International Journal of Educational Research and Development Vol. 4(4), pp. 054-076, May 2015 ISSN 2327-316X ©2015 Academe Research Journals

Full Length Research Paper

On the assessment of Moroccan EFL university students’ intercultural communicative competence: A case study of the Master students of the English Department of Meknes

Bbani Koumachi

Department of English, University of My Ismail, Meknes, Morocco. E-mail: badrekoumachi@yahoo.com.

Accepted 29 May, 2015

Abstract

The present study aims at assessing intercultural communicative competence and its development among EFL university Moroccan students. It is meant to investigate the extent to which these students know about the cultural aspects of the target Anglo-American cultures as well as the degree to which their intercultural communicative competence has evolved based on the model presented by Byram (1997) which includes five competencies or savoirs: knowledge, skills of interpreting and relating, and skills of discovery and interaction, attitudes and critical cultural awareness. The results of the study have shown that the Moroccan EFL university students do possess the average necessary needed intercultural communicative competence to be mindful intercultural speakers and act purposefully and appropriately in cross-cultural communication encounters.

Key words: Attitudes, communication, critical cultural awareness, intercultural communicative competence, knowledge, saviors, skills.