The role of intercultural communicative competence in the acquisition of English as an Additional Language for Arab Learners: A hermeneutic phenomenological study

Abstract

This hermeneutic phenomenological study examines Arab female newcomers’ lived experiences in an English as an Additional Language (EAL) program and their acquisition of intercultural communicative competence. Two in-depth semi structured interviews were conducted with seven students enrolled in the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program to reveal the challenges that face EAL learners that make it difficult for them using the language effectively in real life situations. In addition, I used journaling as another source of data to review my personal biases and to develop a new projection of meaning. Thematic analysis was utilized to find patterns of the participants’ lived experiences. Themes were identified and combined into three major thematic groups, where each of these groups of data answered one research question. The findings of this study revealed several issues including the meaning the students attach to themselves as EAL learners and their perceptions of cultural information of the host country, that intercultural communicative competence is an important and necessary component of language that is difficult to separate from language learning and, that a lack of cultural knowledge impacts the learning process negatively which in turn leads to isolation and loneliness that prohibits learners to actively communicate in real life situations. These findings have the potential to assist educators and stakeholders to reassess the content and pedagogies used in EAL programs that address the challenges that learners of English face inside and outside the classroom.