The Effect of Digital Image Guide on EFL Learners’ Intercultural Communicative Competence

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of digital image guide, a method of teaching in the field of visual literacy, on improving Iranian EFL learners’ intercultural communicative competence. This study employed quasi-experimental research design with pre-test/post-test control group. The participants were drawn from a pool of first semester students of Knowledge and Information Science major at Razi University of Kermanshah in the academic year 1399. The participants who were attending a mandatory general English course were selected via convenient sampling method. Twenty-two learners qualified to take part in the study, with 11 being assigned to the experimental group and 11 to the control group. The two groups were first pre-tested on their intercultural communicative competence, and then the experimental group received nine 30-minute training sessions which involved the use of digital image guide. The images used in this study were selected from Getty Images and Flickr sites The two groups were post-tested on their intercultural communicative competence at the end of the treatment period. The obtained data were statistically analyzed to determine the effect of the treatment, that is, the improvement in the learners’ intercultural communicative competence. Analysis of covariance showed a significant difference between experimental and control group concerning the mean scores on the pre- and post-test, meaning that using the digital images guide helped improve the learners’ intercultural communicative competence and its components.