The Relationship Between Intercultural Communicative Competence and Learning Motivation Among English Foreign Language Learners in Indonesia

Abstract

Intercultural communicative competence plays an important role in foreign language learning in Indonesia due to its nature as a diverse nation. However, studies on the relationship between intercultural communicative competence and learning motivation in the Indonesian context still need to be made available. Therefore, this study aims to measure the relationship between intercultural communicative competence and learning motivation among English Foreign Language learners in Indonesia. The quantitative method was applied using correlational statistics analysis. The participants were 141 undergraduate students of the English Department at one of the private Universities in Yogyakarta. To collect the data, the researcher utilizes the Intercultural Communicative Competence Questionnaire (ICCQ) by Deardorf (2006) and the English Learning Motivation Scale (ELMS) by Li, Chuang & Fu (2006). The highest intercultural communicative competence mean score was 4,28, and the lowest mean was 1,99 in response to a negative statement, which means that generally, students' understanding of intercultural communicative competence is good. For the ELMS, the highest mean score was 4.45, and the lowest mean was 3.40. This means the participants' intercultural communicative competence and learning motivation scores are high. Moreover, the correlation result shows that there was a significant relationship between intercultural communicative competence and learning motivation among English Foreign Language students in Indonesian higher education. This means that the higher intercultural communicative competence, the higher learning motivation is. As such, an implication can be drawn that it is crucial for teachers to integrate intercultural competence in ELT material and activities as it is correlated with the learners' motivation.