Volume 4, Issue 2 August 2021, pp. 137–154 
Regular Articles
The development and validation of an intercultural competence evaluation instrument for upper secondary foreign language teaching
Esther Schat 
1, Ewout van der Knaap 2, Rick de Graaff 3
1 Utrecht University, NETHERLANDS 
2 Utrecht University, NETHERLANDS
3 Utrecht University, NETHERLANDS
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29140/ice.v4n2.432
Abstract
Intercultural competence is a crucial element of foreign language education. It is argued that the multi-faceted nature of intercultural competence implies that assessment of its construct is a complex process; as a consequence, its progress is difficult to measure. Although several tools for evaluating intercultural competence currently exist, research on their use in secondary school settings is scarce. This study reports on the development and validation of an instrument intended specifically for use in foreign language literature education. To this end, tangible learning objectives for intercultural literary competence were developed based on five dimensions of intercultural communicative competence (Byram, 1997) and six categories of literary competence (Witte, 2008). These objectives were re-formulated for implementation in a student questionnaire. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the construct validity of the instrument was investigated among a sample of 164 secondary school students in the upper forms of pre-university education in the Netherlands. Although the results supported the hypothesized wo second-order factor structure, the model fit indices were less favourable compared to the fit indices of an alternative five first-order factor model. Subsequently, correlation and summability analyses were performed to test the reliability of the instrument. Future research and implications are discussed.
Copyright
© Esther Schat, Ewout van der Knaap, Rick de Graaff
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Suggested citation
Schat, E., van der Knaap, E., & de Graaff, R. (2021). The development and validation of an intercultural competence evaluation instrument for upper secondary foreign language teaching. Intercultural Communication Education, 4(2), 137–154. https://doi.org/10.29140/ice.v4n2.432
Related Articles:
Incorporating hypnotic suggestion into teacher education programs
Farshad Ghasemi
Australian Journal of Applied Linguistics Published: 31 December, 2019, Volume 2(3), 83–103. 
What makes students speak Japanese in immersion programs?
Kumiko Katayama, Kayoko Hashimoto
Australian Journal of Applied Linguistics Published: 31 December, 2019, Volume 2(3), 104–120.
Voicing the academy
Davina Allison
Australian Journal of Applied Linguistics Published: 31 December, 2018, Volume 1(3), 102–117.
Theory of Mind development and narrative writing: A longitudinal study
Birgitta E. Svensson
Australian Journal of Applied Linguistics Published: 31 December, 2018, Volume 1(3), 118–134.
Incidental vocabulary learning through watching movies
Robert John Ashcroft, Joseph Garner, Oliver Hadingham
Australian Journal of Applied Linguistics Published: 31 December, 2018, Volume 1(3), 135–147.
The Council of Europe Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture:
Ideological refractions, othering and obedient politics
Ashley Simpson, Fred Dervin
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 20 December, 2019, Volume 2(3), 102–119.
"I don't want to be stereotypical, but..."
Norwegian EFL learners' awareness of and willingness to challenge visual stereotypes
Cecilie Waallann Brown
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 20 December, 2019, Volume 2(3), 120–141.
(Re)imagining a course in language and intercultural communication for the 21st century
Adriana Raquel Diaz, Paul J. Moore
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 29 December, 2018, Volume 1(3), 83–99.
Critical intercultural communication education: cultural analysis and pedagogical applications
Sofia A. Koutlaki, Zohreh R. Eslami
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 29 December, 2018, Volume 1(3), 100–109.
Advancing intercultural learning in world language education: Recent developments in pre-service teacher education in the U.S.
Paula Garrett-Rucks
Intercultural Communication Education Published: 29 December, 2018, Volume 1(3), 110–122.
