Assessment of Intercultural Communicative Competence in High-Stakes Speaking Tests: The case of the Czech Republic

Background: For a long time, concepts such as the intercultural communicative competence have challenged the view of culture as purely fact-based, objective content to be transmitted to students, from whom only retention is expected. Today, cultural knowledge plays virtually no role in international standardised English exams such as TOEFL or the Cambridge English Qualifications. It is unknown to which extent this is true for examinations at the national level, and the materials used to prepare students for these examinations. Methods: The study provides a quantitative account of exam topics in the speaking part of the final exam in Czech grammar schools. The sample consists of 206 grammar schools in the Czech Republic (58% of all such schools). The percentage of knowledge-oriented, culture-specific topics was calculated for each school. The study further analyses the content of four books used to prepare students for the exam. The sample comprises four frequently used preparatory books. The text in the chapters that deal with cultural topics is classified using Larzén’s (2005) typology of culture. Results: The study has demonstrated that approximately 50% of the final exam topics are focused on specific English-speaking countries, their geography, history and literature. A similar tendency, but significantly more pronounced, has been found in the preparatory materials. More than 95% of their content was heavily knowledge-oriented with no discernible difference between older and recently published materials. Virtually no evidence of a skill-based or intercultural approach to culture was found. Conclusions: The study has confirmed what is often only an unfounded assumption by researchers and it has shown that the traditional factual view of culture is still immensely popular with no change in sight. Recommendations for material writers, teachers, and teacher educators are provided at the end of the study.