TEACHING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AS AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

The current worldwide interconnected system needs intercultural communication studies as an academic field which requires educational methods that go beyond standard language teaching techniques. This article examines the evolution of intercultural communication teaching in higher education through its theoretical framework and current teaching difficulties which show how the field developed through its need to handle growing multicultural professional settings. The research results demonstrate that effective intercultural communication teaching needs to include essential cultural understanding and practical learning experiences and digital competency development and should focus on teaching power structures and cultural essentialism.