Intercultural Communicative Competence of Iraqi EFL Learners: between Self-Assessment and Reality

The current study investigates undergraduate Iraqi EFL learners intercultural communicative competence at university level, using both self- and external- assessment instruments. To this end, a sample of fifty fourth-year students has been selected randomly from the Department of English/ College of Education for Humanities/ University of Mosul, for the academic year 2020-2021. The utilized model is a modified one that has emerged from adapting both Byrams (1997) and Fantinis (2001) Intercultural Communicative Competence models. Based on this model, the following three instruments were designed to collect data. Results revealed that student tend to perceive their intercultural competency as being good and sufficient. Nevertheless, when tested, their levels were found to be poor. Building on these results, more light needs to be thrown onto the importance of cultural dimension in teaching English in Iraq, and more work is needed to enhance Iraqi EFL learners intercultural communicative competence.