The growing internationalization of higher education (HE), the expansion of remote work opportunities, and multicultural and multilingual teamwork underscore the need for continued research on intercultural communicative competence development in HE.

The term ‘communicative competence’ was introduced in the 1960s, and its main premise was not only grammatically and linguistically correct language acquisition, but appropriate language use in definite situations (Hymes, 1972). From the 1960s to the 1990s, the approach had been developing, and many classifications were designed. The most prominent ones are those by Canale & Swain (1980), Canale (1983), Bachman & Palmer (1982). In 1995, the first pedagogically motivated model of communicative competence was developed by Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei, & Thurrell (1995, 9-12). In the 21^st century, the theory of communicative competence continues to develop.

Culture and language are interconnected, and they influence one another. As Byram (1989) notes, learning a language involves developing cultural awareness, and using that language further enables learners to engage with members of the culture it represents. Thus, the term ‘intercultural competence’ was introduced.

According to Wang and Dai (2024), intercultural competence is associated with intercultural interaction, cross-cultural understanding, multiculturalism, cultural awareness, and intercultural communicative competence. 

Mootoosamy and Aryadoust’s (2024) systematic review of 85 empirical studies shows that communicative competence has been linked to diverse concepts, but two prevailing ones are intercultural communicative competence and multimodal communicative competence.

The focus of the current research is the development of students’ intercultural communicative competence, which consists of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable effective intercultural communication. Illie (2019) explains that knowledge involves understanding the beliefs, values, norms, and communicative practices characteristic of other cultures. Key skills include observing, listening, analyzing, evaluating, and interpreting, and attitudes comprise ‘respect, openness, and curiosity/discovery’ (Ilie, 2019, 265).

Due to internationalization in HE, students bring diverse cultural backgrounds to the classroom. This underscores the importance of designing language‑learning materials that are adapted to learners’ cultural experiences and language proficiency levels, thereby strengthening their capacity to operate effectively in multicultural academic and professional environments where intercultural competence is essential. Furthermore, the student-centred study approach must be applied.

Lots of intercultural training approaches exist, each with its own advantages and limitations, including simulations, role‑plays, case studies, various group activities, and online tools, as well as a recently developed innovative method called the “Story Circles”, wherein students exchange their personal experiences demonstrating respect, empathy, and interest in their peers (Deardorff, 2020).

The research was conducted within the framework of the Erasmus+ project “Cultural knowledge and language competences as means to develop 21^st century skills” involving six Central and Eastern European countries: Croatia, Latvia, Slovenia, Romania, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Its aim was to develop adult learners’ 21^st century skills, language and intercultural competences, foster learners’ knowledge of the rich European cultural heritage and its values. 

A blended‑learning CLIL‑based course for adults was developed and implemented (Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, 2010). It explores Europe’s intangible cultural heritage, including cultural spaces, language and oral traditions, social practices, knowledge and skills, etc. (UNESCO, 2024). The use of CLIL supports two goals: 1) it introduces the cultural context of the target countries and students increase their knowledge of other cultures, which fosters their cultural awareness, and 2) at the same time, they develop their target language skills. 

The aim of the current research is to evaluate the development of students’ intercultural communicative competence during the course implementation at HEIs in five EU countries. 

In previous ECERs, the project results from each stage were presented in general. In ECER 2026, the focus will be on students' intercultural communicative competence development in higher education institutions.

The course content is presented as a story that is supported by innovative pedagogical approaches and digital tools – webquests (Perifanou, 2025; Alqahtani, Alfadda, 2025; Wang, Jansrisukot, Narjaikaew, 2025), case studies (Stone, Ineson, 2015), vialogues, design thinking tools (Liedtka, Ogilvie, Brozenske, 2019), interactive games, etc. (cf. E-Learning, n.d.). During the first stage, 18 modules (3 per partner country) were created in English, and during the second stage, these 18 modules were recreated into 9 languages: Croatian, Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Latvian, Polish, Romanian, and Slovenian. This contribution analyses the results obtained during the second stage of course implementation at HEIs in Czechia, Latvia, Slovenia, Romania, and Poland at college, Bachelor's, and Master's level curricula. Research question: Has the created course enhanced the development of students’ intercultural communicative competence, and what improvements are required therein? A comparative research design (Creswell, 2014) has been applied. Data were collected through a cross‑sectional survey of 229 students and interviews of nine course teachers to capture the current state of the research field (Boeren, 2019). The questionnaire comprised three sections; this paper reports results from the first two: (1) respondents’ socio‑demographic characteristics and (2) evaluation of students’ intercultural communicative competence – 21 Likert-scale questions on the course content and the competence development. The interview protocol comprised questions on the course evaluation, students’ success and challenges, during the course acquisition, and assessment of their competence increase. A purposeful research sample was created comprising 32 students from Czechia, 45 from Latvia, 34 from Slovenia, 67 from Romania, and 51 from Poland. The majority were aged 18-24 (87.3%), 52% were female, and 48% male. 12.7% studied education sciences, 20% tourism, 10.9% business and finances, 12.2% economy, 13.5% IT, 18.8% philology, 13.1% management, and 8.7% studied in another field. 108 students (47.2%) studied modules in English, others in Croatian, Latvian, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian, Hungarian, and German. Teachers’ profile: 5 had a PhD degree, 4 Master's degree. Teaching experience: 7-32 years. Data analysis methods: for quantitative data (students’ questionnaire) - descriptive statistics, central tendency measures, inferential statistics tests (Kruskal-Wallis Test, Mann-Whitney Test, Spearman Correlation Test), for qualitative data (teachers’ interviews) thematic analysis were applied. Research limitations: The project was implemented with adult learners in formal, non-formal, and informal learning. This proposal analyses the results obtained only in formal education, from the HE sector. Since the Croatian partner represented secondary vocational education sector, their data are not analysed in this proposal.

Students positively evaluated the course with the means ranging from 3.5109 to 4.0480, mode=4.00. They liked the module they had studied (mean=3.9432, mode=4) and considered it useful (mean=3.8166, mode=4.00). They found the story interesting (mean=4.0393, mode=4.00) and the majority agreed (37.6%) and strongly agreed (49.3%) that they had learnt new cultural information about the topic. Respondents acknowledged that they had developed their language skills (mean=3.5633, mode=4.00, 36.7% agreed, 21.8% agreed strongly, 25.3% were neutral) and intercultural competence (mean=3.7817, mode=4.00, 45% agreed, 22.7% agreed strongly, 23.1% were neutral). Findings showed moderate correlations (Schober, Boer, & Schwarte, 2018, 1765) for most cases. Respondents acknowledging that they had learnt new cultural information liked the module (rs=0.429, p-value=0.000), found the story interesting (rs=0.532, p-value=0.000), and useful (rs=0.482, p-value=0.000). They had developed their language skills (rs=0.263, p-value=0.000) and intercultural competence (rs=0.396, p-value=0.000). There was a positive moderate correlation between the development of language skills and intercultural competence development (rs=0.496, p-value=0.000), which means their development is a mutual process. The results showed that intercultural competence had greater relations with other skills and the course content than the development of the language skills (10 cases of positive moderate correlations vs.6 and 5 cases of positive weak correlations vs. 9). From the teachers’ interviews, such themes were derived: course evaluation, module evaluation, and the development of students’ intercultural communicative competence. Teachers found the course interesting, interactive, and well-structured, and it was easy for them to monitor students’ learning process. They admitted an increase in students’ intercultural communicative competence and pointed to the challenges students faced: too high language level for tasks, not clear enough instructions for interactive tasks, and unwillingness by some students to participate in group discussions. Overall, by engaging with cultural heritage, learners may broaden their cultural awareness and develop intercultural communicative competence.

-Alqahtani, S.M., Alfadda, H.A. (2025). Integrating WebQuests into ESL Classrooms to Reinforce Students’ Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension. International Journal of Education & Literacy Studies, 13(1), 268-278. -Bachman, L.F., Palmer, A.S. (1982). The Construct Validation of Some Components of Communicative Proficiency. TESOL Quarterly, 16(4), 449-465. -Boeren, E. (2019). Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Surveys. L. Hamilton, J. Ravenscroft (Eds.) Building Research Design in Education (29-47). London: Bloomsbury Academic. -Byram, M. (1989). Cultural Studies in Foreign Language Education. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. -Canale, M., Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical Bases of Communicative Approaches to Second Language Teaching and Testing. Applied Linguistics, 1(1), 1-47. -Canale, M. (1983). From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy. In J.C. Richards, R.W. Schmidt (Eds.), Language and Communication, (2-27). Rowley, MA: Newbury House Publishers, Inc. -Celce-Murcia, M., Dörnyei, Z., Thurrell, S. (1995). Communicative Competence: A Pedagogically Motivated Model with Content Specifications. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 6(2), 5-35. -Coyle, D., Hood, P., Marsh, D. (2010). CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. -Creswell, J.W. (2014). Research Design. Sage. -Deardorff D.D. (2020). Manual for Developing Intercultural Competencies. UNESCO & Routledge. -E-Learning. (n.d.) Culture & Languages E-learning Platform http://e-culture.eu -Hymes, D.H. (1972) On Communicative Competence In: J.B. Pride, J. Holmes (Eds.), Sociolinguistics. Selected Readings, (269-293). Harmondsworth: Penguin. -Ilie, O.A. (2019). The Intercultural Competence. Developing Effective Intercultural Communication Skills. International conference Knowledge-Based Organization, 25(2), 264-268. -Liedtka, J., Ogilvie, T., Brozenske, R. (2019). The Designing for Growth Field Book: a step-by-step project guide. Columbia University Press. -Mootoosamy, K., Aryadoust, V. (2024). Transitioning from Communicative Competence to Multimodal and Intercultural Competencies: A Systematic Review. Societies, 14(7), 115, 1-26. -Perifanou, M. (2025). Designing Webquests for the Digital Classroom through a Constructivist Lens: Exploring Language, Culture, and Motivation in EFL Teacher Education. EDULEARN25 Proceedings, 9632-9638. -Schober, P., Boer, C., Schwarte, L.A. (2018). Correlation Coefficients: Appropriate Use and Interpretation. Anesthesia & Analgesia, 126(5), 1763-1768. -Stone, G., Ineson, E. (2015). Introduction. International Case Studies for Hospitality, Tourism and Event Management Students and Trainees. Ineson, E., Smith, M., Nita, V. (eds.), Vol. 6., Iasi: Tehnopress. -UNESCO. (2024). Basic Texts of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Paris: UNESCO. -Wang, J., Jansrisukot, J., Narjaikaew, P. (2025). Effect of Integrating Project-Based Learning and WebQuests to Enhance Innovation Ability of Chinese Undergraduate Engineering Students: CAD Course. Higher Education Studies, 15(4), 536-550. -Wang, X., Dai, K. (2024). Developing Intercultural Competence “at Home”. London: Routledge.