Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) in English for Palestine (EFP) Textbooks for Grade Seven

This research aims to investigate Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) in English for Palestine (EFP) textbooks A and B for grade seven. It adopts Byram's (1997) model as a theoretical framework for analyzing the content of grade seven textbooks. It also explores the categories and levels of cultural content to develop intercultural communicative teaching in English teaching. Further, it pinpoints different strategies to develop and promote ICC in teaching. In this qualitative research, the researcher uses content analysis. The findings show that the analysis of the Palestinian English textbooks for grade seven A and B develops ICC to a great extent. Moreover, many interactive strategies and pedagogical methods are used in these textbooks to develop ICC such as role play, poems, reports, emails, and conversations. Based on the research findings, English for Palestine textbooks for grade seven increase the awareness towards the Palestinian culture and deepen students' recognition of their identity, language and religion. It is concluded that these textbooks successfully enhance students' critical awareness and understanding of other cultures besides having a sense of pride of their own culture. In light of the research findings, the researcher recommends conducting empirical researches to measure the impact of ICC on students' language proficiency form the stakes holders' perceptions in the field of English language teaching.


Introduction
There is no doubt that the world is currently passing through a huge transformation towards modernity and internationalization. In this westernized world, it becomes necessary to keep up with all the changes and updates in all domains of life such as social, economic, political, technological, educational most importantly cultural. It is also vital to realize the dominant languages and to understand the superior power that control the most effective aspect all over the globe. Ideologies and cultures play a prominent role in familiarizing people with nations form different languages, races, and cultures (Moller & Nugent, 2014). Thus, learning about other cultures remains a vehicle to develop and master languages (Yassin, Abdul Razak, Qasem, & Saeed Mohammed, 2020). The intensive globalization and the massive use of different foreign languages, especially English language in the last Interculturality as Dervin (2016) states, aims at constructing relations through interactions between different cultures in order to build links between them based on equity and mutual respect. On the other hand, intercultural awareness stands for negotiating meanings within multilingual and multicultural societies and understanding self in relation to others in the diverse world (Malczewska-Webb, 2014). Intercultural communication refers to the direct process through which people from diverse cultures interact (Holliday, 2010). It can be implemented in the classroom to include investigation and inquiry of social relations. It can be also used to distinguish certain attitudes and behaviors or discover the media and arts as ways to understand cultural differences (Westhuizen & Wellington, 2014). As mentioned in Baker (2011), awareness in intercultural competence includes knowledge, skills and attitudes and used in a more holistic alternative to intercultural competence.
Developing intercultural communicative competence is necessary for people to understand either their own culture or other cultures and to be aware of their cultures' differences and perceptions (Liu, 2012). It is also important to recognize the significance of learning both the source and the target cultures to overcome any barriers that may result from neglecting any of them (Jianjun & Huang, 2014). Further, Lussier (2011) argues that the teacher's role in integrating ICC beside linguistic competence leads to a more purposeful and authentic teaching. The education that promotes culture is good but not adequate to teach foreign language and achieve understanding. Instead, the main goal for education should develop ICC. Thus, Byram (1997) indicates the need for educators to consider education as an essential entry to social interrelations and interculturalism.
This research focuses on Byram (1997) definition for ICC that is "the ability to decenter and take the other's perspective on their own culture, anticipating and where possible, resolving dysfunctions in communication and behavior" (p.49). Thus, intercultural competence is the success of interaction that implies not only an effective interchange of information but also cultural and intercultural awareness (Wood, 2011). The goal of intercultural communicative teaching is to achieve an intercultural understanding and distinction. As stated by Honna and Gakuin (2008), speakers of English look for information exchange and mutual understanding which make them strongly motivated to adjust their respective to speech manners and be more encouraged to think and inquire.  William, 2016). However, few of them investigated ICC in teaching English for Palestine for grade seven. To achieve the purpose of the research, the researcher aims to reach this gap by analyzing EFP texts books A and B for grade seven taking into considerations Byrams' ICC model. It is also important to highlight the ways of developing ICC in EFP textbooks.

Importance of the Study
The researcher believes that there is a need for all the competent language teachers to be aware of different cultures and diversities in order to cope with language development on both levels teaching and learning. Particularly, the Palestinian students aspire to learn English language in a way that fosters their understanding to their culture and other cultures. That is to maintain a mutual respect and reach the cultural gaps. Thus, there is a strong motive for the Palestinian English language teachers to be interculturally sensitized by discovering, improving and adopting new methods and strategies to develop their ways in teaching English in many educational institutions and fields.

Literature Review
Intercultural communicative competence simply refers to the ability to communicate efficiently and appropriately in various cultural contexts. It is a challenging process that includes the knowledge and awareness of other cultures' ways to achieve an effective interaction in the foreign language to enhance cultural understanding and communication (Byram, 1997). ICC according to Dervin (2016) is a long life process that includes endless learning. Byram (1997) calls a learner as a proficient user of a language if he or she successfully achieves intercultural mediation. Cultivating ICC is essential for learners of English as a foreign language.
In order to be competent in this field, experienced learning and reflective practices are highly recommended. This can be easily attained through assessing new situations and contexts. Moreover, adapting the existing knowledge to new contexts or coping with the unexpected ones. Building ICC requires provoking students' sense of curiosity and wonder towards culture. ICC includes motivation, self and other knowledge, and tolerance for uncertainty. Thus, it is a complex issue that demands a level of learning and ability to assimilate it into the existing frameworks.
Simply, Zhang (2010) mentions that the intercultural speaker is the person who has developed an ICC. On the contrary, Kramsch (2011) has argued that intercultural competent speakers have to work on a third culture which is a space beyond the source and target culture. In the meantime, Whitaker (2013) states that participating in intercultural conversations either written or spoken demands students to use their knowledge of the target and source cultures, language, and body language in order to establish a successful communication.
The dimensions of ICC are personal attributes, communication skills, psychological adaptation, and cultural awareness (Zhang, 2010). Personal attributes refer to the ability to be tolerant and relaxed to accept social interaction and the ability to self-disclosure or be open with others. Communication skills are the ability to send and receive messages or to demonstrate social skills. Cultural Awareness implies the understanding of environmental varieties, while ICC emphasizes the context, specific nature of the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed (Westhuizen & Wellington, 2015). Finally, psychological adaptation focuses on the ability to handle problems such as frustration, stress, alienation and ambiguity which are caused by cultural differences. Zhang (2010) argues that ICC is the best way through which people can communicate and understand different cultures effectively.

The Significance of ICC
With the rapid change of the world cultures and languages as a result of globalization, it becomes necessary to cope with the different communicative consequences that affect people's lives in many aspects. Integrating intercultural awareness and ICC has grasped the interest of many researchers for its positive impact on the foreign language learners. Teaching combined with ICC encourages learners to develop a reflective attitude to the culture and civilization of their own countries compared with other countries. Intercultural awareness as a part of ICC engages students with other cultures and enables them to understand the differences.
Being culturally sensitized or fully engaged in learning, act as a cultural mediator, see the world through the other's eyes, interact effectively and consciously use culture learning skills are certain effects of integrating and teaching ICC. Further, the development of intercultural dimension increases students' understanding of self in relation to others and maximizes their successful learning (Malczewska-Webb, 2014). It also enables students to balance between culture, communication, motivation and social context needed for interactive learning. For example, reflections are evidence of learners' cognitive and affective engagement in emerging intercultural awareness.
Intercultural awareness is the foundation of communication and important dimension for ICC. Zhu (2011) mentions two qualities for intercultural awareness; the ability to interpret the source and the target cultures. In the same context, Atay (2009) argues that some teachers stress students' understanding for their culture neglecting familiarizing their students or even themselves of the target culture. By contrast, Whitaker (2013) stresses the significance of the teachers' awareness of the target culture as well as the students. The teacher's cultural instruction in language classes should engage students in activities that focus on both the target and native cultural community by comparing and reflecting on two cultures (Huang & Shen, 2014). Thus, teachers are instructors, facilitators, motivators and supporters.
Fostering ICC is essential for different types of education. For instance, ICC is needed for fostering intercultural citizenship (López-Rocha &Vailes, 2017). Some researchers like Niculescu and Obilifteanu (2015) highlight ICC in the military education system. Finally, Liu (2012) considers the increase of ICC as a sign of mastering two cultures which results in more active and critical reflection on both the native and the target cultures.

Teacher's Role in ICC
It is worth mentioning that teachers have significant roles in achieving ICC based teaching. However, the teacher's role in developing ICC is argumentative as not all the researchers agree on the same perception. Habiňáková (2015) states that neither the teacher nor the students must have full knowledge of the target culture. Instead the teacher can create different opportunities to enable students to understand their perceptions of other people from different cultures and identities and vice versa. Moreover, Whitaker (2013) finds it essential to have a skilled language teacher who could help to eliminate the negative impact of the potential cultural misunderstandings, stereotyping and prejudices within intercultural communication.
Teachers have a dominant role in countering negative attitudes towards prejudice in classrooms (Bryan, 2009). Teachers should guide and monitor students to help them reach competent stage of cultural-awareness and provide them with the basic knowledge about intercultural differences to minimize their anxiety and frustrations. Li (2016) also stresses the teachers' role in facilitating and supporting the students' learning that is based on ICC.
Posada and Guevara (2016) reveal that it is possible to foster intercultural awareness in young learners through authentic written tasks. However, authentic material have to be well-planned to fit the learners' need, age and level. They also mention that learning foreign languages must be linked to the lives and cultures of the students in order to be realistic and long-lasting. Finally, in order to enrich the lesson plans and keep the motivation high, teachers should provide students with a variety of materials and activities incorporating the respect and difference of these cultures.

Ways to Develop Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC)
There are many strategies to develop ICC in learning a foreign language. Huang and Shen (2014) states that ICC can be promoted by reading about the foreign language history, life, and geography through media, books, newspapers or TV. Moreover, it is useful to master communication skills, tolerate cultural issues related to life and seek and observe all the differences in diverse cultures. It is thought that ICC can be developed through increasing intercultural awareness stressing four aspects; the first is to enhance selfawareness which requires people to become aware of the way their own lives have been shaped by the culture, to respect other cultures and become sensitive to different identities and cultures. Secondly, to be aware of others' values, conceptions and their influence on their ways of intercultural communication. Thirdly, to become comfortable with differences and have sensitivity to various circumstances (Jandht, 2010).
There are other models for developing students' IC through enhancing students' literature by reading novels and poems. There are also other activities to develop ICC in teaching foreign language such as brainstorming, short presentations, critical incidents, role plays and simulations. Čaňková and others (2007) find ethnographic tasks beneficial to give ideas about cultural differences and the learning potential in doing interviews, observations, and quizzes. Moreover, Logioio (2010) proves that storytelling is an effective tool to raise young learners' interest and curiosity for other countries and cultures as well as to facilitate reflection about their own values, practices and beliefs.
It was also proved by Kondoyianni and others (2013) that educational drama has a very essential role in promoting the intercultural awareness and a life learning process. (Rogalo, 2017) mentions many strategies to develop teaching ICC such as games, quizzes, non-verbal communication, portfolios, researches, reports, comparison method, drama and use of authentic materials like songs, chants, field trip, students exchanges, movies/video clips, magazines/newspapers, realia, technology and internet.
Furthermore, Whitaker (2013) stresses teaching acculturation as a way to develop ICC by focusing on gender, race, disability, material and family status religion and so on. Briguglio (2006), in his two-way study which is concerned about learning contexts, depends on making multinational teams to develop ICC and raise students' intercultural awareness.
There is also an emphasis on the guided discussion, directions for a classroom and workshop in making the students more culturally sensitized to explore cultural and linguistic issues in intercultural communication.

Previous Studies
There are many researchers who argued the importance of developing ICC in teaching and learning the foreign languages. Cavalheiro (2015) indicated the value of integrating ICC in language teaching by analyzing a recording from the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English. He successfully reflected the significance of developing skills, knowledge, attitudes and critical awareness. Additionally, he referred to using several communicative strategies to develop ICC to enable learners to interact in a multi-cultural society. Other researches highlighted the importance of teaching and developing ICC by measuring the teachers' beliefs and perceptions of it.
Breka and Petravić (2015) chose 105 Croatian primary school FL teachers of English to measure the teachers' beliefs of teaching ICC and they used questionnaires for data gathering. The finding of the study confirmed that teachers have positive beliefs and perceptions towards ICC which are reflected on their practices in the classroom. The study also focused on the teachers' role in teaching ICC beside the linguistic competence in Thailand foreign language classes and proved the teachers' positive attitudes towards the development of learner intercultural communication and their ability to select and use the appropriate teaching activities like technology and role play.
In a further study, Rebstock (2017) conducted his research on Japanese university students as he aimed at developing students' intercultural competence. It found that increasing the intercultural awareness for both students and instructors is considered an important method for developing ICC.
In a case study on Norwegian students, Hoff (2013) examined the role of using fictional texts on developing ICC in the English classroom. He investigated how the English teacher helps learners to overcome their difficulties to engage with texts by developing ICC in teaching the foreign language. Another qualitative study for Siddiqie (2011) in Bangladesh aimed at analyzing English language textbook to measure if it integrates ICC to a fair extent. The results showed that the textbook promotes both cultural and intercultural competence through various activities to increase intercultural exposure and develop a sense of global citizenship by comparing their original cultures with other cultures.
Many studies have emphasized the impact of using technology on developing the students' ICC. Alyan (2005) investigated the effectiveness of using email exchange with native speakers on developing students' ICC and intercultural awareness. The 13 pairs of Palestinian freshmen contacted American graduate and undergraduate students from a north eastern university. The qualitative analysis of contact reflected the students' positive attitude towards using email project as it is enjoyable, easy and helps to develop intercultural knowledge of both source and target cultures. It also reinforces the concept of respecting others and eliminates the stereotypes, prejudices and biases towards the foreign culture.
Moreover, for developing ICC through Skype and Facebook, a study has been conducted on Portuguese. William's (2016) study was on 201 intermediate students of Portuguese at Northwestern University contacting with Brazilian college students from São Paulo via Skype and Facebook on a closed group. The research findings indicated that students' ICC was highly improved and positively affected them through open shared discussion, collaboration and online interaction which helped them in self-assessment.
Rogalo (2017) also provided many techniques for raising intercultural awareness in ELT at the primary school level such as internet based activities, drama, quizzes, games and textbooks. The research used questionnaires and structured interviews to measure the teachers beliefs of methods to develop intercultural teaching and found that internet based activates like computerized tasks, worksheets, contacting groups and online social media open discussions are important to develop students ICC.
The most recent study for Barrett (2018) investigated schools strategies to promote the intercultural competence of young people. Different pedagogical activities were provided to facilitate the process of ICC learning like role plays, simulation, plays and films. The research also discovered different encouraging methods such as online links and partnerships, internet based contacts, cooperative learning and culturally inclusive curriculum that is based on respecting diversities and human rights. All in all, multicultural and ICC education are considered very essential in our competitive world for the teachers to face the negative effects of globalization on language teaching (Albut, 2012). It is also important to eliminate the differences between learners of different ethnicities and cultures.

Theoretical Framework
The intercultural dimension in the teaching of foreign languages has become a special concern for teachers and researchers. Many studies in social psychology and intercultural communication according to Aytay & others (2009) have provided insights into the linguistic and social skills, knowledge and attitudes needed to communicate effectively and appropriately in intercultural contact situations. On one hand, intercultural communication develops learners' abilities to understand and interact with people from different cultures and social identities. Moreover, intercultural awareness helps learners to engage with various identities to be and mediators. On the other hand, ICC leads to an interactive communication that is based on respect, equality, equity and diversity acceptance for individuals in a certain society (Byram, 1997). Similarly, Deardorff's (2006) influential model for the development of ICC promotes intercultural awareness, openness, and transformation.  -Willingness to relativise one's own values, beliefs and behaviours, not to assume that they are the only possible and naturally correct ones, and to be able to see how they might look from an outsider's perspective who has a different set of values, beliefs and behaviours. It is the ability to 'decentre'.
Knowledge -Knowledge of social groups and their products and practices in one's own and in one's interlocutor's country, and of the general processes of societal and individual interaction. Skills of interpreting/relating -Ability to interpret a document or event from another culture, to explain and relate it to documents or events from one's own perspectives.
Skills of discovery and interaction -Ability to acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural practices and the ability to operate knowledge, attitudes and skills under the constraints of realtime communication and interaction.
Critical Awareness -Ability to evaluate critically on the basis of explicit criteria, perspectives, practices and products in one's own and other cultures and countries.
As the table (1) shows five main dimensions of Byram's mode and provides a short description for each one. First, intercultural attitudes that involve curiosity and openness towards the other as well as readiness to revise cultural values and beliefs and to interact and engage with otherness. Second, knowledge that includes learning about social groups, products, practices and processes of interaction. Third, skills of interpreting and relating which mean the ability to identify and explain cultural perspectives and mediate between functions in new cultural contexts. Fourth, skills of discovery and interaction which are related to the ability to acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural practices and the ability to operate knowledge attitudes and skills under the constraints of real-time communication. Finally, critical cultural awareness which refers to the ability to critically evaluate the perspectives and practices in one's own and other cultures.

Methodology
The purpose of the research is to investigate ICC in English for Palestine (A and B) textbooks for grade seven. The research aims at exploring how these textbooks promote ICC and the ways to foster teaching and integrating it in EFP. The design of this research is qualitative as it is based on content analysis. It also depends on comparing the results of this research with some previous studies to indicate the commonalities and points of differences between them.

Content Analysis for English for Palestine (EPF)
English for Palestine is an up to date communicative English course which has been specially written for schools in Palestine. It contains 12 levels and aims at systematically developing competence in the four language skills; listening, speaking, writing, and reading. It encourages pupils to become confident users of English. Caotes (2013) states that EFP has been developed in consultation with local and international ELT experts and follows the Ministry of Education syllabus. It includes motivating and rewarding activities suitable for each grade like games and songs to enrich the pupils' learning experience. The focus in this analysis will be on grade seven textbooks A and B which is included in the upper level (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12) in EPF.
Cultural teaching requires sources that promote suitable content like text books and cultural content is considered a way of developing ICC. Gómez (2015) considers three categories of cultural content that can be used and reflected in language textbooks and materials. Firstly, source culture language that refers to the learner's own culture and identity. Secondly, target culture which is the culture of native speakers and international culture. Finally, foreign culture which used in countries where English is used as a second or international language.
In English for Palestine, there is a balanced distribution for the cultural content. On one hand, there are a variety of topics that promote the source culture and the surrounding environment for the Palestinians such as Palestinian history, heritage, embroidery and famous crafts and places. On the hand, many topics and units refer to the target language. For example, the British culture, its technology, modern ways of communication, weather and body language. Finally and most importantly, ICC can be noticed clearly in EFP textbooks. For instance, referring to different countries and cultures where English is spoken as a second language like China when talking about tables manners, food, clothing, greetings, education and languages. English for Palestine textbooks in grade seven promote the three levels of cultural content through a variety of skills and knowledge presented in the topics and units. This variety results in fostering the students' cultural understanding and enhancing their perceptions and critical awareness to learn their own culture and other different cultures. The curriculum aims at developing the ICC via providing different forms of cultural behaviors, contexts and highlighting the Palestinian students' perspectives and attitudes towards these new cultures. In addition to raising language awareness, EFP emphasizes the appropriateness of the message with regard to the sociocultural context. Thus, the curriculum of the Palestinian textbooks considers teaching and developing ICC beside the linguistic competence.   (Razak, Yassin, & Maasum, 2020). As a result, they provide students opportunities to develop such global topics in a variety of contexts. They also guide them to interact positively and creatively which is a great way to enhance ICC in learning English through school textbooks.
Further, EFP saves opportunities to develop an informed awareness of the similarities and differences between the cultural customs and traditions which influence people who live in Palestine. For example, introducing a good image that reflects the Palestinian heritage such as embroidery, arts and crafts in Palestine. Finally, referring to many Palestinian famous symbols, cities and archeological places in Palestine through texts, strengthens the relations with the Palestinian culture and broadens the cultural beliefs of the Palestinian cultural identity. Thus, English for Palestine contributes to reinforcing the Palestinians' ideology and cultural diversity that are deeply rooted in them. Grades 1-12 (2015) confirms that EFP aims at enhancing students' awareness of Palestinian togetherness and belonging in relation to one's cultural background. Moreover, it focuses on the target and international cultures to build students' understanding and sensitivity towards own and other cultural traditions. The purpose of EFP is to develop students' appreciation of shared and distinct characteristics of Palestinian and other cultures. By stressing an integrative and holistic personality and focusing on intercultural and global issues, students will be encouraged to actively participate in recognizable contributions in the quest to build, reinforce and refine human civilization.

English Language Curriculum for Public Schools
This research agrees with previous researches that consider ICC as a key for successful and powerful communication and that the process of developing ICC is a prominent ingredient in language development (Hismanglu, 2010). All in all, EFP has successfully stressed the importance of promoting ICC in teaching English as a foreign language and integrating it to a great extent to maintain a purposeful teaching and achieve the objective of the curriculum.

What are the ways to promote intercultural communicative competence in teaching
English for Palestine for grade seven?
EFP textbooks provide students and teachers with different ways to develop ICC for example, to promote High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) activities such as critical, creative, analytical, inferential, and relational thinking activities. These activities are communicative and relates students to other cultures and conceptions. It also develop ICC through poems that discuss global and intercultural issues like civilization, technology and globalization. EFP also comes with reading texts that raise students' intercultural awareness of other cultures such as food, sports, traditions or daily life practices. For example, the unit of table manners stresses respecting diversities by practicing conversations or role-plays and putting self in other's shoes.
other cultures through writing letters, sending emails, making video calls and communicating with people from different countries (Caotes, 2013). It also develops students' sense of social responsibility and ability to use strategies of cooperation, consensus building, teamwork, appreciation of literature that is written in the English language, differences between English and other languages, and thereby help students gain additional insight into the nature of their mother tongue, for example, the lesson of world languages. It can be said that EFP encourages students to look for common themes in the texts they read or listen to, and to draw conclusions about the needs and interests of their own cultures compared to other cultures. To end, EFP has successfully promoted presenting the cultural content of the text books A and B by raising ICC through ways that are similar to the one's recommended by previous studies.

Conclusion
This qualitative research aims to analyze EFP texts books for grade seven according to Byrams' (1997) model of ICC. It also explores the ways of developing ICC in EFP for grade seven. The results show that the cultural content of EPF covers all the sources of cultural content; source, target and international cultures. Further, it involves all the levels of culture surface, intermediate and deep. Moreover, it includes all the skills, knowledge and attitudes of Byram's model in its content as it is available in 14 units out of 18. However, not all of the components are applied in the same range as two units have two components only. It can be said that EFP textbooks for grade seven enhance and develop ICC through providing various useful ways to promote ICC in English language teaching in Palestine, EFP textbooks provide different useful ways to enhance understanding the target language culture by learning songs, poems, proverbs, games and other interactive activities. It also increase the students' awareness of various contexts in the target culture, for example practicing certain conversations in certain situations. ICC is developed by familiarizing students' with values, traditions, relating foods, places, customs, and famous people of the their own culture compared with other cultures.
It is clearly noticed that English for Palestine integrates and develops ICC by highlighting the cultural respect and increasing students' understanding to other cultures by emphasizing cultural diversity. Further, increases their respect and appreciation to other cultural backgrounds by encouraging them to reject gender, racial, and ethnic stereotypes. EPF aims at fostering, understanding and developing sensitivity to the target language culture and other cultures through the use of a common language, the possibility of understanding and cooperating with people who speak English to extend their ICC. To end, developing intercultural communicative competence in teaching and learning English language is necessary in our world of globalization and multicultural trends.
Based on the results, more empirical researches are recommended to explore the effectiveness of developing ICC on the students' language proficiency or linguistic and communicative competencies. The researcher recommended empirical researches to measure the sequences of developing ICC form stake holders' perceptions; teachers, students, supervisors and parents. Further researches can focus on the observation of teaching practices and the measurement of teachers' competences for developing ICC. She also thinks that conducting further researches on developing ICC through creative and up to date pedagogical techniques can be beneficial. These strategies include authentic interactions that are based on videos, online sessions, educational blogs rather than the traditional ways of teaching. All in all, it is essential to foster ICC in learning and teaching in the Palestinian primary and higher institutions to ensure better future and education for all.