Darla Deardoff

　　Title：Exploring Intercultural Competence as a Key Competence in the 21st Century

　　Keynote Speaker：Darla Deardoff, Executive Director, Association of International Education Administrators (IEA), Duke University, USA

　　Abstract：

　　The advent of the 21st century has seen unprecedented degrees of contact between and among peoples and societies of the world. This has led to an increased focus on intercultural competence, which is viewed as vital for global talent, successful employability, and for social integration, as well as for human survival. So exactly what is meant by the term “intercultural competence”? And which terms are used in different professional and cultural contexts to refer to this concept? Much scholarly effort has been invested, particularly among western cultures, in defining intercultural competence and following is a brief discussion of some of that work. (For a more comprehensive discussion, see Spitzberg & Changnon, 2009). In fact, the concept of “intercultural” was discussed by Comenius in the 1600s when he suggested “pedagogical universalism,” or a multiplicity of perspectives, as a foundation upon which to build an education as well as to encourage mutual understanding (Piaget, 1957; Sadler 1969). More recently, in the past five decades, scholars in the United States have been publishing and working intently on this concept. Currently, there is no consensus on the terminology used to describe this concept in the U.S. and it varies by discipline and approach (i.e., intercultural competence, global competence, global citizenship, multicultural competence, cultural fluency, communicative competence, cultural competence, intercultural sensitivity, cross-cultural awareness, cultural intelligence, cultural literacy, etc. See Fantini 2009 for a longer list of terms used to refer to this concept), although there is an emerging consensus on definitions of this concept – regardless of terminology.

　　The first research study to document consensus among leading intercultural scholars from a variety of disciplines and primarily based in the United States was conducted by Deardorff (2006, 2009). From this national study conducted in the United States, the consensus definition agreed upon by these leading intercultural scholars was broadly defined as “effective and appropriate behaviour and communication in intercultural situations.” The researcher categorized these specific agreed-upon elements into attitudes, knowledge, skills and internal/ external outcomes and placed these in a visual framework. This study serves as one way to view a more foundational framework on intercultural competence, one that is based on a grounded-research approach. As such, the specific elements of the framework will be briefly discussed here, as one example of a grounded research-based definition and framework of intercultural competence.