Students’ cultural intelligence: a case study in a university in Vietnam

Abstract

Cultural intelligence (CQ) which refers to the level of an individual can adapt to new cultural settings has been researched as the level of CQ affects people in the process of integrating into a new cultural environment. CQ consists of four dimensions: Metacognitive CQ, Cognitive CQ, Motivational CQ, and Behavioral CQ. This study was conducted to understand the CQ level of English-majored students at The University of Danang - University of Foreign Language Studies (UD-UFLS). The research applied mixed methods with the semi-structured interview and the questionnaire as instruments. The data reveals that UFLS students generally had a good level of CQ though they have to confront some challenges such as language barriers, and culture shocks. It is recommended that students should be equipped with some basic language of the country where they have internship, and with cultural knowledge to avoid culture shocks.

Keywords

• cultural intelligence
• metacognition
• cognition
• motivation
• behavior