Student experiences of critical multilingual and intercultural communication competence assessment in higher education

Abstract

In this chapter, we present multilingual and intercultural communication competence (MICC) as a situational and contextual process. The aim of this qualitative, empirical study is to understand the students’ perceptions of assessing MICC as a holistic phenomenon that does not represent an ethnocentric world view and considers the role of language use in interaction. We look at assessing MICC as a process of giving and receiving feedback rather than as a summative assessment. The data consist of 74 texts on assessments written by university students. The understanding of the contextual and situational nature of MICC was enhanced through a process that the participants considered as ‘lengthy and at times challenging’. The combination of self- and peer feedback enabled the students to see MICC as both situational and a life-long process. The interpretative nature of MICC became evident through peer assessment, providing the students with a view of the situation through other’s eyes. The students faced challenges in developing understanding of multilingual and intercultural communication as well as in seeing formative assessment as a tool for learning. For higher education contexts, we suggest developing MICC as a part of the whole curriculum.