Implementing backward design to foster intercultural communicative competence in textbook-based curricula: A proposed framework for English language practitioners

Abstract

Teaching intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is still a challenging goal to achieve in English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) education. ESL/EFL instructors teaching in textbook-based educational contexts require more tangible approaches to designing and implementing purposeful intercultural language teaching that amplifies the desired ICC goals. This article proposes the use of a backward design-inspired framework as an effective approach to foster ESL/EFL students’ intercultural skills through the development and implementation of supple- mentary ICC materials. The article explains how specific ICC dimensions can be enhanced and complemented through a proposed four-stage framework, helping instructors identify intercultural learning gaps in the assigned curriculum, identify desired results for intercultural learning, determine assessment evidence, and plan supplementary intercultural learning experiences and instruction. The article provides an example of implementing this framework to support ICC development in an ESL/EFL teaching context in Jordan and concludes with some pragmatic insights for implementing the framework in similar ESL/EFL teaching contexts.

Keywords

• intercultural communicative competence
• intercultural pedagogy
• backward design
• ESL/EFL education