Capstone Design Based Business English Course to Develop Intercultural Communicative Competence

The purpose of this study was to implement Capstone Design to a business English course to develop intercultural communicative competence in college English learners of Korea. Data sources were from communicative needs analysis of business professionals and the pre-and post set of a questionnaire survey on intercultural communicative competence. Interviews and surveys were conducted from business professionals (N=5) and student participants (N=30) respectively. SPSS was used for data analyses. The findings from the study are summarized as 1) business professionals put stress on respect for cultural difference and the development of productive English skills to be successful in business communication, 2) the Capstone Design based business English course is regarded as effective, since it allows learners to maintain and establish a complex relationship, which is crucial to business success, 3) Among factors to measure the intercultural communicative competence, 3 factors, respect for cultural difference, interaction confidence, and interaction attentiveness had significantly increased throughout the instruction. Lastly, instructional implications for the classroom and suggestions for further research were also discussed.