AI-Driven Intercultural Responsive Learning in Higher Education: Raising University Learners ICC towards the New Frontier

Abstract

Culture is the glue that binds people together. Simply, it is ‘‘a way of life’’. Hofstede (2005) argued that culture is ‘‘software of the mind’’. He explained culture as a medium that touches and alters all aspects of human life. A simple and brief definition of culture is : system of behaviours that helps us act in an accepted or familiar way. It is the way we think, act, and interact. We are all the same, all different and partly the same and partly different. We are all the same as far as our human nature is regarded, completely different as far as our personalities are regarded, and culturally speaking, we are partly the same and partly different. Intercultural communicative competence, or ICC, refers to the ability to understand cultures, including your own, and use this understanding to communicate with people from other cultures successfully. In Byram’s (2000) viewpoint, ICC is “the ability to interact effectively with people of cultures other than one’s own”. (p.297). Tomlinson (2001) holds that cultural awareness involves a gradually developing inner sense of the equality of cultures, an increased understanding of your own and other people’s cultures, and a positive interest in how cultures both connect and differ (cited in Tomlinson & Masuhara, 2004, p. 3). On the other hand, Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing all teaching-learning fields, and EFL is no exception as it facilitates teaching a foreign language. This brought a set of challenges and perspectives that emerged when AI met ICC