Enhancing intercultural communicative competence through a CLIL and PBL hybrid approach at tertiary educationa Costa Rican approximation

Resumen

This thesis explores the development of intercultural communicative intercultural communicative competence through CLIL and PBL hybrid approach at tertiary education in the Costa Rican context. The study describes a longitudinal pedagogical intervention where two language approaches were combined to mediate intercultural learning. The main aim was to explore the extent to which the implementation of a hybrid approach of CLIL and PBL principles could enhance intercultural communicative competence during two compulsory English courses at tertiary education. Participants were divided in two groups: the control group, which included 94 participants (n=94) and the experimental group, which included 124 (n=124). A mixed method approach with a quasi-experimental design was implemented during two academic semesters. After the interventions, results revealed that after exposing participants to systematic intercultural learning activities, tasks, and projects under a learning environment of hybrid teaching principles students’ intercultural communicative competence was fostered and this improved over time engaging learners in a meaningful learning process