Using websites to promote intercultural competence - case study with Albanian students practicing listening skills

Abstract

Are virtual environments conducive to the promotion of intercultural competence among foreign language students? The present study seeks to give a substantiated answer to this question by presenting and analyzing the results of a project carried out with the first year students of English language in the University of Kors{cyrillic with descender}a, Albania. The project involves the employment of a dedicated class website as a tool and medium in the teaching of listening skills with a view to determining its impact in the development of the students' intercultural competence. An analysis of how the different intercultural components are realized within the framework of the class website serves to throw light on the above-stated query. Methodologically speaking, the results of our study follow from applying the critical tool of discourse analysis to the listening texts themselves and to the comments the students have posted on our website forum. The detailed examination of linguistic and stylistic features together with that of other elements that belong to the content of the text leads to the conclusion that the use of websites in SLT (Second Language Teaching) serves the students to improve their intercultural knowledge, attitudes, values and skills.