Raising University Students’ Level of Academic and Professional Readiness through Teaching Intercultural Communication and Digital War

Abstract

In this qualitative action research study, the purpose was to explore if the integration of an intercultural communication component (ICC), and its relation to the area of digital war into an undergraduate English course in Kuwait could improve the preparation of students for their future studies and jobs. The study focused on the insufficient acceptance of cultural diversity, besides its relation to the students’ misconceptions about digital war. Areas focused on in this study included; 1) improvement of ICC knowledge, skills, and values of students as well as their understanding of digital war; 2) students perceived the incorporation of the ICC component into English courses with special emphasis on the digital war topic as educational and eye-opening; 3) improvement of intervention methods to ensure results; and 4) student-perceived impact, if any, of the ICC module on student attitudes and behaviours toward other ethnic groups. The Deardorff (2011) model of intercultural competence was used to guide the study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and field notes, after content and thematic analysis was conducted.