The Development of a Language-and-Culture Course Incorporating Intercultural Teaching Materials in the Tunisian Higher Education EFL Context: Challenges and Opportunities

摘要

Little data is currently available on course and materials design for intercultural competence (IC) teaching in the Tunisian higher education EFL context. The present study aimed to investigate these issues with reference to current literature on intercultural course and materials development as well as instructional design and affordance theories. In particular, it explored the potential development of an intercultural training course consisting of teaching materials that employ three types of teaching techniques, namely the cultural awareness technique (CAT), critical incident technique (CIT) and cultural misunderstanding technique (CMT). The result was a comprehensive course that included attainable goals, realistic learning objectives, conducive learning experiences, along with clear assessment criteria, scales, descriptors, methods, and tools for gauging the attainment of achievable learning outcomes. The findings reported in this work are particularly interesting for they could form a critical foundation for further research on the intercultural dimension in various higher education EFL contexts and a tentative blueprint for potential future work on intercultural curriculum, syllabus, course, and/or teaching materials development.