The development of students’ intercultural communicative competence through business English

Abstract

The present research aims to determine factors and strategies that will help to create a supportive environment for improving Business English (BE) fluency and developing intercultural skills. The findings show that communicative problem based learning in multicultural teams appears to be an efficient method of developing not only BE fluency but also intercultural skills because it provides ample opportunities for students’ active participation in the learning activities and creates favourable and supportive environment to develop students’ cultural sensitivities. For this reason the students’ attitude towards representatives of various cultures changes from ethnic diversity to humanistic view. BE fluency has been assessed taking into consideration students’ overall lexical complexity (phrases, structures, heightened emotions) of simulation as well as the following categories of discourse: problem management, framing and sequencing the activity to solve it appropriately.