Integration of Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence

The launch of the Belt and Road Initiative in China calls for a paradigm shift in theory and practice of foreign language (FL) teaching from a communicative language teaching approach (CLT) to intercultural language teaching (ICLT), which treats intercultural communicative competence (ICC) as the core of FL education. Unfortunately, the College English Curriculum Requirements of China (CECR) does not specify the aspects for cultural teaching or assessment; nor does it provide any theoretical or practical guidance for teachers on how to teach or assess ICC. This leads to teachers' confusion about what should be taught and assessed and how, hence to a deficiency in real actions. In this paper, we first outline the learning outcomes of ICLT-oriented courses, the ICC components which respectively fall into the categories of intercultural attitude, knowledge and skills. By presenting the pedagogical practice of a cultural literacy course, we also demonstrate how FL teachers can help learners achieve these learning outcomes through a five-stage instruction process. Finally, we discuss how these learning outcomes can be assessed using formative and summative assessment tools, especially how ICC components can be incorporated into a comprehensive test of FL.