Project-Based Assessment in Teaching Intercultural Communication Competence for Foreign Language Students in Higher Education: A Case Study

• Main Author: Hong-Thu Thi Nguyen*
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: RU Publications 2021-04-01
• Series: European Journal of Educational Research
• Subjects: intercultural communication competence; project-based assessment; culture; communication; teaching innovation.
• Online Access: https://eu-jer.com/EU-JER_10_2_933.pdf

As a part of learning process, project-based assessment (PBA) is determined to be a potential approach in higher education evaluation that focuses on developing the important objectives related to critical thinking, team working and problems solving skills. The aim of the paper is to find out students’ reflection and teachers’ beliefs towards using this project-based assessment method in teaching Intercultural Communication Competence (ICC). To collect the data, a project-based assessment design was applied for 124 English major students at B University in the 9 weeks ICC course. This project was implemented from the beginning of the course, and at the end of the course, learners’ products were performed with specific activities regarding culture knowledge competition, online cultural community activities, talent performance, situational judgment ability, and eloquence skills. In addition, a set of questionnaires were delivered to the participants, plus the interviews with 36 teachers who have taught culture-related subjects from the universities in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. The findings revealed that although there were certain challenges, using project-based assessment in teaching culture had satisfactory effects on students’ intercultural competence, problem- solving skills, critical thinking, and learning motivation.