Empowering Intercultural Communicative Competence through Metacognitive Reading Strategy

This study aims to propose using English reading strategies to enhance Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) for EFL learners. The study recruited college-level participants who were enrolled in a general English reading course (N=30) and administrated the surveys with a Repeated Measures Design (RMD). In the survey, an intercultural sensitivity scale and metacognitive reading strategies inventory were conducted for comparison. During the instruction, participants were asked to use the R.I.D.E.R. (i.e. Read, Image, Describe, Evaluate, and Repeat) strategy for visualization of text, which is aimed at facilitating the use of metacognitive reading strategies. In the results, participants showed a statistically significant increase both in the intercultural sensitivity level and the use of metacognitive reading strategies after the practice of R.I.D.E.R for one semester. Further analysis was appended to the results by the correlation and regression analysis, and proposed that participants benefit their development of intercultural sensitivity from the use of metacognitive reading strategies. Therefore, the study suggests that implementing metacognitive reading strategies facilitates college EFL readers to increase their cultural sensitivity, which empowers ICC through English reading (176words).