A Correlational Study of Social Media Literacy and Intercultural Competence among University Students

Abstract

With the recent trends towards internationalizing higher education institutions, the need to develop students’ intercultural awareness has become more crucial than ever. Globalization and the rapid advancement of technology have amplified the standards needed of individuals, especially undergraduate students, to acquire a series of intercultural competencies that can allow them to blend into academia abroad or a multicultural work environment. Because of this, universities worldwide are trying to meet these standards. For instance, Morocco recently passed new reforms of higher education whereby it aims to enhance students’ intercultural as well as digital skills. Production of intercultural mediators, therefore, has to be reoriented to accommodate the current generation whose lives actually revolve around technology, with most of their intercultural acquisition on social media. To serve this purpose, the current research investigates the relationship between undergraduate students at Mohammed I University in Oujda and their use of social media in relation to their level of intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Specifically, the research is conceptualized through Lara Schreurs and Laura Vandenbosch’s Social Media Literacy (SMILE) Model to assess students’ social media literacy (SML) across cognitive, technical, and socio-emotional dimensions, and, concurrently, Byram’s ICC model to assess their skills, knowledge, and beliefs. In doing this, the research aims to investigate whether there is any correlation between students’ use of social media and their levels of ICC. The findings reveal significant positive correlations between specific components of SML and dimensions of ICC, providing insight into the promise of using social media as a pedagogical tool to improve students’ intercultural communication skills in HEIs.