Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2022, 10, 405-427
https://www.scirp.org/journal/jss
ISSN Online: 2327-5960
ISSN Print: 2327-5952
DOI: 10.4236/jss.2022.1013029 Dec. 30, 2022 405 Open Journal of Social Sciences
Assessing Intercultural Competence Using
Situational Judgement Tests: Reports
from an EMI Course in Japan
Todd J. Allen
Faculty of Foreign Language Studies, Kansai University, Suita, Japan
Abstract
Intercultural competence has become a central feature of intercultural com-
munication education as a means of assessing students’ development. Like
other university courses, teachers and other stakeholders need to find ways to
account for students’ development and achievement in intercultural learning.
Previous research has shown that there is not one single way to account for a
student’s intercultural competence; instead employing a variety of measures
such as quizzes, interaction activities, interviews, and surveys is advocated in
determining a student’s intercultural development in a classroom setting. As
a result, in this study, participants’ (n = 48) responses to situational judge-
ment tests are analysed and explored. Specifically, participants responded to
three cross-cultural workplace videos that depicted various intercultural in-
cidents such as a misperception of time, unawareness of appropriate language
and communicative behaviours in the workplace, and cultural differences in
non-verbal communication. Overall, the results showed that participants can
articulate an awareness of various intercultural concepts prompted by the
videos. Furthermore, participants were able to demonstrate facets of inter-
cultural competence by observing and reflecting on various issues in the
workplace. However, the analysis revealed that participants’ reports are often
inconsistent and varied in terms of complexity. In addition, grading the as-
sessment is time-consuming and additional rubrics and raters may be re-
quired to evaluate student reports accurately and consistently. Despite these
challenges, the study shows that situational judgement tests are effective in
assessing students’ intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Using au-
thentic materials can also be a beneficial tool, particularly in culturally ho-
mogenous EMI classrooms.
Keywords
Intercultural Competence, Intercultural Assessment, EMI, Situational
How to cite this paper: Allen, T. J. (2022).
Assessing Intercultural Competence Using
Situational Judgement Tests: Reports from
an EMI Course in Japan. Open Journal of
Social Sciences, 10, 405-427.
https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2022.1013029
Received: November 4, 2022
Accepted: December 27, 2022
Published: December 30, 2022
Copyright © 2022 by author(s) and
Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY 4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Open Access