Construction of Input-Comparison-Output (ICO) Intercultural Mode for Sustainable Development in EFL Education

Abstract

The cultivation of college students’ intercultural communication competence (ICC) for sustainable development is a hot research topic in English foreign language (EFL) education. What competencies are they required to have, and how to cultivate them in EFL education? The study is based on Byram’s model of ICC for cultivating students’ ICC for their sustainable development. To this end, an empirical study was conducted by constructing an intercultural comparative teaching mode called Input-Comparison-Output (ICO) in the research by integrating Chinese culture into EFL education for cultivating students’ ICC among Chinese college students. The study emphasizes the importance of the Chinese culture as the native culture by comparing similarities and differences with the targeted culture in EFL education. There are some existing research works on English and its culture, but few of them focus on the role and integration of Chinese culture in China’s EFL teaching. In order to seek some evidence of the function of the Chinese culture as the first culture in EFL education, the authors constructed the ICO intercultural mode, and 58 participants were recruited and divided into two groups randomly as the controlled group and experimental group in the empirical study. Some research methods were used in the study, such as questionnaires, term papers, statistical analyses and interviews. The data were collected through the Star of Questionnaire, the automatic assessing system of the I-write Platform, Excel and WeChat videos. Quantitative and qualitative statistics were adopted to assess the students’ changes of attitudes towards the integration of the Chinese culture into the course and academic development in the research. The ICO intercultural mode creates a novel teaching mode of cultural comparison between first culture and targeted culture, breaking down the traditional monocultural teaching one in the EFL teaching. The results of the research show that the integration of the Chinese culture into the EFL course is important, which can promote the students’ ICC thanks to the application of the ICO intercultural mode in the course. The initiative findings can be used as references for further intercultural teaching in EFL education.

1. Introduction

Globalization is calling for more interactions and cooperation throughout the world [1]. Language is the most commonplace instrument for human communications [2]. The cultivation of college students’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is very important in this era [3]. In China, the objective of EFL education is changing from the cultivation of the students’ language capacity to that of their ICC in order to meet the needs of a wide range of international communication for sustainable development in the future [4,5,6].

How to achieve the educational objective in the EFL learning environment for sustainable development? The transformation into the students’ engagement, formative assessments, and more practical methodologies may be the answer to the question [7]. Education for sustainable development (ESD) addresses the current challenges of sustainability that society is facing, which focuses on transformation, outcomes, learning content and pedagogy, learning environment, and rethinking of the learning environment [8,9,10].

To this end, an empirical study was conducted in the research among Chinese college students through an intercultural comparative teaching mode called Input-Comparison-Output (ICO) for the cultivation of the students’ ICC by integrating Chinese culture into the EFL education. The study focuses on the importance of the Chinese culture as the native culture integrated into EFL education through the innovative ICO teaching mode. There are some existing research works on English and its culture in Chinese EFL teaching, but few of them are related to the function of Chinese culture and its effectiveness in being integrated into EFL education. In order to seek solutions to the issues, the authors created the ICO intercultural teaching mode by integrating Chinese culture into EFL teaching for cultivating the students’ ICC. 58 participants were recruited and divided into two groups randomly in the empirical study. Group A (GA) as the controlled group adopted the traditional monocultural teaching method, while Group B (GB) as the experimental one employed the ICO intercultural mode to promote the students’ ICC for sustainable development. Some research methods were used in the study, including questionnaires, term papers, statistical analysis, and interviews. The data were collected, and the results were analyzed through quantitative and qualitative research methods to assess the students’ changes in attitudes and academic development in the learning process. The research emphasizes the importance and effectiveness of the Chinese culture integrated into teaching and aims for the evidence of the effectiveness of the ICO intercultural mode on EFL education. The findings of the research can be used as references for further intercultural teaching in future EFL education.

2. Literature Review

The study is based on the theory of intercultural communication and Byram’s model of ICC. By analyzing intercultural factors and dimensions, the authors constructed the ICO intercultural mode to develop the Chinese students’ ICC in EFL education.

2.1. The Theory of Intercultural Communication (IC)

The study of IC began in the 1950s. Later, IC, as a new discipline integrated into anthropology, psychology, linguistics and other disciplines, came into being after more than half a century’s development [11]. Hall is known as the father of IC theory, thanks to the publication of his book Silent Language. He first puts forward the intercultural communicative concept that culture is communication [12]. Gudykunst [13] developed intercultural communication theory with great contributions, including communicative meaning construction, communication criteria, cultural mode, adjustment and adaptation, and three dimensions of IC evaluation theory. He emphasizes the importance of the learner’s exploration of cultural differences, especially on the patterns of language structure, use, and linguistic experience in intercultural communication. Baker [14] advocated for the development of intercultural awareness to be based on the understanding of language and culture, the relationship among linguistic patterns, culture-specific conceptualizations of the social world, and internal aspects of experience such as emotions. Individuals as intercultural speakers should develop their ICC based on five dimensions, including knowledge, attitudes, skills of interpreting and relating, and skills of discovery and interaction, accompanied by critical cultural awareness [5,6,15,16].

2.2. Byram’s Model of ICC

2.2.1. Byram’s Model of ICC

During the 1990s, the concept of ICC became a central topic in the field of intercultural language education [3]. Byram has made profound contributions to the construction of ICC theory and practices of intercultural teaching in the EFL education. His model of ICC has a transformative impact on intercultural communicative theory, helping language teachers conceptualize concrete objectives for intercultural teaching [17,18]. Byram also puts forward some factors of ICC, including political education and critical cultural awareness, which are the abilities to evaluate ICC critically, and interacting and mediating in intercultural exchanges in accordance with explicit criteria [5,15]. These factors negotiate where necessary a degree of acceptance by drawing upon knowledge, skills, and attitudes based on explicit criteria perspectives, practices, and products in one’s own and other cultures [5,15,19]. The importance of working with ICC in the EFL classroom is pointed out to help students interact with each other [4,5,15]. Three of the factors are highlighted including knowledge, attitudes, and skills in his model of ICC, represented in Figure 1.

From Figure 1, Byram approaches the ICC in the context of EFL teaching and learning based on the conception that the main function of language is to facilitate communication among individuals [6,15]. The centrality of critical engagement and critical cultural awareness to learner’s development as intercultural communicators and responsible citizens expands the concept of critical cultural awareness [6,9,15].

2.2.2. Byram’s Dimensions of ICC

Byram [5,15] emphasizes the importance of educators’ adapting his model to the local contexts appropriately. The capacity to use languages for communication allows students to be exposed to other cultures adequately [4]. To this end, individuals must develop their ICC with the cultural dimensions represented in

Table 1. Dimensions of ICC in Byram’s Model (1997) [15].

Domain	Definition	Content
Knowledge	The system of cultural references of the social groups; The products and practices of one’s group and the others.	Understanding of the context and norms that are appropriate to interact with people; Knowledge of rules include comprehending of L1’s similarities to other speakers’ cultures; General knowledge of social and individual interactions as well as characteristics of different cultures.
Attitudes	The affective capacity to overcome ethnocentrism; The cognitive capacity to establish and maintain a relationship between L1 and L2.	Basic capacity of curiosity, tolerance and flexibility when faced with intercultural ambiguity; Willingness to understand others’ culture; Individuals sharing the same characteristics in their behavior, beliefs and values with an adequate intercultural attitude.
Skills	Of interpreting and relating; Of discovery and interaction; Of critical cultural awareness or political education.	Ability to interpret a document or event in the other culture, explain it and relate it to one’s own culture, unknown intercultural meaning, beliefs and practices to interpret as well; Perceiving, balancing and linking between cultures by interpretation and comparison; Individuals’ exploration of diverse cultural manifestations and curiosity about others; Capacity to evaluate critically different perspectives, practices and products of various cultural milieus based on explicit criteria.

[15].

Table 1 above represents the overarching categories of knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Knowledge consists of linguistic competence, sociolinguistic competence, and discourse competence [8,15,20]; intercultural attitudes include curiosity and openness, readiness to suspend disbelief about others’ cultures, and belief about one’s own intercultural attitudes [15]; and skills refer to the skill of interpreting and relating, the skill of discovery and interaction, and the skill of critical cultural awareness [5,15,18]. Byram’s model of ICC has a transformative impact on educational theory and practice to help language teachers conceptualize concrete objectives in intercultural education related to the factors of ICC [17].

2.3. Present Research in China

Currently, EFL education is undergoing a series of educational reforms and innovations in China. ICC as one of the intercultural core competencies is widely accepted, as the ultimate goal of EFL education lies in intercultural communication and culture exchanges [21,22]. Byram’s model of ICC is helpful for Chinese EFL teaching in practice. However, the application of Byram’s model of ICC is far from being satisfactory. Most existing research in China primarily touch upon English and its cultural acquisition. Few studies focus on the importance and effectiveness of the Chinese culture integrated into EFL education. According to Liu’s survey, one of the reasons for Chinese students’ “aphasia” attributes to their inability to express the Chinese culture in English [23]. Therefore, it is necessary for Chinese educators to find a solution to the problem.

The key to the issue is to promote the students’ ICC through the integration of Chinese culture into EFL education. The authors conducted the empirical study among 58 undergraduates at the universities where they teach in China. The innovative and initiative ICO intercultural teaching mode was used in the course of American Culture, with the aim of promoting the students’ ICC based on the following research questions. Is it important to integrate Chinese culture into the course to promote the students’ ICC in EFL education? Is there any significant effectiveness of the ICO intercultural mode on the development of the students’ ICC?

3. Research Methodology

3.1. Introduction of the Course

American Culture is a selective course for Chinese undergraduates at the authors’ universities. It has been offered for ten years. Traditionally, the course aimed for the promotion of the students’ language competence through understanding American culture and society. The teachers tended to adopt the traditional monocultural teaching method, introducing American culture in a teacher-centered class. With the development of globalization, the teaching objective of the course has changed, from the cultivation of the students’ language competence to that of their ICC. So, it is necessary for the teachers to adjust the teaching objective, syllabus, and teaching methods of the course to keep up with the talents’ requirements in interactional communication.

3.2. Participants

There were 58 undergraduates, 35 girls and 23 boys, selected and divided into two groups randomly from the classes that the authors teach. There are 29 subjects in each group, GA as a controlled group and GB as the experimental one. They are sophomores, ranging from 19 to 20 years old. Their English is currently at the level of College English Band 3 in China. GA adopted the traditional monocultural teaching method, while GB used the ICO intercultural mode in the course, aiming for the cultivation of the students’ ICC. All of the participants have given consent to the research results used in the experimental research.

3.3. Methods

3.3.1. Research Design

The empirical study employed an experimental method for the cultivation of the students’ ICC. The authors constructed an intercultural teaching mode called “Input-Comparison-Output” (ICO for short) to integrate Chinese culture into the course. Three procedures were involved in the ICO mode: firstly, Sino-US cultural input; secondly, Sino-U.S. cultural comparison; and thirdly, output through a series of online and offline intercultural practices in and after class. Two groups tried out the two different teaching methods in the research. GA as a controlled group adopted the traditional monocultural teaching mode, and GB as an experimental employed the ICO intercultural mode by integrating the Chinese culture into the course. The following is a comparison of the two different methods (

Table 2. Comparison of Different Teaching Methods.

Group	Input	Teaching Methods	Output	Term Papers
A	US Culture	Traditional mode	US cultural practices	Yes
B	Sino-US Cultures	ICO intercultural mode	Sino-US practices	Yes

).

3.3.2. Teaching Design

Based on Byram’s model of ICC, the research focuses on cultivating the students’ ICC for sustainable development in EFL education, such as intercultural knowledge, attitudes, and skills of interpreting, relating, and interacting through verbal and nonverbal communicative techniques and strategies [15,18]. It has 6 sections with 6 different themes, and 4 periods for each section. Before and after the 12-week course, the students were asked to hand in their term papers twice on the I-write Platform to assess the students’ academic performance (

Table 3. Curriculum Design of ICO Intercultural Mode.

Week	Theme	Content	Comparison	Activities	Assessment
1–2	Intro-duction	American Geography, climate & population	Advantages & disadvantages of developing agriculture in geography & climate	Online data collection and sharing; offline PPT display; role-play; group discussion; writing e-portfolio	self-evaluation, peer- evaluation, system-evaluation online, teacher’s evaluation, term paper
3–4	History	Stages of American history	China’s relationship with the United States
5–6	Politics	American political system & economic development	Compared with China’s political system, the Constitution and the people’s congress system
7–8	Education & Festivals	Educational ideal, system, universities & festivals	Comparison between Chinese & American education
9–10	Mass media	Broadcast, television, newspapers & internet	Comparison of media development between China & the United States
11–12	Literature	Stages, writers, representative works & characteristics	Influence of American literature on China

).

The course centers on cultural themes, one for each section, including general introduction, history, politics, education and festivals, mass media, and literature. The teachers guide the students in learning American culture, integrating Chinese culture into the course through a series of online and offline intercultural activities for the cultivation of their ICC by comparison and contrasts.

3.4. Instruments

3.4.1. Questionnaire

A questionnaire was designed and used for the students’ attitudes toward the integration of Chinese culture into EFL teaching. It contains 6 questions based on Byram’s dimensions of ICC [15]. There are three options for each question: A. seldom, B. sometimes, and C. always. The researchers tested the corresponding questions of the three dimensions through KMO and Bartlett Tests, and the results show that their correlations in the composition correlation matrix are 0.672, 0.785, and 0.851, respectively, indicating that their correlations are relatively high. Therefore, the questions are reasonable and the questionnaire is valid. Besides, the outcome of Cronbach’s Alpha Test to measure its reliability was 0.92, showing that the questionnaire is reliable. Each participant in the research was given a questionnaire, and all of the questionnaires were taken back. The data were collected by the Star of Questionnaire and the results were analyzed.

3.4.2. Term Papers

Before and after the course, the students were asked to hand in their term papers on the I-write Platform. The scores of the term papers were obtained from the automatic assessing system on the platform. Further statistical data of the scores collected by Excel were analyzed through quantitative methods, such as average words per paper, average sentence length, percentage of the Chinese culture, word level (>the level of College English Band 4 in China), and average scores for each group. Furthermore, the results of the second-term papers were analyzed through qualitative research, and the significance between the two sets of data proved the students’ academic development after the research.

3.4.3. Interviews

After completing the course, four students were selected randomly from GB and interviewed on WeChat. The videos of their speeches in the interviews were recorded and translated into texts as references for the students’ changes in attitudes and academic growth in the learning process. The interview questions are based on research questions in order to seek further evidence for the findings. Do you have any changes in attitudes towards the integration of Chinese culture into EFL education before and after the research? Is there any effectiveness of the ICO intercultural mode on the cultivation of your ICC in practice?

3.5. Data Collection and Analyses

In the research, the questionnaire was used for the students’ attitudes toward the integration of Chinese culture into EFL teaching. Each participant received and completed a questionnaire and all of them were taken back. The data were collected by the Star of Questionnaire and the results were analyzed. Next, the authors adopted an empirical teaching with different teaching methods in GA and GB and examined the difference in the scores for the second-term papers between the two groups to evaluate the students’ academic performance in the learning process. By controlling the relative variables, the data were collected from the automatic assessing system of the I-write Platform. The groups share the same textbooks, same teacher, same periods, same cultural themes and same teaching assignments, identical in all respects except for teaching methods. Qualitative research was used to analyze the significant difference between the two sets of data in order to assess their academic development. Besides, the authors used Excel to get more data on the term papers as further evidence of the effectiveness of the ICO intercultural mode, including average words per paper, average sentence length, percentage of the Chinese culture per paper, word level (>the level of College English Band 4 in China) and average scores. In addition, there were interviews involved with four students to support the effectiveness of the changes of their attitudes and academic development owing to the integration of the Chinese culture and the application of the ICO intercultural mode into EFL education. Their videos on WeChat were converted to texts for analysis.

4. Results and Analyses

4.1. Questionnaire

All of the questionnaires distributed to the participants were taken back. The statistical data and results obtained from the Star of Questionnaire were analyzed, which are represented in

Table 4. Statistical Results of Questionnaires.

Domain	Item		Percentage of Frequency (%)
				A	B	C
Knowledge	Q1	Learning objective is language competence in EFL education.	Group A	75.9	17.2	6.9
			Group B	0	3.4	97.6
	Q2	I explore different perspectives in two cultures on a particular event/phenomenon in EFL education.	Group A	65.6	24.1	10.3
			Group B	0	3.4	96.6
Attitudes	Q3	I compare the Chinese culture with English culture in EFL education, which is important and necessary.	Group A	93.1	3.4	3.4
			Group B	0	0	100
	Q4	I pay attention to differences of values, beliefs, and perspectives from the two cultures.	Group A	89.7	6.9	3.4
			Group B	6.9	13.8	79.3
Skills	Q5	I perceive, balance and link between two cultures by interpretation and comparison.	Group A	82.8	10.3	6.9
			Group B	0	0	100
	Q6	I explore the causes of misunderstandings in communications between the two cultures.	Group A	79.4	17.2	3.4
			Group B	10.3	19.7	69

.

The attitudes of the two groups are basically opposite, seen from the ratios in Table 4. Generally, all the data related to GA are changing from large to small, while those in GB are the opposite, from small to large. The changing tendency of the data reveals the students’ current real condition of learning the Chinese culture and their different attitudes towards the role of it in EFL learning. From Q1 and Q2, 75.9% of GA do not think that the learning objective of EFL education is to develop ICC, while 97.6% of GB hold a different opinion in which the cultivation of ICC is definitely the teaching goal, and they always explore similarities and differences from various perspectives of diverse cultures when learning a foreign language [15]. As for the students’ attitudes towards the role of Chinese culture in EFL education, nearly 93.1% of students in GA think that the Chinese culture is not important in EFL learning, and 89.7% of them seldom reflect on what they have learned in learning [24]. On the contrary, 100% of GB recognize the importance of Chinese culture as the native culture in EFL learning, and always reflect on the values and beliefs of the Sino-US cultures. Besides, the majority of the students in GB can perceive, balance, and link the differences and similarities through the skills of interpretation and comparison, looking into the historical and cultural origins through intercultural comparison. Generally speaking, compared with GA, GB show more enthusiasm for the ICO intercultural teaching mode and the integration of the Chinese culture into the EFL learning in the empirical study.

4.2. Term Papers

The scores of the term papers were obtained from Excel, including average words per paper, average sentence length, percentage of the Chinese culture per paper, word level (>the level of College English Band 4 in China) and average scores, shown in

Table 5. The Statistical Scores of Term Papers.

Groups	Average Words	Average Sentence Length	Percentage of Chinese Culture	Percentage of Word Level	Average Scores (15 marks)
A	115	14.81 words	4.26%	30.08%	7.69
B	158	15.02 words	41.28%	31.49%	9.68

. The results were analyzed by the quantitative method.

According to Table 5, there is no significant difference between the two sets of data, one is the average sentence length, 14.81 and 15.02 words, respectively, and the other is word level, 30.08% and 31.49% (>the level of Band 4), respectively. The differences between the two groups of data are small and negligible, indicating that there are not any significant changes and growth in these two aspects. On the other hand, the other items in the table have significant changes, such as average words per paper, average scores, and ratios of the Chinese culture, and the data in GB are larger than those in GA. For example, average words are 115 words of GA and 158 words of GB, from which we can come to the conclusion that GB obtained the changes in learning attitudes and academic growth based on the descriptive statistics above.

In order to verify the effectiveness of the ICO intercultural mode, the authors adopted the independent sample test with SPSS 20 (

Table 6. Normality Assumption Test for Pre-course Test.

	Group	Shapiro–Wilk Test
		F	fd	Sig.
Pre-course Test	A	0.898	28	0.745
	B	0.987	28	0.138

,

Table 7. Independent Sample Test of Pre-course.

MS		SD		F	P	t	f	Sig. (Two-Tailed)	95% Cl
GA	GB	GA	GB						Lower	Upper
61.25	62.18	8.1521	9.1033	8.983	0.003	−0.027	57	0.958	3.7602	3.4912

,

Table 8. Normality Distribution for Post- course Test.

	Group	Shapiro–Wilk Test
		F	fd	Sig.
Post-course Test	A	0.863	28	0.817
	B	0.889	28	0.638

and

Table 9. Independent Sample Test of Post-course.

MS		SD		F	P	t	f	Sig. (Two-Tailed)	95% Cl
GA	GB	GA	GB						Lower	Upper
65.26	71.16	6.5412	8.8379	10.617	0.001	3.0921	57	0.002	1.8276	7.9625

). Firstly, examine the normal distribution of the pre-course scores of the term papers (Table 6).

According to the results of the Shapiro–Wilk Test in Table 6, the values of sig. are 0.745 and 0.135, both bigger than 0.05, which is not considered statistically significant, indicating that the two sets of data are normally distributed.

Table 7 shows the results of the pre-course term papers with the independent sample test. The mean scores of the two groups are 61.25 and 62.18, and the gap between them is not big, only about a score of 1. According to Levene’s test of variance, when p = 0.003 < 0.05, equal variance is not assumed. When Sig. (Two-Tailed) value = 0.958 > 0.05, there is no statistical difference between the two groups of data in the table above, that is to say, the two groups have similar English levels before the research.

Next, we tested the normal distribution of the scores of the post-course term papers with the Shapiro–Wilk Test. According to the results in Table 8, the values of sig. are 0.817 and 0.638, both bigger than 0.05, which is not considered statistically significant, showing that the two sets of data are normally distributed.

Based on the previous test, another independent sample test was conducted for the scores of the post-course term papers (Table 9).

Table 9 shows that the mean scores of the two classes are 65.26 and 71.16, and the gap between them is bigger, about six scores based on the descriptive statistics above. As well, the scores of GB are much higher than those of GA. According to the results in the table, p = 0.001 < 0.01, which prove that there is a significant statistical difference between the two groups of data, that is to say, there is a significant difference in the performance of the two groups, and GB performed better than GA. As is known, the two groups share the same teaching textbooks, same periods, same themes, and same assignments, and so on except for the different teaching methods. Therefore, it can be definitely concluded that the difference in the scores between the two groups results from the different teaching modes. Therefore, the ICO intercultural mode leads to the students’ academic growth in the research. That is to say, the ICO intercultural mode is obviously better than the traditional monocultural teaching method in cultivating the students’ ICC.

4.3. Interviews

To examine the development of the students’ ICC further in the research, the researchers had interviews with four students selected from GB on WeChat, who had “aphasia” to some extent. The interviews include the following two questions: (1) Do you have any changes in attitudes towards the integration of Chinese culture into EFL education before and after the experimental research? (2) Is there any effectiveness of the ICO intercultural mode on the cultivation of your ICC in practice? Their speeches in the interview videos are converted into texts via speech recognition software. The texts are represented in the following.

Participant 1: Before the research, I thought learning English had nothing to do with Chinese culture. Actually, I had “aphasia” before and was afraid of communicating with English speakers. In traditional learning, the teacher introduces cultural facts through PPTs. My academic performance in the exam mainly relies on how many facts I had learned by heart. But my opinion changed after the research. Now, the ICO intercultural mode adopted in the course makes my English learning experience different. I try to improve my ICC by comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences between the Chinese and American cultures. With the mastery of more cultural knowledge and improvement of my ability to tell Chinese stories in English, I am brave enough to chat with native speakers online to practice my oral English. I feel better when interacting with them.

Participant 2: The Chinese culture is very important to develop my ICC. In the past, little attention was paid to it in learning, but I felt embarrassed when there were some Chinese cultural events I could not properly express in English. At present, I adopt the intercultural comparative method to read some significant Sino-US references, such as customs, culture, and laws. I can understand them better, eliciting the diverse cultural connotations and figuring out the similarities and dissimilarities based on different cultural backgrounds. I also perform better with more related oral topics when interacting with Americans. Indeed, my ICC improves through innovative ICO learning.

Participant 3: I know that communication is a process of two-way interaction through the empirical study. Not only do I know the important role of Chinese culture in EFL learning, but also learn how to tell Chinese stories well in English in intercultural communication. Mastering similarities and differences by cultural comparison and contrasts is helpful for developing my ICC when learning a foreign culture. I often reflect on some improper English expressions and usages of the Chinese culture in communication and spend more time searching for more Chinese and American stories after class and sorting them with e-portfolio, in an attempt to seek more topics with native speakers and spread Chinese traditional culture.

Participant 4: At the beginning, I thought the Chinese culture was not so important in EFL education, and it would waste a lot of my time. After the 12-week study, I performed better in my second term paper beyond my expectation. The content of my paper is better than before due to the ICO intercultural mode, which makes me grasp more cultural knowledge of American and Chinese cultures and obtain a stronger capability of expressing the Chinese culture in English. I am aware that the first culture is equally important for us in EFL education.

In general, all of these interviewees affirmed the importance of the Chinese culture and the stimulative effectiveness of the ICO intercultural mode on the students’ ICC in EFL teaching according to their feedback. Moreover, they can develop their personalized learning strategies in practice according to their own learning styles, such as the use of e-portfolio and chatting online. Their autonomous learning capacity improves greatly through a variety of ICO activities in practice.

5. Discussion

In recent years, Chinese educators and scholars have made great achievements in the EFL educational reforms. Gao [3] constructed a theoretical framework of Chinese college students’ ICC. Liu [25] designed an ecological class to improve the students’ learning effect. Language competence as the EFL educational core has changed, transforming into the cultivation of ICC. More and more researchers are aware of the importance of the cultivation of ICC for sustainable development in EFL education [26]. However, the researchers pay more attention to English and its culture acquisition instead of the function of the native culture in EFL education [23,27]. There is an argument of whether the Chinese culture as the first culture is important or not in EFL education. The authors created the ICO intercultural mode in empirical teaching in order to demonstrate it positively based on Byram’s concept that ICC can be cultivated by comparisons and contrasts of diverse cultures [5,15]. According to Table 4, there were changes in the students’ attitudes towards the function of the Chinese culture in EFL education and academic growth after the completion of the 12-week course, which indicates that they made progress in learning owing to the ICO intercultural mode. Furthermore, the integration of the first language culture into the targeted culture deconstructs the traditional dichotomy of native and non-native speakers, helping learners highlight the humanistic aspects of language teaching and developing students’ international vision and intercultural personalities [19,28,29].

With the development of globalization, the ICC is emphasized due to more interactions between cultures. Therefore, college students as future intercultural speakers should improve their ICC with critical cultural awareness, internationalism, and the spirit of shared civilization for real intercultural situations [14,17,21]. Moreover, the Chinese college students’ “aphasia” is partly due to the lack of in-depth understanding of the Chinese culture and the inability to express it in English [23]. The goal of the research is to seek a solution to the issue. The results show that the ICO intercultural mode is better than the monocultural teaching mode in cultivating the students’ ICC. The Sino-US cultural comparison adopted in the study is an effective way to make the students truly understand the cultural connotation in intercultural communication [28]. The students are inspired to learn the similarities and dissimilarities through comparisons and contrasts between the native culture and targeted culture, which results in their deep understanding of their cultural historical origins and seeking proper communicative strategies to cope with interactive conflicts [1,30]. The combination of cultural knowledge, attitudes, and skills together can reduce cultural misunderstandings in intercultural communication [15].

With the help of AI empowerment in education, EFL education is aided by multi-technologies, including data collection and analysis, which promote the development of educational reforms and research. The students can use the big data on APPs such as I-write Platform to supervise their academic performance in the learning process, and adjust their learning strategies all the time. With the help of the analytics of big data, the teachers can also supervise, evaluate, and study the students’ academic performance according to the data during the whole teaching process to supervise and guide the students’ study, and adjust the teaching strategies for improving teaching quality. Formative evaluation together with summative assessments is also emphasized in EFL education [7,31]. Generally, new technologies are used in educational research to promote the development of EFL education. For instance, the student’s verbal and non-verbal behaviors during the whole learning process can be encoded for studying their hidden, unconscious, and real emotions with the aid of AI technology in the learning process [26,32].

6. Limitations and Suggestions

There are still some limitations in the study. (1) The findings are from the analysis of the statistical data and results of the students’ changes in attitudes and academic development in the learning process, and more inferential statistics between the experimental and controlled groups will make the conclusion more reliable. The quantitative and qualitative research methods are both important for the learning outcome proofs [18]. (2) The research methods are limited in the study, and more methods should be involved in it, such as the observation method, investigation method, and case study. (3) The research is a 12-week session, which is too short to obtain the learning changes and academic growth in every aspect, and a longer session had better be designed for further research. (4) Only 58 samples are involved in the study only, and more samples are expected to be selected in future research to make the findings more reliable. Furthermore, more samples from different classes, grades, colleges, and countries will make the conclusion more valid.

7. Conclusions

The authors have the following findings through the application of the ICO intercultural mode in the empirical study.

(1) The first culture is sure to be important in EFL education. The integration of Chinese culture into EFL education can promote the students’ ICC by constructing the ICO intercultural mode. The 12-week study makes the students of GB recognize the importance of Chinese culture in EFL acquisition. As well, the interviews further prove that they gain a lot in knowledge, attitudes, and skills. The lack of knowledge and understanding of the Chinese culture or insufficient expressive capacity of it in English leads to the failure of intercultural communication [23]. They can deal with their “aphasia” through intercultural communication, thus improving their expressive capacity of the Chinese culture in English. According to Participant 1 and Participant 4 in the interview, they admit that the ICO intercultural mode has an obviously positive effect on their development of ICC in EFL education “with mastery of more cultural knowledge and ability to tell Chinese stories better in English” and “due to more knowledge of the two cultures and ability to express the Chinese culture better in English”. Furthermore, Participant 2 and Participant 3 can use some personalized strategies in learning, such as chatting online and the use of e-portfolio, which implies that their autonomous learning ability improves greatly. Moreover, the students’ attitudes toward the role of Chinese culture have changed based on the results of the questionnaires. The majority of GB take more positive attitudes towards the function of the Chinese culture in knowledge, attitudes, and skills in Table 4.

(2) The ICO intercultural mode is effective on cultivating the students’ ICC. The average words of the term papers are 115 words and 158 words, and GB’s is higher than GA’s in Table 5. The average scores of GB are 5.90 more than those of GA. the ratios of the Chinese culture for GA and GB are 4.26% and 41.28%, respectively, which implies that the ICO teaching mode has a great effect on the GB’s outcomes, their cultural horizon is broader, and the capability to express their ideas in English is better. Moreover, most of the participants in GB gained a growth of ICC to some degree. The analysis of the term paper results in Table 9 proves that GB made a progress in their academic development. Furthermore, all of the interviewees admit the positive effect of the innovative teaching method. From the evidence above, it is concluded that GB obtain the learning changes and academic growth based on the descriptive statistics above, while GA’s changes and academic growth are not significant. The first culture cannot be neglected when learning a foreign language. Understanding bilateral cultures is necessary for the students to succeed in intercultural communication. Culture not only is the primary semiotic tool, but also has its abstract cultural connotation, by which people interact with each other to define and delineate their communal life [21,30].

With the speed-up of globalization, the cultivation of human beings’ ICC is necessary for better communication understanding. College students as the leading force of future intercultural communication should have extensive international insight and cultural perception, which depend on their mastery of multicultures. By comparison and contrast of diverse cultures in EFL education, critical cultural awareness can be cultivated, through which the students recognize different cultural phenomena, distinguish cultural intron and essence, and establish their own cultural subject consciousness [4,14,18]. Therefore, EFL education must be reformed for sustainable development faced with current conflicts [22]. Some policies have been put forward, such as constructing the concepts of common values, spreading the awareness of world citizens, and cultivating comprehensive qualities [4,33]. Faced with various global challenges, human beings should take some measures to promote the world’s common values, such as peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom to construct a community with a shared future for mankind and understanding and respecting diverse cultures in the world. Globalization is calling for the cultivation of the students’ ICC for sustainable development [17,21,33]. College students as future world citizens should be qualified for higher levels of ICC based on knowledge, attitudes, and skills. To this end, EFL education in China should aim for the cultivation of the students’ ICC for sustainable development and transformation of their behaviors of sustainability and engagement in world affairs in the future [6,21,24].