: Enfoque híbrido de AICLE y ABP 184 5.1.1 Aprendizaje remoto en la Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica 188 5.1.1.1 Aprendizaje sincrónico y aprendizaje móvil 189 5.2 CCI Propuesta de intervención bajo enfoque híbrido: Planificación y diseño de la instrucción 192 5.2.1 Intervenciones pedagógicas: Descripción general 200 5.2.2 Inglés Integrado I y II intervenciones: planeamientos de clase 210 PARTE III: ANÁLISIS DE DATOS 226 CAPÍTULO 6: ESCALA DE AUTOEVALUACIÓN Y QUIZ FORMATIVO DE LA CCI: ANÁLISIS DE DATOS 227 6.1 Análisis de la escala de autoevaluación y quiz formativo de la CCI 228 iv 6.2 Análisis de la escala de autoevaluación de la CCI 229 6.2.1 Resultados de la escala de autoevaluación de la ICC: Intervención I_ Grupos experimental vs. control 230 6.2.1.1 Resultados de la prueba U de Mann-Whitney: intervención I 233 6.2.2 Resultados de la escala de autoevaluación de la ICC: Intervención II_Grupos Experimental vs. control 235 6.2.2.1 Resultados de la prueba U de Mann-Whitney: intervención II 238 6.2.3 Escala de autoevaluación de la CCI Grupo experimental: Intervención I vs. Intervención II 239 6.2.3.1 Resultados de la prueba U de Mann-Whitney: intervención I y II 241 6.2.3.2 Comparación de Boxplots de la intervención I y la intervención II (semestres I y II) 243 6.2.4 Escala de autoevaluación de la CCI: Observaciones generales de los resultados y discusión 246 6.3 Quiz formativo intercultural: resultados y análisis de los grupos control vs. experimental 254 6.3.1 Boxplots del quiz intercultural: Control vs. Experimental 257 6.3.2 Diferencias en la media en el quiz intercultural: intervención I y II 257 6.3.2.1 Boxplots del quiz intercultural: Intervención I y I I 259 6.3.3 Quiz intercultural: Discusión general 260 CAPÍTULO 7: ANÁLISIS DEL ENFOQUE HÍBRIDO EN LA CCI 265 7.1 Cuestionario sobre la perspectiva del enfoque híbrido: resultados del grupo experimental 266 7.1.1 Cuestionario sobre la perspectiva del enfoque híbrido: intervención I vs. intervención II 269 7.2 Discusión del cuestionario sobre la perspectiva del enfoque híbrido 277 7.3 Preguntas abiertas: Análisis cualitativo de las intervenciones I y II 285 7.3.1 Pregunta1: Beneficios tras estudiar contenido Intercultural:Intervención I 286 7.3.2 Pregunta1: Beneficios tras estudiar contenido Intercultural:Intervención II 289 7.3.3 Pregunta 2: Preparación para la interacción intercultural real:Intervención I 292 7.3.4 Pregunta 2: Preparación para la interacción intercultural real_ Intervención II 295 7.3.5 Pregunta 3: Cambio de perspectiva en torno a la cultura propia Intervención I 297 7.3.6 Pregunta 3: Cambio de perspectiva en torno a la cultura propia _ Intervención II 30 0 v 7.3.7 Pregunta 4: Temas interculturales relevantes _Intervención I 302 7.3.8 Pregunta 4:Temas interculturales relevantes _Intervención II 30 3 7.4 Cuestionario sobre la perspectiva del enfoque híbrido en la CCI: Conclusiones generales y discusión 304 CAPÍTULO 8: ACTIVIDADES DE EVALUACIÓN EN LA CCI 307 8.1 Evaluación de la CCI: Recogida y análisis de datos 308 8.1.1 Procedimientos en la implementación 309 8.2 Dimensiones de la CCI: evaluación formativa _intervención I 310 8.2.1 Perspectivas generales de la evaluación: intervención I 313 8.3 Dimensiones de la ICC: evaluación formativa _ intervención II 314 8.3.1 Perspectivas generales de la evaluación: intervención II 316 8.4 Discusión sobre la evaluación: Intervención I y II 318 8.5 Análisis cualitativo: anotaciones de los diario de clase y perspectivas sobre la experiencia del aprendizaje intercultural 320 CAPÍTULO 9 RESULTADOS DEL CUESTIONARIO SOBRE LA PERSPECTIVA DEL APRENDIZAJE DEL INGLÉS E INTERCULTURAL 332 9.1 Análisis del cuestionario sobre el aprendizaje del inglés e intercultural: Grupos control y experimental 333 9.1.1 P.1Resultados del pre y postest del cuestionario entre grupo control y experimental:intervención I y II 337 9.1.1.1 P.1 Razones para estudiar inglés _Intervención I 337 9.1.1.2 P.1 Razones para estudiar inglés _Intervención II 339 9.1.1.3 P. 8 Discusión de contenido intercultural variado_Intervención I 340 9.1.1.4 P. 8 Discusión de contenido intercultural variado_Intervención II 342 9.1.1.5 P.11 Autoevaluación de CCI _Intervención I 343 9.1.1.6 P.11 Autoevaluación de CCI _Intervención II 345 9.1.1.7 P.12 Contenidos interculturales aprendidos en las clases de inglés _Intervención I 347 9.1.1.8 P.12 Contenidos interculturales aprendidos en las clases de inglés Intervención II 348 9.1.1.9 P.13 Consulta referencias para aprender sobre culturas _Intervención I 350 9.1.1.10 P.13 Consulta referencias para aprender sobre culturas _Intervención II 351 9.1.1.11 P.17 Interés por aprender sobre la cultura costarricense y extranjeras _intervención I 353 9.1.1.12 P.17 Interés por aprender sobre la cultura costarricense y extranjeras _intervención II 355 vi 9.1.1.13 P.18 Eficacia del método de la enseñanza del inglés en el desarrollo de la CCI _Intervención I 356 9.1.1.14 P.18 Eficacia del método de la enseñanza del inglés en el desarrollo de la CCI_Intervención II 358 9.1.1.15 P.19 Promoción de la competencia comunicativa intercultural _Intervención I 359 9.1.1.16 P.19 Promoción de la competencia comunicativa intercultural _Intervención II 361 9.1.1.17 P.20 Beneficios de los recursos auténticos y digitales (audiovisuales)_intervención I 363 9.1.1.18 P.20 Beneficios de los recursos auténticos y digitales (audiovisuales)_intervención II 365 9.1.1.19 P. 26 Aprendizaje de l idioma inglés mediante un enfoque combinado AICLE/PBL _intervención I 366 9.1.1.20 P. 26 Aprendizaje del idioma inglés mediante un enfoque combinado AICLE/PBL _intervención II 368 9.1.1.21 P. 29 Método combinado para mejorar la competencia lingüística y la CCI_intervención I 370 9.1.1.22 P. 29 Método combinado para mejorar la competencia lingüística y la CCI_intervención II 372 9.1.1.23 P. 30 Integración del componente intercultural _Intervención I 373 9.1.1.24 P. 30 Integración del componente intercultural _Intervención II 375 9.2 Resultados del pretest y conclusiones: Intervención I 376 9.3 Resultados generales y discusión del cuestionario: Grupos control vs. experimental 378 9.4 Resultados generales y discusión del cuestionario: Grupo experimental_ intervenciones I y II 379 CAPÍTULO 10 CONCLUSIONES 382 10.1 Conclusiones e implicaciones pedagógicas 383 10.2 Instrumentos de investigación: conclusiones finales 394 10.2.1 Quiz intercultural: conclusiones finales 397 10.2.2 Cuestionario sobre el enfoque híbrido en la CCI: observaciones finales 398 10.3 Implicaciones pedagógicas: praxis lingüística intercultural 401 10.3.1 La inclusión de la CCI en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de idiomas 405 10.3.2 Implicaciones relacionadas al modelo pedagógico de la UNA 407 10.3.3 Implicaciones para el aprendizaje de idiomas e intercultural en contextos de ILE 408 10.3.4 Implicaciones de los resultados para el currículo (intervención 412 xiii La combinación de los principios de ambas metodologías puede ofrecer una plataforma para cumplir tanto objetivos lingüísticos como interculturales. Por ejemplo, el enfoque AICLE promueve el dominio, tanto del contenido como de la lengua a niveles predefinidos (Marsh, 2012). Este modelo tiene múltiples beneficios que implican experiencias de aprendizaje variadas que destacan y fortalecen la comunicación, la cultura, el contexto y la cognición (Coyle et al ., 2009). Por otro lado, el PBL es una filosofía constructivista y flexible que invita a trabajar cooperativamente temáticas de la vida real según los intereses y necesidades de los estudiantes. Según Doppel t (2003), el PBL es un enfoque que promueve un entorno de aprendizaje activo en el cual los estudiantes aprenden mediante la interacción, investigación y procesos de creación de productos, lo que mejora sus conocimientos y habilidades sociales y de pensamiento. Para entender la dimensión intercultural en la enseñanza de idiomas se exploran algunos constructos y perspectivas del modelo de Byram que permitan guiar la experiencia de aprendizaje sobre el qué, por qué y cómo abordar, enseñar y evaluar la CCI mientras se enseña inglés como lengua extranjera en el contexto costarricense. P ara emprender un camino diferenciado, los educadores necesitan repensar sus propias creencias sobre lo que implica la enseñanza de una segunda lengua o lengua extranjera. Por lo tanto, la competencia comunicativa intercultural (CCI) parece ser una vía adecuada para facilitar el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras trascendiendo el foco de la competencia lingüística de estructuras y formas hacia uno integral y a mbicioso que aporte múltiples beneficios en el aula de idiomas. 2 Metodología y preguntas de investigación El diseño de este estudio se enmarca en un enfoque mixto que utiliza datos cuantitativos y cuantitativos durante las diferentes etapas, lo que proporciona diversas perspectivas en torno a la xiv temática investigada. Los estudios mixtos permiten al investigador obtener una comprensión más completa del objeto de estudio ya que, como afirma Creswell (2008), este tipo de investigación implica recopilar y analizar datos cuantitativos y cualitativos para comprender más a fondo un problema de investigación. El método mixto, por lo tanto, proporciona mayor confiabilidad, validez y precisión de los resultados, por lo que se seleccionó debido a la naturaleza y objetivos del estudio. El diseño de la investigación fue cuasiexperimental. Este diseño mide la eficacia de un tratamiento y establece una relación causa-efecto entre las variables dependientes e independientes. En este contexto, la investigadora utiliza grupos intactos y equivalentes, pero solo un grupo experimenta el tratamiento mientras el otro actúa como grupo de control (Price et al. , 2015). En ámbitos educativos, los diseños cuasiexperimentales (QED) mejoran el conocimiento al estudiar la magnitud de los efectos causales durante las intervenciones. Los cuasiexperimentos pueden sostener un cierto nivel de confianza en cuanto a los resultados obtenidos debido al mecanismo de control al comparar los grupos control y experimental mediante la aplicación de pruebas y test en diferentes momentos de la investigación. Este diseño también fue de corte longitudinal, ya que se midió a los participantes durante dos semestres: en el primero en el curso inglés integrado I y en el segundo en el curso inglés integrado II. Se a plicó una intervención pedagógica al grupo experimental, el grupo control no participó de la intervención y siguió una metodologia más tradicional enfocada a aprender el idioma meta. La intervención pedagógica tenía el fin de comparar tendencias y extrapolar conclusiones entre el grupo experimental y el de control durante los dos semestres. La propuesta de intervención se aplicó por un periodo de 26 semanas, 13 semanas durante cada semestre. xv Los estudiantes del grupo experimental completaron tres pruebas como pretest y posttest (antes y después de la intervención), así como un instrumento de apreciación sobre la metodología usada. El grupo de control completó tres instrumentos como pretest y posttest . Toda la información recolectada y clasificada se sometió a pruebas y análisis de datos estadísticos usando el software IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Los resultados se interpretaron y se utilizaron en la discusión con el fin de contrastar los datos del grupo experim ental y del de control para establecer conclusiones congruentes según los resultados. El alcance del estudio explora si la integración del componente intercultural facilitado de manera regular a través de una metodología híbrida de principios de AICLE y ABP es efectiva en la promoción y desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa intercultural de los discentes que cursaban inglés integrado I y II durante dos semestres consecutivos. La finalidad era identificar el impacto, fortalezas, oportunidades y desafíos en el aprendizaje de la lengua extranjera durante el proceso de aprendizaje de la competencia intercultural. Este estudio plantea la hipótesis de que la competencia comunicativa intercultural (conocimientos, conciencia cultural crítica, actitudes y destrezas) mejora al integrar sistemáticamente contenidos interculturales mediante un enfoque combinado de AICLE (aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lenguas) y ABP (aprendizaje que se basa en proyectos) en los cursos de inglés integrados I y II en el contexto costarrice nse de la educación superior. El fundamento teórico de esta afirmación se basa en teorías y enfoques que se relacionan con la integración de la CCI en el contexto de la enseñanza de una lengua extranjera. La investigación también establece la hipótesis de que variadas técnicas de enseñanza con un enfoque híbrido de las metodologías de AICLE y PBL facilitan un proceso de aprendizaje significativo y práctico del idioma meta, lo que mejora la CCI y la proficiencia lingüística. Por lo tanto, esta investigación xvi estudia los principios de enseñanza de AICLE y PBL para fomentar la CCI en el contexto costarricense. El estudio pretende responder a las siguientes preguntas de investigación: 1: ¿Promueve un enfoque híbrido entre AICLE y ABP la competencia comunicativa intercultural de estudiantes en educación terciaria? En caso afirmativo, ¿en qué medida? 2: ¿Existe correlación entre la aplicación de un enfoque híbrido con la promoción o mejora de la competencia comunicativa intercultural en el grupo experimental? 3: ¿Existen diferencias significativas en los resultados de los pretest and posttest que miden la CCI entre los grupos experimental y de control? 4: ¿Cuáles son los beneficios de la enseñanza de la dimensión intercultural en el aula de ILE en Costa Rica? 5: ¿Cuáles retos surgieron al implementar el AICLE y el aprendizaje basado en proyectos para mediar la CCI? 6:¿Cuál es el impacto percibido del enfoque híbrido de principios de AICLE y PBL, tanto en la competencia lingüística como en la competencia comunicativa intercultural entre l os estudiantes del grupo experimental? 7: ¿Cuál es la percepción de los estudiantes del grupo experimental sobre el enfoque híbrido? 8 : ¿Cuáles son algunas estrategias efectivas y prácticas para integrar y mediar la CCI en el aula de lenguas extranjeras? xvii 3 Marco teórico Para mantener una comunicación intercultural eficaz es fundamental fomentar el desarrollo de una serie de elementos que forman parte de la dimensión intercultural como los conocimientos, las habilidades, la conciencia cultural crítica y las actitudes. Este conjunto de dimensiones se ha extrapolado al ámbito de la enseñanza de idiomas con la pretensión de apoyar una nueva conceptualización de lo que el hablante de idiomas necesita para adaptarse a los nuevos contextos comunicativos. Por lo tanto, el interés por la CCI invita a adoptar una visión diferente en la enseñanza de idiomas, contribuyendo, de manera significativa, a uno de los debates más extendidos que abordan la relación entre lengua y cultura, lo que promueve una praxis de enseñanza y aprendizaje en la que la lengua meta y la cultura están entrelazadas inextricablemente. Los argumentos a favor de la competencia comunicativa y de la comunicación intercultural sirvieron de base para proponer una conceptualización mult ifacética de lo que implica educar a los estudiantes de lenguas extranjeras de forma holística con el fin de convertirlos en comunicadores competentes. Estos puntos de vista consideran el proceso de aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras desde una perspectiva diferente, que reformula los propósitos, los objetivos, los procedimientos, las estrategias y los roles en el marco de una nueva pedagogía del lenguaje. Además, reencuadra el papel central del alumno dotado de conocimientos, consciencia de la cultura extranjera y de la cultura de origen, habilidades y actitudes necesarias para comunicarse en diversos contextos (Byram, 1997; Kramsch, 1993; McConachy et al. , 2022). A esto se debe que la competencia comunicativa intercultural (CCI) surja como una amalgama que comprende la comunicación y la interculturalidad y que pone de relieve la natur aleza híbrida y holística del aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera al tratar asuntos como el yo, la identidad, las culturas de origen y extranjera y la dinámica mundial. Un enfoque intercultural xviii implica pasar de un enfoque estático en el que se estudian hechos fijos sobre una cultura concreta a involucrar a los estudiantes en un proceso de transformación que repercute en su carácter y en sus habilidades comunicativas (Liddicoat et al. , 2003). Este es un camino ambicioso pero adecuado para facilitar el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras y promover un proceso de aprendizaje a largo plazo. Estas ideas encuentran apoyo en el inextricable nexo entre lengua y cultura para desarrollar la competenci a comunicativa intercultural, que no solo afecta a la capacidad de desenvolverse con eficacia en una lengua extranjera, sino que también ayuda a lo s estudiantes a desarrollar actitudes y comportamientos lingüísticos y comunicativos más apropiados. Los partidarios de esta nueva filosofía proporcionan las bases para acuñar un término que abarca una relación íntima entre la lengua y la cultura y llaman a mediar un proceso intercultural en el contexto específico del aprendizaje de idiomas. Asimismo, enfatizan la idea de que el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras implica un aprendizaje intercultura l que se basa en la premisa de que aprender una lengua implica el aprendizaje de significados, valores y prácticas compartidas de ese grupo, ya que estos se representan y difunden en la lengua (A tkinson, 1999; Savignon, 1972; Kramsch, 1993, 1998; Tang, 1999; Liddicoat y Scarino, 2013; Byram y Fleming, 1998). Este argumento se ha apoyado en el hecho de que cuando las personas utilizan una lengua extranjera para comunicarse, estas interacciones son intrínsecamente interculturales, ya que los antecedentes culturales de los individuos tale s como la identidad, comportamiento, actitud, valores o sus puntos de vista, influyen durante dichas interacciones. La literatura señala a Baxter (1983) como uno de los primeros investigadores en proponer que la competencia comunicativa debía basarse también en las interacciones contextuales interculturales para lograr una comunicación eficaz, ya que la comunicación requiere una xix comprensión profunda de todas las complejidades y factores que influyen en esta. Más tarde, el concepto de la competencia comunicativa intercultural (CCI) fue reintroducido y analizado por Byram a finales de los años 90 y actualmente es uno de los modelos teóricos más influyentes para entender la multidimensionalidad de la CCI en e l contexto de la enseñanz a de lenguas extranjeras. Byram (1997) expone que el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera abarca un proceso que no se basa unil ateralmente en el aprendi zaje de la gramática, el vocabulario, la sintaxis o el manejo de determinadas situaciones comunicativas, sino que requiere una conceptualización más reflexiva, integral e intercultural. De esta manera, amplía las nociones de competencias socioculturales, sociales y estratégicas propuestas por Van Ek (1986) y concibe el proceso comunicativo desde un marco integral de dimensiones cognitivas, afectivas y conductuales para desarrollar la conciencia crítica intercultural. Para Byram (1997, 2020) la conexión inseparable entre la competencia comunicativa (lingüística, sociolingüística y discursiva) y la competencia intercultural (actitudes, conocimientos, habilidades de interpretación y relación, habilidades de descubrimiento e interacción y consciencia cultural crítica) constituye un marco de referencia en la enseñanza y aprendizaje para facilitar un proceso en el que los discentes puedan transformar sus perspectivas, actitudes, creencias y comportamientos en interacciones interculturales. En este contexto, la CCI se define como la capacidad de gestionar un entendimiento mutuo entre personas de diferentes identidades culturales y desde su propia individualidad que les permite interactuar con éxito en una segunda lengua o en una lengua extranjera, demostrando un amplio repertorio de habilidades, destrezas y conocimientos (Byram et al. , 2002; Byram, 2020). Sus argumentos sobre la adquisición de una lengua extranjera/segunda lengua están ligados a la adquisición de prácticas y creencias culturales representativas de un idioma en concreto, ya xx que el idioma representa la complejidad de prácticas, creencias, comportamientos, símbolos y actitudes un país. Este proceso tiene enormes implicaciones para el individuo en su desarrollo lingüístico, comunicativo y personal y sirve como estructura para apoyar y guiar potencialmente las acciones y comportamientos conscientes durante los actos comunicativos. Desde este punto de vista, el aprendizaje intercultural de lenguas desarrolla, además, la comprensión de la(s) lengua(s) y cultura(s) nativa(s) de los estudiant es por lo que despierta la curiosidad por otras culturas y afina la conciencia crítica al rol que desempeña la cultura propia en la transformación de los marcos de referencia adquiridos (Liddicoat y Scarino, 2013; Mezirow, 2000). Byram (2020) sostiene que el componente cultural en los entornos educativos requiere una reformulación que permita superar el modo tradicional de considerar los aspectos culturales como declarativos, procedimentales y permanentes por uno que procure facilitar herramientas y prácticas desde el análisis, la reflexión y la evaluación en un marco comparativo. Los principales objetivos del modelo planteado por Byram (1997, 2008, 2020) se basan en reorientar la importancia de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de lenguas en estrecha relación con el componente intercultural al postular una exploración más rigurosa de los factores vinculados con la comunicación intercultural en el contexto de aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras. En este contexto, los docentes de idiomas desempeñan un papel importante en el uso y diseño didáctico de medios, actividades y en la creación de oportunidades no solo para enseñar y transmitir los conocimientos culturales, sino también para facilitar la reflexión, el análisis y la construcción y reconstrucción de significados vinculados con cuestiones y propósitos comunicativos e interculturales. Desde este punto de vista, la CCI es todavía un concepto joven que evoluciona de diferentes maneras, en distintos contextos y a diversos ritmos. Por lo tanto, esta xxi propuesta motiva a avanzar hacia objetivos comunicativos interculturales que desarrollen la CCI como preparación integral para la vida académica, profesional y personal. Metodología híbrida Con el propósito de avanzar hacia esos objetivos educativos integrales, más coherentes en el contexto del siglo XXI los educadore s e investigadores se han embarcado en la búsqueda de diferentes métodos, metodologías y estrategias de enseñanza para contribuir con mejorar las prácticas de enseñanza. Las metas educativas de este siglo requieren fomentar el crecimiento académico, profesional y ciudadano de modo consciente y participativo. El seleccionar una metodología es una tarea clave en la gestión de la enseñanza y aprendizaje que requiere una encarecida reflexión que pondere el currículo, factores contextuales, sociales, tecnológicos y escenarios globales. Por este motivo, el modelo propuesto por Byram es un referente en contextos educativos (Lu y Corbett, 2012; Muller-Hartmann, 2006; Sercu, 2007; Woodin, 2001) y, especialmente, en el aula de idiomas, pues describe y propone objetivos y postulados para fomentar la competencia comunicativa intercultural en todas sus dimensiones (conocimiento, consciencia crítica cultural, actitud y habilidades). La evolución e inclusión de objetivos lingüísticos e interculturales plantea una alternativa a la enseñanza tradicional que busca el uso significativo de la lengua y la comunicación efectiva entre individuos interculturalmente diferentes. Por lo tanto, un enfoque híbrido de principios, nociones y estrategias de enseñanza presupone la posibilidad de establecer objetivos lingüísticos e interculturales que medien una experiencia de aprendizaje de idiomas holística e integral. Asumir la tarea d e construir una experiencia de aprendizaje orientada al desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa intercultural en xxii el aula de idiomas requiere un educador autodidacta, flexible y autocritico de su propia praxis, de modo que pueda adoptar una cultura de enseñanza y aprendizaje dinámica, evolutiva, integral y contextualizada. Esta tesis propone fusionar principios de las metodologías de aprendizaj e de AICLE y PBL como marco pedagógico en la mediación de los aprendizajes que se basan en actividades, tareas y proyectos dirigidos a fomentar competencias y habilidades lingüísticas e interc ulturales esenciales para relacionarse de forma eficaz en una lengua extranjera. Una metodología híbrida gestiona el proceso de aprendizaje de idiomas desde una óptica más participativa, funcional y significativa en la cual los discentes pueden experimentar la adquisición de la lengua meta en conexión con elementos interculturales que permiten responder de manera oportuna a las dinámicas de las sociedades modernas. La combinación de dichas metodologías dota a los profesionales de conocimientos clave, habilidades, competencias y de una formación holística que no se limita a aspectos lingüísticos. La fundamentación teórica de estas metodologías sugiere una amplia y variada interrelación del contenido, la lengua y la cultura como pilares al fomento de habilidades lingüísticas y de la competencia intercultural. De esta forma, los métodos AICLE y ABP se correlacionan en ciertos principios de enseñanza por su naturaleza interactiva y multimodal que abordan contenidos, la lengua meta, la cultura, el contexto, elementos de la vida real, y habilidades sociales, colaborativas y de pensamiento. Una referencia significativa reside en el hecho de que ambas metodologías conceden importancia al alumno como centro y foco del proceso de aprendizaje dotándole de autonomía, voz y participación a través de las tareas significativas y auténticas. Además, se promueve la comunicación con propósito y la necesidad del uso de la lengua en contextos reales en los que la xxix Los beneficios generales se perciben en diferentes vértices. El proceso de progresión en la CCI, las habilidades lingüísticas y otros beneficios se identificaron en términos de adquisición de nuevos contenidos, vocabulario, redescubrimiento de aspectos clave sobre culturas extranjeras y propia destacando como formación útil para futuros encuentros interculturales y laborales. La actitud de los alumnos y su apertura a nuevos puntos de vista sobre culturas, contenido, información y prácticas en relación con el proceso de aprendizaje de la lengua y la interculturalidad en la clase de inglés cambiaron y se reconoció el rol de la cultura en su formación y progreso lingüístico. La mayoría de los participantes del grupo experimental destacaron que las intervenciones de corte intercultural desempeñan un papel fundamental en el proceso formativo al ayudarlos a convertirse en usuarios independientes y eficaces de la lengua meta. Esta comprensión se percibe como un beneficio que incrementa la motivación de los alumnos para convertirse y actuar como hablantes interculturales y ciudadanos globa les. Los alumnos también reconocieron su papel como agentes de cambio y la actitud demostrada hacia estos temas sensibles fue notablemente esperanzadora, abierta e inspiradora. Después de participar en las intervenciones los estudiantes se percibieron flexibles, abiertos y dispuestos a aprender temas interculturales, que, además, desarrollaban y fomentaban sus habilidades lingüísticas en inglés. La cognición y procesos de pensamiento también se activaron durante las intervenciones pedagógicas. La reflexión, el análisis, la comprensión, la evaluación, la creación y la construcción de conocimiento se evidenciaron en el proceso facilitado en la experiencia de aprendizaje llevada a cabo a través de proyectos, las tareas y actividades que los alumnos realizaron durante las sesiones. El desarrollo de la autonomía y la independencia fue también un beneficio percibido en el grupo experimental durante las intervenciones. xxx P. 5: ¿Cuáles retos surgieron al implementar el AICLE y el aprendizaje basado en proyectos para mediar la CCI? Durante la implementación y el desarrollo de este estudio surgieron algunos desafíos. Una de las experiencias más desafiantes fue la interrupción abrupta y repentina del aprendizaje gestionado en el campus debido a la pandemia de COVID-19. En concreto, la pandemia obligó al investigador a repensar, capacitarse y diseñar tareas, contenidos y proyectos que pudieran mediarse a través del nuevo entorno de aprendizaje remoto/en línea. Afortunadamente, para la población estudiantil general que participó la conexión fue posible y, en su mayoría, estable durante las dos intervenciones. Del mismo modo, se realizaron adaptaciones para garantizar que los estudiantes participantes tuvieran la oportunidad de practicar el lenguaje meta en un marco de experiencia intercultural, de forma asíncrona y sincrónica. Además, inicialmente se observó que este tipo de aprendizaje requiere un profesor comprensivo y autodidacta, tanto en la gestión de aprendizaje intercultural como en el uso de herramientas digitales. P.6:¿Cuál es el impacto percibido del enfoque híbrido de principios de AICLE y PBL, tanto en la competencia lingüística como en la competencia comunicativa intercultural entre los estudiantes del grupo experimental? El enfoque híbrido de los principios de AICLE y ABP como plataforma pedagógica facilita una experiencia de aprendizaje multifuncional e innovadora ya que los estudiantes se exponen a diversos contenidos, incluido el contenido intercultural, que estudia culturas extranjeras, cultura meta y nativa como contexto para facilitar la progresión lingüística, el fomento de la CCI en entornos educativos de lenguas extranjeras o segundas lenguas y otras habilidades. El método híbrido fue percibido favorable y positivo en el grupo experimental. En lo que respecta a la intervención I, la categoría de satisfacción (percepciones en torno al nivel de satisfacción de los xxxi participantes con las tareas, los proyectos, los temas y los recursos que se utilizan para mediar en una lengua extranjera) obtuvo la media más alta (m = 4,11). Esta categoría también incluye las perspectivas de los participantes sobre la progresión en torno a las habilidades colaborativas y cognitivas (pensamiento crítico y creatividad) activadas a través de las unidades, proyectos y tareas interculturales y lingüísticas. Los estudiantes estuvieron muy de acuerdo con estas afirmaciones y se inclinaron ligeramente por esta categoría más que por la de impacto y beneficios. Las perspectivas de los participantes después de aplicar la intervención II muestran un incremento en los resultados en relación con la intervención I. Es interesante destacar que la categoría con la puntuación media más alta se mantiene en la de satisfacción m = 4,37, seguida de la categoría de beneficios (beneficios percibidos del enfoque híbrido AICLE y PBL en la experiencia de aprendizaje del ICC) que obtuvo una media de m = 4,31. Estos resultados se alinean con las declaraciones de Sánchez-Palacios (2017) sobre las oportunidades que la combinación de estas metodologías AICLE y PBL ofrecen a los discentes en cuanto a un entorno de aprendizaje activo para desarrollar competencias funcionales. Este estudio demuestra la viabilidad de trabajar con un enfoque híbrido para fomentar y avanzar en la CCI en el aula de idiomas. Además, los resultados cualitativos reflejaron avances y progreso en la competencia lingüística ya que los estudiantes fueron capaces de expresar en inglés sus ideas durante las variadas actividades de clase. Con las herramientas digitales adecuadas y básicas los discentes fueron cap aces de realizar proyectos colaborativos y participar en conversaciones en las cuales se observó su progreso comunicativo e intercultural, lo que impactó positivamente su conciencia crítica intercultural, conocimiento y actitud. Por tanto, el impacto se resume en términos de adquisición de conocimientos, activación de la cognición, trabajo colaborativo, inicio de un aprendizaje permanente, cambio de perspectivas de lo que implica aprender una lengua extranjera, aprendizaje xxxii autónomo y desarrollo de la CCI. Se concluye, que el enfoque híbrido es eficaz para ayudar a los alumnos a alcanzar múltiples objetivos de aprendizaje. RQ7: ¿Cuál es la percepción de los estudiantes del grupo experimental sobre el enfoque híbrido? Los resultados demostraron que los participantes del grupo experimental habían fortalecido su actitud positiva y receptiva para trabajar y participar en las tareas, actividades y proyectos facilitadas mediante las intervenciones. La mayoría de los participantes coinciden y reconocen la relevancia que tiene el componente intercultural en el contexto del aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras. Esta percepción concuerda con lo que los expertos en la materia sugieren al otorgar valor al conocimiento intercultural, las habilidades, la actitud y la conciencia cultural crítica en un mundo multicultural, intercultural e interconectado que exige individuos capaces de comunicarse eficaz y empáticamente. El cuestionario para recabar la opinión de los participantes sobre las perspectivas de la enseñanza de idiomas y la interculturalidad muestra resultados interesantes que respaldan el aprendizaje de la enseñanza de idiomas de la mano de la interculturalidad y que favorece también la idea del enfoque híbrido. Las respuestas obtenidas sobre el enfoque híbrido parecen favorecer una experiencia de aprendizaje caracterizada por la exposición y adquisición de nuevo vocabulario, estructuras gramaticales básicas, expresiones en inglés, fluidez y comunicación mediante el uso de contenidos variados, interculturales y contextualizados. Además, se identificaron opiniones satisfactorias relacionadas con las actividades, recursos y materiales que se utilizaron en las intervenciones. xxxiii P. 8: ¿Cuáles son algunas estrategias efectivas y prácticas para integrar y mediar la competencia comunicativa intercultural (CCI) en el aula de lenguas extranjeras? Las estrategias y tareas que se utiliz an a lo largo de las intervenciones pedagógicas pretendían proporcionar a los participantes una experiencia de aprendizaje intercultural mediante la lengua meta combinando y aplicando principios y elementos para promover oportunidades auténticas en la gestión de contenidos, desarrollo de habilidades y progreso en el desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa intercultural. Las diversas estrategias que se emplearon bajo los principios de AICLE y ABP proporcionaron una plataforma teórica beneficiosa para diseñar una instrucción guiada y organizada del aprendizaje del inglés. Entre las estrategias específicas se encontraban las tareas variadas y proyectos o mini proyectos cuyos productos finales eran indicadores de progreso significativo, manejo de los contenidos, uso de la lengua, adquisición del vocabulario y comparaciones conexión entre culturas extranjeras y nativa. Además, la visión global desarrollada en los pasos procedimentales ISUACAFO para la e xperiencia de mediación de la CCI desarrollada por la investigadora a partir del método híbrido permitió planificar y estructurar con claridad el proceso de la intervención pedagógica. Con el fin de alcanzar una visión global de la relevancia y la necesidad de fomentar la CCI en el contexto de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras en la educación terciaria, este estudio exploró la mediación de una experiencia lingüística intercultural a través de los principios de AICLE y PBL. La propuesta aborda una de las tareas cruciales a las que se enfrentan los educadores de idiomas durante su práctica, es decir, la tarea de reinventar y readaptar su práctica docente con modelos híbridos o alternativos que puedan responder a las nuevas generaciones de estudiantes, a sus necesidades contextuales y, en general, al mundo en constante cambio. xxxiv Esta tesis apoya la necesidad de fomentar la CCI en la educación terciaria costarricense en el contexto del inglés como lengua extranjera, al demostrar la eficacia de integrar la dimensión in tercultural en el currículo de idiomas. Estos hallazgos son significativos y, sobre todo, pertinentes para el contexto costarricense, pues se documentó a lo largo de las dos intervenciones que los niveles de progresión y desarrollo de los CCI se incrementaron durante el período de instrucción. A través de los proyectos, tareas y actividades los participantes del grupo experimental se implicaron en el proceso de aprendizaje de la lengua meta y mostraron su capacidad de interpretar, comparar, diferenciar, identificar y refl exionar críticamente sobre los valores y prácticas de la cultura nativa, meta y extranjeras. Por lo tanto, El aula puede transformarse en una comunidad social en la que, por medio de modelos pedagógicos activos e hibridos, se motive a los estudiantes a experimentar, practicar, improvisar cuestiones fundamentales como el componente intercultural en un entorno seguro y agradable que imite el mundo real. Es fundamental que las instituciones educativas proporcionen una formación lingüística integral a partir de modelos pedagógicos apropiados . Otra implicación pedagógica importante para el contexto costarricense es la necesidad de extrapolar la inclusión explícita del componente intercultural a otros cursos de inglés que se ofrecen en los campus de la UNA. Los resultados de este estudio abogan por ajustes curriculares para integrar explícitamente los aspectos culturales en el programa de estudios a través de una metodología híbrida para alcanzar los objetivos lingüísticos e interculturales. Un enfoque híbrido parte de una perspectiva del aprendizaje y la enseñanza activa, constructivista y auténtica en la que se motiva a los estudiantes, de forma habitual, para que tengan un papel activo, implicado y autónomo en su proceso. Estos hallazgos sugieren que los cursos de inglés que se ofrecen en las universidades costarricenses y, específicamente, en la UNA, deben reconocer las expectativas y xxxv necesidades de los alumnos de cara a los desafíos y retos del mundo actual y, en especial, capacitarlos para enfrentar su futuro con habilidades y competencias pertinentes que les permitan entablar encuentros comunicativos fructíferos. Asimismo, comenzar un redescubrimiento de su identidad, sus raíces culturales y su voluntad de emprender un camino de aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida que fortalezca estrategias, visiones y comportamientos comunicativos interculturales saludables. En el caso específico de la Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, su filosofía educativa se ha definido a través de un modelo pedagógico que delimita y determina principios para asegurar un tipo de educación que la población costarricense merece. La entidad busca promover el respeto a los demás con el ideal de la igualdad de oportunidades y la contribución a una sociedad más justa y equitativa, en la que tanto hombres como mujeres vivan bajo los principios de solidaridad, ayuda mutua y cooperación. Esta tesis contribuye a la literatura existente al aportar conocimiento y ofrecer rutas y argumentos a favor de facilitar el componente intercultural de manera explícita, integrada e intencionalmente en el currículo de idiomas para mediar una experiencia de aprendizaje holística encaminada a la promoción de la competencia comunicativa intercultural. El papel que se aconseja que adopte el educador de idiomas es el de un mediador, interesado genuinamente en promover el desarrollo y la progresión de los estudiantes en el idioma, lo que significa también mediar el componente intercultural. Esta investigación es una invitación explícita a abordar las complejidades de la CCI y del aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera o segundas lenguas en el contexto de la educación terciaria de manera práctica, teórica y apropiada metodológicamente para cumplir y preparar a los discentes en sus roles profesionales en el contexto de los retos del siglo XXI. Los resultados de este estudio xxxvi sugieren que la adopción de un enfoque híbrido de los principios de enseñanza del AICLE y del ABP es útil para educar al alumnado para que se conviertan en hablantes interculturales, a la vez que se consigue un aprendizaje progresivo hacia el desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa intercultural. Este estudio demuestra que al combinar los principios de enseñanza de AICLE y ABP, el modelo cambia hacia una mediación innovadora que ofrece a los estudiantes una oportunidad de aprendizaje multidivergente para experimentar de manera intencionada la interconexión entre lengua y cultura. Los resultados cuantitativos y cualitativos de este estudio han señalado que muchos estudiantes del grupo experimental encontraban los contenidos interculturales útiles y relevantes para sus carreras, su vida y su proceso de aprendizaje en la lengua meta. Además, se comprobó que la mediación lingüística intercultural supone una experiencia de enseñanza y aprendizaje diferenciada y atractiva, maximizada por la metodología híbrida, lo que demuestra progreso y desarrollo de la competencia lingüística e intercultural. Los resultados de este cuasiexperimento de corte longitudinal revelan que los estudiantes están preparados para iniciar, consolidar y fortalecer un proceso de aprendizaje intercultural. xxxvii ABSTRACT This thesis explores the development of intercultural communicative intercultural communicative competence through CLIL and PBL hybrid approach at tertiary education in the Costa Rican context. The study describes a pedagogical intervention where two language approach es were combined to mediate intercultural learning. The main aim was to explore the extent to which the implementation of a hybrid approach of CLIL and PBL principles could enhance FL intercultural communicative competence during two compulsory English courses at tertiary education. Evidence and data was sought through longitudinal intervention experiments for two academic semesters. Participants were divided in two groups: the control group, which included 94 participants (n=94) and the experimental group, which included 124 (n=124). A mixed method approach with a quasi-experimental design was implemented during two academic semesters in Integrated English courses offered at Universidad Nacional: Sede Regional Chorotega. Different data collection instruments were used to gather information: questionnaires, Likert scales, formative quiz, and journal entries. Quantitative data analysis was processed through statistical methods such as descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The quantitative data gathered were analyzed using the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science), while the qualitative data were analyzed using a content thematic analysis with the program (N vivo) and through scrutinizing the collected sources of information from participants. The results from both groups were compared to determine the efficacy of the hybrid method used in contrast to traditional FL methods. Findings and results of this study revealed that the experimental group students had a much more pos itive perception of the inclusion of intercultural matters and their perspectives, which supported the hypothesis that a hybrid approach of principles from CLIL and PBL is effective to foster and mediate the ICC component in the foreign language xxxviii classroom. After the interventions, results revealed that –after exposing participants to systematic intercultural learning activities, tasks, and projects under a learning environment of hybrid teaching principles– s tudents’ intercultural communicative competence was fostered and thi s improved over time engaging learners in a meaningful and dynamic FL process. The experimental group students was observed to have a higher impact on the intercultural dimension of knowledge during the intervention I and on attitude during intervention II. The hybrid method of teaching principles was highly favored on the category of satisfaction reporting an overall positive perception of the integration of the intercultural component through the method’s varied learning activities, contextualized content, material, and resources used in the context of remote learning. These supportive aspects around the study highlight the relevance of the method used to provide learners with a multivariant approach to enhance their FL process at tertiary education where the target language was used to promote learning and personal growth. This study recommends further a systematic inclusion, development and implementation of the intercultural component through hybrid methodologies that use varied tasks and material and holistically put the learner at the center of the learning process. xlv INDEX OF TABLES T ABLE 1 CLIL D IMENSIO NS BY M ARSH .................................................................................................... 78 T ABLE 2 CLIL E DUCATOR ´ S C OMPETENCES ................................................................ ............................ 87 T ABLE 3 S EVEN C OGNITIV E D ISCOURSE F UNCTIONS .............................................................................. 123 T ABLE 4 CLIL AND PBL S YMBIOSIS ....................................................................................................... 130 T ABLE 5 R ESEARCH R ELATED TO ICC .................................................................................................... 157 T ABLE 6 D ATA P ROFILE FOR E XPERI MENTAL AND C ONTROL G ROUP ....................................................... 174 T ABLE 7 T EST R ESULTS D IAGNOSTIC E NGLISH T EST ............................................................................... 174 T ABLE 8 L IST OF R ESEARCH I NSTRUMENTS AND I MPL EMENTAT ION SEQUENC E . ....................................... 177 T ABLE 9 D ESIGN P ROCEDURES AND I NSTR UMENTS A DOPTED FOR THE S EMESTER I AND II ....................... 181 T ABLE 10 H YBRID A PPROACH P RINCIPLES ............................................................................................. 185 T ABLE 11 I NTERVENTION I AND II T OPICS AND M AJOR O BJECTIVES ........................................................ 208 T ABLE 12 ICC L ESSON P LAN S TRUCTURE ............................................................................................. 210 T ABLE 13 T ABLE S AMPLE L ESSON P LAN 1 .............................................................................................. 211 T ABLE 14 T ABLE S AMPLE L ESSON P LAN 2 .............................................................................................. 213 T ABLE 15 S AMPLE L ESSON P LAN 3 ........................................................................................................ 215 T ABLE 16 S AMPLE L ESSON P LAN 4 ........................................................................................................ 217 T ABLE 17 S AMPLE L ESSON P LAN 5 ........................................................................................................ 219 T ABLE 18 S AMPLE L ESSON P LAN 6 ........................................................................................................ 221 T ABLE 19 S AMPLE L ESSON P LAN 7 ........................................................................................................ 223 T ABLE 20 ICC S ELF - ASSESSMENT S CALE T EST RESULTS : I NTERVENT ION VS . C ONTROL G ROUP (I NTERVENTION I) ......................................................................................................................... 231 T ABLE 21 P-V ALUES FOR I NTERVENTI ON I (I NTEGRATED E NGLISH I) ...................................................... 233 T ABLE 22 M ANN -W HITNEY U T EST R ESULT S : I NTERVENTION I (I NTEGRATED E NGLI SH I) ......................... 234 T ABLE 23 ICC S ELF -A SSESSMENT S CALE R ESULTS : E XPERIMENTAL VS . C ONTROL G ROUP (I NTERVENT ION II) .................................................................................................................................................... 235 T ABLE 24 P-V ALUES : I NTERVENTION II: I NTEGRATED E NGLISH II: S EMESTER II ..................................... 237 T ABLE 25 M ANN -W HITNEY U T EST R ESULT S : I NTERVENTION II (I NTEGRATED E NGLISH II) ...................... 238 T ABLE 26 ICC S ELF -A SSESSMENT S CALE T EST R ESULTS : I NTERVENTION I VS I NTERVENTION II ................ 240 T ABLE 27 M ANN -W HITNEY U T EST R ESULT S : I NTERVENTION I VS . I NTERVENTION II ................................ 241 T ABLE 28 P-V ALUES : I NTERVENTION I AND I NTERVENT ION II ................................................................ . 242 T ABLE 29 M EAN G RADE D IFFERENC E : C ONTROL VS I NTERVE NTION G ROUPS .......................................... 254 T ABLE 30 Q UIZ M EAN D IFFERENCE : I NTERVENTION I AND II (I NTEGRAT ED E NGLISH I &II) .................... 258 T ABLE 31 ICC H YBRID A PPROACH PERSPECTIVE QUESTIONNAIRE R ESULTS : I NTERVENTION I(E NGLI SH I) 267 T ABLE 32 ICC H YBRID A PPROACH PERSPECTIVE QUESTIONNAIRE R ESULTS : I NTERVENTION II (E NGLIS H II) .................................................................................................................................................... 268 T ABLE 33 H YBRID A PPROACH PERSPECTIVE QUESTI ONNAIRE R ESULTS : I NTERVENTI ON I VS I NTERVENTION II .................................................................................................................................................... 270 T ABLE 34 M ANN -W HITNEY U T EST R ESULT S : I NTERVENTION I VS I NTERVE NTION II ................................ . 270 T ABLE 35 D ESCRIPTIVE S TATIS TICS PER ITEM : M EAN S CORES FOR I NTE RVENTION I AND I NTERVENT ION II 273 xlvi T ABLE 36 B ENEFITS A FTER S TUDYING I NTER CULTURAL C ONTENT AND U SING P ROJECTS (I NTER VENTION I) .................................................................................................................................................... 288 T ABLE 37 Q.1 B ENEFITS A FTER S TUDYING I NTERCULT URAL C ONTENT AND U SING P ROJECTS (I NTERVE NTION II) ................................................................................................................................................ 290 T ABLE 38 Q2. P REPARATION FOR R EAL I NTE RCULTURAL I NTERACTI ON A FTER THE H YBRID A PPROACH (I NTERVENTION I) ......................................................................................................................... 293 T ABLE 39 Q.2 P REPARATION FOR R EAL I NTE RCULTURAL I NTERACTI ON A FTER THE H YBRID A PPROACH (I NTERVENTION II) ........................................................................................................................ 295 T ABLE 40 Q.3 C HANGE IN P ERSPECTIVE A ROUND O NE ’ S O WN C ULTURE (I NTERVE NTION 1) ................... 298 T ABLE 41 Q.3 C HANGE IN P ERSPECTIVE A ROUND O NE ’ S O WN C ULTURE (I NTERVE NTION II) .................. 301 T ABLE 42 Q.4 R ELEVANT I NTERCULTURAL T OPICS S TUDIED (I NTERVE NTION I) ....................................... 303 T ABLE 43 Q.4 R ELEVANT I NTERCULTURAL T OPICS S TUDIED (I NTERVE NTION II) ...................................... 303 T ABLE 44 F ORMATIVE A SSESSMENT G UIDE ............................................................................................ 310 T ABLE 45 S AMPLE A SSESSMENT 1 S EMESTER I (S ELECTED P ROJECTS , J OURNAL , AND U NITS ) .................. 311 T ABLE 46 S AMPLE A SSESSMENT 2 S EMESTER I (S ELECTED P ROJECTS , J OURNAL , AND U NITS ) .................. 312 T ABLE 47 S AMPLE A SSESSMENT 1 S EMESTER II (S ELECTED P ROJECTS , J OURNAL , AND U NITS ) ................. 315 T ABLE 48 S AMPLE A SSESSMENT 2 S EMESTER II (S ELECTED P ROJECTS , J OURNAL , AND U NITS ) ................. 316 T ABLE 49 J OURNAL S AMPLE R EMARKS : I NTERVENTI ON G ROUP P ARTICIPANTS ........................................ 323 T ABLE 50 Q UESTIONNAI RE P- VALUE R ESULTS : C ONTROL VS . I NTERVENTION G ROUPS ............................. 334 T ABLE 51 Q.1 R ESULTS : C ONTROL VS . E XPERIMENTAL G ROUP (I NT ERVENTION I_ S EMESTER I) ............... 338 T ABLE 52 Q.1 R ESULTS : C ONTROL VS . E XPERIMENTAL G ROUP (I NT ERVENTION II_ S EMESTER II) ............ 339 T ABLE 53 Q. 8 E NGLISH C LASSES D ISCUSSION O F V ARIED I NTERCULTURAL C ONT ENT : I NTERVENTION I/ S EMESTER I ................................................................................................................................... 341 T ABLE 54 Q. 8 E NGLISH C LASSES D ISCUSSION O F V ARIED I NTERCULTURAL C ONT ENT : I NTERVENTION II/S EMESTER II ............................................................................................................................. 342 T ABLE 55 Q. 11 I NTERCULTURAL C OMMUNICAT IVE C OMPETENCE S ELF - ASSESSMENT : I NTERVENTION I/S EMESTER I ................................................................................................................................ 344 T ABLE 56 Q. 11 I NTERCULTURAL C OMMUNICATI VE C OMPETENCE S ELF - ASSESSMENT : I NTERVENTION II/S EMESTER II ............................................................................................................................. 346 T ABLE 57 Q. 12 I NTERCULTURAL C ONTENT L EARNED IN E NGLIS H C LASSES : I NTERVENTION I-S EMESTER I .................................................................................................................................................... 347 T ABLE 58 Q. 12 I NTERCULTURAL C ONTENT L EARNED IN E NGLIS H C LASSES : I NTERVENTION II/S EMESTER II .................................................................................................................................................... 349 T ABLE 59 Q. 13 C ONSULTING RE FERENCES TO LEARN A BOUT CULTURES : I NTERVENT ION I/S EMESTER I .... 350 T ABLE 60 Q13 C ONSULTING REFERENCES TO LEARN ABOUT C ULTURES : I NTERVE NTION II/S EMESTER II ... 352 T ABLE 61 Q17 I NTERESTED I N LEARNING ABOUT F OREIGN AND THE C OST A R ICAN C ULTURE : I NTERVENTION I ................................................................................................................................................... 354 T ABLE 62 Q17 I NTERESTED I N L EARNING ABOUT F OREI GN C ULTURES AND THE C OSTA R ICAN C ULTURE : I NTERVENTION II ........................................................................................................................... 355 T ABLE 63 Q18 E NGLISH T EACHING M ETHOD E FFECTIVENESS IN D EVELOPING ICC: I NTERVENTION I/S EMESTER I ................................................................................................................................ 357 xlvii T ABLE 64 Q18 E NGLISH T EACHING M ETHOD E FFECTI VENESS IN D EVELOPI NG ICC: I NTERVENTION II /S EMESTER II ................................................................................................................................ 358 T ABLE 65 Q19 P ROMOTION OF I NTERCULTURAL C OMMUNICATIVE C OMPET ENCE : I NTERVENTION I/S EMESTER I ................................................................................................................................ 360 T ABLE 66 Q19 P ROMOTION OF I NTERCULTURAL C OMMUNICATIVE C OMPET ENCE : I NTERVENTION II/ S EMESTER II ................................................................................................................................ . 362 T ABLE 67 Q20 B ENEFITS OF A UTHENT IC , D IGITAL (A UDIOVISUAL ) R ESOURCES : I NTERVENTION I/S EMESTER I ................................................................................................................................................... 364 T ABLE 68 Q20 B ENEFITS OF A UTHENT IC , D IGITAL (A UDIOVISUAL ) R ESOURCES : I NTERVENTION II/S EMESTER II .................................................................................................................................................. 365 T ABLE 69 Q. 26 E NGLISH L ANGUAGE L EARNING T HROUGH A C OMBINED A PPROACH (CLIL/PBL): I NTERVENTION I ............................................................................................................................ 367 T ABLE 70 Q. 26 E NGLISH L ANGUAGE L EARNING T HROUGH A C OMBINED A PPROACH (CLIL/PBL): I NTERVENTION II ........................................................................................................................... 369 T ABLE 71 Q. 29 C OMBINED M ETHOD TO I MPR OVE L INGUISTIC A BILITY AND ICC: I NTERVENTION I/S EMESTER I ................................................................................................................................ 371 T ABLE 72 Q. 29 C OMBINED M ETHOD TO I MPR OVE L INGUISTIC A BILITY AND ICC: I NTERVENTION II/ S EMESTER II ................................................................................................................................ . 372 T ABLE 73 Q. 30 I NTEGRATING THE I NTERCULTURAL C OMPONENT : I NTERVENTI ON I/S EMESTER I ............. 374 T ABLE 74 Q. 30 I NTEGRATING THE I NTERCULTURAL C OMPONENT : I NTERVENTI ON II/S EMESTER II ........... 375 xlviii INDEX OF FIGURES F IGURE 1 I NTERCULTURAL C OMMUNICATI VE C OMPETENCE D IMENSIO NS .................................................. 38 F IGURE 2 B YRAM ' M ODEL OF I NTERCULTURAL C OMMUNICAT IVE C OMPETENCE ........................................ 39 F IGURE 3 D IMENS IONS OF I NTERCULTURAL C OMMUNICATIVE C OMPETENCE ............................................. 44 F IGURE 4 I NTERCULTURAL S PEAKER C OMPETENC ES P ROPOSED BY B YRAM ................................................ 52 F IGURE 5 T HE 4 C+1 C ONCEPTUAL F RAMEWORK FOR CLIL .................................................................... 77 F IGURE 6 C OYLE ´ S L ANGUAGE T RIPTYCH ................................................................................................ . 80 F IGURE 7 PBL N ATURE OF L EARNING ...................................................................................................... 97 F IGURE 8 PBL P RINCIPLES ................................................................................................................... 103 F IGURE 9 CLIL AND PBL H YBRID A PPROACH TO E NHANCE ICC ............................................................ 187 F IGURE 10 ISUACAFO: T HE P ROCEDURAL S TEPS FOR ICC P LANNING ................................................. 194 F IGURE 11 G AGNÉ ’ S E VENTS OF I NSTRUCTI ON ...................................................................................... 196 F IGURE 12 L ANGUAGE C LASSROOM I NSTRUCTION FOR ICC: H YBRID CLIL AND PBL A PPROACH ............ 197 F IGURE 13 ICC S ELF -A SSESSMENT S CALE M EAN D IFFER ENCE : I NTERVENTION V S . C ONTROL G ROUP (I NT I) .................................................................................................................................................... 232 F IGURE 14 ICC S ELF -A SSESSMENT S CALE M EAN D IFFER ENCE : I NTERVENTION V S . C ONTROL G ROUP (I NT II) .................................................................................................................................................... 236 F IGURE 15 G RAPHICAL R EPRESENTATION OF THE M EAN D IFFERENC ES (I NTERVENTION I AND II) ............. 240 F IGURE 16 B OXPLOT FOR K NOWLEDGE : I NTERVENTION I VS I NTERVENT ION II ......................................... 243 F IGURE 17 B OXPLOT FOR C RITICAL A WARE NESS : I NTERVENT ION I VS I NTERVENTI ON II ............................ 244 F IGURE 18 B OXPLOT FOR A TTITUDE : I NTERVENTION I VS I NTERVENTI ON II ............................................. 245 F IGURE 19 B OXPLOT FOR ICC S KILLS : I NTERVENTION I VS I NT ERVENTION II ........................................... 246 F IGURE 20 G RAPHICAL R EPRESENTATION OF M EANS G RADE D IFFERENC E : C ONTROL VS I NTERVENT ION G ROUPS ....................................................................................................................................... 256 F IGURE 21 B OXPLOTS FOR I NTERCULTURAL Q UI Z : I NTERVENTION I AND II (C ONTROL VS . I NTERVENTION G ROUPS ) ...................................................................................................................................... 257 F IGURE 22 G RAPHICAL R EPRESENTATION OF Q UIZ M EAN D IFFERENCE : I NTERVENTION I AND II (I NTEGRATED E NGLISH I &II) ........................................................................................................ 259 F IGURE 23 B OX P LOTS FOR G RADES : I NTERVENTION I VS II .................................................................... 259 F IGURE 24 ICC H YBRID A PPROACH M EAN D IFFERE NCES AF TER I NTERVENTION I VS I NTERVENTI ON II ..... 271 F IGURE 25 CLIL AND PBL B ENEFITS :(I NTERVENTION I) ........................................................................ 289 F IGURE 26 P ROJECT M APPING T HEMES : CLIL AND PBL B ENEFITS (I NT ERVENTION II) ........................... 292 F IGURE 27 M IND M APPING T HEME : P REPARATION FOR E NCOUNTERS (I NTERVENTI ON I) ......................... 294 F IGURE 28 P ROJECT M APPING T HEMES : P REPARATION FOR E NCOUNTERS (I NTERVENTION II) .................. 297 F IGURE 29 P ROJECT M APPING T HEME : O NE ’ S O WN C ULT URE P ERSPECTIVES ........................................ 299 F IGURE 30 P ROJECT M APPING T HEMES : O NE ’ S O WN C ULTURE P ERSPECTI VES ( I NTERVENTION II) ........ 302 F IGURE 31 A SSESSMENT TASKS COM PARISON : INTE RVENTIO N I ................................................................ 314 F IGURE 32 A SSESSMENT TASKS COM PARISON : INTE RVENTIO N II ............................................................... 317 F IGURE 33 Q.1 C OMPARISON FOR PRE AND POSTTEST _ INTERVENTIO N I ................................................... 338 F IGURE 34 Q.1 C OMPARISON FOR PRE AND POSTTEST _ INTERVENTIO N II .................................................. 340 F IGURE 35 Q. 8 C OMPARISON FOR PRE AND POST TEST _ INTERVEN TION I .................................................. 341 xlix F IGURE 36 Q. 8 C OMPARISON FOR PRE AND POST TEST _ INTERVEN TION I .................................................. 343 F IGURE 37 Q. 11 I NTERCULTURAL C OMMUNICATIVE C OMPETENCE S ELF - ASS ESSMENT : I NTERVENTION I /S EMESTER I ................................................................................................................................ . 345 F IGURE 38 Q. 11 I NTERCULTURAL C OMMUNICATIVE C OMPETENCE S ELF - ASS ESSMENT : I NTERVENTION II /S EMESTER II ................................................................................................................................ 346 F IGURE 39 Q. 12 I NTERCULTURAL C ONTENT L EARNED IN E NGLISH C LASSES : I NTERVENTION I ................. 348 F IGURE 40 Q. 12 I NTERCULTURAL CONTENT LEARNED IN E NGLI SH CLASSES : I NTERVENTION II/ S EMESTER II .................................................................................................................................................... 349 F IGURE 41 Q13 C ONSULTING REF ERENCES TO LEARN AB OUT CULTURES : I NTERVENT ION I/S EMESTER I ..... 351 F IGURE 42 Q13 C ONSULTING REF ERENCES TO L EARN ABOUT C ULTURES : I NTERVE NTION II/S EMESTER II . 353 F IGURE 43 Q17 I NTEREST IN L EARNING ABOUT F OREIGN AND THE C OSTA R ICAN C ULTURE : I NTERVENTION I .................................................................................................................................................... 354 F IGURE 44 Q17 I NTEREST IN L EARNING ABOUT F OREIGN C ULTURES AN D THE C OST A R ICAN C ULTURE : I NTERVENTION II ........................................................................................................................... 356 F IGURE 45 Q18 E NGLISH T EACHING M ETHOD E FFECTIVENESS IN D EVELOPING ICC: I NTERVENTION I S EMESTER I ................................................................................................................................... 357 F IGURE 46 Q18 E NGLISH T EACHING M ETHOD E FFECTIVENESS IN D EVELOPING ICC: I NTERVENTION II /S EMESTER II ................................................................................................................................ 359 F IGURE 47 Q1 19 P ROMOTION OF I NTERCULTURAL C OMMUNICATI VE C OMPETENCE : I NTERVENT ION I/ S EMESTER I ................................................................................................................................... 361 F IGURE 48 Q19 P ROMOTION OF I NTERCULTURAL C OMMUNICAT IVE C OMPETENCE : I NTERVENTION II S EMESTER II ................................................................................................................................ . 362 F IGURE 49 Q.20 B ENEFITS OF A UTHENTI C , D IGITAL (A UDIOVISUAL ) R ESOURCES : I NTERVENTION I /S EMESTER I ................................................................................................................................ . 364 F IGURE 50 Q20 B ENEFITS OF A UTHENTI C , D IGITAL ( AUDIOVISUAL ) R ESOURCES : I NTERVENTION II ......... 366 F IGURE 51 Q. 26 E NGLISH L ANGUAGE L EARNING T HROUGH A C OMBINED A PPROACH (CLIL/PBL): I NTERVENTION I ............................................................................................................................ 368 F IGURE 52 Q. 26 E NGLISH L ANGUAGE L EARNING T HROUGH A C OMBINED A PPROACH (CLIL/PBL): I NTERVENTION II ........................................................................................................................... 370 F IGURE 53 Q. 29 C OMBINED M ETHOD TO I MPROV E L INGUISTIC A BILITY AND ICC: I NTERVENTION I /S EMESTER I ................................................................................................................................ . 371 F IGURE 54 Q. 29 C OMBINED M ETHOD TO I MPROV E L INGUISTIC A BILITY AND ICC: I NTERVENTION II /S EMESTER II ................................................................................................................................ 373 F IGURE 55 Q. 30 I NTEGRATING THE I NTER CULTURAL C OMPONENT : I NTERVENTI ON I/ S EMESTER I ........... 374 F IGURE 56 Q. 30 I NTEGRATING THE I NTER CULTURAL C OMPONENT I NT ERVENTION II /S EMESTER II .......... 376 l LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CA Critical Awareness CDF Cognitive Discourse Functions CLIL Content and Language Integrated Learning COVID-19 Coronavirus disease of 2019 EFL English as a Foreign Language EU European Council FL Foreign Language ICC Intercultural Communicative Competence IC Intercultural Competence ICDO International Civil Defense Organization IS Intercultural Speaker MEP Ministry of Publ ic Education OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development PBL Project based learning SL Second Language UNA National University of Costa Rica UN United Nations UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization 1 INTRODUCTION 2 “Cultural differences should not separate us from each other, but rather cultural diversity brings a collective strength that can benefit all of humanity” Robert Alan Aurthur When reflecting on the role education plays in shaping societies in the context of rapid technological and social changes, it is inevitable to notice a pace dissonance on equipping citizens with the tools to influence and adapt to their surroundings. The profound changes, which have taken place in the last twenty years, serve as an indicator of the kind of future changes humanity will endeavor to achieve and will undoubtedly lead to rethinking traditional views and education methods. Such transformations, driven by economic or social forces or by information communication technology, keep changing and revolutionizing the world in a way that requires people to be vigilant and to avail themselves of updated preparation. The gro wth of international commerce, globalization and technology have shortened geographical distances and contributed to increasing intercultural communicative encounters worldwide. Thus, societies can hardly remain monocultural as the waves of immigration have transformed nations into diverse territories, tinting places with pluricultural and linguistic diversity while increasing the chances for constant intercultural contact with the poss ibility of either a positive engagement or potential conflict as cultures interact with one another. In times of pandemic, the chain of events has shown how unprepared nations and individuals face a disruptive hazard such as COVID-19. The whole world has been tested as the virus unfolds fragility and reveals noncooperation in dealing with global issues. The lessons taught are many, but one directly points toward the requirement to enable learners with critical skills and competences to maximize a vision for international-intercultural collaboration, understanding, and empathy to support the compromise required for a healthy coexistence. Learners need to get focused competence training to face future challenges. Therefore, there is a need to foster or 3 reinforce healthy and effective dialogic practices in a framework of open disposition to help and learn from one another, globally and/or locally. Education, as a primary pillar of that framework, must guarantee an ongoing, transformational process through mechanisms that ensure progress and foster innovation to cope with the world’s demands. The role of education is fundamental in e ducating citizens to recognize and better respond to new challenges. In terms of better equipping learners, the European Council (2018) has agreed and revised the recommendation of critical competences for lifelong learning, digital competence, multilingualism, learning to learn, citizenship, cultural awareness, languages, and skills such as critical t hinking, problem-solving, teamwork, communication, negotiation, creativity, and intercultural communication. Policy makers and educators are to reassure the compromise to enhance social and intercultural skills in the context of digital revolution. Without question, curriculum revision should be a habitual practice to facilitate the development of knowledge, competences, and skill s to better communicate, collaborate, and interact with other people and cultures. Acknowledging the need for transformational instruction is crucial to equip future graduates and citizens with practical skills and competencies. In it s social role, the university is called upon not only to train a workforce of professionals but also to educate active, mindful citizens aware of the plurality of views and, above all, able t o respond successfully to local and global problems. As inhabitants of planet earth, an intercultural outlook can enhance the possibility of building a better world, one framed in mutual understanding, empathy, justice, and respect. These particular ways of thinking, skills, and competences will play a fundamental role in shaping the future that the next generations will inherit. Since intercultural encounters take place almost daily, language educators in the twenty- first century are called upon to empower student acquisition of foreign language knowledge, skills, attitudes, and cultural awareness to interrelate in today’s multicultural, interconnected world. 4 Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) seems to be a suitable path to facilitate foreign language learning and promote a lifelong learning process during which a profound change in students’ perceptions of life can occur, enhancing the capacity to expand on their world views. The recognition of ICC as a pivotal competence is not new; an ongoing debate over the issue has captivated the interest of many leading language educators and researchers in exploring its depth and extent. There is an agreement in the foreign language teaching community on the need to educate foreign language learners to become intercultural speakers who can manage both linguist ic and intercultural complexities when communicating with culturally different interlocutors. Byram (2008) describes an intercultural speaker as someone who is able to take an “external” perspective on oneself while interacting with others. Foreign language users must become optimal intercultural citizens in a world of ever-expanding and ever-mixing diversities as part of their communicative ability (Byram et al., 2002). Language learners should maintain appropriate and effective communication practices wi th culturally diverse native or foreign/second-language s peakers in both face- to -face and virtual scenarios. Such an understanding of cultures would prepare individuals to operate globally in accordance with contemporary and expected worldwide developments while significantly benefiting learners from a social, economic, and personal standpoint. The challenges that have emerged in the foreign language classroom should be addressed by revisiting and updating English language instruction. It is imperative to constantly revise the curriculum to ensure that it is in tune with the real world. In that sense, educators, as agents of change, can facilitate novel practices to mediate an active, experiential, and collaborative learning experience. Meaningful possibilit ies may arise when using the target language as a vehic le to negotiate varied, intercultural, contextualized, real-life content as opportunities for educating competent, functioning intercultural speakers. 11 There are countless unsolved social issues around the globe ; for example, regular waves of immigration forced by the poor living conditions in many parts of the world. The sanitary and economic crisis can only be effectively and properly managed when governments adopt a more collaborative, proactive global outlook by recognizing that individualistic approaches do not help to solve collective issues. Educational systems must adapt their vision, mission, resources, and means to offer a new paradigm that can provide citizens and societies with the tools to face these ch allenges. Global collaboration, cooperation, understanding, dialogue, respect, and empathy can outline a more fruitful path to respond to new changing contexts on a worldwide scale. There is a need to contribute to the formation of i ntegral, active, and m indful citizens aware of their power to promote change toward a healthy coexistence in an interconnected global effort. As inhabitants of planet earth, an intercultural outlook can enhance chances for building a better world framed in mutual understanding, empathy, justice, and respect, which may contribute to reducing the tendency to mere dualities. Promoting and boosting attitudes linked to interculturality is critical, perhaps now more than ever and that is the reason why some efforts have been devoted to developing the intercultura l communicative competence (ICC), hoping to make it an instrument to advance in that direction (Dombi, 2021; Fantini, 2020; Gómez-Rodríguez, 2018). The foreign language teaching and learning process has passed through different pedagogical views over the last decades. Many efforts have been devoted to develop a theoretical framework aimed at understanding how to train individuals to communicate in a nonnative language effectively. There is a widespread agreement to define language as a symbol scheme composed of words coded in speech and visual representations governed by technical forms and norms. However, language in terms of human communication extends its range beyond that operational conceptualization. Language is a collective communicative act resulting from its 12 members varied practices reflected in linguistic signs. Languages, like cultures, are highly dynamic and evolve over time. Variability and diversity that characterize human reality permeate language embodying particular world visions as operative me aning making (Crystal et al., 2021; Armstrong & Ferguson, 2010). Conventionally, learning a foreign language was linked to language knowledge; i.e. knowing about the language, the s ystem of structures to produce, understand, and recognize utterances of vocabulary, syntax, and phonetics, which promoted “a process that involved students repeating or imitating new information” (Moeller & Catalano, 2015, pp. 327). It was later argued that the mere management of language knowledge was not sufficient to enable individuals to become competent communicators. Laguage rules were considered to be useless without the acquisition of the roles of use that allow learner to use the language appropriately. Indeed, t here is ample research evidence that learning a foreign or second language implicates the student in a complex multidimensional process in which they are required to learn and effectively mana ge much more than the technical system that the language encodes (Chomsky, 1965; Widdowson, 1983; Lantolf, 2009; Moeller & Catalano, 2015; Bagiyan et al., 2021). The process of learning a foreign language was then considered as a complex experience allowing emergent insights that have contributed to i ts evolution as a research field. A key word in this trajectory has been that of communicative competence. When the notion of communicative competence was first addressed, it was posed to fully comprehend the factors that played a part in developing the ability to understand and speak a particular language effectively. In 1965, the term caught significant attention when Chomsky came out with a theoretical approximation in which he suggested a distinction between competence and performance . That differentiation opened a much more vigorous discussion in foreign language learning. 13 In his scheme, Chomsky (1965) remarked that competence involves the knowledge shared by two individuals (the speaker and the listener) when conversing. Language is believed to be acquired naturally during communicative acts, enabling individuals to speak, understand, and judge utterances fluently and intuitively. Chomsky’s idea of linguistic competence advocates the knowledge an individual has or develops about a language in terms of rules. He sustained that mastering linguistic competence was an ideal goal for language users. His perception was later debated to be insufficient since it involved only grammatical knowledge and disregarded other conditions of use to communicate, engage, and interpret linguistic messages. After Chomsky had differentiated between competence and performance, many other researchers contributed to the theoretical discussion preparing the ground for the emergence of notions and theory development that would influence language teaching development. The 1970s and 1980s were years marked as flourishing decades in language teaching; new proposals contributed to understanding the limitations to the emphasis exclusively given to the linguistic system. The theoretical discussion pointed to the sociocultural component, which enabled the interlocutors to convey and decode messages in given contexts as tools for effective language use in communicat ive exchanges. Such contributions allowed reflections that impacted language teaching methods, favoring the shift from an emphasis on proficiency in language forms proposed by Chomsky to a more integral concept that includes other relevant components and competencies recognized as enhancing effective communication. One of the most recognized contributions in that regard came from Hymes (1972). He debated Chomsky’s distinction and outlined the necessity to study language from a more integral perspective by looking at two competencies : linguistic competence, and communicative competence. He relates linguistic competence to the ability to produce and understand appropriate 14 grammatical structures and defines communicative competence as the ability to build and understand proper sentences for a particular situation (Hymes, 1972). Hymes’ strongest argument revolved around the idea that communicative competence cannot be solely comprehended as the ability to use grammatical competence or forms, but as the ability to use grammatical and sociolinguistic knowledge in varied communicative contexts. He believed that the adquisition of the communicative competence was much more complex since many factors such as behavior, implementation, formality, appropriacy c onstraints, the who, what, where, when, the how, and the why played a crucial role and endow ed interlocutors with the needed resources to maintain fluent and effective communication (H ymes, 1972). In other w ords, this researcher analized the process needed to better prepare speakers to face diverse communicative situations while adjusting to the setting, the participants’ purpose, tone , content, and the channel of the communicative act. Additionally, Hymes also specified that learners need ed to adopt culturally accep table ways of interacting with others in different situations and relationships. Linguistic knowledge, according to Hymes (1972), is not enough since the merely isolated understanding of a language does not correctly prepare learners for successful language use. The transformational notion established a connection between competence and communication, accelerating the emergence of what has been recognized as an acceptable approach in the community of language teaching, which sets as a goal the development of student communicative competence. Hymes suggested that engagement in any type of communication, especially the kind maintained through a foreign language, requires instruction and adjustment to the context, culture, or the situation involved. His work has been c onsidered to offer a more representative and descriptive notion of competence because it entitles the use of linguistic competence in various communicative situations, incorporating the sociolinguistic perspective. In that regard, Hymes is 15 believed to be the father of the communicative competence concept since he efficiently provided significant insights toward understanding the concept. His perceptions were supported and expanded by many applied linguists and researchers who have contributed to developing the communicative theory in language learning and language acquisition (Hymes, 1972). Hymes’s vision of communicative competence is centered on important issues that later led directions toward the need for speakers to adapt their behavior and way of thinking when interacting with others culturally different. This observation pointed toward a new way of understanding communication. The emphasis was not only directed over the message and words, but it was now conceived to be a more holistic process adding a social dimension, ignored in earlier studies. To understand the meaning of the notion of communicative competence, some significant contributions will be discussed. Savignon (1972) outlined the concept of communicative competence as the ability to function in a genuinely communicative setting through dynamic negotiation or dialogue in which one’s linguistic competence must adapt to the informational input, both linguistic and paralinguistic, of the interlocutors. Canale and Swain (1980) proposed what has been a widely accepted concept of communicative competence. They refer to it as the knowledge a person has about the language itself and its use, which consists of three primary components: grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence. These three kinds of competence relate to each other and are crucial for effective language use. Gram matical compete nce is defined as knowing the underlying grammatical principles, lexical, morphology, phonology, syntax, grammar, and semantics rules (Canale & Swain, 1980). The sociolinguistic competence is explained in terms of sociocultural practices needed to understand and interpret messages in a social context to fulfill communicative functions (Canale & Swain, 1980). The strategic competence is linked to the knowledge of verbal and nonverbal 16 communication strategies that the speaker may use when c ommunication breakdowns occur (Canale & Swain, 1980). Later, Canale (1983) added a fourth component, which he called discourse competence. According to Canale, discourse competence relates to the knowledge of combining utterances to achieve certain communicative functions. The competencies described by Canale and Swain gave a much more detailed orientation of what the communicative act entails, putting into perspective the complexity and multicompetence domains required. The four competencies support an interdependence of linguistic and functional components of language in communication, implying the merge of a knowledge system and the skills to develop communicative competence. The rationale proposed by Hymes (1972), Canale and Swain (1980), and Canale (1983) prepared the field to better understand the elements that come into play when interaction or negotiation takes place. During the 1980s, the communicative competence model emphasized other skills, behaviors, and aspects such as empathy, connection, and interest as influential in strengthening the notion of communicative competence. The communicative competence view is often connected to the tangible and intangible knowledge of the language along with the skills and behaviors that serve to adjust properly during a conversation. It is straightforward that the earlier proposition of linguistic competence from which language teaching and learning relied upon resulted limited and even simplistic compared to the later proposal of communicative competence where individuals are intended to know much more than language forms in order to advance in using the language appropriately in communicative situations. Key to the rise of the communicative approach in language teaching was the conclusion that linguistic competence does not automatically result in communicative competence (Canale & Swain, 1980). The term gained sufficient attention from proponents whose discussion and research provided valuable 17 contributions that helped to enrich the concept of communicative competence. One of those contributions came from Van Ek (1986), who suggested a more integrative model in language teaching. His integral view is concerned with six intertwined key domains of communicative competence. This author proposed to study the term of communicative competence by looking at the following: Discourse competence is seen as the appropriate use of strategies to interpret texts; strategic competence, a s the correct use of the communicative system and sociocultural competence, understood as the skill to interact with other people. Linguistic competence is described as the ability to produce and decode meaningful and grammatically correct utterances through proper language rules. Social competence defines the skills needed to interrelate with others recurring to motivation, confidence, empathy, and the aptitude to properly conduct in social situations. Sociocultural competence relates to the use of a specific sociocultural frame of reference. Sociolinguistic competence is defined as the knowledge and awareness of connections between linguistic forms and their situational functional meaning. Strategic competence refers to communication strategies used when communication does not flow properly, and meaning is not being understood. Moreover, Van Ek (1986) explored the role of the social and cultural aspects in his comprehensive framework, bringing to the discussion the influence of culture in sociocultural scenarios, urging to recognize the language and culture interrelatedness. He came to acknowledge that an individual cannot become competent in communication if key functional and practical sociocultural aspects are omitted and not integrated as part of their training since such elements are embedded in every language and function as a frame of reference for its interlocutors. 18 Both of the models described by Canale and Swain and Van Ek considered a division of competences and sub-competences that play a fundamental role in achieving communicative competence. Their models refer to a global, integral theoretical notion of communicative competence, pointing out that the language learner must have skills to get and create meaning by decoding and encoding messages in diverse contexts. Since these models were developed, the subsequent discussion allowed a grow ing body of literature that explored language teaching outside the scope of a monoc ultural and monolinguistic context, gene rating functional positions for second/foreign language teaching and learning. This new paradigm involved a shift in the general objective of foreign/second learning from focusing on linguistic competence to communicative com petence linked to sociolinguistic aspects. Practitioners and language educators acknowledged that it was not sufficient for learners to become effective communicators just by teaching them how to produce grammatically correct forms and structures if they did not manage or developed the required skills and strategies to use that language knowledge in real and authentic communicative situations. That was a realization that invigorated the debate for more ideas and notions around language functions. The proposal of communicative competence was viewed as a complex and dynamic process that entails language learning, adaptation, observation, development, and assessment. T he emphasis on the act of communication meant significant changes in language teaching, such as the nature of tasks and the shift in teacher and learner roles. The teacher-oriented methodology changed to a more student-center ed approach, where students’ interest was taken into account to engage them to take a more active learning role. Such perceptions paved the road to reposition and redirecting language learning primary goals. Leading experts in the subject (Byram, 1997; Feng et al., 2009; Kramsch, 1993; Liddicoat et al., 2003) and many others, have sustained that the traditional language learning goals should 19 not be merely seen in terms of communicative competence as proposed by Hymes. Supporters of a more holistic view find it limited, promote a shift toward the notion of intercultural communicative competence (ICC), and suggest the importance of establishing a link between communication competence and culture. In the words of Kramsch (1993), after years of communicative euphoria, some language teachers are becoming dissatisfied with merely functional uses of language, and some are pleading to supplement the traditional acquisition of communication skills with some intellectually legitimate, humanistic oriented, cultural content. In her scheme, she advocates that cultural teaching and learning should not be addressed as background or factual knowledge but as a “feature of language itself” (Kramsch, 1993, p. 8). The inspiring idea that language is always entrenched in the context of a g iven culture and one cannot be studied without the other regained strength and captured the interest of many researchers who later supported initiatives for a reconstruction and redefinition of foreign/second language learning and teaching aims. The communicative approach in EFL contexts found voices criticizing and advocating for a more effective teaching and learning model. 1.1.1. The cultural dimension in Foreign Language Teaching As the communicative competence movement gained force and influence, voices joined to construct a more comprehensive view of the teaching praxis. This included the role of culture in the learning and teaching pedagogy, which invigorated the debate recognizing that successful communication needed to take into account the lin guistic and sociocultural dimensions. Consequently, the role of culture in the EFL contexts adquired a central role despite its elusive nature. Li nguists and anthropologists have recognized that culture is a complex and defiant term to delimit due to the different meanings assigned from diverse people and environments, which 20 inspires philosophical quests over what determines life meanings and the nature of humans’ practices. In language education, the interrelation between language and culture has only strengthened thanks to research and the popularized consensus that language learning cannot be approached without paying attention to the cultural component (Nieto, 2001, Tang,2006; Larrea-Espinar, 2015; Risager; 2011). Larrea-Espinar and Raigón-Rodríguez (2019) explain that from the mid 50’s to the early 90’s culture in the language classroom was addressed to teach and learn facts about the target language culture embracing a notion of culture as a fixed and visible concept. This notion of culture eluded the inherently holistic nature of the term when categorizing cultures for practical purposes. Meeting an operational intention, ideas that permeate the how to achieve the interconnection of language and culture are ingrained in the definition adopted. Therefore, reflecting on the core properties of the wide variety of definitions available provides the opportunity to progress implicating a merged narrative of language and culture that meets balanced aims. Understanding culture in the context of language education cannot be perceived as a simplistic, immovable construct. The inclusion of culture in the foreign language has been sustained by the diverse angles linked to the concept weighting the sensible factors that intervene in the process. For instance, Byram (2020) warns about the dangers of presenting culture as if it did not change over time or as if there was only one set of beliefs, meanings, and behaviors in any given country. In the same line, Savignon and Sysoyev (2005) point out that “cultures are never static” (p. 36). In the same vein, Liddicoat and Scarino (2013) define culture as dynamic, emergent, and evolving through the ways in which individuals use language. 27 kind of ability individuals need to develop “to communicate appropri ately and successfully in intercultural situations based on one’s intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes” (p. 247). For Lustig and Koester (2007) intercultural communication is “a symbolic, interpretive, transactional and contextual process where people from different cultures create shared meanings” (p. 46). As identified in the definitions, all share core ideas about the essence of the concept implicating a progressive process that concerns the individual’s cognitive, affective, and behavioral attributes (Beamer, 1992; Hammer et al., 2003), seeking to raise positive attitude and empathy and mindfulness toward other cultures (Gudykunst, 1993; Arasaratnam & Doerfel, 2005). The relevance of developing such competence is grounded on the critical and functional component that communication represents to human existence and evolution. Accordingly, the study of intercultural communication is framed within the communication discipline, where the concept of communication is understood as the conjoint construction of meaning through purposeful and decoded messages expected to reach significance among interlocutors. Neuliep (2015) defined communication as “the dynamic process of encoding and decoding verbal and nonverbal messages” (p. 17). In t his sense, human communication has always been one of the most fulfilling experiences individuals can have as social animals. The foundations of human development proven through history rely on societies’ ability to adopt the means by exercising negotiation and the art of effective communication for progressive understanding and healthy coexistence. From a functional perspective the benefits of intercultural communication assure a collective and individual wellbeing. Neuliep (2009) states that healthy communities can be built by encouraging individuals to work collectively maximizing goals’ achievement that benefit all civilians regardless of culture accelerating economic benefits as well. In terms of the individual, 28 Neuliep (2009) sustains that learning about other individuals’ ways of life, values, history, and habits can be a source that generates deep learning and a juncture where the self and the other can be discovered or rediscovered. From Neuliep’s reasonable assertions one can interpret that a genuine int erest in listening and learning about the other can avoid the common misinterpretat ions and conflict that originate due to cultural and linguistic differences. He claims that individuals can find strategies to reorganize daily encounters. In this regard, he states that, “only through intercultural communication can conflict be managed and reduced. Only by competently and peacefully i nteracting with others who are different from ourselves can our global village survive” (p. 2). Genuine intercultural dialogue and receptive attitudes toward differences are some of the ingredients intended to achieve fruitful and effective communication. In general terms, intercultural communication sets as a primary objective to improve the wa y individuals communicate by self-assessing perspective s, close-minded behaviors to new visions of mutual learning, and consciously accepting that each culture creates its own way of looking at the world and their lives. In that way, IC has been especially relevant by providing individuals with a tool that supports human negotiation and engagement in a context of intercultural-assertive communication; conceptions that have permeated many domains and fields; EFL being one of them. 1.1.3. Intercultural Communicative Competence in Foreign Language Learning The intercultural dimension reached foreign language learning classrooms through the appealing arguments and benefits behind the ontological core concepts of intercultural communication and communicative competence. The rapid changing contexts, the global interchanges, and the fact that most nations and individuals from diverse cultures have become 29 more connected have supported initiatives on the need to strengthen intercultural approximations in the EFL context for functional, instrumental, and developmental reasons. Advocates in the field of language education have observed that the objectives of foreign/second language learning have progressively transformed from a focus on linguistic competence to communicative competence to intercultural communicative competence (Yang & Fleming, 2013; Cooperias, 2002) driven by the need to emphasize culture and critical cultural awareness and bring it to a central position within integral foreign/second language purposes (Byram, 2020; Kramsch, 1993; Risager, 2007; Stewar t & Strathern, 2017). The introduction of the intercultural dimension in EFL clases contributed to consolidating novel teaching and learning perspectives that seek ed advancing in terms of language aims but also at educating that whole learner and also to training them to develop strategies to engage in intercultural situations communicating and behaving accordingly. Learning a foreign language gain ed instrumental recognition, regarded as a tool to provide learners with more holistic opportunities to study the language itself along with crucial intercultural components that entitle them the ability to display appropriate communicative decisions and behaviors in particular, varied contexts. This perception developed from the notion of communicative competence in which an interlocutor’s knowledge of the rules helps in evaluating what to do and how to act in specific circumstances, groups, times, and places (Holmes & O’Neill, 2012). In intercultural communication, knowledge, skills, critical cultural awareness, and attitudes are essential to maintain effe ctive intercultural comm unication. These set of dimensions have been extrapolated to the language teaching field claiming to support a new conceptualization of what the new language speaker needs for the new contexts. Therefore, ICC embraces a different view of language teaching, thus significantly contributing to one of the most extended debates addressing 30 culture and language by promoting a teaching and learning praxis in which foreign/second language and culture are inextricably interwoven. Arguments from communicative competence and intercultural communication served as bases to pursue a multifaceted conceptualization of what is implicated in educating foreign/second language learners as whole be ings and compete nt communicators. These viewpoints consider t he process of foreign language learning from a different perspective, which reformulates purposes, aim s, procedures, strategies, and roles under a new language pedagogy. Reframing the central role of the learner endowed with knowledge, awareness of both foreign and home cultures, skills, attitudes required to communicate across diverse contexts (Byram, 1997; Kramsch, 1993; McConachy et al., 2022 ). Henceforth, the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) emerges as an amalgamation comprising communication and interculture that highlights the hybrid, holistic nature of foreign/second language learning by touching matters as the self, home and foreign cultures and the world dynamics. An intercultural approach entailed shifting from a motionless approach where fixed facts about a particular culture were studied to involving students in a transformative process that impacts their character, and their communicative skills (Liddicoat et al, 2003). This is an ambitious but adequate path to facilitate foreign language learning and promote a long-life learning process. These ideas find support in the inextricable nexus between language and culture to develop the intercultural communicative competence, which not only affects the ability to function effectively in a foreign/second language but also helps students to develop smarter language and communicative attitude s and behaviors. Those viewpoints had led to the construction of a much more sophisticated and yet complex term to treat, apply, and operationalize that of intercultural communicative competence (ICC). In this sense, since the late 90s many linguists and researchers have been encouraging empirical and 31 scientific initiatives for moving from communicative competence to ICC in a straightforward model since the communicative competence approach fails to explicitly integrate the intercultural component. The term communicative competence, was first introduced in sociolinguistics and defined as what an interlocutor requires to handle in order to appropriately communicate in a specific speech community (Hymes, 1972). However, h is conception did not include the voices, contexts, needs and diversity of emerging times. In this regard, Byram believed that “successful communication might not only be viewed as the efficiency of information exchange” (1997, p. 3) and suggested the importance of bringing to the foreground the role of contextual and sociocultural dimensions as crucial in the process to develop communicative competent learners. Supporters of this new teaching philosophy helped providing the building blocks to coin a term that embraces an intimate relationship between language and culture, calling to mediate an intercultural process in the specific context of language learning. Emphasizing the idea that foreign language learning implicates intercultural learning based on the premise that learning a language implies the learning of shared meanings, values, and practices of that group as these are embodied in the language (Atkinson, 1999; Savignon, 1972; Kramsch, 1993,1998; Tang, 1999; Liddicoat and Scarino, 2013; Byram & Fleming, 1998). This argument has been supported on the fact that when people use a foreign/second language to communicate, these interactions are intrinsically intercultural since individuals’ cultural backgrounds (identity, behavior, attitude, values, views) come into play during these engagements. The literature points to Baxter (1983) as the first researcher who articulated the concept of ICC. He believed that communicative competence needed to be grounded in intercultural contextual interactions for effective communication. Baxter (1983) explained that the concept of ICC leads language educators to see specific communicative behaviors associated with the nature 32 of culture’s norms appropriateness. He also remarked that communication requires a deeper understanding of all the complexities and factors that come into play when communication occurs. Later , the concept ICC was reintroduced and explored in 1997 by Byra m, who challenged the notion of communicative competence (CC), which was prevalent in FL education at the time. Capturing the factors involved in intercultural communication, ICC included aspects of CC which Byram adverted to be neglected in previous theoretical conceptions concerned with the ability to use language appropriately according to context and purpose (Canale & Swain, 1980; Halliday, 1975; Hymes, 1972; van Ek, 1986). As Byran claimed, the principles of the communicative competence approach “ignor[ed] the significance of the social identities and cultural competence of the learner in any intercultural interaction” (1997, p. 8). Byram (1997) explains that foreign language learning encompasses a process based not only on learning grammar, voc abulary, syntax, or managing certain communicat ive situat ions. His analysis of Van Ek’s (1986) perception of linguistic competence, viewed as “the ability to apply knowledge of particular language rules and conventional meaning to produce and interpret spoken and written language” (p. 39), showed that it n eeded to be expanded in a more thoughtful, instructive, integral conceptualization by adding deeper functionalities for individuals to interpret and produce a particular language in intercultural environments. Byram expanded Van Ek’s notions of sociocultural, social and strategic c ompetences by considering that communication was not limited to the ability to use, understand, and decode language forms with situational appropriateness (Van Ek, 1986), but that the communicative process should incorporate a set of cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions to develop the ability to give meaning to the language produced by an interlocutor, which is taken for granted or negotiated and made explicit with the interlocutor (Byram, 2020). Regarding the notion of discourse competence, Byram (1997) 33 defines it as the ability to use, apply, manage, discover and negotiate strategies for producing and interpreting monologue or dialogue texts which track the conventions of the culture of an interlocutor. He provides in that way a more detailed construction to the one established by Van Ek (1986), who described it in terms of using appropriate strategies in the construction, interpretation, structuring, and processing of texts. Accordingly, Byram sets out to develop a new conceptual model that would capture the qualities of a competent speaker framing it as a person’s ability to interact and engage with others with the willingness and disposition to accept their world vision and perceptions through conscious reflections and evaluations of what the individual understands as different (Byram et al. 2009). He approached this view as a systemic se t of desired qualities/dimensions of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and critical cultural awareness (Byram, 2020). For Byram (1997, 2020) the inseparable connection between communicative competence (linguistic, sociolinguistic, and discourse) and intercultural competence (attitudes, knowledge, skills of interpretation and relating, skills of discovering and interacting, and critical cultura l awareness) constitute a teaching and learning frame of reference to facilitate a process where learners can transform their perspectives, and mindsets towards reflective and critical attitudes, beliefs and opinions while developing the ability to decenter his own world views (Byram et al., 2002). This process has tremendous implications for the individual in their linguistic, communicative, and personal development serving as a structure to potentially support and guide conscious actions and behaviors during communitive engagements. In other words, the patterns, attitudes, and behaviors of the interlocutors meet the expectations of the others involved in the interaction. To achieve such outcomes intercultural communicative competence requires a three- component framework, where affective, behavioral, and cognitive components are elicited by sufficient knowledge, motivation, and skills “as a pervasive and productive manner for considering 34 the competencies needed for intercultural communication” (Baker, 2015b p. 110). In this interplay, motivation in the context of intercultural engagements is a key element to make the process flow since it is subjective to one’s sensitivity, empathetic attitudes towards other cultures without it. Byram, Gribkova and Starkey (2002) contend that “language teaching within and intercultural dimension prepares learners for interaction and enables learners to understand and accept others and help them to see such interaction as a rewarding experience” (p.10). Another angle implies that intercultural language learning develops learners’ understanding of their own language(s) and culture(s), raises curiosity about other cultures and supports awareness of the role culture plays in transforming acquired frames of reference (Liddicoat and Scarino, 2013; Mezirow, 2000). Progressively, foreign language objectives have been changing, stressing the elements that contribute to effective communication while appreciating, reinforcing, and maintaining human relationships. The intercultural communicative approach moves away from other culture teaching models since the whole c oncept envisions language learners having positive communicative experiences that can potentially impact t hem in a holistic way . This approach can affect their lives and world vision by pursuing and strengthening tolerance, appreciation, mutual understanding, harmonic collaboration, transparent dialogue, and negotiation changing interactions in the context of today’s global community. Henceforth, from an intercultural teaching perspective, language students can find supplem entary opportunit ies to explore content, language, target culture(s) while developing an appreciation and inner reflection of what is considered familiar in terms of culture, both general and specific, as a base for empathizing with other cultures. Subsequently, one’s native culture should not be a forgotten element but seen as a key-functional aspect in the process of foreign language acquisition. Another argument that supports the ICC construct is that it contribute s to readjusting the role of the native speaker towards the model of the intercultural speaker who confidently manages a diverse cultural repertoire and exhibits curiosity for foreign 35 and native cultures to appropiately engage in today’s multicultural world (Kramsch 1993; Risager, 2007 ; Rivers, 2011; Byram, 2020). The understanding of the term of ICC has only been possible over a lively construction that envisioned communication as a multivariant act not limited to linguistic forms. In that sense, many initiatives follow ed defining proficiency in a foreign language linked to the intercultural dimension. Fo r instance, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages since 2001 has included the intercultural domain and listed intercultural skills and awareness as general competences learners need to develop during their formative process to function appropriately as citizens (Council of Europe, 2020). The references and implications since then have grown to influence policy documents, research, practices, and curricula in many countries around the world. Language learning represents higher educational goals that touch the leaner at deeper levels, raising their interest and curiosity about themselves, other cultures, and the world real dynamics. The numerous arguments, questions, and discussions over what and how language educators should mediate that transition have lasted for years inciting ICC models and research in educational settings through comprehensive lens within a framework of practical and real istic language learning goals. In this light, the ICC is still a young concept evolving in different modes, in different contexts and at different rates. 1.1.4 Byram’s Model of Intercultural Communicative Competence To explore the intercultural dimension in language teaching, Byran designed a model dividing the intercultural communicative competence into different dimensions. His model is a set of patterns that includes functional and necessary descriptions and qualities of ICC. Byram’s model will be explored to gasp practical ideas into what, why, and how to approach, teach, and assess the 36 ICC. Byram proposed in the late 90s one of the most influential theoretical models to understand the multidimensionality of ICC in the context of foreign language teaching. Byram’s (1997, 2008, 2020) primary objectives have been to redirect the significance of language teaching and learning in close rela tionship with the intercultural component, which, he believe s, has been overlooked by emphasizing linguistic aspects and technical discourse over the sociocultural appropriateness. Byram (1997) thought the pedagogy raised upon Hymes’ definition of communicative competence was limited regarding the inclusion of crucial aspects that play a part during intercultural interactions. Byram believed a redefinition of such constructs needed to be included to reshape the learning experience in a foreign language setting. His blended model averts from the approach of communicative competence and relates them to the notions of linguistic, sociolinguistic, and discourse competence (Baker, 2015) while adopting strategies from the field of ethnography. In that way, both fields are integrated into teaching intercultural knowledge, skills, and language skills (Corbett, 2003). The model postulates a more rigorous exploration of the factors linked to intercultural communication in the foreign language learning context and how these permeate an individual devel opment. In this context, ICC is understood as the “the ability to ensure a shared understanding by people of different social identities, and the ability to interact with people as complex human beings with multiple identities and their own individuality” (Byram et al., 2002, p. 10). To clarify the terms, Byram (1997) differentiated between IC and ICC by claiming that IC is related to one person’s ability to communicate and interact successfully in their own language with people from another culture or cultures, overcoming cultural differences while enjoying the interaction and co ntact. Alternatively, ICC refers to those individuals who can successfully interact in a second or foreign language and are perceived as competent users by demonstrating a repertoire of skills, abilities, and know ledge 43 phenomena in a foreign environment and to elicit their meanings and connotations and their relationship to other phenomena. […] When skills have discovery are used in social interaction, constraints of time and much mutual perceptions and attitudes arise as mentioned earlier. The skill of interaction is above all the ability to manage these constrains in particular circumstances with specific interlocutors. The individual needs to draw upon their existing knowledge, have attitudes which sustain sensitivity to others with someti mes radically different origins and identities, and operate the skills of discovery and interpretation. (p. 49) Byram explains that the ability to stimulate connotations and understanding from social references can expressly be done using different question techniques to establish connections between ideas and perceptions can generate new knowledge. These skills can be acquired through experience, reflection, and autonomous work. In such a way, the individual can operate knowledge, identify, compare, and contrast and ultimately relate to making sense of interlocutors’ different cultural meanings. In order to understand Byram’s Model of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) further preconditions of ICC are included as attitudes of curiosity and openness, the readiness to suspend disbelief and judgment about others’ meanings, beliefs, and behaviors. Intercultural speakers need the capacity to relativize their own culture, “to dismantle their prevalent structure of subjective reality and to re-construct it according to new norms” (Byram, 1997, 2020). Furthermore, Byram (2020) argued that attitudes, skills, and knowledge operate as crucial components to help students enhance critical cultural awareness. This critical cultural awaren ess dimension is framed under political education, attempting to enable individuals to critically assess perspectives, practices, and products both from the perspective of one’s own culture and other interlocutors’ culture. Critical cultural awareness is a fundamental component in building 44 interculturality within EFL contexts since it seeks to move beyond ethnocentrism and presents the opportunity to explore the learner’s identity through reflective awareness of the s elf and the other (Holliday, 2018) under a delineated instructional plan that promotes linguistic, cognitive, and affective dimensions. Learners need to develop critical cultural a wareness to reflect critically on their own social identity, national history, practices, and cultural values, beliefs, and behaviors (Byram, 2020). It is expected, as part of an ongoing process, that the cultural dimension can help to sharpen students’ understanding of the role they and others play in society so that they may experience culture differences and similarities in meaningful and non-threating ways. This allows learners to participate in an inner reflection essential for developing intercultural skills and language strategies since individuals always bring social baggage that naturally influences communication and the kind of human relationships and interactions one can have. This criticalit y modifies attitudes, knowledge, and skills in significant ways while exposing the central function that language development plays in developing communitive and intercultural competence. Figure 3 illustrates the interplay of competenc es and how each cultivates the whole construct of intercultural communicative competence and the locations in which this can be fostered. Figure 3 Dimensions of Intercultural Communicative Competence 45 Source (Byram, 2020, p. 98). The comprehensive theoretical model proposed by Byram offers teaching guidance that helps draw a line of work for implementing the ICC component in EFL contexts. It has been designed explicitly for formal educational settings in foreign language education to contribute changing the teacher and learner’s roles to meet current demands. Each of the components included are presented in fair understandable and reachable goals and can be considered to generate an intercultural ly based pedagogy with practical implications for educators and participants in learning, teaching, and assessing the process in facilitating ICC development in language classrooms. The model also addresses the locations where the intercultural learning can occur, which are the places where educators and learners can be exposed to and gain opportunities to exercise, 46 practice and develop different roles. ICC, according to Byram, can be developed and acquired in three varied scenarios or locations: classroo m, fieldwork and independent learning. Each or in combination these locations serve as an educational platform to mediate ICC in different language learning contexts, diverse levels of language learning and different kinds of language learning programs. What this also means is that the reinforced idea behind the model entitling language educators with enough freedom to create an intercultural learning experience according to their specific learning community by addressing the complexity of culture in ways that respond to particular needs and contexts. For Byram (2020), the language classroom environment is a potential scenario to put into practice the needed skills to participate, communicate and demonstrate intercultural faculties. He highlights the following of the classroom, Clearly the classroom has advantages. It provides the space for systematic and structured presentation of knowledge in prolongation of the better traditions of language teaching. In addition, it can offer the opportunity for acquisition of skills under the guidance of a teacher. Thirdly, the classroom can be the location for reflection on skills and knowledge acquisition that has happened within and beyond the classroom walls, and thence for the acquisition of attitudes towards that which has been experienced. (Byram, 2020 pp. 92) Byram himself ha s recognized the need to s implify the mediation of ICC due to the general understanding of complexity that surrounds the notion of culture. In that sense, Byram (2002) has claimed that “an Interc ultural dimension does not claim to be another teaching method of language teaching but an invitation to a natural extension of what most teachers recognize as important” (p 47 7). Language educators are given the sufficient freedom to recognize what is relevant according to their context, culture, and community of learners. Their role acquires a fundamental function in the process of mediating ICC as part of an integral and holistic language scope. The language learner is placed as a prominent participant of the learning experience developing learning autonomy through self-reflection, interaction, and negotiation within the classroom and their contextual surrounding while reinforcing their linguistic competence. Language learning can in that way be envisioned in a more comprehensive function that serves the broader purpose of humanizing and educating aware, active, and respectful citizens as inhabitants of a shared planet through language education. Enhancing learners’ intercultural communicative competence is not simple nor is it immediate. As culture and languages are dynamic constructs, learning in the context of rapid- changing societies must become flexible and take part of an ongoing process that builds room for educating the whole student. This is one of the reasons why intercultural learning in foreign language education has been progressively acknowledged. Additionally, Byram’s model is an invitation to consider a teaching framework that may shape foreign language mediation by integrating intercultural communication within the philosophy of political education (Barret, 2016; Byram, 2008; Byram et al 2017; Byram, 2020) and exploring the advantages of shifting from the native role model to that of the intercultural speaker as a practical, inclusive, and achievable role model. The ICC provides integral contributions by benefiting language learning with a nontraditional teaching vision. This vision supports intercultural language objectives that seeks to offer a platform whereby new generations of citizens are better educated and equipped with abilities and competencies to learn, adapt, negotiate, participate, and collaborate in multicultural settings. 48 A speaker with linguistic proficiency and multicompetences will hopefully be ready to respond to present and future global challenges, be able to participate in a lifelong learning process, exhibit social and cultural mindful mode of being and, last but not least, be open-minded. To meet these aims the conceptualization of the intercultural speaker serves as a stand to continue revolutionizing the language learning classrooms without neglecting linguistic objectives and ensuring learners get to develop language proficiency and other key competences holis tically . For this reason, the following sections are devoted to exploring the concept of the intercultural speaker and the pedagogical objectives proposed by Byram to advance in that direction. 1.2 The Intercultural Speaker: t ransforming interlocutors’ roles Byram’s (1997) primary concerns about the role of the native speaker in the foreign language context have re ceived sufficient support over recent years because he unveils the dangers that such a notion implies to learners in the process of acquiring a language and how it might affect not only their language acquisition but their identities. His criticism visualizes the pressure students of a foreign language are exposed to when forced to master the foreign language to the extent of a native speaker, which only portrays a threatening, unfair, and discouraging scenario. According to Byram, It would imply that a learner should be linguistically schizophrenic, abandoning one language in order to blend into a second linguistic environment, becoming accepted as a native speaker by other native speakers, and then going back to the first. This linguistic schizophrenia also suggests abandoning one social group in its culture and the acquisition of a native soc io cultural competence and a new social identity, as a result of ‘passing’ into another group. (2020, p. 17) 49 Within the context of Byram’s model, which points out the pressures that the native speaker model poses on learners’ identity, learners are invited to learn the target language without abandoning their social identity. When learners are persuaded to restrain one’s language to perfectly master another in an attempt to be integrated by members of a particular linguistic community, they may undoubtedly feel discomfort and emotional unrest. Kramsch (2001) warned that such a thing should not happen. She believed that learners should go through a smooth process that she calls a third culture, which means learners can access language, knowledge, and behavior from the cultures constituting their identity and make choices if and how they incorporate the new culture into their identity. The native speaker performance has put higher stress levels and frustration on learners, hindering many of a confident and friendly learning environment to acquire the language. Thus, favoring the high affective filter, which inhibits production. It has also created an emotional imbalance that potentially lowers the learner’s self - esteem and even possibly drives the refusal of their social and cultural identity. In that regard, Cook (1999) described, “the prominence of the native speaker in language teaching has created an unattainable goal for second/foreign language learners” (p. 185). Given the elusive model of the native speaker, Byram and Zárate (1994) proposed a parallel to the idea of the native speaker by claiming that a language learner should be offered the opportunities and resources to become an intercultural speaker.Byram et al. (2002) originally introduced the idea of the intercultural speaker to describe the ability “to engage with complexity and multiple identities and to avoid the stereotyping which accompanies perceiving someone through a single identity” (p. 9). Byram (1997) referred to the intercultural speaker as people that get involved in intercultural communication and interaction and is able to use the encounter with an interlocutor from a foreign culture to “discover other perspectives on 50 interpretation” (savoir être), to “establish relationships of similarity and difference between them” (savoir apprendre/faire) and to “mediate” between them (savoir comprendre) (Byram, 1997, pp. 58, 62). Thus, the individual considered as an intercultural s peaker is envisioned to retain, preserve, and excel his/her cultural, social, and linguistic baggage signaling a privileged condition in terms of knowledge access and experience (House, 2007). Learners of a foreign language will encounter more typical situations where they have to use tools to help them recognize and understand diverse, m ulticultural relationships to make sense of distinctive attitudes and behavi ors. This kind of access can only be understood as positive tra its, motivating the learning path to even enjoy seeking multicultural knowledge and understanding via a foreign language. Accordingly, the ideal intercultural s peaker reconstructs the far conceptualized view of communication to recalculate its role and extends it in holistic and eclectic ways. The effective speaker needs to rely upon it as a mechanism for the further s trategic improvement of knowledge, skills, criticality, behaviors, and general understanding of (inter)cultures and one’s own culture as part of a requirement to cohabiting in this complex interconnected and multicultural world. Therefore, shifting to the intercultural speaker can be considered advantageous since it would be m aking a significant change in the learners and their integral education as well as in their process of foreign language acquisition. The whole idea empowers both language learners and educators in significant ways adjudicating language educati on a much more profound role relevant to a constructive inclusive society. According to Byram (1997), an intercultural speaker needs to be aware of how two people can resolve misunderstandings by becoming mindful of their interlocutors’ identities. He defined the intercultural learner as 51 A learner with the ability to see and manage the relationships between themselves and their own cultural beliefs, behaviors, and meanings, as expressed in a foreign language, and those of their interlocutors, described in the same language—or even a combination of languages—which may be the interlocutors’ native language or not. (p. 12) Henceforth, the intercultural speaker is a worth taking purpose for language learners and language educators to pursuit in the teaching learning process. Intercultural speakers combine linguistic, affective, cognitive, and behavioral components to perform successfully and appropriately with culturally diverse people. In his model, Byram (1997) embraced a replacement of the native speaker praised as an ideal goal by proposing the attainable goal of the intercultur al speaker. The goals and achievement of IC competence are dynamic in nature due to their core constructs. Byram (1997) considered this intercultural speaker as “the more desirable outcome in language education” (p. 12) since the intercultural dimension enables learners “ to manage relationships between own beliefs, values, behaviors, and mea nings, as expressed in a foreign language, and those of their interlocutors” (Byram, 2020, p. 46). Indeed, an intercultural speaker is a learner with the ability to effectively self -reflect, learn, interact, mediate in different contexts. This concept of the intercultural speaker entails the promotion of a conscious language learner whose objective is not at all monolinguistic but holistic since it seeks to get learners involved in a much more profound learning experience that can lead them to become more receptive toward different life modes and to the process of learning a foreign language. Enhancing confidence and triggering interest in intercultural content en riches the process with a much more dynamic notion that it is a lifelong learning process linked to developing a functional intercultural speaker engaged in a lifelong activity. In this manner, the intercultural speaker can develop and show abilities to interact with others, accept other perspectives and perceptions of the world, 52 mediate between different perspectives while being conscious of their evaluations toward difference (Byram et al., 2001). In the same vein, Byram and Fleming assert that (1998), “this intercultural speaker is able to establish a relationship between their own and other cultures, to mediate, explain, and accept differences conscious of how humanity beneath from it” (p. 8). These authors also stress the autonomy that language and culture education offers in preparing learners to become intercultural s peakers as those with “knowledge of one or more cultures and social identities, able to discover and relate to new people from other contexts” (p. 9). Indeed, learning about foreign cultures opens doors and foreign modes into their own contexts to either learn, enhance, appreciate, reflect, understand, or empathized. Byram (1997) gave a detailed description of an intercultural speaker’s requirements regarding attitudes, knowledge, skills, and critical awareness, which are intertwined and define the intercultural speaker. Figure 4 Intercultural Speaker Competences Proposed by Byram Attitudes The intercultural speaker: - is concerned in the other’s experience of daily life. - does not assume that unfamiliar phenomena can only be assimilated through their own cultural understanding. - actively seeks the other’s perspective - copes with different kinds of otherness. - takes into consideration the expectation the others may have about appropriate behavior from foreigners. Knowledge The intercultural speaker knows about: - events, individuals and diverse interpretations of events, national memory, political and economic factors of each country. - means of contacts usage to facilitate partnerships across frontiers - the events and symbols markers of native identity. - the national memory of one’s country and of others - perceptions of regions, language varieties and landmarks of significance and how are these perceived by others. - education systems, religions, institutions where individuals acquire a national identity - about the social distinction’s dominant in the native and target cultures. 59 § Willingness to question the values and pre suppositions in cultural practices and products in one’s own environment. § Readiness to experience stages of adaptation to and interaction with another culture during a period of residence. § Readiness to engage with the conventions and rites of verbal and nonverbal communication and interaction. (pp. 62-63) In a classroom environment, these attitudes can be observed in students’ disposition to improvise when they use the language, ask questions, or talk about what they have learned from diverse sources about other cultures. The objectives proposed to mediate the knowledge di mension follow criteria for managing knowledge of interactions, social processes, groups and their products, symbols, and practices: § Historical and contemporary relationships between one’s own and one’s interlocutor’s countries. § The means of achieving contact with interlocutors from another country (at a distance or in proximity) travel to and from, and the institutions that facilitate communication or help resolve problems. § The types of cause and process of misunderstanding between interlocutors of different cultural origins. § The national memory of one’s own country and how its events are related to and seen from the perspective of one’s interlocutor’s country. § The national memory of one’s interlocutor’s country and the perspective on it from one’s own. 60 § The national definitions of geographical space in one’s own country and how other countries perceive these. § The national definitions of geographical space in one’s interlocutor’s country and their perspective from one’s own. § The process and institutions of socialization in one’s own and one’s interlocutor’s country. § Social distinctions and their principal markers in one’s own country and one’s interlocutors. § Institutions and perceptions influence daily life within one’s own and one’s interlocutor’s country and conduct and influence relationships between them. § The processes of social interaction in one’s interlocutor’s country. (Byram, 2020, p. 63-64) According to Byram (1997), the key knowledge a language learner needs to have is the awareness about the fact that one is a product of one’s own socialization, which is essential for understanding one’s reactions to otherness and comprehending how parallel but different modes of interaction can be expected in other cultures. Objectives regarding the skills of discovery and interaction account for determining novel knowledge from cul tures and their cultural exhibits as to us e the knowle dge, attitudes, and skills in concurrent communicative interactions. Such objectives are presented as follow: § Elicit from an interlocutor the concepts and values of documents or events and develop an understanding susceptible to other phenomena. § Identify significant references within local and alien cultures and elicit their significance and connotations. § Identify the similar and dissimilar processes of interaction, verbal and nonverbal, and negotiate an appropriate use of them in specific circumstances. 61 § Use in real-time an appropriate combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes to interact with interlocutors from a different culture, taking into consideration the existing familiarity with the country and culture and the extent of the difference between one’s own and the other. § Identify contemporary and past relationships between one’s own and the other culture and country. § Identify and make use of public and private institutions that facilitate contact with other countries and cultures. § Use in real-time knowledge, skills, and attitudes for mediation between interlocutors of one’s own and a foreign culture. (Byram, 2020, pp. 65-66) According to Byram (1997), these are the skills that people need to understand new cultural environments. Developing these skills allows much more effective interactions with people with different cultural affiliations. Byram (2020) noted that, through foreign sources (newspaper or television), one can develop these skills by discovering the lines of thought, power, and influence underlying those even ts: § Critical cultural awareness objectives intend to guide s tudents to critically evaluate explicit criteria, perspectives, practices, and products in their own and other cultures. Some of the objectives are defined in these terms: § Recognize and interpret explicit or implicit values in documents and events in one’s own and other countries. § Make an evaluative analysis of the documents and events, which refers to a clear perspective and criteria. 62 § Interact and mediate in intercultural exchanges under explicit criteria, negotiating where necessary a degree of acceptance of them by drawing upon one’s knowledge, skills, and attitudes. (p. 66) The model is based on a theoretical body of work that describes the main ICC scopes and fundamental issues in achieving the ICC goal in educational contexts which can be utilized to guide ICC pedagogical mediati on to initiate the path for learners to discover and self-discover home and foreign world views as to gain general understanding on the crucial position of interculturality development in the language classroom. Byram has emphasized that critical cultural awareness allows self-assessment and evaluative outlook as a viewpoint to see one’s own experiences over other cultures. Some remarks that make Byram’s (1997) model appealing are the outline of educational objectives and the clear definition of the roles of the teacher and learner since he proposes an attainable language goal abandoning the view of the native s peaker as an ideal goal in foreign language learning to introduce the notion of the intercultural speaker as a more comprehensive role with instrumental functions. The value associated to the inclusion of intercultural objectives in the foreign/second language classroom should be weighted in respec t to contextual factors and a comprehensive educational relationship of classroom teaching dynamics and factors. Conscious efforts to introduce, teach and assess the intercultural component enhance its potential for a differentiated learning experience and positive language learning outcomes. 1.5 Assessing ICC: A Formative Process Assessing ICC development is an complex task that is intertwined to the learning process. Supporting competent intercultural speakers and citizens to help them become engaged in a lifelong learning process is essential but difficult. The rising interest and importance of ICC in educational 63 settings certainly come s with challenges due to the fact that the implementation and assessment of intercultural learning objectives need to be adapted to given contexts. Assessing ICC requires a deep-thinking task for language educators. Deardorff, (2006), Byram (1997), and others have concurred that measuring the outcomes of ICC dimensions places assessment as a pivotal part in the language learning process. In a challenging scenario in which ICC outcomes and results may not always be observable or evident, alternative assessment is pivotal. Even influential scholars question the fact that ICC can be explicitly tested (Kramsch, 1993). According to Coombe (2007), assessment describes a process in which information is gathered from a variety of s ources that go beyond just the act of assigning marks. Indeed, the challenge educators regarding the uncertainty of how ICC should be evaluated cannot be underestimated. As a complex phenomenon, ICC and its various domains (knowledge, attitudes, skills, and awareness) and language proficiency in the target language should be addressed and assessed framed as part of an ongoing process that nurtures from diverse sources. Assessing the intercultural component in the foreign language classroom presupposes gathering data through valuable reports as indicators of the learning progress. These data need to be analyzed by the educator to identify strengths and weakness and to support teaching decision making. Thus, globally as part of educators’ task is to monitor the level of achievement of the objectives and learning goals established during the process. As part of any educational process assessment it is pivotal to determine the achievement of objectives and the kind of progress made. Intercultural communicative competence assessment, as part of a complex phenomenon and of a long-life process, should not attempt to evaluate student outcomes solely in terms of grades or merely rely on quantitative methods of evaluation. Language teachers willing to introduce an 64 intercultural component in their language classrooms need also to consider the rationale on what and how to assess ICC. The assessment methods to evaluate the intercultural component are still under debate since many scholars agree that traditional testing or holistic assessment does not meet the goal of assessing the multidimensionality of this component (Deardorff, 2009). That is why, scholars and practitioners have supported a multiperspective assessment methodology (Deardorff, 2009; Griffith et al., 2016; Byram, 2020) or alternative evaluation (Fox, 2008; Gipps & Stobart, 2003) as the most suitable methodology for assessing intercultural learning (Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013; Scarino, 2010). Qualitative assessment is also suitable because it places emphasis on the process rather than on quantifiable outcomes and envisions a teaching and learning process from the learner’s perspective, which provides daily evidence of the student’s participation and goals measurement in much more integral and holistic ways throughout the academic mediation (Cubero- Vásquez &Villanueva-Monge, 2014). The assessment of the ICC dimensions can be a complex and dem anding task which can be conducted based on the educator’s experience and moving progressively from simple to more structured ways of ICC assessment. Initially, it requires placing sufficient emphasis on formative and supportive guidance within a friendly, nonthreatening, and transparent learning environment to motivate learners to thrive and enjoy the process. In this light, the educator and the learners become inquirers of the learning experience, learning from one another and from the intercultural sources at their disposal. The educator observes and provides feedback on students’ products and outcomes, but students are also to be entitled to assess their peers’ progress and their own through self and peer evaluation. 65 In that sense, learning forms a symbiosis where, during the process, one reciprocally benefits from the other because assessment increases students’ self-awareness of their progress and motivates them to become responsible for the development of their intercultural communitive competence. ICC assessment enables English language educators to evaluate intercultural communicators’ ability to apprehend, respect, and interact with people who hold different cultural affiliations different from theirs and assess their views and depictions of causal relationships with others from foreign cultures (Byram, 1997). In order to assess intercultural dimensions Corbett (2003) suggests that assessment needs to be conducted progressively at different moments throughout the learning experience. To assess the knowledge, skills and attitudes dimension he claims that pre and posttests are a good way to determine the initial level and (final) global advancement of the students in those specific components. For instance, assessing intercultural knowledge intends to lead students to adjust to social and cultural environments, that is, it helps integrate practices in the foreign language classroom to enable them to efficiently use their intercultural communicative competence to meet the ultimate purpose of interacting, adjusting, integrating, interpreting, and negotiating when needed in realistic intercultural contexts. When assessing intercultural attitudes, students are to portray levels of critical awareness towards other viewpoints, lifestyles, beliefs, and values beyond their own. A way to assess learners’ orientation towards other culture s can be done through observation of performance. The educator can assess learners’ oral and behavioral skills when interacting with others (Gu, 2016) even within the classroom activities and reflections. It has been observed that assessi ng awareness and attitude is more challenging than assessing knowledge and skil ls (Byram, 1997; Deardorff, 2006; Wisniewski -Dietrich & Olson, 2010). The abstract nature of the former dimensions makes it problematic to quantify progression and verify how much of a change has 66 occurred in reshaping and incorporating new perspectives into their process of becoming intercultural mediators. This issue can be resolved on a basis of trust, giving learners enough responsibility to self-assess their process and progress as thinking and rational individuals, capable of inner awareness in relation to others. A complementary perspective in relation to assessment is provided by Gu (2016), who divides intercultural communicative competence assessment tools into direct and indirect. Some of the direct tools he describes are psychometric testing, which are useful to analyze certain intercultural traits. For example, intercultural sensitivity inventory allows teachers to evaluate students’ ability to assess levels of sensitivity toward other cultures. These kinds of inventories are structured with cultural questions or items inquiring how the learner would react to a given situation and in a different context or culture. This technique also assesses and revels learners’ open- mindedness and behavioral reaction depending on whether they belong to an individualistic or collectivist culture. Moreover, if interest is placed on knowing levels of sensitivity towards other cultures, the intercultural sensitivity index test can be used. This index test reveals the learners’ ability to show cultural sensitivity in different cultural contexts by measuring the learners’ interactional engagement, respect for cultural differences, and interactional confidence. Besides, the intercultural development inventory is also available to analyze English students’ orientations toward cultural differences, cross-cultural sensitivity, and linguistic comprehension . These tools mentioned above are commercially available online and are intended to indirectly examine students’ intercultural traits and abilities to interact and modify their attitudes in cross-cultural scenarios through their responses to a series of questions and situations. Some of the direct assessment methods generally recognized to assess intercultural learning are learners’ self-reports, journals, compositions, research, critical incidents, portfolios, task 67 performance, interviews, projects, class observations, formative tests, questionnaires, self- assessment scales, content tasks, role-plays, mini-dramas, or critical incidents. These place focus on performance and on the abilities exhibited that can be accounted for skills development or behavioral change. ICC assessment can be conducted through eclecti c combinations of tasks and creative techniques to determine progress and advancement. For instance, language educators can assess learners’ ability to use the foreign language with fluency and accuracy by using learners’ journal entries, reports, and compositions and at the same time evaluate students’ ICC development by understanding the interc ultural patterns in their work as evidence of their developing perspectives and reactions around ICC in the context of foreign language learning. Additionally, some other useful techniques for ICC assessment purposes are students’ portfolios , which provide students’ records and evidence of development based on assigned tasks and thematic reflections along a course (Grefersen-Hermans, 2017). Students’ articles provide ICC assessment techniques that can be used to ask students to elaborate on their cultural knowledge development and observe their ability to relate, understand and react toward other cult ures. Research project presentation is also suitable to assess learners’ performance in aspects such as verbal and nonverbal communication. The educator can associate the observations with the students’ levels of intercultural communication competence (Fantini, 2020) or, its specific components which would depend on the task assigned objectives. Presentations also give insights into the students’ ability to communicate in the target language. Critical incident tasks are highly accepted in intercultural learning due to their potential to present brief descriptions of situations in which learners are exposed to misunderstandings, problems, or conflicts arising from cultural differences between social or work interactions (De Frankrijker, 1998) and are guided to reflect and provide possible resolutions. Likewise, self - 68 assessment reports are another assessment technique that can give the EFL instructor insights on ICC improvement while being able to identify the areas that need further improvement. In this light, students’ interpersonal reflections can provide valuable information and details on their ICC progress (Lazarevi ć , 2018). Finally, formative tests and questionnaires can be used to observe and identify what learners have learnt about new cultures and their own. Some sort of summative evaluation goals can also be assessed through self-awareness inventories and psychometric tests (Arasaratnam, 2013). Other techniques are categorized to be useful for assessment purposes. For example, the ones th at entail direct performance assessment techniques. These are considered more advantageous tools because they allow the language teacher to assess challenging ICC constructs and traits s uch as changing views, understanding, perception, attitudes, knowledge and emerging skills and awareness. Direct techniques assess intercultural communic ation competence in a broader spectrum that includes ICC dimensions, intercultural awareness, knowledge, attitude, intercultural skills, and intercultural sensitivity (Lazarevi ć , 2018). When planning for a comprehensive assessment, learning activities and tasks should also be considered s ources that provide valuable input to assessing the ICC learning process whose outcomes can be used to reorient, adjust, and improve the intercul tural language learning process. When these kinds of classroom tasks are used as means of assessment, rubrics can be designed to favor a kind of assessment that focus es on expected levels of achievement. Combining varied assessment techniques results in more efficient and accurate ways to assess ICC in EFL contexts providing learners with feedback, support, and guidance during the foreign language learning process while recollecting insights on the efficacy of the intercultural learning that is contributing to generate deep learning. Hence, classroom practice offers opportunities to gather insights into how language 75 has found support because it addresses the notion of multilingualism as a fundamental goal in accordance with the policies of the European Union. Indees, as David Marsh remarks,. CLIL was implemented in 1994 and launched formally in 1996 after years of interdisciplinary and trans-national expert dialogue. It designated a distinct range of methodologies that suited contexts where education was given in a language that was not generally the students’ first language. The need for multilingualism (the ability of citizens to speak different languages) acted as one of the pillars for the European integration; education then became a focal point for innovation, particularly concerning adjustment to the demands of the emerging information age. (2012, p. 394) CLIL appeared to implement proper and more effective educational practices that could touch different academic levels and diverse learners. In 2010, the European Council targeted fundamental pri nciples in European education such as “improving quality, providing universal access, and opening up to the world” (Marsh, 2012, p. 135). From that moment, the experience of CLIL in Europe was sustained over positive results that contributed to strengthening the approach as an innovative foreign language learning method with the potential to overcome the advers e outcomes and perceptions of traditional educational methods.. CLIL was, therefore, envisioned as a reform scheme intending to overcome the obstacles identified in traditional EFL methods in order to achieve the goals of multilingualism in the European Union. Marsh (2012) explained that the integration of learning goals advocated by CLIL is “connected to the notion of relevance to achieve meaningful learning as a pragmatic necessity for changing times” (p. 135). Another advantage of this method is that “the origins of CLIL were essentially organic and are directly linked to the adaptation of educational life during the rapid emergence of the information age as it permeated home, school, and working life” (p. 394). In 76 short, CLIL emerged in 1994 supported by specific reasons such as ¨language learning, nonlanguage content, purposeful learning, improved learner motivation, enhanced school profile, and innovative educational teaching and learning¨ (Marsh, 2012, p. 136). It set off as a new educational trend to offer a platform to embrace the acquisition of content, cognitive skills and language in rich, varied learning environments. 2.2.2 The CLIL Syllabus CLIL implementation is somewhat flexible and may be adapt ed to specific contexts, requirements, and needs. Some of its proponents claim that it can be implemented in a classroom in different ways if certain conditions are met. In CLIL learners require continuous exposure to engaging materials and tasks with the potential to tap into deep understanding and practical use to provoke structural cognitive changes during and after their learning experience (Coyle et al., 2010). The learning tasks are expected to be related to content or subjects linked to the specific curriculum and have the aim to provide learners with an education that enhances cognitive skills and competences. The CLIL framework has been recognized to integrate four building blocks or dimensions commonly referred to as the holistic 4C model. It entails merging content (subject matte r), communication (language), cognition (thinking processes), and culture (intercultural awareness) (Coyle et al., 2010), which delimits substantial differences from other less integral approaches. Coyle (1999) proposed an intertwined correlation of the four dimensions in a CLIL syllabus to illustrate the path that each key block is projected to play in the learning process. The combination of the four dimensions is considered to contribute to achieving genuine progression in new skills, cognition, content understanding, and knowledge. This interrelation determines the scope of the approach as complex but flexible . Coyle et al. (2010) remark that this model stands under a 77 framework (Figure 5) that seeks to enrich the classroom experience with a range of opportunities to develop language, content, communication, and knowledge without falling into a conventional repertoire of either language or subject teaching. In that light, the effectiveness of CLIL practices is maximized when these dimensions are carefully thought of, planned, and connected (Coyle et al., 2010). Figure 5 The 4 C+1 Conceptual Framework for CLIL Source : Coyle et al., 2010, p. 41 The graphical representa tion clearly illustrates how each dimension stands and interrelates, while it highligts the importance of culture and context to help students acquire content, communication and cognitive skills. The implementation of the CLIL framework in the EFL classroom has many advantages (Coyle et al. , 2009) because it invites the learners to tak e part in the learning experience. Taking into account the four dimensions of the CLIL framework implies 78 a broader view of foreign language education since students are expected not only to develop communicative language skills, but also to learn content and culture while they develop their cognitive skills. Marsh (2012) describes each of the four dimensions (Table 1) of this framework in which context is perceived as the wrapping that encompasses content, communication, culture and cognition. Table 1 CLIL Dimensions by Marsh Communication Cognition Culture Content CLIL claims to provide the students with a practical, interactive language using kind of learning. As its nature sees language as a conduit for communication, culture is valued in its social, personal, and practical role for negotiation underlying that to progress in the target language needs practice, interaction, and use without rejecting in any way the role of grammar and lexis. (Marsh, 2012, p. 805) The symbiosis of language and content learning is highly established. It serves as a platform to reinforce the development of higher-order and lower-order skills by using classroom activities that enable learners to reflect, analyze, solve problems and challenges in many daily-life situations. CLIL is not about the mere transfer of knowledge but the creation of new knowledge. Taxonomies can serve as a reference for planning in that direction. (Marsh, 2012, p. 811) Content and language unequivocally lead to culture. Culture is a cord that links any topic or theme. CLIL has set as a core principle to develop cultural understanding and awareness of what is involved in language and content. It offers the possibility of pluricultural understanding by exposing learners to explore the “other” and the “self.” (Marsh, 2012) The content scope is defined in the CLIL context as thematic corps (knowledge, skills, and understanding) that learners are to acquire. CLIL works with content seeking deeper learning. CLIL reinforces the role that content plays in developmental cognitive skills by supporting construction and reconstruction of knowledge, not mere accumulation of it. Linguistic content is also linked to content knowledge to reinforce language learning. (Marsh, 2012) Source. Marsh, 2012. 79 The framework proponents highlight the enormous complexity of interconnecting each dimension to achieve holistic goals in EFL learning. At the same time, they consider that in order to achieve the major objectives of CLIL the four dimensions should serve as guiding directions to educators in their teaching practices. According to Coyle (2006), Educators, learners, practitioners, and researchers are collectively exploring the interrelationship between subject matter (content), the language of and for learning (communication), the thinking integral to high -quality learning (cognition), and the global citizenship agenda (culture) -which constitutes the four Cs. The 4Cs framework suggests that it is through progression in knowledge, skills, and understanding of the content, engagement in associated cognitive processing, interaction in the communicative context, developing appropriate language knowledge and skills as well as acquiring a deepening intercultural awareness through the positioning of self and “otherness,” that effective CLIL takes place. (p. 9) As Coyle points out in the above quotation, for any CLIL programme to be sucessful the four dimensions need to be addressed toghether. Therefore, interconnecting each of the 4Cs requires careful consideration when planning to rea ssure actual progression within the framework. It needs to be remarked that the context is crucial in the learning process as it is clearly related to the production of culure and will contribute to integrating all the dimensions is a natural way. 2.2.3 The Language Triptych 80 Another idea under the CLIL approach is that knowledge and culture are ingrained in language as language is considered a requirement to access knowledge (Coyle et al., 2010). The literature around CLIL is clear in highlighting the pivotal role that language plays in advancing gradually in both content learning, language learning, and language usage. This understanding led to another fundamental principle envision ed by Coyle (2006), recognized as the language triptych. The triptych (Figure 6) is a representation that illustrates the role that lan guage plays in CLIL classrooms. The three perspectives are viewed in terms of the language of learning, language for learning, and language through learning (Coyle, 2006). Figure 6 Coyle´s Language Triptych Source : Coyle et al., 2010, p. 36 The multifunctional nature of language had been acknowledged before in the sociocultural theory proposed by Vygotsky (1978), whose major claims emphasized the impact of social interactions and cultural environment on learning. The triptych intends to guide the enhancement on the view that language can be both a tool and an object of learning through three interrelated Language of learning Language for learnin g CLIL lingusitic progression Language through learning 81 vehicular functions. First, CLIL offers an integral context for learning, understanding, and using the language while other cognitive transformations are incidentally triggered. Second, the CLIL framework requires dialogic practice, talk, and interaction different from traditional language clas srooms. In a CLIL setting the student is seen as much more than a vessel to be filled with content or language forms. Language learners are seen as creators of the learning reality by using and transforming what is at hand to learn. Language help learner s to understand how linguistic competence will be developed to support and advance their content and cognitive skills.Language functionality works through three goals, as established by Coyle, which broaden the framework. It expands on a teaching style that is driven to move core and varied synergies into the learning process that may not only impact the kind of experience offered to learners but, more importantly, intends to provoke an awareness behind the what, the how , and the why of the language to be learned and used in the classroom. Coyle et al. (2010) advocate that using the language triptych provides a basis for mediating, organizing, and interconnecting language and content objectives: If content determines the language needed in CLIL, then the language of learning, for learning and through learning, is a more relevant analytical approach to determining the language to be taught in CLIL classrooms rather than through grammatical progression. The language learners need to access basic concepts and skills related to content that determines the language of learning. Language for learni ng focuses on the language required to enable individuals to learn in a foreign language environment—how to operate in a group discussion, develop learner strategies, summarize, hypothesize, and ask cognitively challenging questions. Language through learning is predicated on the notion 82 that learning cannot occur without the active involvement of language and thinking. (Coyle, 2006, pp. 10-11) For strategic planning and carefully working toward divergent progress, teachers can benefit from the learning experiential perspective of making explicit the interrelationship between content object ives and language objectives represented in the language triptych, which intertwines cognitively demanding content with language learning (Coyle, 2002). In other words, a language analysis allows an improvementn of class dynamics to access concepts and skills that language students require to perform in real language use environments. 2.2.4 CLIL in the Foreign Language Classroom Marsh et al. (2001) suggest that CLIL is supported due to the varied benefits resulting from its theoretical and practical implementation in educational contexts. Most of the reasons appeal to the integration and connection of context, content, language, learning, and culture. Such associations mean students can get better instruction and tools to respond and interact in interconnected economies, social contexts, and the job market. CLIL also responds to the need to include accurate, useful, real-life content and information that can meet the objective of real applicability and proficie ncy development. Coyle et al. (2010) remark that learners who are part of this divergent, integral, situational learning access an articulation for practical outcomes that entail language, cognition, culture, and content. CLIL demands an active linkage to learners’ cognitive thinking and scaffolding. CLIL is effect ive in improving students’ language proficiency when learners are consistently exposed to cognitively demanding tasks. Many of the reasons for introducing CLIL point to the role of language in the adquisition of content know ledge and cognitive and intercultural skills. CLIL students are expected to advance 83 in their language learning process in a way that is not limited to a single goal. On the contrary, it intends to grant an integral process where core skills in the target language (language skills and culture) and language knowledge awareness is s trengthened. From a broader perspective, CLIL has an essential influence on learners’ intercultural understanding by introducing and developing in learners an experience that advocates for a comprehensive view of language as linked to culture, self -directing their cultural attitudes, vie ws, beliefs, and behaviors. When focusing on cult ure, CLIL students cultivate awareness and tolerance toward people from different cultural backgrounds. Intercultural awareness is fundamental to CLIL (Coyle et al., 2010 p. 42). CLIL also enhances students’ motivation, self-confidence, and learning strategies to continue their learning progression. Marsh et al. (2000) contend that CLIL programs can develop active learning and a feel-good attitude among students. Some of the significant principles for learning have been identified by Coyle et al. (2010) as described below: • Content is related to reflection and learning enabling learners to construct proper content interpretations, knowledge, understanding, and skills ( personalized learning) • The thinking process meets linguistic demands • Language is studied and acquired in correlation to the context and its variables • Interaction when learning content is fundamental • Intercultural awareness is fundamental • Language learning and language acquisition are incidental • CLIL’s pedagogical principles are addressed as task-based language learning • Content leads to cognitive engagement and higher-order thinking. (p.42) 84 2.2.5 Advantages of Using CLIL The CLIL methodology has numerous objectives, including enhancing the learning curriculum, s ystems, productivity, and school performance. Thus, instead of a monolithical view of the learning experience, CLIL proposes a multilingual approach from which learners may rank at higher proficiency levels in interpretation, critical thinking, and cognitive abilities. Dalton-Puffer (2007) identified some benefits in higher academic achievement when contrasted with traditional learning classroom students. She also noticed positive performance levels in how communicative competence develops receptive skills and students’ positive attitudes toward learning itself, where students with average language learning aptitude benefit as well. Regarding the culture dimension, Marsh explained that building intercultural knowledge and understanding results in achieving positive outcomes, enhancing, and facilitating communication skills, cultural and linguistic accommodations, and adaptations that prepare for interacting in intercultural situations. It instructs how the language is used in intercultural engagement. It boosts students’ interaction with different people in multicultural contexts. According to Marsh (2012), CLIL is viewed to have helped learners integrating global internationalization by preparing and developing skills related to the socio-economic changes and the market needs, which contributes to an overall improvement of school profiles (Marsh, 2012). Another advantage advocated by CLIL supporters is the inextricably pedagogical purposes to enable students to learn and develop meta -language and systematic conceptualizations of how meanings are construed through the target language. Alongside the processes of language and meaning making are the conditions introduced to rehearse interaction and language used in real situations for real communication. The content dimension enhanced by context positions language within an interactional confluence of language and content, engaging students in learning about the 91 projects” (2000, p. 1). In addition, Thomas believed a project implies a process in which challenging questions or problems become the core of study and actively engage students in designing, decision making, problem-solving, inquiry, and realistic, useful product creation. According to Bell (2010), PBL “is a student-driven, teacher-facilitated approach to learning where learners pursue knowledge by asking questions that have piqued their natural curiosity” (p. 39). In synthesis, PBL can be conceptualized as a systematic teaching and learning process aimed at creating, producing, and conducting project-inquiry activities (Markham et al., 2003; Gras- Velázquez, 2020; Stoller & Myers, 2020). Descriptions of the model are grounded on the basis of engagement, authenticity, and pragmatism as core factors linked to the approach. PBL advocates for a pedagogy in which the use of engaging questions, tasks, or problems in academic content is evidenced throughout the project process while students are expected to actively work, both cooperatively and autonomously, to determine, understand, and commit to a functional goal with practical use through extended inquiry. Learners involved in this kind of process have the chance to construct a product/event while accessing content, which subsequently results in higher levels of academic achievement, deeper learning, self -efficacy, skills development, and curiosity (Bender, 2012; David, 2008; Goldstein, 2016; Pan et al., 2021; Choi et al., 2019). The extensive literature around PBL suggests it functions as a bilateral model. Both the educator and learners participate in a dynamic learning experience in which roles are different from those of conventional teaching s tyles. The building blocks of the theoretical proposal of PBL have progressively and deliberately altered the standard teaching roles to a more engaging, authentic learning approach that supports experiential knowledge and skills acquisition for real-life situations in rapidly changing contexts. The conceptualization of learning through experience for 92 fundamental purposes is a relatively old approach. It is believed to be interrelated to ancient ways of practical teaching and learning, that of knowledge acquisition by observing and doing. By the early 20th century, some proponents infused debate over establishing specific educational shifts to purposeful learning. Those ideas are still part of a very active discussion today. For the last three decades, PBL has been widely known and relied on as one of the most popular teaching methodologies educators can use to engage students in more practical, authentic, autonomous, and collaborative work. Although its constructs touch on fundamental lea rning notions, the academic community seems to agree on viewing PBL as a teaching method that is complementary to more dominant, central educational approaches. Exploring its origins would serve to understand its nature and purpose. The fundamentals of PBL can be traced back further to great philosophers and educators. De Graaff and Kolmos (2007) claim that there is a Confucian vision on education built on the initial features of PBL, but a much modern connection of the method is believed to be linked to pragmatism. One of the well-known advocate s of pragmatism is the educational philosopher John Dewey (1935), an American educational reformer who promoted the need to shift education modes of teac hing to a more practical application of knowledge to everyday life. He believed that the traditional vision of education lacked a reasonable value and that “education must be conceived as a continuing reconstruction of experience” (p. 5). His argument explored two elementary premises of experience, which he called continuity and interaction and added that educators “needed to ensure valuable experiences and interaction as a construct of social control” (Dewey, 1938, p. 59). PBL reassembled Dewey’s approximations into a procedural agenda with realistic, collaborative, and social engagement experience to be develop ed in project-based classrooms. Consequently, PBL is a practical manifestation of De wey’s thinking because the method provides a process where the language learners learn from social experience (Bender, 2012; Larmer & 93 Mergendoller, 2010). The initial ideas around learning as a valuable experience also introduced interest in exploring further the notion of learning by experiencing. Experiential learning results from the interaction between humans and the environment (Kolb & Kolb, 2012). Based on Mezirow’s (1991) ideas, experiential learning requires processing experience and goes beyond knowledge acquisition to ensure transformation and change of particular thinking patterns and attitudes. Experiential learning theory unlocks the value of the environment, surroundings, and context and contributes to formal education. It cl aimed the need to expose learners in constructing and reconstructing knowledge in an active context and a socially relevant educational corpus. Scholars from diverse interdisciplinary fields have long supported the need to picture a more practical route for teaching and to learn through envisioning theoretical constructs with the possibility for real impact on individuals as part of society. The common elements from experiential learning seem to elicit active thinking, feeling, perceiving, doing, solving, and constructing. Likewise, learners are expected to deal with know ledge while experiencing it rather than just transmitting and memorizing it. The discussion around impactful learning became a stand for the PBL emergence. Learning by doing has a significant influence on the constructive ideas of the PBL approach. 2.3.1 PBL Theoretical Framework: pedagogical background The PBL theoretical framework supports a shift in the way teaching and learning are seen traditionally by proposing a mediation through task authenticity that can serve students in developing abilities for a better adjustment to real-life challenges, work, and demands. Some of the significant purposes projected around PBL intend to stimulate students’ abilities by exposing them to problems to solve, situations to inquire about, or questions to answer. According to Mikulec and 94 Miller (2011), PBL engages students in varied multiphase projects that relate to the students’ needs, the context, and the educators while providing the environment for accomplishing an authentic, meaningful task which results in a tangible product. PBL shifts away from a teacher-centered learning process to w ard a student-centered one, where learning becomes experimental, tactical, and an incidental enhancer of interdisciplinary skills such as creative and critical thinking, content knowledge, problem-solving abilities, research, and inquiry skills, cognitive skills, cooperation, creative collaboration, communication, data, and resource management. The PBL framework is driven by an authentic purpose, inviting educators to view different learning scenarios where students can take a practical learning experience to gain ownership of their learning process and control and decide much of what happens along the way. This autonomy grants students individual responsibilities to plan and self-direct their own learning pace, procedures, methods, the what, and the how regarding their matter of interest. This entitlement over the process becomes a driving force and provides motivation for learners, primarily because it is conducted in close communication with the educator and in full collaboration with their peers. As a result, students find a way to direct their learning upon their interests which is sustained by cooperative and collaborative projects. The level of engagement and autonomous participation in PBL is a remarkable feature of the approach, often reflected in the student’s commitment to their process and progress when selecting the purpose, objectives, directions, guiding steps, and assessment for the project. The degree to which students have their way and ownership depends upon factors such as the project focus and objectives, the length, scope, and the participants’ level of experience with PBL (Bender, 2012; Markham et al., 2003). Moreover, PBL involvement creates the context for technology use. Students use technological tools to support their inquiry by accessing data and accurate information. In this regard, Bell (2010) considers that technology fulfills an important role in the PBL classroom as a 95 tool to help students organize and conduct their project work. Since PBL experiences revolve around a central problem or driving question, students need to consider multiple content areas, data resources, technological tools, and skills to succeed in achieving the project goal. For Simpson (2011), PBL helps to promote meaningful learning environments through student-centered and challenging questions while developing multiple and alternative perspectives around a task, problem, or challenge. Therefore, students are offered a practical platform to develop 21st-century skills and expertise in particular areas of interest. According to Harmer and Stokes (2014), the framework of PBL prepares learners for work-based skills for the 21st century as it mediates on practical project management tasks and real-world problems. Twenty-first-century skills have been identified as the relevant skills that can aid individuals in their immersion in an interconnected world as well as competencies that allow them to act appropriately in challenging situations. Creative and critical thinking, communication and collaboration, self-management, technological literacy, and intercultural communication have been identified as essential 21st-century skills which can be practiced and developed through TBL. Learning in this particular way fosters students’ creativity, soft skills and knowledge transference to new daily circumstances (Barron & Darling-Hammond, 2008; Anazifa & Djukri, 2017; Younis et al., 2021) Most experts agree that the project learning method advances conventional teaching styles by giving learners options to actively construct knowledge, considering their interests, individual differences, and a correlation betwee n their academic learning and real life. In addition, presenting learners with an actual use for their learning process boosts positive attitudes toward the learning process goals and lifelong learning. Even though PBL can be viewed and implemented in different ways due to its contextual and situational nature, a consistent equivalent of its views in practical and theoretical approximations is notable among the academic community; such characteristics 96 intersect across the available literature around the model. Larmer and Mergendoller (2010) summarized some of the main pedagogical principles underlying PBL: • Engages in meaningful and significant learning. • Leads to relevant content material to meet the challenge or problem. • Introduces concept reflection originated from learners’ interests, context, and preferences. • Implicates cognitive tasks and in-depth learning that results in a project. • Fulfills contextualized educational purposes via meaningful projects. (p. 2) Other characteristics are highlighted by Simpson (2011), who contends that PBL is guided by standard features developed over time , where students in a centered stance pose challenging questions, problems, or topics, compelling them to go through planning, task completion, and presentation. In such a process, underlying skills such as cognitive, social, and organizational are acquired and then reinforced by sustained inquiry, authentic resources, technologies, and feedback from peers and facilitators. Accordint to Thomas (2010), projects are central to the curriculum and are framed within five criteria: centrality, driving question, constructive inquiry, autonomy, and realism. Projects guide learners to acquire key knowledge and concepts and are centered on a theme that drives learners to productive investigation, knowledge construction, and data collection. These given characteristics have framed the methodology as promising in terms of pedagogical use and alternative to traditional models. In an attempt to expand the characteristics of PBL, Larmer and Mergendoller (2010) described a six-criteria framework which guides high-quality project-based learning: intellectual challenge and accomplishment, authenticity, collaboration, project management, reflection, and public product. In an extended view, the Buck Institute promoted eight gold standards for PBL to consider key knowledge, understandings, and success skills: challenging question, sustained 97 inquiry, authenticity, student voice and choice, reflection, critique and revision, and public product (Larmer et al., 2015). Immersing students in constructivist tasks under projects enables students to work, learn, and acquire knowledge that potentially expand their opportunities to develop and strengthen skills development and thinking skills. As Figure 7 shows, the most important characteristics of PBL are described in terms of the driving question, learning experience, student ownership, valuable interdisciplinary curriculum, collaboration, skill-oriented, product creation, and academic connection to society. Most of its primary features pursue the mediation of knowledge, content, and skills anchored to the real world. Thus, learning results from students’ needs and interests, enabling learners to gain new experiences. Figure 7 PBL Nature of Learning Source : Design based on Thomas, 2000 and Larmer & Mergendoller, 2010. PBL Real - world. Product creation Driving question Authentic experience Student ownership Inter - disciplinary Curriculum related Skill - oriented Collaboration 98 2.3.2 Stages for Implementing Project-Based Learning Scholars have agreed that in educational settings PBL requires careful planning and organization in order to integrate the curriculum requirements within a pedagogy with clear goals. Considering those essentials, scholars proposed several stages for successfully developing a project. It is in the interest of this study to explore such proposals to adopt teaching principles for addressing language and intercultural purposes in the EFL classroom. For instance, Fragoulis and Tsiplakides (2009) state that a project in the educational context requires to be implemented in several stages. The process begins with the speculation stage involving students in theme/topic agreement and decision making. The second stage relates to the actual designing of the project. At this statge students are prompted to consider how the project activities, roles, and responsibilities will be carried out within the group. A third stage requires the implementation of the actions already planned and organized, concluding with self -assessment and revision intended to reflect upon learners’ decisions, product, achieved objectives, and socialization. This simplified multi-stage process model entitles learners with enough autonomy to direct and redirect their decisions toward knowledge construction throughout the project process. Similarly, Alan and Stoller (2005) proposed a 10-step model for conducting projects in the foreign language classroom. During the first steps the students and educator have to agree on a theme based on a driving question while theorizing about the possible outcomes. Then, the students plan the organization of the project while the teacher designs strategies to prepare students for the demands of the information gathering. In the fifth step, students gather the information required to carry out their project. The sixth step requires the instructor to prepare students to compile and analyze data. In the following step students collect and analyze the data gathered. In the eighth step the instructor prepares learners for the target language demands. Finally, in the final two steps that 99 culminate the project execution focus on the final product presentation and the overall project process evaluation. Stoller (2006) briefly described the sequence of this model as “information collecting, processing, reporting, and evaluation” (p. 27). The stages required to conduct a collaborative project invite learners to explore content related to real word related themes and topics while challenging their abilities to produce and construct something. As this is a student-centere d methodology with sustained engagement among peers, it provide s students with sufficient opportunities to develop their skills in varied areas. This is the significance that lies within the model making it appealing across diverse disciplines, the EFL field being no exception. The potential use of project-based learning in the foreign language classroom translates into opportunities of overcoming traditional methods of language teaching. By involving learners in learning moments that require preparation, development, implementation, assessment, and reporting and by creating the conditions for deeper, active, and transformative learning which involves the learning community, the educator and the community itself become valuable resources in the learning experience. That is the rationale that makes PBL principles appealing to be used in this study. Learners can experience the target language in a classroom environment that requires them to engage with their peers to undertake a project task with enough freedom to support their independent learning. 2.3.3 Project-Based Learning in the EFL Classroom In the context of the technological revolution and the future of artificial intelligence, educators and learners are changing roles to ensure the development of competencies and skills to face real-life scenarios. The available literature suggests PBL advocates for some specific teacher- student roles. 100 The educator: • acts as a guide, a coordinator, and a facilitator; • supports and participates in the learning process; • offers resources to guide students through the project experience; • helps learners in creatively managing content and using technological tools; • takes part in regular training development and improvement; • explains the reasons behind project learning (what, why, purpose); • adapts teaching styles to the teaching context and the PBL stage; • awak ens interests, curiosity, and content discovery; • plans effective strategies for learning to occur; • embraces a positive attitude to facilitate the whole process; and • leads students to regulate their learning by a holistic assessment. The learner: • participates actively in the process when using PBL; • manages and reorients their roles and responsibilities; • keeps an open mind and embraces peer and self-correction; • commits to a project goal and successful conclusion; • ensures to have equal involvement in the project process; and • shows responsibility, effort, dedication, and a positive attitude. The educator acts as the facilitator and process consultant of the learning experience, guiding and assisting the students in their exploration, research, synthesis, reflection, and product creation. In this sense, the teacher’s role changes from that of a knowledge transmitter and major 203 (c) develop and enhance learners’ intercultural skills to interpret, relate, discover, and interact by introducing, instructing, and leading them to learn to combine knowledge, skills, critical cultural awareness, and attitudes when communicating and engaging w ith people from different cultural affiliations through the use of receptive and productive skills mediated by a combined approach of tasks and projects. The unit lessons intended to meet these intercultural goals holistically throughout tsemester s I and II. As Fonseca-Greber (2010) recommended when introducing culture, it is fundamental for educators to initially introduce students to a self-reflective process of their preconceived notions and misunderstandings about the target culture; during this reflection, students tend to be more open to undertake identity transformation and self-awareness. To build more on that recommendation, it is noticeable that virtually every theme or topic transmits cultural elements, opening gates to work on comparisons, refle ction, and analysis of singular cultures. Language, content, and skills can be enhanced upon various materials ranging from national to international issues. The intervention proposal developed in the study integrated varied intercultural content through the target language, which intended to build and foster students’ cultural knowledge (e.g., cultural-general, cultural-specific, intercultural citizenship) of various cultural elements. Those were facilitated during both interventions as working synergies for enhancing students’ intercultural communicative competence (e.g., knowledge, skills, critical cultural awareness, receptive attitudes toward different cultures) within a hybrid method learnin g experience characterized by language teaching principles from both CLIL and PBL approaches. Productive and receptive skills require sufficient target language input and adequate opportunities for practice and reinforcement of grammar forms and vocabulary tasks implicitly introduced in the units facilitate a balanced learning experience. Projects and homework during the 204 intervention experience were assigned to boost students’ autonomy, inquiry, collaborative skills, and connections to actual-world elements. The lessons developed included themes related to historical memory hints, native culture and other cultures world views, insights about everyday life, routine work, lifestyle and habits, education, gender roles, music, food, traditions, behaviors, beliefs, and customs, social rules legends, stories, proverbs, stereotypes, communication styles from native culture and other cultures. Various authentic activities, tasks, tools, and resources were used to achieve such objectives. Tasks were carried out to expose the learner to language skills (i.e., reading, listening, speaking, and writing) and intercultural instruction was given through classroom engagement promoted as an individual, group, or pair work. Research on authentic learning suggests that interactive engagement and authentic like instruction helps learners to achieve confidence and increasing chances for knowledge acquisition and higher interest and positive attitude toward the methodology. During the synchronous and asynchronous sessions, some of the primary means and resources used included multimedia resources, audiovisual material, such videos, movies, television series, documentaries, audios, podcasts, texts, cartoons, images, infographics, reading passages, songs, quotes, art, literature, poems local newspaper articles, magazine articles, critical incidents, and culture capsules . Students were asked to engage in different tasks to work on receptive and productive language skills while creating their products and projects infused with intercultural content and reflection. The units included exercises as warm -ups, visual thinking, whole-class and group discussions, matching tasks, fill-in tasks, forums, retelling, summarizing, creating, situation solving, critical thinking, short answer exercises, completion, listening and reading comprehension, small talks, video creation, oral presentations, and virtual role-play s, 205 among other kinds of tasks. Students had autonomy to develop their own strategies, make decisions and establish connections to language and intercultural content. In addition, the development of cognitive skills was scaffolded through homework, tasks, and projects and autonomous and independent work. Feedback from peers and teachers about their products during both asynchronous and synchronous sessions also contributed to fostering cognitive skills. Students used the Classroom App platform to keep a record of their progress and upload the evidence of their engagement through the unit lessons (i.e., unit tasks, homework, project, videos, audio podcasts, peer reviews, presentations, and journal entries). Students were asked to post their video products and projects and view, revise, and comment on each other’s products. At the same time, during the online meeting, they submitted their experience briefings and general intercultural reflections. The facilitator provided group feedback on the language content and intercultural connections. Concerning the intercultural perspective, Gray (2000) advises that material with inappropriate cultural content should be avoided and suggests to adapt tasks and activities to meet the intercultural goals. Therefore, the material was carefully chosen in order to avoid the spread of stereotypes and bias. Audiovisual material was selected in terms of genuineness, quality, accuracy, and contemporaneity. The material was reviewed to meet the general intentions of the ICC proposal, targeting the established objectives. Themes, resources, and tasks targeted the interaction between learners and student engagement and with language, content, and intercultural dimensions. The intercultural content and materials were carefully selected and adapted to meet the criteria of language acquisition, context, authenticity, and interculturally driven themes to target cultures (English-speaking countries and other cultures that use English as a lingua franca) and native culture respecting its appropriateness for students’ level of English and interest. 206 The design of the intervention included varied formative assessment tasks and techniques to estimate the student learning progress resulting from the ICC combined instruction strategies. Alternative forms of assessment, such as self-assessment, reflective journals, peer review, interviews, and portfolios, are preferable ways to assess intercultural communicative competence (Byram, 1997; Lange & Paige, 2003) rather than traditional measurements, as no single assessment tool can give a complete picture of ICC enhancement. The progress made in terms of assessment has been remarkable. Now, classroom dynamics regards the task of assessing not necessarily as giving a fixed score a nd as an activity fully oriented to the final product of students’ work. Hence, the assessment procedure carried out during the intervention proposal was conducted eclectically through a variety of instruments instruments, such as observations, participants’ e-journal entries, rubrics and checklists formative task activities, which allowed to assess students’ advance, progress and products throughout the learning process (interventions). The project process tasks required constant communication, autonomy, and self -monitoring on behalf of the students. Certain aspects were taken in consideration to assure the success and effectiveness of the process. For instance, the following criteria helped guiding and providing students with formative assessment regarding their pro ject process: • The project’s driving question or problem is linked to the students’ context, community, interest, and real life • Project tasks and final products reflect authentic and practical purposes • The project process promotes learners’ voice and learning. Students take significant responsibility and autonomy in deciding how to conduct their projects • The project reflects sustained inquiry, making use of resources to actively construct and reflect on knowledge, questions, and answers 207 • The project highlights sufficient ideas connected to intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and culture identity around native and target cultures • The project is equally constructed since students work collaboratively, benefiting from each participant’s skills to complete the project tasks • Students ask for feedback on their work and ask for support on language needs to revise ideas and create their product successfully • Collaborative and individual learning deal with important language, content, and ICC advance and progression through the work on project tasks • The project shows students’ self- assessme nt and monitoring on goals achievement and ICC integration • Students present their project while attempting to make the content interesting and focus on reflevant information. • Digital tools are used to support content illustration allowing engagement, inter est, and creativity • Students use proper English to present their work taking into account content, pronunciation, grammar mechanics, and oral delivery. Throughout the intervention, the researcher and colleagues in charge observed students’ reactions toward the content and units. The observations were useful to note aspects resulting from the development of the pedagogical intervention to determine students’ reactions and levels of engagement after studying the language through the hybrid approach. In such a manner, field notes were taken to systematize detailed descriptive reports of the different situations that ha ppened during synchronous and asynchronous cla ss sessions. Students participating in the intervention 208 were involved in writing reflective journals about the learning experience. They were required to write reflective journals based on each unit’s suggested questions/topics or themes addressed during the sessions. Students wrote their reflective journals by providing comments addressing the questions posed, thus serving as an exercise for developing critical culture awareness, attitude, skills, and knowledge, according to Jacobsen and Florman (2011). The collection of these entries served to guide and assess students’ learning process allowing them to benefit from the materialization and articulation of their learning and growth. Based on the observation s, reflections, comments, and feedback from colleagues after the first module intervention in semester I, some modifications were done regarding the content, units, tasks, and projects. Revision on the timing of class activities, project periods, class activities, contextualized material, number of tasks, and level of difficulty of teaching materials were considered for intervention II, semester II. Table 11 offers an outline of the topis and main objectives addressed in Interventions I and II. Table 11 Intervention I and II Topics and Major Objectives S.I Feb to Jun 2020 Week Topics ICC insights Major Obj ectives ICC 1 Globalizati on and the global market - H istorical origins. - Costa Rican early’s economical activities - Identify internatio nal commerce remarks an d its role on the global market - Relate the country’s efforts to grow by exploring its historical origins. *K *S *A *C A 2 3 Tourism: Costa Rica’ beauty - Concept of beauty Critical culture awareness - Learn about Tourism in Costa Rica and its beautiful venues. - Understand their own cultural ideolo gy wi th r espect to beauty. 4 5 Blue zones: happiness and tempo - Chronemics - Notions of happiness - Find out about cultural norms and practices of different Blue Zones of the world. - Identify Costa Ric an cultural norms an d lifestyle that promotes longevity an d happiness 6 209 7 Jobs and diversity - Cultural diversity - Stereotypes - Find out about cultural stereotypes and possible impact on communic ation by watching a movie . - Reco gnize and respect cultura l diversity while communicating with people from different cult ures. 8 9 Achieveme nts and dreams Individualism and collectivism - Compare and analyze individuali stic and collectivistic cultures. - Learn about famous peoples’ goals and achievements 10 11 Communic ation in the workplace Communicatio n styles Critical culture awareness - Learn about some k ey aspects and business etiquette at the workplace. - Get familiar with and compare some cultural values from different countries in busi ness and at the workplace. 12 13 Intercultura l citizenship: skills for the future Intercultural citizenship - Find out about the meaning and implications of Global Citizenshi p. - Propose ideas to act as agents of change to make a difference in their community. S.II Jul to Nov 2020 Week Topics ICC insights Major Obj ectives ICC 1 Advertisem ent: services and products - Values, practices, stereotypes. - Critical culture awareness Hofstede’s cultural dimensions - Discuss about shopping habits, a ds, and commercials. - Get familiar with certain rules for providing quality of customer service - Creatively des ign and film a co mmercial advertisement for a made - up product or service. - Identify c ultural aspects represented in advertisements and commercials. *K *S *A *C A 2 3 Workplace communica tion Communicatio n styles - Learn about some k ey aspects and business etiquette at the workplace. - Get familiar with and compare some cultural values from different countries in business and at the workplace. 4 5 Costa Rica: a look back - historical events - Culture traits - Explore key historical events of Costa Rica from 16 th century till 20 th . - Learn about some of the si gnificant events th at have shaped the Costa Rica of tod ay. - Encourage a sens e of one’s o wn culture awareness . 6 7 Business and gender equality Gender roles in one’s and other cultures - Learn about some of the chal lenges and advances for women at workplace. - Get familiar with gender’s roles in some cultures and the challenges women face in certain areas of life. 8 210 9 Technolog y : advantages and disadvantag es - Interculture - cultures comparison Critical culture awareness - Identify key technological advancement, its positive and negative impact. - Recognize the impact of those advanc ements on human life, societies, and cultur es . - Propose ideas to l essen the dark ar eas of expected technological progress. 10 11 Afrocostari can: rediscoveri ng roots - Interculture - cultures comparison Critical culture awareness - Recognize the historical background of the Afro - Costa Ri can c ulture and their contribution and heritage to the Costa Rican culture. - Encourage critical culture awareness towards one’s own roots, cul tural diversity, traditions, and practices. 12 13 Global citizenship - Intercultural citizenship - Investigate the meaning and implications of Global Citizenship. - Propose ideas to act as agents of change to make a difference in their community. *K : knowledge - *S: skills - *A: attitude - * CA: critical awarenes s 5.2.2 Integrated English I & II Interventions: Sample Lesson Plans The following lesson plans include some of the tasks and projects used to mediate the learning process and infuse and enhance learners’ intercultural communicative competence. Table 12 shows the structure used to plan the hybrid methodology and the activities, task and materials. Table 12 ICC Lesson Plan Structure Overall Less on Plan Str ucture Topic: Learning outcomes: (intercultural learning, con tent, communication, and language) Content: (Themes, t hematic units) Intercultural Insights: (Knowledge, sk ills, attitude &critical culture awareness) Cognition : ( Bloom Taxonomy & Cognitive Discourse Funct ions …) Language skills & Communication Interaction & Engagement Materials &Resources Main Task s Language Skills Emphasis Individual, peer or Group wor k (photos, pictures, songs, auth. material text s, online resources… ) Formative Assessment : Asses sment techniques (formative, peer and self - assessment, journal reflections) Project Tasks: 211 Table 13 Table Sample Lesson Plan 1 Overall Lesson P lan - Sample Lesson Plan. Level: A1 - A2 Time: 3:30 hours Intervention I - Integrated Eng lish I - Topic: Globa lization and the global marke t Learning outcomes: Content: • Find out about commerce and trade importance to the country. • Identify internationa l commerce remarks and its ro le on the global market. Intercultural Insights: • Find out history about the country’s earl y economical activities. • Relate the country’ s efforts to grow by explor ing its histo rical origins. • Understa nd their own cultural identit y and how it formed. • Recognize aspects o f their own cu ltural identit y, specificit ies/references/a ffinities. Language: • Learn some relevant vocabulary abou t marketing and globalization . • Discuss and share ideas about mark eting, g lobalization, and Costa Rican early’s economical activities. • Learn about the v erb “to be” in present tense and practice its usage in different kind s of sentences. Cognition : • Understand, explain , interpret, and discuss ideas about t he content. • Identify and describ e some Costa Rican’s cultural ide ntity and historical traits. Language skills & Communication Interaction & Engagement Materials & Resources Main Task s Observing and speaking Reading and Interacting Whole Class Pair work Picture on Multimedi a Text as hand out/e - copy Warm up: Task # 1: Students observe a picture of a port and share their observations. Task # 2: Students read a passage about International Marketing and partic ipate orally providing their interpretations, ideas and answers to questions posed by the teacher regarding the text. 2.1 Students will be given some basic definitions regarding Commerce and trade, which they will match with their respective terms from a word list. They will then check their answers. Listening, reading and writing Listening and Individual work Small group work Multimedi a and printed /printable transcript Core part: Task # 3: Students watch a videoclip related to globalization and fill in the blanks its transcript content ideas. They will then listen an audio track about Costa Rican economic position in the global marke t. Task # 4: 212 writing Reading, matching/ writing and reconcilin Reading and speaking Observing and interacting Individual work Whole cla ss Whole cla ss Notepad/ip hone Notebook Or questionnai re Hand out Picture on Multimedi a and hand outs In pairs, students will interview their partners to note down their opinions about positive and negative aspects that globalization has on their country’s economy, along with its direct impact on their lives. Task # 5: Structures and examples of VERB “TO BE” in Simple Present Tense, will be shown to students, so that they can study it, and then can identify such sentences from the content they have read so far in the unit. Task # 7: Students will look at the given pictures about Costa Rica Early’s economical activities. As a group students converse with the teacher about key facts and prominent aspects regarding their culture and identity while connecting it to its economical productivity. Reading and interacting Speaking and writing Pair/ Small group work Whole cla ss Multimedi a slide/ hand out White board/ Closure: Task # 8: Students are introduced to the role of culture in everyday life and how it is linked to language. Task # 9: A picture of an iceberg shall be placed/shown on the board. Students will brainstorm and list on the board, elements of the Costa Rican culture. They will then identify and join visible elements to the tip of the iceberg and invisible ones to the lower hidden part. Teacher explains the need to be careful with stereotyping countries, and regions. Assessment: Journal writing: Students will be writing a digital blog about their learning experience in this unit, describing perspective of their culture and the key aspects they consider significant of their identity as a nation part of a global market. Project: In small groups, students are required to read about key historical events such as the conquest of the Costa Rican territory to rediscover certain identity roots and traits. Then, they conduct a mini project by interviewing certain seniors from their community. They design a set of questions to ask them with the aim to explore any historical event they are interested to approach about. They will create a videoclip or a product about their findings regarding their country’s past or history (Costa Rica). They will record their highlights discussions and share some of the short stories/anecdotes in their next class. 219 Table 17 Sample Lesson Plan 5 Overall Lesson Plan -Sample Lesson Plan. Level: A1-A2 Time: 3:30 hours Intervention II - Integrated En glish II - Topic: Work place c ommunicat ion Learning outcomes: Content: • Find out about the importance of business etiquette and busines communication. • Learn about key aspects when conducting business and communication at the workplace. Intercultural Insights: • Get familiar with some cultural values from different countries in business and at the workplace. • Identify some Costa Rican business values, communication styles and workplace ethics. • Compare their cultural values/practices with other countries/cultures of the world. Language: • Learn relevant vocabulary related to the topic. • Read, discuss, and produce ideas linked to the content. • Understand and practice using some modals verbs “can/must/must not/have to/should” in sentences/discussion. Cognition: Comparing and reflecting about intercultural communication essentials at the workplace. Language skills & Communication Interaction Materials &Resources Main Tasks Observing, speaking and interacting Reading, and speaking Whole Class Whole class Video on Multimedia Zoom app Quotes on Multimedia LEAD IN: Task # 1: Students will watch a video about importance of intercultural communication understanding, when learning English language. They will then share their understanding about it. Task # 2 & 3: Students will read the quotes displayed on the screen about effective communication and its essential elements. They will then share their understanding about them. Later, they will think and discuss the consequences of ineffective communication. Reading, discussing and speaking Individual reading/ Whole Class Pair work Zoom app Multimedia and Hand outs CORE PART: Task # 4, 5 & 6: A pre-reading vocabulary brainstorming activity will be conducted, followed by reading comprehension regarding communication at workplace in general and Costa Rican culture. After that, students will reflect their understanding of the topic by answering a few 220 Reading, discussing, and interacting Reading, writing, and interacting Reading, and writing Reading, and writing Individual/ Pair Work Individual Work Individual Work questions. Later, the use of modal ‘can’ in Simple present tense shall be discussed and students will identify its examples from the reading text. They will practice it further by forming a few more sentences/question by themselves. Task # 7 & 8: Students will study the given cultural norms and practices of 3 different cultures, followed by a comparative analysis of Asian versus UK/West European communication styles, patterns, and tendencies. Next, they will exercise a similar comparison between their cultural values and two of their neighbourhood’s. Considering these differences, they will then classify various counties as high context or low context cult ures. Task # 9 & 10: Here, the students will read individually, a detailed content about Business Etiquettes and Workplace Ethics in Costa Rica. This will be followed by a post-reading pair discussion and labelling the given statements mutually as true or false. Task # 11: In this activity, students will evaluate the some given statements about communication at workplace and business etiquettes, to decide whether they are prevailing in their own culture or not. They will tick mark the correct ones. Task # 12 & 13: Students will fill in the blanks of the given information regarding cultural and business practices in UK. For this, they will be using modals ‘can/must/must not/should/have to’. Later, they will write 2 sentences with similar structures, about Costa Rican cultural values at workplace, family, or educational institutions. Reading, discussing, reconciling and speaking Pair Work Multimedia CLOSURE: Task # 14 & 15: Students learn a few English phrases/statements that are considered cultured and civilised worldwide. The phrases will also help students to practice some structured use of modals they had learnt by then. They will then discuss with their partners, Tico’s communication style and challenges they face in different walks of life. Partners will also reconcile their answers for 221 tasks 11, 12, & 13 with each other, followed by Watsapp audio messages sharing to practice the phrases of task 14. Assessment: Journal writing: Students will be writing a report in the classroom app, about their learning in this unit, and the essential cultural aspects that must be considered while communicating with a diverse group of people. They will also write about common workplace communication challenges faced by Costa Rican workers when interacting with people of diverse culture. Project: Students are required to create a comparative info-graphic for two cultures, one native and second any other culture of the world. It must contain basic cultural aspects like history, heritage, cultural norms, some amazing facts, conversational practices/taboos, work values, celebrations, family, and relationship ethics etc. Table 18 Sample Lesson Plan 6 Overall Lesson Plan -Sample Lesson Plan. Level: A1-A2 Time: 3:30 hours Intervention II - Integrated En glish II - Topic: Costa Rica: a look back Learning outcomes: Content: • Find out about some historical events and key figures or heroes who played a significant role in the country’s development. • Reflect, discuss, and compare events from a Costa Rican novel extract and the current Coronavirus pandemic situation. • Learn about the importance of communication in daily life and in business conversations. Intercultural Insights: • Learn about current and historical aspects linked to the Costa Rican culture. • Find out about the use of small talk in business conversations in certain cultures. • Identify their cultural awareness in relation to small talks in business. Language: • Learn some important relevant vocabulary for discussing history. • Create linguistic competence particular to business discussions. • Practice reading, writing, inferring, discussing, and explaining their ideas related to the topic. • Practice grammatical structures, especially in small talks during business conversations. • Learn and practice some self-introduction statements/phrases. Cognition: • Reviewing, reflecting, and evaluating important events described to them. • Analyzing and comparing a past description with a present situation. • Identifying, summarizing, assessing, and comparing cultural differences in small talks during business conversations. • Reflecting and articulating a cultural custom or tradition and a Costa Rican food. 222 Language skills & Communication Interaction Materials &Resources Main Tasks Observing, speaking and writing Whole Class Videos on Multimedia Zoom app LEAD IN: Task # 1: Students will watch 2 prescribed videos about Historical background and heroes of Costa Rica and take notes about it. After that, they will write a summary of important events described in each, while using varied grammatical structures. Reading and speaking Listening, interacting and writing Listening, reading, writing and speaking Whole Class Whole Class Whole Class/ Pair Work Hand outs Zoom app Multimedia and Notebooks Zoom app Handouts and Notebooks CORE PART: Task # 2: Students will read an extract from the novel “The Promised War” along with a little pre- reading text about its background and comparison to the current Coronavirus pandemic situation. Students will then record their reactions after reading, such as the element that surprised them, what was new for them and Ticos character-identity, etc. Task # 3.1, 3.2 & 3.3: A pre-reading brainstorming will be conducted to see if the students are aware of the phrase “Small Talk” and its importance in business. Then they will read a small text describing the same. Later, students will fill a case study- based questionnaire to ascertain how culturally mindful they are, and then watch a video about transition recommendations from small talk to business talk, which they will write in their notebooks. Task # 3.4 & 3.5: Students will listen to an audio conversation as an example of small talk in a business setup, after which, they will identify t he correct grammatical structures in the transcript of the same. This will be followed by learning and practicing in pairs, some self-introductory sentences/phrases that can be used in everyday life Listening, reading, and writing Individual work Handout and Multimedia CLOSURE: Task # 4: 223 Students will listen/watch video of the song “What a wonderful World” and then solve a few exercises relating to it: • Choosing the correct answer from the choice of words • Unscrambling words to identify the correct answer • Filling in the missing verbs Assessment: Journal writing: 1. Students will be writing a reflection journal by answering a few questions about the unit. 2. Students are required to take a photo of themselves while practicing a custom or tradition of their culture or another culture. Then they will record an audio description their experience and upload it to their classroom app with the phot o and a brief writ ten description. Project: Students will be recording a video based on the history of Costa Rica, imagining that they are narrating it to a non-national. They are guided to research for facts, traits, events, practices, proverbs, beliefs, and behaviours. Students autonomously and in groups prepare the details for recording an online meeting via zoom or any other platform to work on the project. Table 19 Sample Lesson Plan 7 Overall Lesson Plan -Sample Lesson Plan. Level: A1-A2 Time: 3:30 hours Intervention II - Integrated En glish II - Topic: Global Citizenship Learning outcomes: Content: • Find out about the meaning and implications of Global Citizenship. • Learn more about global problems, namely the Water Crisis. • Recognize that small actions can lead to big impact. • Propose ideas to act as agents of change to make a difference in their community. Intercultural Insights: • Learn and comprehend the notion of global citizenship in relation to diverse cultures. Language: • Learn some important relevant vocabulary around global citizenship. • Discuss and reflect on global issues. • Learn proverbs and practice using them by writing a poem and a composition. Cognition: • Comprehend, explain, rephrase, and evaluate ideas to address global problems, challenges and solutions. 224 Language skills & Communication Interaction & Engagement Materials &Resources Main Tasks Speaking and reading Whole Class/ Pair Work Multimedia and internet + gadgets for research Zoom app Warm up: Task # 1.1 & 1.2: Students are presented with definitions of Global Citizenship and are required to think of a major global issue that truly bothers them. They share their ideas and from that the teacher supports the whole class discussion. Students will then be asked if they know some of missions led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Beyoncé, Malala, and Bill Gates. Students get familiar with some of the work these well-known people do and discuss the ways they are serving the purpose of Global Citizenship. Reading, comprehending, discussing, and writing Reading, interacting, and answering Reading, speaking and writing Speaking and writing Whole class/ Individual Work Whole Class/ Group work/ Pair Work Whole Class/ Individual Work Individual Work/ Pair Work Zoom app Hand out Doc-Link: https://www.youtub e.com/watch?v=C 65iqOSCZOY ) Multimedia, Classroom app and Notebook Hand outs Handouts and Multimedia Core part : Task # 2: Students read, try to comprehend, and then discuss the provided article about water shortage in Brazil. They will then solve a matching exercise of related concept and synonyms found in the article. Students relate the ideas discussed in the passage to their reality. Task # 3.1, 3.2 & 3.3: Students watch a Netflix’s documentary regarding an alarming global challenge of present time, Water Crisis. Students answer a few questions in groups about the facts and ideas addressed in the documentary. Later, students are going to ask their partners some of the actions that can lead to change in a broader scenario regarding their role as global citizens on the issue of water crisis. Task # 4.2 & 4.3: Students will read two poems about Global Citizenship and will asked their classmates a question to reflect, discuss about them: Do you think that these poems are truly depicting the concept of global citizenship? Which stanza/verse did you like the most? Why? How do you feel about the message in the poem?Do you relate to it? 225 Reading, interacting and speaking Group work Zoom app Multimedia for showing questions CLOSURE: Task # 5: Students will independently study and learn some proverbs used in different parts of the world, then dedicate one of those to his/her friend. They will also learn a few more proverbs by matching them to their correct definitions. During the following online session, students and teacher interact extracting cultural meanings and indicators from the wisdom of proverbs and some of their similarities among cultures or countries Assessment: Journal writing: Students will write a composition about a global issue and ways to addressed it. Then, they s hare their ideas to their class by creating an audio podcast which will be posted on the classroom app. Project: Students will celebrate an Intercultural Costume Virtual Zoom Party, where they will dress up or paint themselves representing a culture and exposing key documents, events and challenging problems affecting different territories. Students will pre pare their outline content presentation, as a group select, describe, and propose actions to address some global issues that affect us all as individuals sharing the same planet.They will celebrate the end of the most perplexing University year with some cherishing online activities. 226 PART III: DATA ANALYSIS 227 CHAPTER 6: ICC SELF - ASSESSMENT SCALE AND I NTERCULTURAL FORMATIVE QUIZ: DATA ANALYSIS 228 6.1 ICC Self - assess ment S cale and I ntercultural F ormative Quiz Analysis This chapter presents the results and the interpretation of the data gathered from the ICC self -assessment scale after conducting the study. The quantitative analysis that is presented is fundamental to understand the the results obtained in this study (Johnson & Christensen, 2004). Quantitative results have a fundamental role in quasi-experimental research, as they can help accept or reject the established hypothesis and support c laims intended to be answered in this study. More specifically, this chapter examines participants’ perspectives and responses regarding intercultural communicative competence in foreign language learning. It analyses data to determine any progression in the participants’ ICC skills in the Costa Rican tertiary educational context and compares results between control and intervention groups to clarify and determine if there are any significant differences in competency among groups in terms of ICC. As indicated previously, participants in this s tudy were divided into intervention and control groups (124 were ass igned to the experimental group and 95 to the control group). As aforementiones, steps have been considered first to examine and determine data distribution. As the data were not normally distributed, nonparametric s tatistics were used, such as the K ruskal- Wallis and Mann-Whitney U test. The Cronbach α test was also performed to measure the internal consistency of (the extent to which all the items in a test measure the same concept or construct) the scales. Thus, qualitative data have been gathered and analyzed to complement the interpretation of quantitative results. In th e following subsections, results from the ICC self-assessment scale and ICC quiz are presented in order to demonstrate the benefits of implementing the combined CLIL- PBL framework to foster ICC. 235 6.2.2 ICC Self-assessment Scale Results:Intervention II_Experimental vs Control Groups Table 23 shows the results of the control and experimental groups in the pretest and posttest for Integrated English II, semester II. A Cronbach’s α test result greater than 0.90 was reported for all the categories, indicating a high internal consistency for the ICC scale dimensions evaluated (i.e., knowledge, critical awareness, attitude, and skills). Table 23 ICC Self-Assessment Scale Results: Experimental vs. Control Group (Intervention II) Pretest Posttest Control ( n = 95) Experimental ( n = 124) P -value Control ( n = 95) Experimental ( n = 124) P -value Knowledge < 0.001 < 0.001 Cronbach α 0.95 0.96 0.95 0.96 M 2.80 3.57 2.82 4.09 Median (IQR) 3 (2.1-3.5) 3.5 (3-4) 3 (2.2-3.5) 4 (4-4.9) SD 0.86 0.88 0.88 0.73 Critical awareness < 0.001 < 0.001 Cronbach α 0.96 0.96 0.95 0.93 M 2.92 3.78 2.90 4.19 Median (IQR) 3 (2.1-3.3) 4 (3-4.5) 3 (2.3-3) 4 (4-5) SD 0.93 0.99 0.90 0.68 Attitude < 0.001 < 0.001 Cronbach α 0.97 0.94 0.97 0.95 M 2.80 3.48 2.78 4.21 Median (IQR) 3 (2-3) 3.6 (3-4) 3 (2-3) 4 (4-5) SD 0.92 0.94 0.89 0.75 Skills < 0.001 < 0.001 Cronbach α 0.95 0.97 0.95 0.96 M 2.67 3.27 2.66 4.12 Median (IQR) 2.9 (2-3) 3 (2.9-4) 3 (2-3) 4 (4-5) SD 0.85 1.04 0.86 0.70 Notes . p -values = Mann-Whitney U test (Wilcoxon rank-sum test). Table 23 and Figure 14 show the mean differences between both groups. When analyzing the results, it is evident that the control group did not undergo significant changes while the experimental group scores changed significantly. It is worth indicating that the highest score for 236 the experimental group after intervention proposal II was on the ICC component of attitude ( n = 124, m = 4.21), whereas the lowest mean score was noted on knowledge ( n = 124, m = 4.12). Participants self-assessed their perspectives, favoring a shift toward attitude and critical awareness, indicating that the prolonged exposure to intercultural matters (e.g., tasks, content, resources) influenced the overall way participants interpreted the ICC phenomena. Figure 14 ICC Self-Assessment Scale Mean Difference: Intervention vs. Control Group (Int II) Note . Figure Mean scores Intervention II As observed in Figure 14, there are apparent differences between the pretest and posttest means of the control and experimental groups in all of the ICC areas investigated. While the experimental group substantially improved their performance in all dimensions after Intervention II, the control group did not experience any progress. The pretest results (before Intervention II) 2.8 3.57 2.82 4.09 2.92 3.78 2.9 4.19 2.8 3.48 2,78 4.21 2.67 3.27 2.66 4.12 2, 5 2, 7 2, 9 3, 1 3, 3 3, 5 3, 7 3, 9 4, 1 4, 3 Cont r ol Ex pe r ime nt al Co nt r ol Exp e r ime nt al Pr e t es t Pos t tes t Know l edg e Cr iti cal aw ar ene ss Atti tude Ski lls 237 reported higher mean scores in the ICC components of critical cultural awareness and knowledge. These were also the most affected at the end of intervention I. It can be interpreted that the impact on these ICC perspectives (cultural awareness and knowledge) was sustained before implementing the pedagogical intervention II. The reason for this may be that these are the ICC dimensions which are more easily acquired. There were significant differences in the self-assessment intercultural communicative competence scale components when comparing the results of the control group with tohose of the experimental group in the pretest and posttest. These results shed some light on the kind of influence that the pedagogical intervention II had on the experimental group’s perspectives regarding the role of interculture in the process of learning English as a foreign language. Furthermore, it can be observed that no significant differences were found in the control group. The statistics and test results for each intercultural dimension can be seen in Tables 24 and 25. Such results exhibit that, after comparing the control and experimental groups in terms of knowledge, critical awareness, attitude, and skills, the Mann-Whitney U test yielded results with p -values < 0.001 (Table 24). Similarly, for posttest scores, a significant mean difference between the control and experimental groups was reported in all the four categories: knowledge, critical awareness, attitude, and skills ( p -values < 0.001). Table 24 P-Values: Intervention II: Integrated English II: Semester II ICC Component Comparison p -Values Control vs Intervention Group Knowledge Pretest vs posttest < 0.001 Critical awareness Pretest vs posttest < 0.001 Attitude Pretest vs posttest < 0.001 Skills Pretest vs posttest < 0.001 238 As can be observed in Table 25, the systematic exposure t o inte rcultural content, tasks, and projects in the English classrooms, helped improve learners’ intercultural dimension of skills and this progress was more remarkable after the second intervention (U = 1057.000, p < .001), (Z = − 10.574, p < .01), the second most affected was attitude (U = 1223.000, p < .001), (Z = − 10.200, p < .01). 6.2.2.1 Mann-Whitney U Test Results: Intervention II Table 25 Mann-Whitney U Test Results: Intervention II (Integrated English II) Knowledge Critical Awareness Attitude Skills Semester II (Control vs. Intervention) Pretest Mann - Whit ney U 3224.000 2999.000 3567.000 3723.500 Wilco xon W 7784.000 7559.000 8127.000 8283.500 Z − 5.796 − 6.312 − 5.079 − 4.730 Asymp. s ig. (2 - tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 Exact sig. (2 - tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 Exact sig. (1 - tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 Posttest Mann - Whit ney U 1295.500 1453.000 1223.000 1057.000 Wilco xon W 5855.500 6013.000 5783.000 5617.000 Z − 10.091 − 9.704 − 10.200 − 10.574 Asymp. s ig. (2 - tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 Exact sig. (2 - tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 Exact sig. (1 - tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 Notes . (a) grouping variable: int ervention (b) some or al l exact signifi cances cannot be computed because ther e is insufficient mem ory. These results reinforce and support the previous descriptive analysis, indicating a positive impact after the weeks of systematically implementing the intervention proposal. The data corroborate the hypothesis of this research since the intervention contributed to effectively changing and shifting students’ self-perceptions of their intercultural competence in all the scale components during semester II in the course Integrated English II. Nalyzing the results in detail, it can be interpreted that the experimental group, after being exposed to the second pedagogical intervention (Integrated English II), improved the most on their 239 ICC attitude, while the knowledge component improved the least. These results support the ar guments asserting that attitude is a pivotal early sign in achieving or fostering intercultural communicative competence (Zou & Shek-Noble, 2014; Byram, 2020; Brunow & Newman, 2020; Morganna et al., 2020). Based on Deardorff’s (2004) insights, it is fundamental to begin the long-life process of acquiring the intercultural competence by allowing the individual to progress toward the interactional leve l where the outcomes ca n be visible. She contends that the degree of intercultural competence depends on attitude as an ideal starting point or platform from where the learning that implies knowledge and skills can be sustained. Results favor this interpretation and show that any kind of systematic ICC exposure is much more beneficial to learners’ ICC progression than no mediation. According to Deardorff (2006), attitude is the component that can maintain and lead the acquisition of ICC knowledge by reshaping personal frames of reference, which later are believed to influence behaviors. 6.2.3 ICC S elf -assessment Scale Experimental Group: Intervention I vs. Intervention II Table 26 shows the results of the comparison between pre and posttest scores from interventions I and II for the experimental group . A Cronbach's alpha of greater than 0.90 was reported for all dimensions (knowledge, critical awareness, attitude, and skills), indicating a high internal consistency for the scale. Analyzing results from both interventions provides a better picture of how the experimental group progressed in the ICC dimensions throughout the longitudinal study. 240 Table 26 ICC Self-Assessment Scale Test Results: Intervention I vs Intervention II Intervention I_English I Intervention II_English II Pre (n=124) Post (n=124) P value Pre (n=124) Post (n=124) P value Knowledge <0.001 <0.001 Cronbach alpha 0.92 0.96 0.96 0.95 Mean 2.84 3.85 3.57 4.09 Median (IQR) 3 (2.2-3.7) 4 (3.3-4.2) 3.5 (3-4) 4 (4-4.9) SD 0.87 0.82 0.88 0.73 Critical awareness <0.001 0.003 Cronbach alpha 0.94 0.93 0.95 0.93 Mean 2.92 3.68 3.78 4.19 Median (IQR) 3 (2-3.7) 4 (3-4) 4 (3-4.5) 4 (4-5) SD 0.91 0.98 0.99 0.68 Attitude <0.001 <0.001 Cronbach alpha 0.89 0.95 0.94 0.95 Mean 2.91 3.56 3.48 4.21 Median (IQR) 3 (2.3-3.4) 4 (3-4.5) 3.6 (3-4) 4 (4-5) SD 0.82 1.1 0.94 0.75 Skills <0.001 <0.001 Cronbach alpha 0.90 0.97 0.97 0.96 Mean 2.61 3.58 3.27 4.12 Median (IQR) 2.7 (2.2-3) 4 (3-4) 3 (2.9-4) 4 (4-5) SD 0.83 1.1 1.0 0.70 Note.p-values= Mann Whitney U Test (Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test) Figure 15 Graphical Representation of the Mean Differences (Intervention I and II) 2.84 3.85 3.57 4.09 2.92 3.68 3.78 4.19 2.91 3.56 3.48 4.21 2.61 3.58 3.27 4.12 2, 5 2, 7 2, 9 3, 1 3, 3 3, 5 3, 7 3, 9 4, 1 4, 3 Pr e Post Pr e Post In te rv ent ion I In te rv ent ion I I Know l edg e Cr iti cal aw ar ene ss Atti t ude Skill s 241 Table 26 and Figure 15 show the continuous progression of the experimental group in all the ICC dimensions during the s econd intervention. It is evident in intervention I, that the highest score is found in knowledge wherea s for intervention II the highest mean score is found in attitude and critical awareness. The fact that students’ scores improved remarkably in all ICC dimensions after the first intervention and that they continued improving at a similar rate after the second intervention proves the positive effects of adopting a combined CLIL-PBL approach to teach ICC in learning contexts. 6.2.3.1 Mann-Whitney U Test Results: intervention I and II The change in each measure across the first and second interventions was calculated by running the Mann-Whitney U test to examine any significant differences between the interventions within the experimental group (see Tables 27 and 28). Table 27 Mann-Whitney U Test Results: Intervention I vs. Intervention II I nterventions Knowledge Critical _ Awareness Attitude Skills Intervention s (Pre vs Post T est) Semester I Interventio n I Mann - Whit ney U 2848 . 000 4424 . 000 4691 . 000 3560 . 000 Wilco xon W 10598 . 000 12174 . 000 12441 . 000 11310 . 000 Z -8. 627 -5. 855 -5. 358 -7. 370 Asymp. Si g. (2 - tailed) 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 Exact Sig. (2 - tailed) 0. 000 Exact Sig. (1 - tailed) 0. 000 Semester II Interventio n II Mann - Whit ney U 4652 . 500 6076 . 000 4121 . 500 3761 . 000 Wilco xon W 12402 . 500 13826 . 000 11871 . 500 11511 . 000 Z -5. 527 -2. 960 -6. 458 -7. 119 Asymp. Si g. (2 - tailed) 0. 000 0. 003 0. 000 0. 000 Exact Sig. (2 - tailed) Exact Sig. (1 - tailed) a. Grouping Variable: pre_post /. b. Some or all exact significances cannot be computed because there is insufficient memo ry. 242 Table 28 P-Values: Intervention I and Intervention II ICC Component Comparison p-Values Intervention I vs. Intervention II Knowledge Intervention I vrs Intervention II <0.001 Critical awareness Intervention I vrs Intervention II 0.003 Attitude Intervention I vrs Intervention II <0.001 Skills Intervention I vrs Intervention II <0.001 Tables 27 and 28 show that for interventions I and II, a significant mean difference between the pre and posttest scores was reported in all four categories: knowledge, critical awareness, attitude, and skills within the experimental group. The change in each measure across the first and second interventions was calculated and the Mann-Whitney U tests comparison was run to examine if any measure was particularly affected or significantly different. Comparing the change between interventions I and II within the experimental group, there were significant effects of progression in knowledge, skills, and attitude. The first intervention shows a higher impact on knowledge (U= 2848.000, p<.001), (Z=-8.627, p<.001), and the second on skills (U=3761.000, p<.001), (Z=-7.119, p<.001). Table 27 indic ates that the interventions had a greater impact in the knowledge and skills dimensions. Tests results seem to indicate that the first intervention had a significantly larger effect on knowledge (U= 2848.000, p<.001), (Z=-8.627, p<.001), and skills, ( U= 3560.000, p<.001), (Z=- 7.370, p<.001) than the second intervention, where knowledge increased more moderately (U= 4652.500, p<.001), (Z=-5.527, p<.001), and skills (U=3761.000, p<.001), (Z=-7.119, p<.001). It can be interpreted that these results may be due to the novelty of the issue or even to the effect of the first sessions, which were implemented on campus through face- to -face learning, while the second intervention was carried out th rough the remote learning modality. 243 6.2.3.2 Boxplots for intervention I and Intervention II (semester I and II) comparison Additional to the distribution of data for each intercultural dimension analyzed above, boxplots for comparison of the two interventi ons (English I and English II) in terms of pretest and posttest for the four ICC categories (knowledge, critical awareness, attitude, and skills) are presented below. Figure 16 shows the boxplot displaying the data for the knowledge dimension across both semesters for the experimental group. When comparing the ICC knowledge dimension in both intervention semesters, it is found that the posttest has a higher median compared to the pretest in intervention I and it is slightly higher in the intervention II. However, the spread of distribution is wider in the lower quartiles for the intervention I in the pretest and posttest while for the second semester, it is towards the upper quartiles. These data provide evidence of positive self-assessment in the posttest, showing a major concentration of data for both interventions, which suggests that participants’ level of agreement was consistent and affected after the pedagogical interventions. These results confirm that students can experience further gains in ICC knowledge if the intercultural component is included as part of the foreign/second language curriculum assisted by a combined teaching approach that is student centered and dynamic. Figure 16 Boxplot for Knowledge: Intervention I vs Intervention II 244 The distribution of the critical awareness dimension among the two interventions is presented in Figure 17. The spread in distribution follows a wider range in the pretests while the posttests show less dispersed data. It is evident that participants experience a change in their self- assessment report thus exhibiting a pattern towards the higher values of agreement and strongly agreement. This is also supported by second semester's pretest and posttests median which are higher than the median for the first semester. In fact, the median for the the posttest for the first semester is more dispersed towards the fist quartile while for the second intervention it is towards the upper quartile. This demonstrat es the efficacy of the explicit ICC instruction under a hybrid teaching of CLIL and PBL principles across two semesters to develop ICC knowledge. Figure 17 Boxplot for Critical Awareness: Intervention I vs Intervention II Figure 18, which displays the boxplot for the attitude dimension, shows that the median for the pretest for the first semester is lower compared to the median for the second semester. The median for the posttest is the same for both semesters; however, the posttest for the second semester is more dispersed above the median while the results of the first semester are below the median. The posttest scores for the second semester are more compact, meaning that the participants tend to hold unified levels of agreement.From the se differences conclusions can be drawn regarding the 251 with culturally different people, attitude towards cultural differences, and positive attitude towards learning English and intercultural content. Findings from both interventions are thought-provoking for various reasons. First, these findings correlate with the perspective that intercultural attitude can develop once a comprehensive intercultural exposure is sufficiently mediated. Without cultural knowledge of one’s own group, connecting to others in respectful, nonthreatening, and sympathetic modes is virtually impossible. ICC knowledge works as a catalyst to support attitudes of respect, tolerance, openness, and curiosity ( Zylkiewicz-Plonska & Acien ė , 2021). The intercultural attitude has been pondered as the most crucial since it triggers the interest and motivation to seek intercultural engagements and openness to embrace intercultural contact and information. For Deardorff (2006), atti tude is the base component for knowledge and skills to be sustained. Arguments to support such claims are important in developing the intercultural competence since attitude contributes to developing flexibility, openness, awareness, empathy, tolerance for ambiguity, and respect, among other skills (e.g., Byram, 1997; Ruben, 1976; Risager, 2007). This study provides evidence that teaching and preparing a learning scenario for reflection, cultural learning, analysis, and the autonomous exploration of cultural content through contextualized resources and collaborative projects with peers prepare learners to develop the fundamental ICC attitude over time, as it is evident in results obtained in the intervention II. Findings also support the developmental perspective adjured to the ICC competence (Kohler, 2020). The longitudinal nature of the interventions proved that learners first acquired the knowledge dimension (intervention I), and then, after the systematic ICC and language lessons during intervention II , learners’ ICC attitude increased. These two ICC dimensions, knowledge and attitude, can be helpful to sustain students’ intercultural interaction since ICC skills are strengthened through ICC training. This means that language educators have an excellent 252 opportunity to revitalize language teaching and learning with the inclusion of intercultural learning to strengthen the pivotal intercultural communicative competence needed to interact with people from other cultures in the target language in today’s challenging times. Regarding the ICC skills, it is particularly noteworthy that, although the experimental group outworked the control group in all the ICC dimensions in the two semesters,the experimental group progressed considerably in this particular dimension. The ICC skills dimension in this study included statements such as demonstrating flexibility when interacting; exhibiting empathy and respect to people who have different world views, values, and behaviors; using some strategies to support the English learning process and the intercultural component; contributing to the construction of a multicultural society based on respect, empathy, and the promotion of global citizenship; relating the intercultural knowledge to new situations in favor of effective communication; analyzing content and situations from different cultural perspectives; proposing projects to understand cultural aspects of the community, among others. In a broad sense, ICC skills enable learners to relate, interpret, interact, and operate effectively during intercultural engagements capitalizing on acquired home and foreign culture knowledge and attitudes. Mean scores illustrate that ICC skills for the posttest in the intervention I progressed from M=3.58 to M=4.12 in the posttest for intervention II. It is noticed that this dimension was the second least affected after the pedagogi cal intervention, as noted in the posttest mean scores for interventions I and II. It can be interpreted that as skills require more time to develop and need a certain level of execution, students felt much more confident in positively self-assessing the knowledge (intervention I) and attitude dimensions (intervention II). Even though, results in all the ICC dimensions are highly positive. Participants in the experimental group not only reported clustered levels of agreement and progress but also 253 progressed further after participating in the intervention II. Insights and va luable scientific data are drawn from this longitudinal study helping to shed some light on the impact that regular and systematic training that considers hybrid principles of learning and teaching a foreign/second language and the intercultural component attached to it can provide positive and lasting bene fits to learners’ path of developing intercultural communicative competences while profiting on pragmatic competence and other comprehensive notions implied in language learning. Results contribute to the understanding that progressive teaching steps can delineate a dynamic, useful, and meaningful language learning experience tha t fulfills the need to prepare new generations of students with the skills, competences, knowledge, attitude, and awareness for them to feel confident and equipped to participate, mediate, and collaborate in reciprocal intercultural communication at local or international scenarios. Finally, the hybrid CLIL-PBL model of teaching and learning principles used as the building blocks to design the intercultural language experience correlates with the significant pretest and posttest results yielded after comparing control and experimental groups. The methodology granted students a friendly and independent but collaborative freedom to study, discover, reflect, analyze, experience, and investigate intercultural input from various pedagogical resources (movies, photos, stories, videoclips, legends or cartoons) under a careful lesson plan of language tasks, activities and projects which led them to explore and learn not only the language but also content and intercultural topics. It is believed that the methodology based on project tasks help students attain language and intercultural goals as effectively taking them to enjoy the product creation. As Aziza Kavlu (2017) remark, PBL makes learning more enjoyable and effective. Thus, the mediated tasks, content, an d units for each of the interventions led students to learn novel topics and themes through the foreign language whereas familiarizing learners with ICC notions as a basis 254 for self-introspection about their own roots, identity, and history as members of the Costa Rican culture or as immigrants. It seems that this kind of teaching allows ICC progression in all dimensions. Nguyen’s (2021) findings on the use of PBL to assess ICC are in line with this study since it helps students reinforce cultural knowledge and overall improve ICC. 6.3 Intercultural Formative Quiz : Results and Analysis of Control vs. Experimental groups Two groups enrolled in the courses Integrated English I and Integrated English II were administered a pre and posttest examination at the beginning and end of each of the two semesters periods in which the intervention implementation took place. Shapiro-Wilk test was used to tes t the normality of scores and to determine the appropriate test to use. In this case, the Mann Whitney U Test (Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test) was used to demonstrate the intervention’s effectiveness. Descriptive data of results are also displayed on Table 29. Table 29 Mean Grade Difference: Control vs Intervention Groups Control vs. Intervention Quiz Grade Means Pretest Post - test Control (n=95) Intervention (n=124) P- value Control (n=95) Intervention (n=124) P- value English I 0.686 <0.001 Mean 53.46 54.46 54.63 77.79 Median (IQR) 53 (47 - 67) 56.5 (47 - 67) 60 (47 - 67) 80 (73 - 87) SD 15.25 13.73 14.82 12.14 English II <0.001 <0.001 Mean 55.99 77.90 56.74 82.42 Median (IQR) 60 (50 - 67) 80 (73 - 87) 60 (50 - 67) 87 (75 - 87) SD 14.42 12.32 12.95 10.62 Note. Descriptive analysis Table 29 shows the pre and post test s cores of control and experimental groups obtained during the first and second pedagogical interventions conducted during the semester s English I & 255 II. There were no significant mean differences in the English I pretest grades between the control and intervention groups (p>0.05). This may indicate that neither group handled specific cultural concepts or appropriate reasoning for intercultural situations before the intervention. In relation to posttest grades, a significant mean difference between the control and intervention groups was reported with a p-value<0.001. There was a significant mean difference between the control and intervention groups in English II pretest grades, p-value<0.001. Similarly, in posttest grades, a significant mean difference between the control and intervention groups was reported with a p- value<0.001. It can be seen in Table 29 that, throughout the process, the intervention students for the Integrated English I improved their test performance significantly. Students in the integrated English I pretest obtained a mean score of 54.46, and the posttest mean sc ore was 77.79. These results exhibit evidence of relevant progression in mastering knowledge related to cultural content and key strategies acquired in dealing with intercultural situations. The results from the control group showed no significant progression for the pretest or posttest; obtaining means scores of 53.46 and 54.63, respectively. As for the Integrated English II, students’ improvement was also statistically significant compared to the control group. The pretest means score for the intervention group was 77.90. In contrast, the control group scored 55.99, which suggests that the intervention group not only experienced evidence of sustained knowledge mastery from Semester I but also during semester II. Participants from the experimental group outperformed the control group, and grades were higher in intervention II than in intervention I. It can be deduced that prolonged inclusion and facilitation of the intercultural component in various ways and means can positively influence students’ awareness and expertise in certain intercultural and culture-related knowledge areas 256 mediated in the EFL classroom, which can be successfully transferred to real context situations. A graphical representation of the mean differences is shown in Figure 20 . Figure 20 Graphical Representation of Means Grade Difference: Control vs Intervention Groups Figure 20 illustrates that when comparing the control group results to the intervention group, a significant difference is observed, demonstrating that systematically involving students with intercultural learning through a combined approa ch of CLIL and PBL influences students' ICC performance and fosters the development of ICC. Planning units that integrate language and intercultural content through varied learning activities where culture and language feed one another encourages their interest, desire to learn, to get better while building partnership with peers to share perspectives, ideas, opinions, and socializing projects final products. A regular teaching under these conditions creates an optimal learning environment for students to acquire and construct functional knowledge for their ICC components progression. 53,46 55,99 54,46 77,9 54,63 56,74 77,79 82,42 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 English I English II Mean Gra de dif fer enc es Mean Grade Dif ference Control vs Experimental Groups Pre test Control Pre test Intervention P ost test Control P ost test Intervention 257 6.3.1 Box Plots for ICC Quiz: Control vs. Intervention Additional and complementary illustration of both group results is provided in the way of boxplot s in Figure 21. As can be observed, the intervention group clearly outperformed the control group. From these data, it can be derived that a systematic and prolonged exposure to intercultural issues, treatment, and reflection of intercultural content helped participants achieve intercultural objectives in terms of knowledge and skills, which were two of the ICC components assessed in the intercultural quiz. The results obtained by the experimental group after intervention I were significantly improved during intervention II. Conducting projects that require connections with content and cultural knowledge through collaborative ways effectively activate cognition and knowledge recall to be used with communicative purposes. Figure 21 Boxplots for Intercultural Quiz: Intervention I and II (Control vs. Intervention Groups) 6.3.2 Intercultural Quiz Mean Difference: Intervention I and II Table 30 shows the results of pre and post test scores in the experimental group after each intervention in courses Engli sh I and II. These results were compared by using the Mann-Whitney U Test to obtain p-values. For both interventions, a significant mean difference between the pre 258 and posttest grades was reported with p-values<0.05, indicating significance. A graphical representation of the mean differences showing information regarding the spread of the distribution of the variables is provided in figure 22. Table 30 Quiz Mean Difference: Intervention I and II (Integrated English I &II) Pretest vs. Post-test Quiz Results English I English II Pre (n=124) Post (n=124) P value Pre (n=124) Post (n=124) P value Grades <0.001 0.003 Mean 54.46 77.79 77.90 82.42 Median (IQR) 56.5 (47-67) 80 (73-87) 80 (73-87) 87 (75-87) SD 13.73 12.14 12.32 10.62 Data show (Figure 22) that, when comparing the pretest and posttest scores of the intervention group during the first course, integrated English I semester I, it is observed a significant improvement, from 54.46 in the pretest to 77.79 in the posttest. For the second course, integrated English II, one can see that students’ progress seems to have accelerated and the scores are slightly higher, increasing from 77.90 in the pretest to 82.42 in the posttest. The intervention carried out over the 13-week period in each semester has considerably impact ed students’ ICC development. Knowledge of intercultural aspects was bett er acquired through time when exposing learners to various intercultural and reflective t asks both during online class meetings and through independent students’ work. 259 Figure 22 Graphical Representation of Quiz Mean Difference: Intervention I and II (Integrated English I &II) 6.3.2.1 Box Plots for ICC Quiz: Intervention I and II Additional and complementary results of both intervention periods (intervention I and II during the courses integrated English I and II) are provided in the form of boxplots. The box plots show that the experimental group greatly improved their performance in the quiz from semester I to semester II. Figure 23 Box Plots for Grades: Intervention I vs II 0 50 100 Pre Post Pre Post Engli s h I Engli s h II 54,46 77,79 77,9 82,42 MEAN GRADE S Mean Grades Dif ferences Mean Grade differ ence Pretest /Posttest English I and II 260 Figure 23 displays the boxplots representing the scores for pretest and posttest for both interventions (Integrated English I and II). As can be observed, the median of the posttest for English I is lower than the median score for the pretest for English II. Both pretests are equally distributed around the median; however, the scores for the pretest for English I are more dispersed than the scores for the pretest for English II. The median score for the posttest of English II is higher than the posttest scores of English I. The posttests scores for English I are relatively distributed around the median; however, the scores for the posttest of English II are dispersed below the median. Outliers were detected for the posttest for both English I and II and pretest for English II. The data displayed in the boxplot show a slightly growing tendency in the median grades from intervention I to the second. In general, these differences reflect that as more time is devoted to exposing students to an integrated intercultural language experience in explicit and regularly, more chances will students have of performing better in any given intercultural situation because they have previously developed the strategies and a functional body of knowledge to use in intercultural contexts. It can be claimed that longitudinal exposure to CLIL and PBL learning principles during the interventions provided participants with the tools to build an autonomous and more confident management of ICC related knowledge and competency to appropriately perform during the formative quizzes. 6.3.3 Intercultural Quiz: Overall Discussion The use of quizzes in the process of teaching and learning is an optimal instrument to gather information about strengths and weaknesses regarding the established learning objectives. 267 the measurements of the two-period interventions studied. The Mann-Whitney U test (Wilcoxon rank-sum test) was chosen to evaluate whether there were significant results once the parametric option was discarded. The instrument was designed to measure the perceptions of the participants on the intercultural communicative competence implemented under a hybrid/ combined approach in three categories: • Impact of the CLIL and PBL combination on English language proficiency • Benefits of the CLIL and PBL combined approach for the learning experience • Level of satisfaction with the tasks, projects, topics, and resources used during the implementation of the CLIL and PBL combined approach. Table 31 ICC Hybrid Approach perspective questionnaire Results: Intervention I(English I) Cronbach α M Median (IQR) SD Impact 0.990 4.01 4 (4-5) 0.92 Benefits 0.994 4.01 4 (4-5) 0.92 Satisfaction 0.993 4.11 4 (4-5) 0.87 Overall 0.997 4.03 4 (4-5) 0.91 Note . Intervention I ( n = 124). Table 31 displays the findings regarding the participants’ perspectives on the combined principles applied to foster ICC within the English classroom. Based on the results, participant s’ perspectives on the method used in the English class were favorable. The highest score was obtained in the satisfaction category (M = 4.11), but the other categories, impact, and benefits, also yielded high mean scores (M = 4.01). The satisfaction category explored statements on the level of agreement about the activities, tasks and journals supporting home and foreign culture s reflection, 268 collaborative and cognitive skills, authentic learning, intercultural perspective s, and their role as global citizen s, which were found to be remarkably positive among participants’ responses. T hese results reveal a significant degree of satisfaction with the tasks, projects, topics, and resources used during the implementation of the combined method of CLIL and PBL learning principles. Working the intercultural competence through a combination of CLIL and PBL methodologies, as demonstrated in this study, help learners identify themselves with specific learning activities and classwork on cultures. Table 32 ICC Hybrid Approach perspective questionnaire Results: Intervention II (English II) Cronbach α M Median (IQR) SD Impact 0.991 4.23 4 (4-5) 0.86 Benefits 0.993 4.31 4 (4-5) 0.85 Satisfaction 0.994 4.37 5 (4-5) 0.85 Overall 0.997 4.32 4.75 (4-5) 0.85 Note . Intervention II ( n = 124). Table 32 shows the data obtained after conducting a descriptive analysis of perspectives after applying Intervention II during the Integrated English II, semester II, 2020. Findings clearly show an increase in scores concerning the semester I, Intervention I (Integrated English I). A higher score in the satisfaction category corresponds to M= 4.37, followed by perceived benefits with M = 4.31, while the impact was scored M = 4.23. This reveals that observing and perceiving certain kinds of changes around benefits and impact requires a systematic process over time. Students’ level of satisfaction with the activities, projects, and tasks supported by the integration of intercultural content, authentic and contextualized resources were highly accepted among students. Students see m to make long-lasting connections despite the novelty of the remote virtual classes. The lesson units infused with intercultural content, reflective task activities, and 269 project work seem to have been positively accept ed by participants since they could even remotely be guided to work during online live meetings and individually or collaboratively using virtual platforms. 7.1.1 ICC hybrid Approach perspective questionnaire: Intervention I vs. Intervention II To determine if there were significant differences in these variables (impact, benefits, and satisfaction), results from the intervention I and II (English I and English II) were compared. A general variable, which was obtained from a sum of points of the three previous variables, was created to measure the participants’ overall perception on the combined approach scale questionnaire. Table 33 shows the results obtained, classified by the indicator variables mentioned above, as well as the differences observed between the English I versus English II course variables. The table also shows the results of the comparison between the Intervention I and II test. A Cronbach’s α of greater than 0.90 was reported, indicating a high internal consistency for our scales (i.e., impact, benefits, satisfaction, and overall measure) Table 33 illustrates a significant mean difference between both interventions’ test scores reported in all three categories: impact, benefits, and satisfaction ( p -values < 0.05). A graphical representation of the mean differences is shown in Figure 24, with error bars (standard deviation) showing information regarding the spread of the distribution of the variables. 270 Table 33 Hybrid Approach perspective questionnaire Results: Intervention I vs Intervention II Intervention I Intervention II P - value Impact 0.036 Cronbach α 0.990 0.991 M 4.01 4.23 Median (IQR) 4 (4 - 5) 4 (4 - 5) SD 0.92 0.86 Benefits 0.004 Cronbach α 0.994 0.993 M 4.01 4.31 Median (IQR) 4 (4 - 5) 4 (4 - 5) SD 0.92 0.85 Satisfaction 0.003 Cronbach α 0.993 0.994 M 4.11 4.37 Median (IQR) 4 (4 - 5) 5 (4 - 5) SD 0.87 0.85 Overall 0.004 Cronbach α 0.997 0.997 M 4.03 4.32 Median (IQR) 4 (4 - 5) 4.75 (4 - 5) SD 0.91 0.85 Notes . Intervention I ( n = 124), Intervention II ( n = 124), p -values = Mann-Whitney U test (Wilcoxon rank-sum test). Table 34 Mann-Whitney U Test Results: Intervention I vs Intervention II Impact Benefits Satisfaction Overall Intervention I vs. Intervention II Mann-Whitney U 6590.500 6162.000 6158.000 6196.500 Wilcoxon W 14340.500 13912.000 13908.000 13946.500 Z −2.092 −2.913 −2.927 −2.850 Asymp. sig. (2-tailed) 0.036 0.004 0.003 0.004 Exact sig. (2-tailed) 0.036 0.004 0.003 0.004 Exact sig. (1-tailed) 0.018 0.002 0.002 0.002 Test results, as observed in Table 34, support the idea that teaching a foreign language through a hybrid approach combining principles from CLIL and PBL has produced a higher 271 statistical effect on the category of student satisfaction as demonstrated in the Mann-Whitney U test (U = 6158.000, p < 0.05), (Z = − 2.927, p < 0.05). Figure 24 ICC Hybrid Approach Mean Differences after Intervention I vs Intervention II The d ata illustrated in Figure 24 above indicate higher mean scores in the intervention II than in Intervention I. During the second intervention, the positive change in students’ perspectives can be attributed to the systematic (weekly) facilitation of the intercultural component through cultural content, reflection activities, tasks, and projects. As can be observed, the least affected category after both interventions (semester I and II) was the category of impact. This may be due to the fact t hat this category comprises statements related to the impact that the combined approach of CLIL and PBL had on students’ English proficiency, including elements such as confidence when speaking, the use of grammatical structures, and the development of ICC, which are complex factors to be perceived by students . inter ve ntion I inter ve ntion II 3,8 3,9 4 4,1 4,2 4,3 4,4 Imp ac t Be n ef it s Sat isfac t ion Overa ll 4.01 4.01 4.11 4.03 4.23 4.31 4.37 4.32 MEAN DIFF ERE NCE Hybrid Approach Perspec tives intervention I intervention II 272 The fact that this category scored the least in both semesters of this study may indicate that in order to acknowledge a tangible impact of the interplay of elements related to English mastery and ICC, students require time for cognitive processes to accommodate which would support retrieval and use in real situations. Another aspect that may have influenced a lower mean score in the impact category can be accredited to the new remote learning modality. Even though students adjusted and adapted in incredible ways, it is still a novel and sudden way of learning that limits the benefits of an on-campus learning experience. The development of ICC competence is part of a process that requires time and several opportunities to put into practice in real-life settings. It is in the interest of this study to identify the specific items that got higher mean scores within the experimental group after each intervention to further understand the impact of the hybrid approach proposed. Findings will provide further directions to measure the impact of the methodology used to foster ICC development in English language learners in the courses studied and after having participated in the two semester interventions. Table 35 below shows that most participants agreed and strongly agreed with all 20 items included in the instrument validating the effectiveness of the model used to achieve linguistic, intercultural, and learning outcomes in the two interventions. It displays the mean scores per item and provides further data and information to identify the most affected and positively favored items. These findings provide valuable insights on the nature of ICC didactics and how incorporating novel teaching principles can impact students’ perception and actual learning in EFL contexts. 273 Table 35 Descriptive Statistics per item: Mean Scores for Intervention I and Intervention II Note. Intervention I and Intervention II For intervention I, it can be observed that in the first section of the self-report hybrid model questionnaire, referring to the impact category items 3 [the combined approach has helped me to better understand a variety of intercultural content], the mean score was 4.06 and SD 0.87. In item 5 [I have learned new vocabulary, basic grammatical structures, and expressions in English from the units studied using the combined methodology], the mean score was 4.06 and SD 0.93. Finally, the highest score was on item 6 [After working on the intercultural units using the combined methodologies, I ha ve learned a variety of content relevant to real s ituations], with a mean score of 4.10 and SD 0.88. The standard deviation results show that participants’ respons es were clustered Intervention Intervention I Intervention II Items M Median (IQR) SD M Median (IQR) SD Item 1 3.89 4 (3-5) 0.97 4.23 4 (4-5) 0.86 Item 2 3.87 4 (3-5) 1.01 4.17 4 (4-5) 0.92 Item 3 4.06 4 (4-5) 0.87 4.19 4 (4-5) 0.86 Item 4 3.95 4 (3-5) 0.94 4.22 4 (4-5) 0.85 Item 5 4.06 4 (4-5) 0.93 4.40 5 (4-5) 0.81 Item 6 4.10 4 (4-5) 0.88 4.34 5 (4-5) 0.83 Item 7 3.94 4 (4-5) 0.90 4.31 4 (4-5) 0.83 Item 8 3.99 4 (3-5) 0.95 4.27 4 (4-5) 0.86 Item 9 3.99 4 (4-5) 0.91 4.25 4 (4-5) 0.84 Item 10 4.03 4 (4-5) 0.89 4.32 4 (4-5) 0.83 Item 11 4.06 4 (4-5) 0.87 4.29 4 (4-5) 0.84 Item 12 3.95 4 (3-5) 0.96 4.31 5 (4-5) 0.87 Item 13 4.03 4 (4-5) 0.92 4.35 5 (4-5) 0.88 Item 14 4.01 4 (4-5) 0.90 4.38 5 (4-5) 0.80 Item 15 4.10 4 (4-5) 0.84 4.32 5 (4-5) 0.85 Item 16 4.05 4 (4-5) 0.92 4.35 5 (4-5) 0.87 Item 17 4.10 4 (4-5) 0.90 4.36 5 (4-5) 0.88 Item 18 4.16 4 (4-5) 0.86 4.35 5 (4-5) 0.84 Item 19 4.15 4 (4-5) 0.86 4.43 5 (4-5) 0.85 Item 20 4.06 4 (4-5) 0.89 4.39 5 (4-5) 0.85 274 together agreeing and strongly agreeing, portraying a consistent positive perspective among participants on those dimensions. Findings in this regard illustrate that the hybrid method used during the lessons was much more effective on supporting intercultural content understanding, vocabulary, grammar, and expressions acquisition and on learning useful content for real situations. Further interpretations on this impact can be drawn to the nature of the learning experience explicitly articulated around intercultural and linguistic goals with intentional communitive and practical purposes lined by the hybrid approach of principles. On the contrary, the lowest item score was on item 2 [I feel more confident about speaking English after having studied the intercultural units with the combined approach of CLIL and PBL], with the mean score of 3.87 and SD 1.01, indicating that responses for this item deviated from the mean. Regarding the section of he questionnaire focused on the benefits, the highest mean score was on item 11[ I have learned to appreciate cultural nuances and their role in the process of learning English], with a mean of 4.06 and SD 0.87. By planning and assigning tasks and projects habitually and setting clea r communitive objectives, students can pos itively perceive cultural diversity and its role when communicating through a foreign language within intercultural backgrounds. The projects and tasks infused with cultural messages, s ituations, analysis, and community related products triggered self-discovery and appreciation towards home and foreign cultures. The lowest mean score was obtained in item 12 [I believe the combined methodologies facilitated meaningful learning and critical cultural awareness], where the mean score was 3.95 and SD 0.96 demonstrating that participants’ answers for this item spread from the mean. These findings disclose very useful insights in relation to how the lessons are structured and the demand to further considering learners’ needs, interests and barriers to make informed decisions about the tasks and objectives brought and assigned in the language class. 275 As for the satisfaction category, the highest mean score was on item 18 [the resources and material (stories, videos, recordings, movies, texts) engaged me in authentic learning situations], with a mean score of 4.16 and SD 0.86, proving that the learner centeredness subscribed by both constructivist models principles (CLIL/PBL) influenced participants’ perspectives to confidently acknowledge that the varied material, tasks and projects serve as a learning platform to facilitate authentic learning situations, crucial to advancing and accomplishing educational goals. The lowest result in this category was on item 16 [the projects and tasks promoted my collaborative and cognitive skills (creativity and critical thinking)], with a mean of 4.05 and SD 0.92. Even though the mean is relatively high, representing a tendency in responses between agree and strongly agree, the fact that this item got the lowest mean score indicates the need to further promote and guide students in developing cognitive skills, creativity and critical thinking, which are crucial and required training. After analyzing the results in intervention II, a shift in st udent perception and increment on mean scores is noticed which provides interesting insight into the object of the study. As for the impact category, item 5 remains as the most favored by participants in the experimental group [I have learned new vocabulary, basic grammatical structures, and expressions in English from the units studied using the combined methodology]. The mean score of 4.40 and SD 0.81 obtained in this item demonstrates the methodology provided has contributed to their vocabulary input and growth. The lowest mean score was also replicated from intervention I in item 2, with a mean score of 4.17 and SD 0.92. In this regard, the methodology used through the novel mode of remote online le arning had a minor impact on students’ confidence in speaking. The beneficial impact on the ICC learning experience is evident in item 14 [The combined methodology guided me to assume an active and autonomous role in increasing my English 276 language skills], with a mean of 4.38 and SD 0.80. The fact that this item obtained the highest mean score may be linked to the learners’ focus on both model’s principles (CLIL/PBL) used to outline an active and independent work throughout the learning experience. The lowest mean score was obtained in item 9 [I have actively participated in the class discussions by contributing to the intercultural analysis and reflection using the target language] with a mean of 4.25 and SD 0.84. The fact that this item obtained a lowest mean score can naturally be linked to the beginner level most of the students participanting of the interventions had. The language demands within a hybrid methodology requires students’ disposition to engage in demanding but comprehensible content tasks and projects. As habitual classroom practice is expected to enhance confidence and language control and autonomy, these findings support the need to continue the instruction and analysis of intercultural tasks through the target language as part of a developmental process. The satisfaction category noted the highest mean in item 19 [the proposed projects and activities allowed me to broaden my intercultural perspective and my role as a global citizen], where the mean was 4.43 and SD 0.85. This provides relevant information on the methodology implemented during the interventions. By corroborating that projects and activities permeated with intercultural research and product creation projects remain in students’ memory and activates cognition since a communitive intent is given (Jong et al., 2015) along with explicit practice. The lowest score was on item 15 [The activities, tasks and journals guided me to reflect on my own and other cultures] with a mean of 4.32 and SD 0.85, suggesting that more reflection about home and foreign cultures needs to be considered through the tasks facilitated. Thus, it may be interpreted that cognitive and thinking skills of analysis and reflection need to be supported by a combined use of strategies attending cognitive and linguistic demands. This idea requires learners more time for actual practice and reinforcement that the remote learning could not fully and sufficiently provide. 283 during the English learning sessions. Research on merged principles of CLIL and PBL to medi ate an intercultural language experience is scarce or even unexplored, but findings on each model used for intercultural or culture-related teaching purposes are available in the literature corroborating the effectiveness of using them to achieve positive intercultural outcomes in the foreign language classroom. The quest to find appropriate teaching and learning models has inspired teachers and practitioners to experiment in the classroom with PBL to teach the cultural component. Some findings have identified optimistic learning outcomes regarding cultural knowledge, ICC, soft skills reinforcement and motivation (Nguyen, 2021). Moeller and Nugent (2014) have suggested that varied learning activities in the foreign language classroom take students to the initial stages in shifting perspectives where they start noticing the significant role adjured to attitudes, knowledge and language skills in intercultural interactions. The use of interactive activities (role-plays) within the CLIL model has found to provide students with learning benefits in intercultural communication, meta-cognitive skills, practical outcomes and active engagement (Leon-Henri & Jain, 2017). Similarly, Diab et al. (2018) claim that the dynamic nature of the CLIL approach and its attributes in facilitating authentic and comprehensible input potentially leads participants to effective engagement and increase of knowledge of home culture and cultural awareness. Another small-scale study found that CLIL- based cultural training improves participants’ cultural quotient in cognitive, metacognitive, and behavioral dimensions (Yang, 2021). Consequently, there is sufficient evidence to affirm an ascribed potential from CLIL and PBL learning principles when merged to set an effective educational environment to prepare the intercultural language teaching experience. The two interventions clearly contributed to the effects 284 found in ICC learners’ development, verifying and validating that the hybrid model used was effective and valuable to foster ICC in the foreign language classroom. The varied topics used to support intercultural development and othe r skills such as thinking, creativity and cognition became building blocks in the language learning process. A critical aspect to be taken into ac count is the fact that ICC does not emerge spontaneously. Explicit and regular intercultural exposure through a variety of authentic and real-world tasks carefully and intentionally planned is required to boost learners’ competency in such complex intercultural issues. Lessons based on CLIL and PBL principles gives students greater exposure and supports learners’ growth in linguistic, cogni tive and intercultura l domains. Resorting to diverse and varied learning activities (i.e. projects, active tasks, intercultural situations, research, role play, photo analysis, song discussions, comparative tasks, community projects, storytell ing, etc.), authentic materials and resources in the foreign language loaded with home and foreign cultures provided the necessary intercultural and linguistic input to initiate an ICC lifelong learning process successfully and offer ed ample chances to seek holistic aims. Both model principles can be merged to pave the learning path towards enhancing intercultural communic ative competence where students’ intercultural knowledge, attitude, critical culture awareness and skills become the building blocks for them to believe in and act as intercultural global citizens and mediators. The hybrid method was found valuable in creating a successful intercultural language learning process reinvigorating learners’ intercultural perspectives and roles as intercultural global citizens, active, smart and autonomous learners. Since, PBL has proven to be effective in promoting autonomous learning (Vieluf & Göbel, 2019; Yuliani & Lengkanawati, 2017), and so has CLIL, it can be stated that a combination of both methodologies can further improve their individual benefits. Furthermore, findings obtained from this self-report hybrid approach questionnaire 285 correlate with the results found in the ICC self-assessment scale, highlighting similar progression and effects on intercultural knowledge (intervention I) and on intercultural attitude (intervention II). They also proved to have an impact on student overall learning since language and culture provide the functional pragmatics and factors for fruitful communication. 7.3 Open -E nded Questions : Interve ntion I & II Qualitative Anal ysis To better understand the impact of the implementation of the hybrid approach on students’ perspectives the short answer section containing four open-ended questions of the self-report hybrid approach questionnaire was used to collect qualitative data to further picture the ma tter explored. Using a qualitative content analysis method and the computer program QSR-NVivo-11, the responses were analyzed to establish t hemes from codes and develop word clouds and maps to categorize threads of responses (see the questions below). 1. How have you benefited from the intercultural content studied and the projects carried out in your English learning process? 2. How do you consider that the units developed, and the combined methodology (CLIL and PBL) prepare you for real interaction with culturally different people using English as a foreign language? 3. How has your perspective changed in relation to your own culture after studying the units in the English course? 4. What intercultural topics did you find interesting in your learning process? These questions were studied in terms of (a) benefits after studying intercultural content and using projects in the English learning process, (b) preparation for real interaction with culturally different people using English after the combined CLIL and PBL methodology, (c) 286 change in perspective over one’s own culture after studying units with cultural content through a combined approach, and (d) relevan ce of the intercultural topics studied. NVivo has become a prevalent qualitative software because it allows researchers to conduct varied task analyses. For the purpose of this study, this program was used to organize students’ perspectives, thoughts, and ideas by cre ating nodes and identifying connections and similarities to process the data. The software QSR-NVivo-11 helped process the responses, the frequency of themes, and subthe mes from the information obtained around the four questions. In general terms, it was intended to determine and identify the kinds of themes emerging from the consultation. Once the data were included in the program, units were identified, conceptualized, and categorized in groups/nodes according to the level of similarity. The data displayed present the coding yielded with the themes based upon participants’ perspectives. The following tables show the themes and subthemes taking into account the most stated perspectives and narratives from data from participants’ responses during the pedagogical interventions during the semester I and II. The theme s and subthemes that emerged displayed shreds of evidence on the positive impact the interventions had on students’ ICC progression. These qualitative data complements quantitative results, broadening interpretations, correlations, and argumentation to answer research questions. 7.3.1 Question # 1: Benefits After Studying Intercultural _Intervention I In order to identify the benefits obtained and perceived after studying intercultural content in the English class, students’ answers to the question [ 1 How do you feel the content studied and the project work benefits you in your learning of English? ] were categorized in recurrent themes. Themes and subthemes are illustrated in Table 36 and Figure 25. Within the two repeated themes, 287 English and knowledge progression, there were a total of eleven subthemes that were more salient to students during intervention I. Data shown in the table and graph expose a pattern of repetitive mentions around gains in the target language process identified in fluency, grammar, vocabulary growth, use, and communication of ideas. These findings validate the body of theory supporting each approach CLIL and PBL as learning methodologies that support language and cognitive gains (Banegas, 2021; Zhao et al., 2021). The intercultural language learning exposure mediated through the teaching principles from CLIL and PBL in intervention I proved these two methods overlap and are indeed functional and suitable in helping students improve their English language skills and knowledge about foreign and home cultures. Students seem to have made connections around the close nexus between language and culture and the need to learn the intercultural component to reinforce their linguistic ability and competence in order to beco me more knowledgeable in cultures and world views. Language progression was reported in fluency, vocabulary, expressions, grammar, language use, and communication. It is also evident that students recognized the relevance of learning cultural knowledge co nsidering it as an asset to future jobs performance. Language gains correlate with the reviewed literature entitling CLIL and PBL similar learning benefits. Likewise, these findings can be correlated with the line of progression recorded on the task assessment results and intercultural formative quiz, which denoted a similar pat h of progress ion in language and cultural knowledge. Such results suggest that the hybrid methodology effectively mediates intercultural language training by considering the holistic nature of the ICC process (cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral) development while moving beyond fixed and monolinguistic aims. 288 Table 36 Benefits After Studying Intercultural Content and Using Projects (Intervention I) Themes Subthemes Frequency Evidence Reported -English language understandi ng -Use of words and texts 23 Participant 7 “It benefits me by learning knowledge of other cultures through the activities and assignments, and it helps me in my future career and life.” Participant 18 “It benefits me for the future, and I learn English more interestingly. I learned about topics that I didn't know about.” Participant 20 stated, “I learned knowledge of cultures, beliefs, and traditions, and English.’ Participant. 29 “I think it helps me to understand better topics that I didn't understand, and it helps me develop my skills.” Participant 44 “It benefits me in many aspects; I learned many English words, about cultures, and varied topics.” Participant 54 “To practice critical thinking, to solve problems that arise in real life and to raise awareness about the world, societies and myself.” Participant 60 “It benefits me for my future job.” Participant 76 shared his perspective by explaining that “I studied about different cultures, which is very important when learning another language, to be honest, it has helped me i n my learning process.” Participant 97 believed that through projects and content, his/her confidence improved “I feel more confident when interacting with my partners during the video discussions and homework.” Participants 107 and 119 shared similar perspectives by stating that “It helped to get more vocabulary to express myself better” and “It helped me learn about different topics while learning more words in English”. Participant 103 stated, “The vocabulary, content studied, and projects done in the course enriched my knowledge.” -English Fluency -English 27 Grammar 15 Communication of ideas 10 -New expressions 6 -Vocabulary 32 acquisition -New knowledge 13 -Knowledge construction -Knowledge enhancement -Knowledge transference 11 23 -Knowledge testing 9 -Learning different topics 24 -Skill development 11 Note . Q.1 Ho w do yo u feel the co ntent studied and t he proj ect wor k benef its yo u in y our lea rning of Engl ish? 289 A graphical representation of the themes pattern is displayed in Figure 25, where the two themes that concurrently appear in the data nodes are knowledge and language. Both learning elements are particularly important to learners’ ICC development. Knowledge is seemingly associated with cognitive processes that involve construction, enhancement, and assessment which undoubtedly activate thinking skills. Language benefits were noticed in linguistic and communi ca tive progression. Figure 25 CLIL and PBL Benefits:(Intervention I) 7.3.2 Question # 1: Benefits after studying intercultural content_Intervention II For intervention II, Table 37 and Figure 26 show that data categorization and nodes point to two major themes: language and content knowledge. These themes were mentioned in intervention I, suggesting that similar learning gains are maintained after the intervention II. Participants asserted benefits in learning English as a foreign language in connection to 290 intercultural content acquisition. In this sense, students have sustained their positive perspectives about the method applied during intervention II. For instance, they have highlighted advances in practice for real intercultural communication, cultural understanding, and cultural knowledge growth. Besides, after participating in Intervention II, learners have also linked their learning benefits to gaining more opportunities to practice and improving the target language in a new virtual modality due to the pandemic. They believed they were given chances to practice the language, discuss ideas, and learn more content and vocabulary words. Their comments disclosed a clear awareness of their progression in the foreign language in connection to intercultural matters. The detailed thread of comments reinforces that content and projects had a significant impact on intercultural growth, enabling and preparing students for intercultural communication, understanding, transference, and adaptation. Moreover, it is interesting to notice the growth, clarity, and direct emphasis found in the qualitative data. Answers to some of the research questions denote the effectiveness of the learning experience infused by CLIL and PBL teaching principles in enhancing English language progression and fostering intercultural competence. As quantitative findings did, qualitative data reinforce the hypothesis that a hybrid approach enhances ICC and linguistic progression within EFL contexts. Table 37 Q.1 Benefits After Studying Intercultural Content and Using Projects (Intervention II) Themes Subthemes Frequency Shreds of Evidence Reported Resource ful content Language -Intercultural communication 45 Participant 2 found i ntercultural content and project helpful; she/he stated, “It is beneficial because we can better communicate with foreign people since we know a little of their culture, we also know a little more of our own.” -Knowledge transference 22 -Cultural understanding 25 291 Note . RQ 1: How do you benefit from the intercultural content studied and the projects carri ed out to your English learning process? Qualitative findings show a similar path of the salient themes noticed in intervention I. However, for intervention II, some other comments favor ed the effect that learning intercultural content has on understanding, communication, adaptation, and linguistic improvement. -Culture learning 19 Participant 62 stated , “to get more knowledge about the behavior of other cultures.” Participant 102 “I learned important content to communicate with other people.” Participant 88 said, “I had no ide a of certain topics; it is a good method.” Participant 9: “It benefited me because every week we learned new and important topics for everyday life.” Participant 17. “It benefited me a lot because I have learned many vocabulary words and the importance of intercultural content in the English class.” Participant 20.“It helped me learn very important aspects about my culture and others, at the time of speaking with people from other countries this will help me in my future profession.” Participant 26. “It expanded my knowledge; I improved and practiced my English.” Participant 30. “Broadened my knowledge and skills in English.” Participant 54 “I consider that I benefited from the content studied and the realization of projects by improving my English.” Participant 72 “It helped me to interact virtually with my classmates and talk about our new knowledge.” Participant 85 “practicing for real communication in the future” Participant 97 “It benefited me a lot; the projects made me learn more English.” Participant 106 “The units contain a series of activiti es that promote the learning of English and other content.” -Motivation to learn 8 -Cultural adaptation through behavior 6 -Linguistic knowledge practice and improvement 9 Vocabulary improvement 21 -Ideas and content discussion 14 292 Figure 26 Project Mapping Themes: CLIL and PBL Benefits (Intervention II) 7.3.3 Question # 2: Preparation for real intercultural interaction _Intervention I Responses to the question [ How do you consider that the units developed during the combined methodology prepare you for real intercultural interaction using a foreign language?] show that an influential utility is given to the combined approach in building and preparing learners for real intercultural engagement. In this sense, one of the research questions posed in this study is answered through students’ leading comments on the gains obtained after using the hybrid methodology. Table 38 and Figure 27 illustrate the most notorious observations of intercultural experience categorized in themes and subthemes. There seems to be a consensus in pointing specific benefits in communication, intercultural strategies, skills, new views, and perspectives development as critical elements that facilitate fruitful real-world engagement. Learners’ perspectives on the intervention units were recognized as instrumental in reaching essential ICC gains for learners to raise genuine cultural understanding. Students acknowledged that intercultural 299 Note . Q .3 How has yo ur perspective on your own culture changed after the intervention units? Qualitative findings in intervention II claim effects on home/native culture knowledge, motivations to learn, acknowledgement of culture as fundamental component to language learning an d cultural awareness. Figure 29 Project Mapping Theme: One’s Own Culture Perspectives Cultural awareness 23 Participant 41 “Now I think that we should really value everything that characterizes us as a nation, we should appreciate our own and respect every culture.” Participant 59 “It has helped me to appreciate my culture more, to be more interested in certain topics that I don’t know and to be able to share with others about my culture.” Participant “Quite a lot. I have learned interesting things about my country.” Participant 89 communicated that “It has changed a lot because thanks to this, I have been able to learn more about cultures that I did not know.” Participant 96 “My perspective has changed because now I value more my identity as a Costa Rican.” Participant 122 said that “to understand the importance of learning about my own culture to see others.” Coexistence of similarities and differences 14 [Document text truncated for crawler view.]