Preparing Chinese higher vocational students to succeed in a globalized and multicultural world: Enhancing their oral English competence and intercultural competence

In response to pedagogical reforms in English language teaching (ELT) within Chinese higher vocational education, growing attention has been placed on cultivating students' professional oral English competence alongside intercultural communicative competence (ICC), which are global skills required in the educational and workplace contexts. This study evaluates the effect of an ELT module incorporating ICC into the teaching of professional oral English to students at Chinese higher vocational colleges (CHVC). A quasi-experimental design with non-equivalent control groups and a pre-test-post-test structure was employed. Two groups of third-year higher vocational students majoring in aircraft maintenance, with 30 students in each group, were given an eight-week intervention, with the control group using the regular ELT module and the experimental group using the ELT module incorporating ICC. Findings show that the experimental group achieved greater improvements in professional oral English proficiency and ICC in intercultural workplace contexts compared to the control group. These results suggest that the ELT module incorporating ICC is more effective in enhancing students' professional oral English competence and ICC than the regular ELT module at CHVC and it provides a paradigm for how to integrate professional oral English teaching and ICC in vocational education. From a psychological perspective, the study also sheds light on learners' social-cognitive processes in intercultural communication, particularly in relation to perspective-taking, cultural sensitivity, and cognitive flexibility, which are essential for effective interaction in multicultural workplace contexts.