Enhancing Intercultural Competence and Global Awareness through Digital International Education

The gradual development of technology has deeply influenced the knowledge base and the teaching of traditional culture. This study aims to develop a digital education course in traditional English culture and examine the effects of the course on English language proficiency (ELP) and intercultural competence (IC) among 150 students who learn English. The pre-test–post-test control group design of the quasi-experiment was used. The proposed course introduces EFL learners to traditional English culture using Google Arts & Culture and YouVisit apps. The results show its effectiveness in improving both ELP and IC variables. Even though language proficiency increased in both the control and intervention groups, students who took the proposed course exhibited slightly more significant improvement compared to the control group. The intercultural knowledge score increased 2.68 points in the control group and 4.03 points in the intervention group. The Cohen’s d values were 0.59 and 0.72, respectively, indicating medium and significant effect sizes. The results have important implications for language teachers to promote language acquisition, enhance cultural understanding among students, and make the teaching and learning foreign languages more effective and engaging.