Developing and implementing an intercultural communicative competence framework through blended learning in foreign language education context

In foreign language learning, new approaches to culture do not define it with the native speaker norms anymore, but with the standards of the intercultural speaker. The intercultural speaker is defined as the person who can communicate effectively and appropriately with other people that are culturally or linguistically different from himself (Byram, 1997; Fantini, 2006). Competence in a foreign language represents only one side of the effective and appropriate communication. On the other hand, there is knowledge (of the world; of general communication process; of other cultures), skills (of discovery and interaction; of interpretation and relation), attitudes (of openness; curiosity; empathy) and awareness (critical cultural awareness; critical self-awareness and reflections) in addition to the language competence. An appropriate composition and co-orientation of those components create the phenomenon defined as intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Various studies and models define and conceptualize ICC. Some of those models define the components, while others show how ICC is co-oriented by the combination of varied dimensions. Another group of models depicts how it is developed. A common ground for those models is the inevitability of the face-to-face real time interaction and adaptability and integration of culturally accepted behaviors as judged by the members of the community with whom one is interacting. Another common ground is the acceptance of certain attitudinal behaviors such as tolerance, acceptance of differences, individuality, and openness to other cultures as requisites for ICC. These reasons seem to be sensible at first sight. However, they have limitations based on their sociopolitical and sociocultural presuppositions for ICC. This study aims to overcome those limitations. First, the study assumes that not all intercultural interaction would necessarily take place in face-to-face environments, and some students that are defined as geographically dispersed and culturally diverse (GDCDSs) might not have those opportunities to experience face-to-face real time interactions. What is more, the locations of learnings that are defined as a classroom, fieldwork (requires student mobility), and independent learning in some models might not be available for those GDCDSs. Secondly, those students because of their local cultural perspectives might not have some requisite attitudes ready in their cultural repertoire. Thirdly, for those students, definition, and conceptualization of ICC and its attainment criteria might be different from previous models in relations to the first two assumptions. Based on these assumptions this study aims at building a new ICC framework from an intercultural perspective through a Delphi study by re-defining and re-conceptualizing ICC for GDCDSs. It also aims at defining attainment criteria of ICC by providing a reliable self-assessment inventory for teachers and students who wish to track ICC progress. At a later stage, by adapting activities suggested in previous studies of telecollaboration and ICC to the framework developed, the study offers a blended learning program in Moodle platform in which GDCDSs collaborate for language learning and intercultural awareness. The study uses The Delphi Technique, factor analysis, and pre-experimental design to collect data, and both qualitative and quantitative methods are used for the analysis. The study offers frameworks for definition, conceptualization and development of ICC for GDCDSs. Keywords: Intercultural communicative competence, geographically dispersed and culturally diverse students, framework, blended learning