cultural knowledge

Intercultural communication is a widespread matter in today’s world with the advent of globalization and social media. Thus, this study focused on exploring the role of cultural knowledge and linguistic knowledge in the formation of intercultural competence. The researchers selected 150 Iranian learners through a purposeful sampling procedure in a qualitative design. By using interviews, observation, and reflective journals the required data was collected. The researchers used inductive analysis and thematic analysis to analyze the collected data. The results revealed that cultural knowledge and linguistic knowledge are both equally important in the formation of intercultural competence of Iranian learners. Also, it is shown that Iranian learners make use of both linguistic knowledge and cultural knowledge to have effective communication, build trust and rapport, conflict resolution, and avoid linguistic and cultural misunderstandings. This study is important for language teachers, book writers, and curriculum developers in that they should pay more attention to both linguistic knowledge and cultural knowledge in their teaching, book writing, and curriculum development respectively.

Cultural knowledge education, which includes an understanding of both tangible and intangible cultural elements, behavioral patterns, and social processes within a specific community or group, is considered essential for promoting sustainable tourism development. Tourism higher education plays a crucial role in harnessing this knowledge. However, the integration of cultural knowledge within tourism curricula has not been extensively explored in academic research. This paper, focusing on tourism higher education in Iran, seeks to examine how different components of cultural knowledge are integrated into the curricula of undergraduate, graduate, and PhD programs. Using a qualitative design, the study analyzes the curricula of these programs through documentary research. Initially, courses relevant to cultural knowledge were identified through keyword searches, followed by a qualitative content analysis of course content to pinpoint the cultural knowledge components. The results indicate that cultural knowledge is more prominently incorporated at the undergraduate level than in the postgraduate programs. Furthermore, the distribution of cultural knowledge across graduate and PhD programs is unbalanced, especially when compared to the undergraduate curriculum. Given that these postgraduate programs aim to prepare future mid-to-senior-level managers and researchers in tourism, this imbalance highlights a significant gap. Therefore, revising the curricula to better integrate diverse cultural knowledge components is a critical priority for advancing sustainable tourism development in the country.