O n f e r e n c e

participants’ cultural learning are somewhat overstated.
Cultural issues in language learning cannot be ignored, and it follows that investigating 
how cultural aspects can be incorporated into the language classroom is an important 
task that needs to be further developed in CALL research, particularly given the 
affordances that technologies provide language teachers and learners. The purpose of 
the current study is to gain insights into the present state of CALL research associated 
with culture using technology to determine what has been achieved and where the field 
could be further improved. In order to achieve this, all articles appearing in four different 
journals, CALICO, CALL, ReCALL, and LLT, over a ten-year period from 2004 to 2013 
were analysed, revealing that a total of 81 articles dealt with intercultural competence. In 
order to get a better picture of how culture is conceptualised, taught and measured, of 
these articles, empirical research studies were specifically targeted for analysis in the 
current study, and discussion papers, book reviews, editorials and so on were excluded. 
Based on a review of the intercultural communication competence literature and a 
summary potential of meta-analytic techniques, the following main research questions 
were considered in this study:
1.
Do the studies use a theory or model of intercultural communication or 
intercultural competence? If so, what is the theory or model? 
2.
Do they have teaching or training intercultural communication or intercultural 
competence? 
3.
What research methods are used to measure intercultural competence? How are 
the data presented and analysed? 
The results suggest that even though there are many different models or theories of 
intercultural competence, very few of these appear in the CALL literature, with only a 
very small number of studies including elements based on these models as an integral 
part of the program, and in general there was a lack of systematic cultural education and 
training.

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-318- 
2014 CALL Conference 
LINGUAPOLIS
www.antwerpcall.be 
Research methods measuring intercultural competence proved to be somewhat 
unbalanced, with a general tendency to 
cite isolated examples of students’ output as 
evidence for enhanced cultural understanding. The results of the analysis are further 
discussed in terms of how development of intercultural competence can be facilitated in a 
more balanced manner, capitalising more fully upon the affordances that technologies 
can provide teachers and learners.
There are a number of methodological challenges that were encountered in undertaking 
the research. Firstly, as a meta-analysis of existing research, the scope is bound to be 
limited by the selection of journals. In the current study, four established journals in the 
field of CALL were specifically chosen to demonstrate where culture sits in the greater 
scope of CALL research itself, but this has the danger of omitting relevant articles that 
have been published outside of CALL journals, and yet are of immediate relevance.
Another point which is not unrelated to this is the keywords and terminology that are 
used in the relevant articles. In this study, only journal articles dealing with intercultural 
competence were selected. However, it is quite feasible that through the ambiguous use 
of terminology regarding intercultural competence there were articles which dealt with 
intercultural competence but were not included in the study. A reason for this is that 
while terms are used quite specifically in other fields, there still appears to be a lack of 
clearly defined terminology regarding cultural issues in CALL research. While care was 
taken to ensure that other alternative terms were used to avoid this from happening, 
there is still the possibility that there were some omissions. Similarly, it could also be 
stated that there were potentially omissions in the information provided about how data 
were collected and analysed, which may lead to making conclusions about how a study 
was conducted that might not be a completely accurate reflection of actual practice. 
Regarding the analysis itself, even though articles didn’t mention about how they 
undertook training or education regarding intercultural communication or intercultural 
competence, it would be difficult to state categorically that there no training or education 
took place based on the fact that information was not provided. One might assume that if 
any meaningful training or education was included, it would likely be clearly described in 
the methodology, but it is possible that there were studies that did not outline these 
details clearly enough. 
In conclusion, despite the fact that the study was conducted in a way that attempted to 
cover a wide scope of previous research, and the analysis was carried out in a careful 
and thorough manner, it is possible that there are errors and omissions in the way in 
which the data were collected. Some of these may be specific to the field, but others may 
be a result of the nature of conducting meta-analyses.