Intercultural Communicative Competence through CLIL and PBL hybrid approach: a Costa Rican perspective

Abstract

This study explores the enhancement of intercultural communicative competence through content and language integrated learning and project-based learning hybrid approach of principles in English as a foreign language classroom at tertiary education in the Costa Rican context. The study conducted two pedagogical interventions for two semesters where learning principles from these approaches were combined to plan English language lessons while infusing intercultural matters of both foreign and local/home cultures. A quasi-experimental design was implemented in the Integrated English I and II courses offered at the National University of Costa Rica, Liberia campus. Participants were divided into control and experimental groups. Two Likert questionnaire scales were used to gather data. Quantitative data analysis was processed through descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS. After the interventions, results supported the hypothesis that exposing participants to systematic intercultural hybrid methodology of principles promotes learners’ intercultural communicative competence.