Effectiveness of Reading Short Stories to Develop Intercultural Communicative Competence among Thai students at an International School

Abstract

This research investigated the effectiveness of reading short stories to develop three particular dimensions of Byram’s (1997) intercultural communicative competence (ICC): interpreting and identifying; comparing and relating; and attitude and openness. The study utilized a twelve-session design, and analyzed the cultural themes of three short stories written by and about native English speakers (NES). Data was collected through a mixed-method approach and included pre- and posttests, and semi-structured interviews. The participants were ten secondary-one (grade 7) students at an international school in Bangkok, Thailand. Results indicated that reading and discussing short stories helped develop ICC in all three of the dimensions studied. By far, the largest increases recorded occurred in the students’ interpreting and identifying abilities, while relatively small increases were seen in both the comparing and relating dimension and the attitude and openness dimension. Despite the small increases, some students reported that reading short stories broadened their means for comparing and relating; and their preexisting openness to NES cultures helps explain their low development of the attitude dimension. Consequently, this paper puts forward that EFL teachers in Thailand should utilize short stories mindfully, i.e., to focus specifically on those aspects of ICC deemed most crucial to their students.