Globalization and Intercultural Competence

In step with globalization, developing students’ intercultural competence has become an important mission in Japanese higher education. This mission is particularly evident in the context of English-medium instruction. This paper discusses three major challenges in promoting intercultural learning in universities: (1) defining intercultural competence and identifying key dimensions of the competence, (2) developing reliable and valid measures assessing intercultural competence, and (3) teaching intercultural competence and documenting instructional outcomes.