Developing Intercultural Competence Through A Project Approach

Abstract

In today’s globalized world where every sphere is developing rapidly, education, specifically language teaching and learning are also facing changes. The Common European Framework (CEF) as a common basis document helped not only to standardize language levels, but appreciated and protected plurilingualism and pluriculturalism (2020) to promote international communication. It is clearly stated to be successful in communication, linguistic competence such as knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, phonology, orthography is not enough. Understanding cultural information appearing in different types of discourse as part of pragmatic competence can facilitate effective international communication and interculturally competent students. This article reviews the theoretical foundations of intercultural competence and outlines the key components of the project approach. It also investigates how a project approach may foster the development of intercultural competence in foreign language classrooms in Uzbekistan, and the advantages of application of this approach in the classroom is explored by using a questionnaire survey. Analysis of the study suggests that the project approach can be effective in teaching culture in foreign language classrooms, motivating students to study target culture in a meaningful context. Besides, this paper argues that although there is enough evidence proving the project approach can be effective with the use of real context in the target country, it is effective and has a potential to teach culture by implementing the project approach even in a home country. Overall, this paper contributes to the growing body of research on intercultural proficiency development and offers insights for individuals seeking to enhance their knowledge and abilities on project approach.